Profile of Terror: Book Two of Profile Series Read online

  Profile of Terror

  By Alexa Grace

  Copyright

  This e-book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright 2014 by Alexa Grace

  License Notes

  This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Cover design by Christy Carlyle of Gilded Heart Design

  ISBN-10: 0985593962

  ISBN-13: 978-0-9855939-6-4

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to my angel team of physicians, nurses, technicians, friends, family and readers who blessed me with their expertise, kindness, prayers and support during my cancer journey.

  Acknowledgments

  I extend a special thank you to Lt. Adrian Youngblood of the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office, who generously gave his time to answer my questions and review the book for law enforcement accuracy.

  Thank you also to Nate Kitts, who helped me stay accurate in the facts of computer technology. Any mistakes here are entirely mine.

  My gratitude goes to my editors and friends Vicki Braun and Ally Robertson.

  My appreciation goes to my dear friend, Nancy Carlson, who approved the use of her name for the character Judge Carlson.

  I am very grateful for the hard work of the Profile of Terror Beta Reader Team, which devoted personal time to review each page of this book: Nancy Carlson, Gail Goodenough, Barrie MacLaughlin, Sandra Galloway, Lisa Jackson, Tammy Richardson, Kimberly Stripling, Mona Kekstadt, Anna Coy, Debbie Dumke, Sylvia Smith, Mary Hesselgesser-Wright, Debbie Perry, Teresa Stirewalt, Cindy Rossetti and Catherine Scott.

  Finally, I want to express my appreciation to my daughter, Melissa, my family, friends, readers and Street Team. Without their encouragement and support, this book would not have been possible.

  Contents

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  The Profile Series by Alexa Grace

  Other Books by Alexa Grace

  About the Author — Alexa Grace

  Chapter One

  At one in the morning, the dark sky was illuminated by a full moon as they drove on a country road, trees hanging overhead like skeletal arms, nearly touching their vehicle. Driving slowly, they made periodic stops, for only the perfect place would do.

  Approaching a bridge over a deep ravine with a wide creek, the van stopped. Both got out and circled to the back of the white utility van, where they pulled out a young woman's body, already stiffening with rigor mortis. They carried her to the edge of the road, where they set down her corpse, gave it a push, and sent it rolling down the ravine until it landed on the rocky creek bed below. Hands on hips, they waited and watched the body at rest, as if they expected it to magically come to life and run away.

  "I wonder how long it will take the cops to find this one." The driver chuckled as he followed his passenger to the back of the van.

  "Good question. The one last winter wasn't found until the spring thaw." He flipped through a stack of magnetic business signs he'd collected in the back of the vehicle. Choosing one, he slapped it on the side of the van and climbed inside.

  "So how many magnetic signs do we have now?"

  "Fifteen or so. We've got signs for plumbing, locksmithing, house painting, and general repair businesses. Think we need more?"

  "No." He shook his head. "You did a good job stealing those. Even if we have an eye witness tonight, they'll describe a business truck, complete with a name and phone number the cops will use to try to track down their suspects. Too bad it will be a dead end. Any time we can toy with the cops is a good time."

  "Agreed," he said, as a slow, evil smile spread across his handsome face.

  Devan Roth glanced at his twin brother, Evan, sitting in the passenger seat, and thought about how much Evan craved his praise. He'd used that need to his advantage their entire lives. It wasn't that Devan didn't love his twin. He did, but he loved manipulating him more. Although Evan had a higher intelligence level than Devan ever dreamed of reaching, Evan's adoration for his twin was his weak spot. And if there was anything that Devan could identify from a mile away, it was someone else's weakness. That's what made Devan the leader.

  From early childhood, he could get Evan to do absolutely anything he wanted. Devan invented the "Double Dare" game when the twins were twelve; he double-dared Evan to jump off the second-story roof. Evan leaped, and broke both his legs. But he never told their parents that Devan had dared him to do it. His loyalty to his twin outweighed the pain he suffered that summer.

  The Double Dare game continued. Early on, they stole and killed their neighbors' pets, and then moved on to peeping in windows in the neighborhood and videotaping the event so they could relive the thrill later. Now they were abducting and killing prostitutes, then disposing of their bodies in remote areas surrounding Indianapolis.

  Devan complained, "I'm getting tired of prostitutes. As prey, they're too easy. Where's the challenge? I'm ready to step up the game a notch or two."

  "What do you have in mind?"

  Devan did a U-turn to head back to town. "I've been reading a series of articles about a serial killer they caught in Shawnee County."

  "Are you talking about the guy who used the Internet to hook up with preteen girls so he could torture and murder them?" Evan asked.

  "That's the one. Jim Ryder is his name."

  "Why are you interested in him?"

  "It's not him I'm interested in. It's the Shawnee County Sheriff Office."

  "I'm not following."

  "Ryder killed girls over a four to five-year period before they caught him."

  "No kidding?"

  "Here's the clincher. Ryder was a deputy for Shawnee County," Devan said with a grin. "I mean, you got to see the humor in it. For years, the serial killer the sheriff's team was searching for was one of their own. He was right there working with them the whole time."

  "So you're thinking of moving the game to Shawnee County?"

  "Definitely. It'd be fun to play with Sheriff Brody Chase and his band of idiots."

  "Are we changing the rules of the game?" asked Evan.

  "Yes. I was talking to this computer geek in my math class the other day. He taught me a way to locate people through their digital photos on social media sites like Twitter, Google+, YouTube, Facebook, and Foursquare. "

  "I don't get it. What does that have to do with our game?"

  "Evan, sometimes you can be so fucking dense," Devan barked. "We can look for victims on these social media sites and get their addresses from the embedded EXIF data. In other words, if they've used a cell phone or high-end digital camera with built-in GPS to take the photo they post, we can determine our victims' exact addresses and follow them until the right time to snatch them."

  Evan nodded. "So if we aren't going for prostitutes, who are we looking for?"

  "Our new game victims, or should we say target
s, are beautiful, smart, and popular coeds from Shawnee County," Devan announced. "They'll be the kind of victims who get residents all riled up and focusing their wrath on the Shawnee County Sheriff Office."

  "Right. It hasn't been that long since they had to deal with Jim Ryder's murders, and now we'll give them a brand-new nightmare. I like it. Game on," Evan said excitedly.

  City lights sparkled ahead of them. "Pull up the hood of your sweatshirt. Make sure it covers most of your face."

  "We better hurry if we don't want Mom and Dad to discover we're out after curfew again."

  Chapter Two

  It was early August in Indiana, sunny with temperatures in the low eighties. A light breeze whistled through the tall trees surrounding the huge yard and sparkling blue lake on the Chase property. Balloons and streamers adorned the outside living area, and a banner reading "Happy Birthday, Carly" hung above the stone fireplace. Three long tables with crisp white tablecloths displayed real china and glassware from the catering team.

  Gabe Chase inspected the decorations and grinned with pleasure. He and his oldest brother, Brody, had done a good job planning the party.

  As a child, Gabe had always envied his friends who had big family gatherings to celebrate life events like graduations, Thanksgiving or Christmas. His two brothers were his only family, and until now, they'd never had a large get-together at their home. He hadn't known how good it would feel to have family and friends together to celebrate a special event.

  As planned, Jennifer Brennan-Stone, Frankie Douglas-Hansen, Megan Brennan, and Anne Mason-Brandt had whisked Carly Stone away for a day at the spa and shopping, not mentioning they knew it was Carly's birthday. At six o'clock, the women would return for the surprise party and dinner.

  Their husbands, Blake Stone, Lane Hansen, Tim Brennan, and Michael Brandt, were spending the afternoon playing with a Wiffle ball and plastic bat with five kids, and making a valiant effort to keep them out of the lake.

  "Don't you and your brothers know anyone but cops?" Gabe's date, Abby Reece, asked with her hands on her hips.

  "Why?"

  "Look around. Every man here is a cop. This party is a cop convention."

  Gabe lifted his eyebrows over the tops of his sunglasses as he scanned the crowd. "Not true. See that big guy in the yellow shirt over there, helping the little boy with the Wiffle ball?"

  Abby nodded.

  "That's Michael Brandt. He's a county prosecutor."

  "Oh, excuse me," Abby said sarcastically. "This party is more like a Law and Order episode."

  "That's very funny, Abby," Gabe said, without smiling. "How about using your inside voice for those kinds of remarks?"

  For at least the tenth time that day, Gabe Chase realized what a mistake it was to invite his current girlfriend to Carly's surprise birthday party. What was he thinking?

  Although he'd told Abby the party was a family event, when he picked her up at her apartment, the petite blonde wore a red knit, strapless dress that was so short and tight she could barely walk. Add to the getup a pair of four-inch heeled sandals. She was a good candidate for a What Not to Wear television episode featuring outfits to avoid wearing to an outing kids and parents would attend. Typical Abby. Her motto was strut-your-stuff and show-what-you've-got. An attitude he used to find a turn-on, but now found downright embarrassing, especially when he saw Brody's look of disapproval. Brody was the county sheriff, and appearances were important to him. Obviously, he was not impressed with Abby's appearance.

  "Where did you say the wives and girlfriends are?" she inquired.

  "They took Carly out for a spa day — facials, pedicures, and shopping."

  "Why didn't I get invited?" Abby's lips formed an exaggerated pout.

  "I told you before, I forgot about it until we arrived. I'm really sorry, Abby. I'll make it up to you."

  "Oh, that's for sure, hot stuff," Abby grazed her hand over his zipper in a blatantly sexual way. "I'm making a list."

  That was the thing with Abby. It was all about sex. She was the most overtly sexual woman he'd ever met. When it came to bedroom Olympics, Abby was gold medal contender. Early in their relationship, Gabe more than appreciated her skills in bed. The woman was unbelievably inventive. A gymnast in high school, she had moves that Cirque de Soleil would envy.

  Lately, he'd found her one-track mind a little insulting. Was his body her only interest? Dissatisfaction was setting in, and he knew the time was nearing when he'd break up with her.

  Gabe and Abby had been dating for four weeks, a record for him. In the past, he'd go out with a girl just a couple of times before he moved on. Brody wasn't entirely incorrect when he once referred to one of Gabe's dates as the flavor of the week. He'd leave the relationship soon, and it wasn't because Abby wasn't pretty, intelligent or sexy enough.

  Gabe would leave the relationship because it wasn't a relationship, nor would it ever be. Abby had made it abundantly clear she was in it for the heart-stopping, world-shaking, five-alarm-fire, multiple-orgasms kind of sex, and not much else. This was okay in the beginning, but he'd changed, and it was no longer enough. Gabe wanted to make love to a woman to express how deeply he felt about her, and Abby would never be the woman to appreciate that. Not in a million years.

  If someone had told Gabe a couple of years ago that he'd tire of fast cars and hot women, he would have laughed in his or her face. But that was exactly what had happened. Call it maturing or growing up, whatever it was, Gabe Chase had changed. He wanted more than sex from a woman. He wanted the kind of relationship Brody had with Carly.

  Watching Brody and Carly interact the past couple of months made him realize what he was missing. They'd become best friends and lovers. Gabe rarely saw one without the other, whether it was fishing in the lake, going for a run, or taking walks through the woods. He envied their closeness. It was something he'd never had with a woman.

  When Brody brought the profiler from Florida to Indiana a year ago, no one could have predicted Carly Stone would make such a positive impact to their sex predator investigation, or to his brother's life. The two had been inseparable ever since, and Gabe was delighted to see his brother so happy.

  "What did Brody get Carly for her birthday?" Abby asked, twirling a lock of hair between two fingers.

  "He turned one of the guest rooms in the Honeymoon Cottage into an office for her. The furniture arrived this morning, and then I set up her new computer equipment."

  "An office? That's an odd gift. Not very romantic."

  "Actually, it's the perfect gift. Carly is a profiler and has her own consulting business. She's never complained about working in the dining or living room with her laptop, but Brody wanted her to have a professional home office. She's going to love it!"

  "No big, sparkling engagement ring?"

  "Not yet," Gabe said quietly.

  He wished that Carly would agree to marry Brody, but she wanted more time. Brody accepted that, and so did he. But it didn't stop him from wishing. He'd never had a sister, but if he had, he'd want her to be just like Carly. Unlike his two brothers, Carly never gave him a hard time about how he lived his life. She respected him and sought his advice about computer technology. Best of all, she was fun, easy to talk to, and unlike Brody, she wasn't judgmental. Although Gabe was twenty-seven-years-old, Brody still parented him like he did when they lost their dad and mom years ago.

  "So what's going on with Cameron?" Abby wanted to know.

  "Why do you ask?" Gabe scanned the backyard until he discovered his brother, Cameron, sitting on a picnic table alone near the lake.

  "He's been sulking all afternoon."

  "Cam has a couple of tough cases he's investigating. They're probably on his mind today." Gabe rarely told a lie, but he made his response an exception.

  A few months earlier, Cameron had found the love of his life holding his brother, Brody, in her arms in his hospital bed as she planted kisses on his face. The fact that his brother was barely conscious from a surgery didn'
t make it any better. That was the day Cameron cut things off with Mollie Adams.

  Mollie and Brody had been an item in high school, but their relationship ended when their sheriff mom was shot by a drug dealer she'd stopped for a traffic violation. He had no time for a relationship with Mollie or any other woman. Brody spent years dividing his energies between graduating from the police academy, attending college, and caring for his two younger brothers. Mollie moved on, got pregnant, married, and then became a widow. Cameron never left her side, giving her his friendship and support. But last year, something happened between the two of them, and Gabe knew Cameron was hopelessly in love with Mollie. Seeing her holding his brother was something Cameron couldn't deal with, especially since he'd asked Mollie repeatedly about her feelings for Brody. She'd violated his brother's trust, and Gabe knew earning it back would be next to impossible.