Drawn to Darkness: The First Darkness Falls Novel

Malin / DARKNESS FALLS / 160

CHAPTER ONE

Novel

Astral Plane Publishing

Copyright © 2016 by Shari Richardson

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Other Titles by Shari Richardson are available via Amazon for Kindle:

http://amzn.to/ShariRichardson

Mourning Sun: The First Highland Home Novel

Captured Sun: The Second Highland Home Novel

Seven Days: The Third Highland Home Novel

Banished Sun: The Fourth Highland Home Novel

Nine Lives: The Fifth Highland Home Novel

Drawn to Darkness: The First Darkness Falls Novel

Moonlight Deception

Feuding Hearts

About The Author

Shari Richardson holds a master’s degree in English Education and has spent much of her life teaching students the joy of reading and writing. Her love of writing began when she was in elementary school and has carried through her entire adult life. Shari lives in Georgia with her two Chihuahuas.

Acknowledgments

When you love, you know you have to sacrifice something for the joy that love brings into your life. This book is for everyone whom I have loved. I have given you all I could and always will. Thank you for loving me in return.

Chapter 1

Special Agent Dante Wyly snapped a glove over his right hand and surveyed the scene. He'd known the minute he'd hit the building that the scene was messy. His nose hadn't deceived him. The body lay sprawled across the bed, one wrist dangling from a cuff attached to the headboard. Blood pooled dark and thick beneath the man's hips and the room reeked of old pennies and bad meat.

Special Agent Wyly, glad you could make it, detective James Ramiro said. I didn't know if you were next on rotation or not, but I asked for you when I called the SBI.

Dante pulled on the other glove and nodded at Ramiro. I was next, but they would have bumped it if you asked for me. Tell me why you called.

Dante stepped around the paper scattered between the door and the bed, conscious of the need to keep the scene clean. He glanced down and stopped dead, eyes widening. Sketches of the body in various stages of mutilation appeared to float on the thick carpet. Placed by an expert hand interested in showing the work to its best advantage, the sketches showed a disturbing level of artistic skill. The shadows and light played over the paper giving the subject depth and detail. If the artist hadn't been a psychopath, the art might have graced the walls of a big city gallery. Instead, they littered the floor of a room soaked in blood.

Two reasons. First, the drawings, Ramiro said nodding toward the scattered paper. This is the second scene where we've found them. The first happened two weeks ago in in Vanstory Hills. Wife came home and found her hubby sliced up and sketched just like this one.

Sexual assault? Dante asked. He'd caught a faint whiff of sex as he'd crossed the threshold.

Not assault in that case, but there was evidence of sexual activity. Appears to be the same here, but we won't know for sure until the autopsy.

Dante surveyed the room, forcing his gaze past the ruined remains of a human that screamed for his attention. He focused on the framed photographs scattered around the room. Two handsome young men cavorted in the ocean, on the slopes, in a pool. It was easier to see the victim alive than to find the features of the handsome young man in the blood-soaked body. Where's the boyfriend?

Sobbing in the living room. Says he was away on business for two days and came home to this about an hour ago.

I'll want to talk to him before I go. Get one of the uniforms to call someone to take care of the boyfriend. I don't want to deal with the histrionics. I need a clear statement.

No problem. Do you want the techs to join you in here?

Yeah, send them in so we can get started. Is the medical examiner on the way?

Ramiro nodded. You got here a lot faster than I expected. I figured I might have to wait for you so I called you first and the ME second.

I live not far from here, Dante said. He made a slow turn and let himself examine any details that leaped out at him before closing his eyes and letting his other senses take over. He heard a dog barking from a nearby house. Ask the neighbor with the dog what time it started barking last night. Would have been late and out of the ordinary.

I'll send a uniform over.

Good. And keep a low profile outside. I don't want the neighborhood in an uproar while we work.

Dante made a circuit of the room while Ramiro relayed the orders to the uniforms. His eyes kept sliding over the body. Over the blood. His hands flexed as he walked. Scenes like this always made him want to beat something to a pulp. The kid on the bed didn't deserve what had happened to him, no matter what the killer might have thought.

Ramiro came back and stopped at the door. He waited for Dante to acknowledge him.

Give me what you know so far, Dante said.

The partner, Jason Saltus, came home from a business trip, arriving at the house at 2230. He says the door was locked when he got here. Saltus came down the hall and found the door the bedroom open, the lights on inside. Says he screamed and ran back to the living room before calling us.

He didn't check to see if the victim had a pulse? Didn't step into the room?

He says not.

Who's the victim?

That's the second reason I called you, Wyly. It's Cooper Basford.

Dante whistled low. I thought he looked familiar. Damn, this will be ugly.

Yeah, that's why the chief didn't balk when I said we needed to call SBI. Harned Basford will be breathing down our necks on this one.

Curses flooded Dante's mind, but he kept them from escaping. Harned Basford was a serious pain in the ass. He was also the senior senator from North Carolina. What had started as a grisly murder investigation had just gotten worse. Few things complicated an investigation more than politics. The last thing Dante wanted to have to do was to tiptoe around Harned Basford while he investigated Cooper's murder. He knew his section chief, Madelyn Vinton, wouldn't like it either. She was a better politician than Dante, but she'd let him take point with Harned so the senator could feel like he was being kept in the loop. Dante ground his teeth. His job would be so much easier if fewer people thought they could do it better than he did.

Anything else I need to know, Ramiro?

No. I think that's it until you and the team clear the room.

Dante nodded and turned back to the room, leaving the detective staring at his back. Ramiro shook his head. Dante might be the best investigator the Southeastern District of the State Bureau of Investigation had, but he could be a distant colleague and a pain to work with. Ramiro might have worked the case without Dante if it hadn't been for the tie to Senator Basford. Ramiro knew the senator would insist on turning the case over to the SBI and figured it would be easier to call Dante in before they notified the senator. Why not let the SBI take the heat from the senator?

The crime scene investigation team arrived and amid the snapping of gloves and the sharp tang of Vick's Vaporub, the business of death got started. Shutters clicked on several cameras and the distinct melody of a video camera booting up chimed as Dante stepped back to give the team room to document the state of the room before they dismantled it. The quiet murmur of voices droned on while the techs collected evidence. There was something about a body that made even the loudest people whisper.

When a technician reached for the sketch laying closest to the door, Dante waved her off. The killer had placed each sketch and Dante intended to treat them with the same care. The drawings were a direct window into the killer's process. He'd spent a lot of time with the victim. Each sketch had to represent at least fifteen or twenty minutes, giving Dante a timeline of Cooper Basford's death. He bagged the last sketch and stood back again to let the team continue to sweep the room.

Dante, don't you ever sleep? Dierdra Ballestros, Cumberland County's Chief Medical Examiner asked. She jerked the gurney into the hall behind her, just missing slamming it into the wall.

Only as much as you do, Dee. He flashed the doctor a grin. Been a while since I saw you last.

Dierdra nodded. You've been working down south a lot. Seems the Fayetteville folks have eased up on the interesting ways of killing each other and have been sticking to shooting and stabbing. She shook her head and whistled. Until tonight, I see.

Yeah, it's an ugly one.

She pulled the gurney into the room and set her bag on top of it. She pulled on gloves and reached for the victim's neck. No pulse. She lay her hand on the ruined chest. No respiration.

Dead, then? Dante smirked.

You know I have to do that. Deirdre grinned. She manipulated the extremities. Rigor is fixed. Blood loss led to lack of lividity. She took a long thermometer from her bag and ran her hand over the lacerations on the lower part of the victim's side. The glass tube slid into the body with little effort. Dierdre checked the digital thermometer on her case before comparing it to the one in the body. I'd say time of death was between midnight and two am. I'll know more when I open him up, but that should give you enough to get started on the suspects.

Thanks Dee. Dante pulled off his gloves and dropped them into the bag a tech had tied to the doorknob. I'll leave you and the techs to your work. I need to go talk to the grieving boyfriend.

Be nice, Dante. You know you catch more flies with sugar than vinegar.

Who wants to catch flies?

Dante stripped off his shoe covers in the hall and then followed the sounds of distress coming from the living room. The victim's partner, a tow-headed younger man whose swollen, mottled face glowed under the track lighting in the living room, leaned against another man on the couch while two uniformed officers tried not to smirk at one another.

Something funny, officers? Dante snapped as he passed them.

No, sir. Not at all. Just watching the witness for you.

Thanks. Now go find Ramiro and find out who talked to the neighbors. Mr. Saltus and I need to chat.

The man on the couch looked up and shied away from Dante as the SBI agent took a seat on the chair beside the sofa. Dante sighed. At six foot seven, his height was enough to intimidate almost anyone, but add in the muscular chest and arms, and small-statured men and women ran from him. His favored military style buzz cuts and sharp eyes that missed few details made most perps rabbit before he ever spoke. The problem was, he didn't want Jason Saltus to rabbit. He needed to get every detail he could out of the man before he fell apart.

Mr. Saltus, I'm Special Agent Dante Wyly of the SBI. I'm very sorry for your loss.

Jason blinked, throwing a wide-eyed look at Dante before hunching closer to his companion. Thank you, he whispered.

I need your help, Mr. Saltus. I need you to help me help Cooper.

You can't help Coop. He's...he's... Tears trailed down Jason's cheeks and splashed down on the front of his black dress shirt.

I know this is difficult, Mr. Saltus. I will do everything I can to find whoever did this to your companion...

Coop was my husband, Jason snapped, showing the first fire Dante had seen him exhibit. We got married last year. Even Coop's dad came to the wedding.

Interesting. The husband wanted to be sure everyone knew he'd been married to Basford. Maybe the sex the victim had had before death hadn't been rape. My apologies, Dante said. I need your help to find the person responsible for your husband's death.

I told that police man what happened. I came home and found Coop and then called the police.

How long were you away?

Three days. I'm an actor. I had a job in Atlanta.

Did you speak with Mr. Basford while you were away?

Jason nodded. Coop and I talked every night before bed.

So you spoke to him last night? What time?

I don't know. I think I called around ten and then went to bed.

Dante nodded. He'd get the phone records to confirm the time, but for now he knew approximately when Cooper Basford had met the person who killed him. Did Mr. Basford seem upset or worried when you spoke to him?

No. He said he might have a drink at the bar before calling it a night.

Where would he have gone?

We usually went to the Mash House. Coop liked their beer.

Would he have met anyone there? Perhaps picked someone up?

Jason jerked and turned hostile eyes toward Dante.