Chapter Five

Pulling up at the crime scene, Luke told Priety to stay in the car. The look on her face stopped him. He couldn’t very well leave her by herself.

“I’m going to have a uniform stay with you,” Luke said. “Stay here a sec.”

He turned to leave the car but she grabbed his arm.

“Don’t leave me out here and please don’t leave me with a strange cop,” she whispered.

“Miss Roshan, I—okay, but you have to stay just inside the door. No deeper in the scene.”

When she nodded at him, he climbed from the vehicle and waited for her to walk around. He led her against the small of her back leading her gently toward the yellow tape at the front of the house. He showed his badge and dipped beneath the yellow tape and then up the front steps and into the house.

Nothing was out of place. The house was clean, almost too clean. One would expect that a house would have something out of place; a cushion set wrong on the sofa, a ruffled curtain, even a wayward cheerio that rolled off a table, something—anything. The faint smell of cleaning disinfectant reached Luke’s nose and he looked up to see the lead scene investigator walking over to him with a grim look on her face.

“I know what you’re going to tell me,” Luke spoke before she even opened her mouth. He saw she was looking behind him at Priety with her arms wrapped around herself. He lowered his voice. “Lipstick kiss on the forehead, her eyes are on the kitchen table in a plate, the area was cleaned so no prints, no fibers, a whole lotta nothing.”

The CSI pulled her gloves off and rested a hand on a cocked hip. “You know it, stud.” She smiled and motioned to Priety. “Isn’t that…”

“Yeah…”

“What?”

“It’s kind of a long story.”

“You shouldn’t have brought her into a crime scene, Luke.”

“Don’t you think I know that? But she didn’t want to stay alone and she doesn’t seem to trust any face she doesn’t know at the moment and I can’t say I blame her.”

Luke stepped by the red haired woman and walked across the room. He stopped in the bedroom and looked over at the body and frowned. The same as the other woman; blond hair, perfect body and the eyes were missing.

The profile was starting to set in Luke's mind and even though he knew that a real profiler would say that the two women looking alike could be a coincidence, Luke knew better. This guy was killing blond, beautiful women and cutting their eyes out. So many questions popped into his mind, but the most prominent question was, why the eyes? Why not the tongue or fingers? The eyes are said to be the windows to the soul, but then again who really knows what goes on in the mind of a killer.

Sighing, he walked back out the door and stopped beside the CSI he spoke to earlier. “Fax over all the reports to me when you’re done.”

“You got it, partner.” She smiled and slipped her slender hands back into her gloves. Walking over to Priety, Luke took her elbow and led her out the door back to the car.

“Let me take you to my home so you can rest,” he said to her because he didn’t know what else to tell her.

His place.

That thought made him frown but he said nothing to her as she climbed into the vehicle again. As he drove, Luke tried to remember the last time he brought a woman to his place; for protection or otherwise. He never brought a woman home for protection before and it had been way too long since he had a woman. No matter how frustrated he got over the years, he would simply roll over and go to sleep. Losing his heart was not worth soothing his sexual ardor. Love to him had become over-rated and that was the saddest part to his pathetic existence on the planet.

It took longer than normal to get to his place because he stopped to get her something to eat.

“You know,” Priety said, “I never thought things could get worse. You know those days when you just wake up and you start having a bad day as soon as you open your eyes?”

“All too well,” Luke told her as he pulled into his drive way. “The days you wish you stayed in bed?”

She nodded, feeling a little relieved that he knew what she was talking about.

Priety let him show her the way into his house and she looked around at the size of the place. In the back of her mind she wanted to ask where he got the money to afford something so elegant on his cop’s salary but kept it to herself. He was saving her life and that was all she really needed to know at the moment. She followed him up the winding staircase as he rambled on about her taking a shower and he would try and find something that could fit her so she could change. She chuckled wondering how such a large man could find something to fit her until she thought he might be married. Her mind took her back to the ride over; she had glanced at his hands on the driver’s wheel and hadn’t seen a ring but that didn’t mean anything. He could have removed it. Sighing, Priety shook her head trying to pay attention to what he was saying and by that time he was standing in a door.

“You can sleep in here,” he said.

Priety tried to step past without touching him because his large body seemed to take up the whole area; but her arm brushed his chest and she shivered moving quickly into the room.

“Thanks,” she whispered and he nodded.

“I’ll go find you something to wear. The shower is the final door down the hall to the right.” He pointed toward the area.

When she was alone, Priety closed the door behind her and pressed her back against it. She wanted to cry again but something inside of her yelled for her to suck it up. She had been through worse—her parents’ death, fending for herself. So what if a nutcase was after her? She could handle it. She could!

If she could handle her parent’s death, she could do anything.

Taking a deep breath, she nodded trying to convince herself. Taking a shaky step further into the room, she walked over to the window and checked it. It was locked so she pulled the curtains in place. She glanced around the room before falling to the bed. The only thing she could do was to do as Luke said; try and get some rest after her shower.

When a soft knock came at the door, Priety jerked around to face it. She was twitching and her heart was trying to jump out of her chest. Her first thought was the killer had found her. Glancing around her for something to use as a weapon, she quickly discovered there was nothing. It dawned on her then, she was inside with Luke somewhere in the house. Why was she so jumpy with him around? Inhaling, she rubbed her sweaty palms against her thighs and made her way to the door. Pulling it open she found a small smile somewhere deep inside and placed it on her face when she saw him. “Hi.”

“I found these.” He handed her clothes. “They may be a little big but that’s all right.”

Priety took the clothes and held up the shirt first. It was a T-shirt with Edison Police Academy written across the back and a torch on the front. She smiled. “Thanks,” she said, holding up the jeans. He was right, it may be more than too big for her but she could do with it. She would simply transfer the belt she was wearing with her dirty clothes to the pants he had given her–simple enough. He handed over a loofa still in the plastic and a bottle of body wash.

“Sorry about the scent. I don’t have many women visitors.”

* * * *

Luke felt like an idiot. She was human, a woman, he should be able to talk to her without falling over his words or making small talk. When she opened the door and smiled at him, his insides heated up and curled and he wondered why that was happening. He had a file downstairs with her name on it and he had to get to the bottom of this murder investigation, and catch the killer before something else happened. But why was it he felt like a teenager with a crush?

“Ground rules,” he spoke deliberately. “Stay away from the windows. Stay inside and no phone calls unless I clear them. Got that?”

“I'm not a prisoner!” she fired.

“Tell that to the man trying to snuff you out.” Luke turned without an ounce of sympathy. Dealing with women was more of his brother’s thing. When it came to the softer sex, Luke was a complete idiot; not because he knew nothing about women, but because he had no patience for them most of the time. His brother, Keegan, knew what it took to calm a woman down and let her feel comfortable around him. Luke was completely oblivious to anything under the topic of ‘woman’ except for how to save their lives.

The clothes he brought her were from his academy days. He was a lanky kid to begin with and when he got to the academy, they packed the pounds on him and bulked him up. He remembered his drill master telling him – more like yelling at him-, “Boi! You need some flesh on them bones and ahm just da man to do it! Now drop and give me twenteh!”

The memory caused Luke to cringe, even after so many years. That man scared the crap out of Luke all the way up to his death. Luke attended the funeral. It was heart wrenching. Luke was the one to present the widow with the flag. It was a heart breaking thing to do; he never wanted to do again. He knew though, that one day, sadly, he would have to perform that task once more. The flag was supposed to be some consolation to the mourner that their loved one had died but his work for his country was appreciated. He was told the flag meant nothing–they would gladly give it back to get their loved one back.

So why give it?

Damn tradition.

Stepping away from the door he turned again toward the stairs but stopped. “I’ll be downstairs when you’re finished,” he told her and proceeded down the stairs. He did a double check on the doors and windows on the ground level before sitting down in the dining room to the file. He flipped on the television and instantly greeted with news about the murders.

“The Ojo Killer has struck again. This time the victim is twenty seven year old Melinda Kensington of Edison City. Friends who remember the bubbly blond say she always had a kind word for others and always tried to help whenever she could…Police still have no suspect in mind…”

A growl left his throat. Why must the media give a name to all the jerk-offs who decided to snuff out an innocent person? His back further went up when Priety’s picture was splashed over the screen; being needed for questioning and wondered how the news got out already that there was a second murder. The idea of a leak came to him but he tried to shake it off because no one at the precinct would be that stupid.

He hoped.

Then again people have done much worse for money. That in itself was pathetic. No one wanted to get a job anymore – they all wanted easy money, a quick fix.

The telephone rang and he absentmindedly reached for it. “Yeah,” he answered and muted the television.

“Are you seeing this?” It was one of his best friends, Riyu Kotsuke. “One of yours?”

“One of mine.” Luke ran a hand over his bald head. “I think we have a leak down at the house. I don’t get how all this got out already.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised. People will do anything for money. These reporters are something aren't they? They even gave this bastard a name!”

Luke nodded but remembered that Riyu couldn’t see him. “If you need a hand,” Riyu started but Luke interrupted.

“I know. You’ll be the first to know.”

“Guess a beer tonight is out.”

“Sorry, Bro, maybe next weekend.”

It was too bad because Luke could have used the beer. After hanging up, Luke dug into the file from the first crime scene. None of the evidence found pointed to Priety. The worse news was that none of the evidence pointed to a suspect period. That made him furious.

“There’s a car outside.”

He turned at her voice and swallowed the lump that formed in his throat at the sight of her. He never thought a woman would look sexy in his old clothing but she somehow managed it. Luke bit his tongue and wrapped his mind around what she just said and got up from his seat. He wanted to remind her of what he said about staying away from windows but couldn't get his mouth to co-operate with his brain.

Tearing his eyes from her he pressed an index finger to his lips motioning for her to be quiet before walking over to the light switch and flipped off the light, plunging the room into darkness. He heard her gasp but ignored it to walk over to the window that faced the front. He glanced out and sure enough there was a car there.

That was strange because for one, there shouldn’t be a car parked on that side of the road since it is a one way street. Perhaps that was why it caught her attention. Luke turned to head back to the light switch when a gentle shaking sound caught his ears. He walked over to where she was standing before the lights went off and stuck his hand out. He felt her shoulder. “Listen to me carefully,” he whispered. “Head up the stairs and lock yourself in your bedroom. Do not turn the light on.”

“Okay.” Her voice sounded tired and shaky and he felt her leave his grasp. When he heard her feet softly on the stairs, he pulled his gun from the holster on his shoulder and made his way toward the front door.

He could hear soft clicking sounds that someone was trying to pick the lock. Moving like a phantom he was about to pull the door open when a car whizzed by outside. The clicking was gone by the time the car’s engine faded and Luke took a deep breath before yanking the door open.

No one. Had he simply imagined the sound?

Checking the perimeter of the house, he went upstairs to find Priety. “We have to leave,” he said simply. “He knows you’re here.”