Master of elusion, p.24
Master of Elusion, page 24
part #2 of MacGregor FBI Series
Kelsey knew it wouldn’t take long to reach a climax; her nerves were super sensitive. She slipped her fingers between Miranda’s legs and found that she was also very ready. Kelsey closed her eyes and let the rhythm of their lovemaking take on an urgent pace, and before long, Kelsey felt herself reaching the edge. Panting she pleaded for Miranda to go faster and harder as she quickened her fingers pace inside of Miranda.
Kelsey’s orgasm ripped a scream from her throat, and she felt Miranda’s entire body shudder including the smooth, wet walls surrounding her fingers.
Miranda groaned and covered Kelsey’s mouth with her own. “I’ve missed you so much, she said against Kelsey’s mouth.
Kelsey had missed Miranda as well; she missed just being with her, but these times in each other’s arms, were what she needed the most. “I wish I could spend more time with you, but —”
Miranda covered Kelsey’s mouth and stopped any further talk. When Miranda removed her mouth, she said, “I know your job is important so when you can be with me, we make the most of it. Besides, I don’t think I have ever written a book this fast in my life. I’ll be able to send it to Jess soon and start the process of editing and revising.”
Kelsey was glad Miranda understood the importance of her being away during a case, she only wished they could take some time off to enjoy each other and deepen their relationship.
Miranda still hadn’t said the words she felt or which swirled around in her head.
Kelsey heard the unspoken words come from Miranda on many occasions, including only moments ago when Miranda’s mind was preoccupied with an orgasm. She knew Miranda had learned to keep her feelings, or thoughts to herself but when she was overwhelmed with sexual satisfaction, the petite woman’s intense feelings barged into Kelsey’s mind like a freight train. “I’m so happy for you, will you need to be away for the editing and revising?”
“No, I can email with Jess and the beta-readers. I sometimes will go and do some brainstorming if there is something that needs my touch but normally Jess can handle most of the day-to-day specifics. She lets me do my thing, and I let her do hers.”
Kelsey smiled and told Miranda she needed just to get a few hours of sleep. They snuggled close and fell asleep, with Miranda lying on Kelsey’s chest and their legs tangled under the bedcovers.
***
The bedside clock read 6 o’clock in the morning when Kelsey woke from a terrifying dream. There were flames everywhere; she could feel their heat, licking at her flesh. The smell of burning skin and the screams were horrible. Her body was cover in a cold sweat, her heart pounded loudly in her chest, and her breath came out in pants.
“Babe, what’s wrong? Did you have another vision?” Miranda whispered, lifting off of Kelsey.
“I’m sorry, it was bad. I need to get up; something is wrong.” Kelsey sat up to get out of the bed, but a wave of nausea hit her.
Miranda’s hands surrounded her and pulled her close. “You’re as pale as a ghost, take it nice and slow; wait for your body to wake up. I’ll get you a bottle of water and make you a cup of coffee; you stay here, I’ll be right back.”
Kelsey started to get up, and Miranda made a face, so she stopped. “I’ll wait here while you get the water and start the coffee. Can I, at least get dressed?”
“You can get dressed, then get back in bed and wait for me to return with your water; you’re still pale as a ghost.”
Kelsey felt her heart settle and her breathing regulate. Closing her eyes, Kelsey recalled the dream. Her eyes were burning from the smoke, the flames shot up all around her and there was no way to get out. Trapped by the fire, her skin was beginning to burn, and the smell of flesh cooking assaulted her nose. Her senses were filled with the flames as they engulfed her once again and she opened her eyes to see an alarmed Miranda standing in front of her.
“Oh, Babe, what it is?” Miranda asked, handing the bottle of water to her.
Kelsey wanted to explain but didn’t know what the dream meant; did the vision indicate someone was going to be in a fire? Was she the one in danger or was it someone else? Closing her eyes and taking a few breaths, Kelsey felt the dream’s terrifying sensations loosening their grip on her, and she relaxed against the headboard behind her head. “I’m alright now; I was reliving the dream or vision. I don’t know what it means, but it’s not good. I have to get back to the office and talk to Nikki; we have so much work still to do, and I’m not going to rest until we get this guy.”
Miranda handed her the cup of coffee and asked her to promise she would call when she got to the office.
Kelsey had acquiesced to calling a taxi so that Miranda wouldn’t worry about her driving herself to the office.
When the taxi driver blew his horn, Kelsey gave Miranda a quick, but deep kiss and said, “After this is all over, I promise we’ll get away for a couple of weeks, just the two of us.” Drawing away reluctantly so she could open the door to leave.
Miranda smiled and nodded and blew her a kiss goodbye.
Chapter Forty-Seven
Mid-Morning, November 14, 2011
Nikki greeted Kelsey at her office with a fresh cup of coffee and an odd look on her face. “Mack, the surveillance team just contacted me and it would seem that Robert Smith has been leading them on a merry chase around town for the last several hours.”
Frowning, Kelsey hoped this meant they would get a break in the case soon. “Please, tell me they found out where he has been holed up in the city. Or maybe a place where he keeps his masks and drugs, we need to solve this case before —”
“We do have an apartment that he was at for a few hours, do you feel like going on a little sneak and peek?”
Kelsey was ready yesterday and just nodded. She was glad she chose to wear the black jeans, black button-down top, and the black leather boots; she would look more inconspicuous than her usual pantsuit. They would be virtually breaking into Robert Smith’s apartment and having an unsanctioned look around the man’s apartment to search for anything that they could use to tie him to the drugs, the murders, or the missing men. Kelsey hoped that they would find anything that could lead them to legally obtaining a search warrant for the property in Middleburg and maybe other places Robert may have stashed evidence of his crimes.
The drive to the address the surveillance team gave Nikki didn’t take that long. The apartment was in a part of the city that marked the epicenter of Robert Smith’s hunting grounds. His victim’s residences were mostly within walking distance or on the bus route from his apartment. For a man who had more money and could drive around in a borrowed sports car that cost more than Kelsey made in a year, she couldn’t figure out why he lived in a rundown dump of an apartment.
Breaking in wouldn’t be that hard to do, as the fire escape led them right to a partially opened window of the third-floor apartment.
Nikki climbed in first and used her flashlight to illuminate the darkened room. “I’ll start in the bedroom, and you can take the living room and kitchen.”
Kelsey turned her flashlight on and began a search of the small dark room. The furniture was quite sparse, and there were very little wall hangings. She found a small entertainment console with a TV and a blue-ray player. A few movie rental discs strewed about the room on the coffee table, and the console had. Porn titles with naked women and men’s photos in all manner of sexual acts. Frowning she looked closer and found another disc that wasn’t a rental; it appeared to be a burned DVD with a marker title. Picking up the CD with her gloved hand, Kelsey read: Naughty Little FBI Agent.
Slipping the disc into the Blu-ray player and finding the remote Kelsey switched on the power for the TV and player. The TV screen filled with a menu screen and she selected play option. Robert Smith’s face filled the screen; the expression was the same, smug look he had the last time she saw him.
“What a naughty little agent you are Kelsey MacGregor, I see it didn’t take you long to break in and start your invasion on my privacy. I want to tell you something; you and Nikki won’t find anything you’re hoping to find. I’m not that stupid to leave around incriminating evidence for you to find.”
Nikki came into the room in a rush. “What the…?”
Swearing loudly, Kelsey exclaimed, “he’s playing us; he knew the surveillance team was following him, and he left this for us to find.” Kelsey shut off the player and ejected the disc. “We’ll take this back with us to see if there is anything useful on it, but I think he wants to taunt us. I don’t suppose you found anything we can use.”
Nikki shook her head. “No, the bastard is one step ahead of us and knows we have nothing on him. We’re not going to find anything unless he makes a mistake.”
Kelsey knew he wouldn’t make a mistake unless they forced his hand. “Well, then let’s make him make a mistake. Up until now, he’s used caution and deception, but we were playing it carefully as not to spook him. I think it’s time to put some pressure on him; he knows we know it’s him and we know he knows, so let’s make him squirm.”
“What do you have in mind?” Nikki asked as they climbed back out onto the fire escape.
“We’ll do the one thing that will upset him; we’ll bring Nancy Washburg in for questioning.” Kelsey knew that Robert Smith wanted them to leave the woman alone but if they put just enough pressure on the one person, he seemed to care about, he may make that mistake they were waiting for him to make.
Nikki smiled. “Mack, I hope you know what you are doing because we’re so close, I don’t want this to drive him underground.”
“Nikki, a narcissist like Robert Smith, will never be driven underground. He craves the attention, and he’s taunting us to come and catch him. His endgame isn’t to run and hide. I think he just may snap when we take Nancy away from that safe home, and when he does, we’ll be waiting for him.”
***
Upon arriving back at the office, Nikki went about arranging to have Nancy Washburg picked up and brought to them for questioning. Kelsey called Torres and told her they would need her back in D.C. If her hunch were correct, as soon as Robert learned of Nancy leaving the senior home, he would act, and they needed everyone to be ready for whatever he had in store for them.
Kelsey sat in front of the monitor and watched the full video Robert Smith had made with music and photos of herself, Nikki, and Torres at different places.
He had pictures of them outside, and inside Jeanette’s apartment, he also had a video spliced in of a mannequin lying in a bed that looked like Jeanette Willsgate. He came on the screen, wearing the mask of Steven Rich, saying: “Poor little Jeanette, with you looking for me, she didn’t stand a chance. I knew you were closing in, but you had no idea who I was, I found her and had my way with her one last time, and you could do nothing to stop me.” The sickening smile on his face made Kelsey nauseous as he filmed himself dry humping the air over the Jeanette look-a-like.
Anger bubbled up, and Kelsey pounded the desktop with her fist. As if on cue Robert Smith’s face filled the screen, and he said, “I know it upsets you that you cannot find me, but I’m not done hurting the people who deserve to be hurt, but when I am you’ll be too late.” The chords of a guitar strummed through the speakers as Bob Dylan sang his song ‘You’re Too Late’ as the screen went black and Kelsey heard the faint laughter of Robert Smith.
“What the hell is that?” Nikki came into Kelsey’s office just as the music and laughter were fading away.
“He’s baiting us with the video he made of us at different crime scenes. He also made a provocative video taunting us about finding…we have him; he made a mistake we needed him to make. Call Judge Griffiths for warrants to search the Washburg estate.”
“Mack, what do you mean?” Nikki shook her head.
Kelsey forgot that Nikki hadn’t watched the video and she didn’t explain herself before jumping to the conclusion in mid-sentence. “Sorry, Nikki. He made a vulgar video of himself over a mannequin that was a stand-in for Jeanette; he was wearing the face of a dead Steven Rice. We have the probable cause to issue a warrant for his arrest and search warrants for all of the places he has access to, including the Washburg estate and holdings in Middleburg.”
“Mack, but we didn’t obtain the tape legally, and if we go to a judge with it, he or she may not think it’s enough to grant us our warrants. It may be a far leap to let a judge decide if he’s making threats to harm Jeanette,”
“I know who we can call, she owes me a favor, and once she sees this video, she’ll grant us what we need, without an explanation to how we may have obtained it. I need him off the streets before he has the chance to hurt anyone else and this taunting…” She let the rest trail off before she said the words. Watching him gloat about them trying to save Jeanette angered her so much, she couldn’t’ think straight.
“Mack, we can try but don’t be disappointed if we don’t have enough to arrest him yet. We’ll start with getting the search warrants for the Middleburg properties, and then we’ll leave it open for any other locations we may find while surveilling him.”
***
Two hours later and Nancy Washburg was on her way with an FBI escort to come for questioning at Headquarters. Kelsey called Judge Rita Hogan and sent her a digital copy of the video and asked her to put a rush on a search warrant for any and all properties accessible to Robert Smith. Torres arrived back at the office with Chinese takeout for lunch, and the three women sat down for a rare moment of quiet reflection as they ate.
Kelsey’s phone buzzed, and she absently glanced at the screen; seeing it was Race Norwood calling, she grimaced. She knew she had to face Race sooner rather than later, but today was not the time. Kelsey hadn’t spoken to Race since she came back to D.C. First, she decided she was too busy with the case, but she knew it was more than that. The guilt of what happened between them hung over her relationship with Miranda, and Kelsey knew she needed to tell the author what had happened. Swiping the don’t accept icon ended her obligation to face this dilemma for the moment, but she knew that after this case was over, Kelsey had to talk to Race and Miranda.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Miranda sat looking at the blank screen for what seemed like several hours, but more accurately, it was only several minutes. The ending was just not coming to her. Her brain hurt, and even though she knew it was physically impossible for an organ with no actual nociceptors to feel, her head was tender from thinking so much. Usually, her inspiration kept the ideas and words coming, but today her muse hadn’t spoken to her.
Miranda let her mind wander to what Kelsey may be doing at that moment. Miranda hated that she couldn’t call her and talk. Agent MacGregor didn’t have the kind of job that could afford her the time to chat or for Kelsey to come home for lunch. Miranda recalled their time together earlier that morning and smiled; there was some benefit to having a girlfriend who came back for a shower, a booty-call, and some sleep; their relationship never got old or boring.
Suddenly an idea struck Miranda, and her fingers flew across the keyboard, and the words popped on the screen. The sentences formed and as they did the ending of her story was finally taking shape. Miranda’s protagonist decided to finally tell the woman she was dating that she was ready to take the next step and tell her she loved her. Miranda smiled. I love her so much, and I owe it to her and myself to finally tell her.
***
Miranda was celebrating finishing her first draft of her book by eating a large scoop of Rocky Road ice cream when there was a knock at the door. Wondering who it may be, Miranda walked over and stood on her tiptoes to peek through the security hole. The face she saw was one she thought she never would see again; Race Norwood stood with her hands in her jean pockets.
Opening the door, Miranda forced a smile as polite as she could muster on to her face and said, “Hello, Race, Kelsey isn’t here right now.”
Race looked surprised but recovered quickly and smiled brightly. “Hello, Miranda. Now, I know why I haven’t heard from MacGregor lately.”
Miranda had to admit the tall, dark woman was strikingly beautiful in an exotic way. Remembering seeing Kelsey in Race’s arms suddenly came to mind, and she felt a jolt of intense dislike for the exotic beauty. “Kelsey is very busy with a case, I don’t see her much, but I can tell her you came by.” Miranda only wanted to get back to relishing the finish of her book and hoped Race would get the hint.
Race looked down at her toes for a moment, then said, “I know you don’t know me, but I hope we can be friends. Kelsey means the world to me, and I know how she feels about you.”
Miranda was taken aback by the use of Kelsey’s first name, Kelsey once told her Race only used her surname when addressing or speaking about her, what prompted her to call her Kelsey? The adage about keeping your friends close and your enemies closer came to mind when Miranda asked Race to follow her into the suite and join her for a cup of tea or coffee. I should ask her to leave Kelsey alone, but maybe it’s best to try and see this from Race’s perspective.
Race sat down on one of the stools at the island in the kitchen.
Miranda asked if she would like tea or coffee and the tall woman said she’d have whatever was the easiest, she wasn’t fussy.
Deciding on some soothing tea, Miranda asked if Race was staying in D.C. long.
Race didn’t respond right away, so Miranda looked to see what she was doing. The woman was leisurely playing with a candle on the countertop. Something didn’t feel right as she watched Race pick the votive holder up and hold it in her hands.
“Would you like cookies or something to go with our tea…I think —”
Race cut Miranda off before she could finish her question. “Does Kelsey have any
more of those cookies she keeps in the pantry? If she does, I’ll have one of those; they’re my favorite.”
That’s it. Miranda thought Race looked too familiar here like she’s been here before and not just to have tea and cookies.
