Sinister Secret (Alexis Parker Book 21) Read online

  Sinister Secret

  An Alexis Parker novel

  G.K. Parks

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and other concepts are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, places, establishments, events, and locations is entirely coincidental.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without express written permission from the author.

  Copyright © 2022 G.K. Parks

  A Modus Operandi imprint

  All rights reserved.

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  For my mom and dad

  Full-length Novels in the Alexis Parker Series:

  Likely Suspects

  The Warhol Incident

  Mimicry of Banshees

  Suspicion of Murder

  Racing Through Darkness

  Camels and Corpses

  Lack of Jurisdiction

  Dying for a Fix

  Intended Target

  Muffled Echoes

  Crisis of Conscience

  Misplaced Trust

  Whitewashed Lies

  On Tilt

  Purview of Flashbulbs

  The Long Game

  Burning Embers

  Thick Fog

  Warning Signs

  Past Crimes

  Sinister Secret

  Zero Sum

  Julian Mercer Novels

  Condemned

  Betrayal

  Subversion

  Reparation

  Retaliation

  Hunting Grounds

  Liv DeMarco Novels

  Dangerous Stakes

  Operation Stakeout

  Unforeseen Danger

  Deadly Dealings

  High Risk

  Fatal Mistake

  Imminent Threat

  Mistaken Identity

  Lucien Cross Stories

  Fallen Angel

  Calculated Risk

  Table of Contents

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty-one

  Twenty-two

  Twenty-three

  Twenty-four

  Twenty-five

  Twenty-six

  Twenty-seven

  Twenty-eight

  Twenty-nine

  Thirty

  Thirty-one

  Thirty-two

  Thirty-three

  Thirty-four

  Thirty-five

  Thirty-six

  Thirty-seven

  Thirty-eight

  Thirty-nine

  Forty

  Forty-one

  Note from the Author

  One

  “It’s about time you showed up, Alex.” Eddie Lucca lifted his jacket off the adjacent chair so I could sit. “I figured you were going to cancel again.”

  “I owed you dinner.” Truthfully, I owed Lucca my life. Dinner was just easier. “Mark Jablonsky might have mentioned you’ve been dying to see me. I would have figured after almost dying, you would have realized it’s better when you don’t see me. Refresh my memory. Were you always this dense? I thought you had it more together when we were partners.”

  “I haven’t lost a step. I hope you haven’t either.”

  That didn’t sound good. “What’s going on, Lucca? What’s so important that it requires a face-to-face meeting?”

  He picked up his glass and took a sip of water. “We’ve had dinner plans on the books for a while now. You just haven’t bothered to follow through.”

  “I’ve been busy. Cross Security isn’t exactly a walk in the park.”

  “Don’t give me that. I’ve seen where you work. It doesn’t get much cushier than that.”

  “Whatever you have to tell yourself, but it isn’t easy. Far from it.” I eyed the glass in front of him. “Still not drinking?”

  “After everything, I thought I should take it easy on the liver.” He gestured at the menu. “Don’t let me stop you. Order whatever you like. You’re paying.”

  I looked around. “Where’s your wife? Isn’t she joining us?”

  “Not tonight. Our babysitter backed out at the last minute.” He peered behind me. “Where’s your fiancé? I thought you were bringing him with you.”

  “Can’t. He’s in California.”

  “Wow, when you chase them off, you don’t mess around.”

  “You know what they say. Go big or go home.”

  “Is everything okay? I was just joking.”

  “No, it’s fine. We’re fine.”

  “Glad to hear it. He’s definitely the best part of you.”

  “No argument there.” I picked up the menu. “Let’s get this over with. What do you want?” When my question was met with silence, I looked up. Lucca wasn’t studying his menu. He was studying me. We might not have worked together very long, but I knew him. “Mark said you wanted to see me. I’m guessing it wasn’t so I could buy you an expensive steak.”

  “I’m thinking lobster.”

  “Whatever.” I put the menu down. “Did the babysitter really cancel?”

  “Why do you always have to look for trouble, Alex?”

  I could play the first name game too. “Cut the bullshit. What is this about, Eddie?”

  “I need a favor.”

  “Do you want one of my kidneys?”

  He grinned. “Are you serious?”

  “I don’t know. But if I’m giving you a kidney, you’re paying for dinner.”

  “I don’t need a kidney, but I was hoping you could help me out with something work-related. A victim from an old case has resurfaced. She reached out to me a couple of months ago. She says she’s in trouble. I thought this might be something you could handle.”

  “What kind of trouble?”

  “I’m not entirely sure.”

  “I’m going to need a little more than that.”

  He grabbed the folder from the empty seat and slid it toward me. “Do you remember the Lightning Killer case, or was that before your time?”

  “I remember seeing a notice or two when I was still a probationary agent. Why? What does that have to do with this?”

  “Daria Waylon, the woman who reached out to me, was his final victim. She believes someone’s been watching her. She’s afraid he’s back to finish what he started.”

  “Is there even the slightest possibility she’s right?”

  “I don’t see how. We stopped the guy. He can’t hurt anyone else.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Lucca gave me an annoyed look. “Absolutely. I was there when he went down.”

  “How did you catch him?” Maybe they’d collared the wrong guy.

  “I’d just started working in the D.C. office when the serial killer was in the midst of his spree. The behavioral analysts had come up with a profile, but we didn’t have any suspects. The killer moved around too much. The only clue we had as to where he’d strike next was in the photos he sent of his next victim. He wanted us to scramble to find her before he could kill her. He moved from city to city, making it damn near impossible to locate him or his victims. He never stuck around in one place long enough to strike twice
. That’s why it took so long to catch him. When we received his last photo, we tracked him down via the 35 mm film he used. He worked analog to make things harder and printed the photos himself, which ending up biting him in the ass. Once we figured out where he was buying his film developing supplies, we got him.”

  “If it was that simple, someone should have stopped him sooner.”

  “I’m not saying luck didn’t have a lot to do with it, because it did. You know how this job works.”

  “It’s better to be lucky than good. What happened after you caught him? Did he confess? Was the case solid? How about the evidence?”

  “We had everything.”

  “Still, judges overturn convictions all the time. Do you think he could be out on parole, or maybe he escaped from prison?” The last thing I needed was to piss off a serial killer.

  “It never went to trial.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because he’s dead.”

  “Are you sure? This wouldn’t be the first time someone came back from the grave.”

  “I saw him die with my own eyes. It’s not possible. He’s in the ground.”

  “Okay, but if someone’s terrorizing the Lightning Killer’s final victim, it begs asking, are you sure you got the right guy?”

  “Yes, I’m sure. I was there when we busted through Daria’s front door and found him basking in what he’d just done. The water was still dripping down his chest. He hadn’t even pulled her out of the tub yet. He reached for a gun, and two agents and three cops shot him.” Lucca closed his eyes, swallowing. “He landed right on top of her. I can still hear the splash. We pulled them both out, but he was already dead. She wasn’t breathing and didn’t have a pulse. I don’t know how long she was underwater, but she was down for several minutes. The EMTs worked on her the entire ambulance ride to the hospital. By some miracle, they got her heart beating right before the doctor called it.”

  “Wow.”

  “Yeah. That’s one night I’ll never forget. Her parents were bereft when they arrived. They had so many questions. They made me promise to make absolutely certain the man who hurt their daughter couldn’t do it again. I double-checked everything with the coroner just to make sure we didn’t screw anything up. We had his prints, DNA, the murder weapon, the camera, everything. He was in the midst of drowning her when we arrived on the scene. There’s not a single doubt in my mind. The man who attacked Daria is worm food.”

  “If that’s true, who do you think is watching her now?”

  “I have no idea. She called the police before she contacted me, but they couldn’t help her.”

  “Why not?”

  “They didn’t find any indication she’s being followed. But stalking’s hard to prove. She thought I’d come up with something, but I haven’t yet.”

  “Why did she reach out to you? Is it because you worked the Lightning Killer case?”

  “It’s because I promised I’d keep her safe.”

  “Never make promises you can’t keep,” I said.

  “It’s a good thing I fully intend to keep this one. That’s why I’m asking for your help.” From the way he winced, I wondered if saying those words caused Lucca physical pain.

  “What does this guy look like? Does she know what he wants? Has he made any overt threats?” I thought about what Lucca said. “Why does she think the Lightning Killer’s back?”

  He hesitated, suddenly finding his menu fascinating.

  “There’s more to the story, isn’t there?” I asked.

  “The attack left Daria with a few impairments. She doesn’t remember anything from the night she almost died. She doesn’t remember the attack or the Lightning Killer. She only knows him from the photos she’s seen. She remembers how she felt before the attack happened, how things had gone missing from her house and how she always felt eyes on her. The same things are happening again. Of course, she knows he’s dead. But she can’t quite shake that feeling. Since this is what happened last time, she thinks he’s back to do it again.”

  “So you think someone else is terrorizing her, but she’s gotten it into her head it must be the Lightning Killer returning to finish what he started?”

  “Something like that.”

  “Do we have a description?” I asked.

  “Not a good one.”

  I didn’t like that answer either. Lucca wasn’t usually this cagey. “What about a copycat or crazed groupie? Maybe the Lightning Killer had an apprentice, someone who’s decided to pick up where he left off.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Why not?”

  “It’s been a few years. Why would someone like that wait so long to surface?”

  “He could have been incarcerated or institutionalized. He could be active military. Maybe he just got back stateside.”

  “That’s a stretch, even for one of your theories.”

  “That doesn’t make it impossible.”

  “Just improbable.”

  Before either of us could say anything else, the waiter came to take our orders. Lucca opted for a lamb chop. “I thought you wanted lobster,” I said.

  “Lamb reheats easier. I’m not sure I have much of an appetite.”

  “Make that two,” I said to the waiter. He left without another word. “Daria survived one psycho, and now she’s being stalked by another one. Do you think your fancy FBI badge might be enough to convince this creep to back off?”

  “It’s not that simple. We don’t know who he is.”

  “Daria doesn’t know him?”

  “No. I’ve tailed her a few times, but I’ve never spotted anyone. The same’s true of every cop and agent she’s spoken to about this. No one’s found any evidence to back her claims.” Lucca nodded down at the folder I had yet to open.

  “Have you tried staking out her house?”

  “That was the first thing I did. I even called in a few favors and had some guys at the precinct keep an eye out. They never spotted anyone.”

  “How exactly is this guy terrorizing her?” I asked. “Phone calls and e-mails can be traced.”

  “He hasn’t communicated with her.”

  I leaned back, realizing most of what Lucca told me didn’t make much sense. “Daria claims someone is watching her. She calls the cops, but they don’t do anything. So she calls you. You look into it, but you can’t find anything. What exactly is this unsub doing that has her so freaked out? Has he left threatening messages in her mailbox? Keyed her car? Broken her windows?”

  “None of the above.” Lucca turned his attention to the table, picking up his fork and polishing it with his napkin.

  “All right, spill. What am I missing?”

  “I’m not entirely sure the guy she’s seeing is real.”

  “You think she’s making it up?”

  “No,” he shook his head for emphasis, “but she has some issues. The attack put her in a coma for a few weeks. She has permanent brain damage and memory problems. Her vision and hearing are partially impaired too. Almost dying has left her with a lot of anxiety. She’s doing the best she can, but the police don’t necessarily believe her. They think she’s crying wolf. It might not be the first time this has happened.”

  “Jeez.” I eyed him. “Do you believe her?”

  “She believes it,” Lucca said. “I checked her townhouse. I even spent a couple of nights camped outside her place. I didn’t see anything suspicious, but I don’t know. I might have missed something.”

  “You said the police checked too.”

  “That doesn’t mean much. Not in cases like this, not under these conditions.”

  “Do you think there’s a legitimate threat?”

  “Probably not, but what if I’m wrong? I promised her she’d be safe from now on. I told her I’d keep her safe. What if someone is watching her, waiting to strike? I can’t let that happen again. I just can’t. Surely, you of all people must understand that.”

  “I do, but I never thought you did. If our roles were
reversed, what would you tell me to do in this situation?”

  “C’mon, Parker, for once in your life, don’t be a hardass.”

  “Did you cross any lines on this one, boy scout?”

  “No.”

  “Are you sure? It’s not uncommon for victims to fall for the guy who saved the day.”

  “You know me. I’d never take advantage like that.”

  “When did you get married?” Lucca and his wife had a two-year-old daughter named Grace. But I wasn’t sure how long they’d been married before she arrived.

  “This anniversary will make it six years.” He stared at me. “Don’t do that. I didn’t cheat on my wife. I would never cheat on my wife.”

  It was equally common for the white knight to fall for the damsel in distress, but I didn’t share that with my former partner. He’d attended the same lectures and seminars at Quantico that I had. “I never said you would. I was just curious.” But when we worked together, I’d gone to extreme lengths to avoid details of Lucca’s personal life. He knew I asked for a reason.

  When I fell silent, he nudged me. “Daria needs someone who will make her feel safe again. I don’t know if someone’s out to get her, but I can’t take that chance. Not after she’s already suffered so much. I was hoping, as a Cross Security employee, you could do some digging and put her mind at ease.”

  “What are you thinking? A 24/7 protection detail? A personal bodyguard?”

  “Whatever you can swing.”

  “I’ll have to talk to Cross and see who’s available. I’m guessing this is a pro bono assignment.”

  “Charity’s good for the soul.”

  “I agree, but I’m not sure Cross will see it that way. His biggest concern is usually the bottom line, not eternal damnation. But I’ll do what I can.” Lucien Cross would not be happy about this. He already hated that I often worked freelance for law enforcement. Lucca’s request might be unofficial, but my boss wouldn’t see it that way. And he had a thing about working murder investigations. The serial killer aspect made two strikes. With an unreliable witness, that made three. Luckily, after my last case, he owed me. Big time.

  “You should investigate. I trust you. You have good instincts. If I missed something, you’ll find it.”