CHAPTER ONE
Late August
Moorhead Mississippi
The stench of stale sweat mixed with blood wafted around the hot carnival tent. Blood flowed from the cut above Derek’s swollen right eye. Every lick of his dry lips coated his tongue with salt and the taste of metal. His hands hung limply in the leather bindings, and his fingertips tingled from the numbness setting in. Both knees rested on the dirt floor stretching his arms to their limits. Craning his head and angling his body, he could see the deep gash on his left side still bled, soaking the top of his jeans. A wave of nausea crested over him as he watched the crimson liquid pulse out to the same beat that thumped in his head.
Derek’s stomach rolled as he glared at the disgusting man. Josiah’s crooked, yellowed teeth were just the start of his lack of hygiene. The smell of rotting eggs permeated the air around him. The odor in the tent was unbearable.
He turned his attention to the girl. Salty tears stung his eyes, spilling over and down his cheeks as he stared at Chrissy. Her blue eyes pleaded for him to stop Josiah from raping her. “Just keep your eyes on me, Chrissy. Just me baby.” Derek choked out the command. Caustic bile hovered at the top of his throat threatening escape.
Derek’s stomach tightened as Josiah’s grunts filled the tent. He wanted to look away, to shut out the disgusting scene before him, but Chrissy needed him. The rag stuffed in her mouth muffled her screams of terror. Derek kept his eyes locked on the twenty-year-old. Her face was black and blue from the repeated beating by Josiah. “Chrissy,” he said. “Keep looking at me, baby.”
Opening her eyes, they flooded with tears.
“Mr. FBI man,” Josiah Craig said as beads of sweat covered his forehead. “You should’ve paid better attention.” His breath quickened, and he snorted as he glimpsed over at Agent Derek Reed. He pulled out a long serrated blade from the sheath on his belt. He continued his assault on Chrissy. “It’s too bad you didn’t get here in time—Derek.” He grinned at the agent. “It’s a shame really. You might have been able to save her.” Josiah grinned as he reached out and dragged the edge of the blade across Chrissy’s neck as he emptied himself into her.
“No! You fucking bastard,” Derek yelled out as blood spurted from the neck wound. All the air left his lungs. “Oh Chrissy, I’m so sorry,” he whispered to the dying girl as her eyes remained open and locked on him. For a split-second, Derek saw the girl’s face relax as if she was thankful the nightmare she had lived for the last six days had finally ended.
Josiah moved from the makeshift table, zipping his pants. He walked towards Derek, slowing his breathing down. Standing within a foot of the agent, he kicked Derek in the stomach. “Not so tough now, huh?”
Derek grunted as he tried to inhale a searing breath. He coughed, tasting the iron as blood and vomit mixed together. “Kill me and get it over.” Derek gagged as he continued to cough.
Laughing, Josiah grabbed Derek's hair and yanked his head up. He punched the agent in the face crushing his nasal bone. “I’m not going to kill you. That would be too easy for you. No, I want you to carry the image of that young girl, all the girls you couldn’t save, for the rest of your life. I want you to remember how you—the great profiler—almost figured it out.” He leaned back and cackled. “Almost mind you. No, I want you to remember, how me—a lowly uneducated carny—bested the big fancy profiler.”
Josiah pulled Derek’s phone from the front of his jeans.
“What are you doing, Josiah?” Derek asked as he spat more blood from his mouth.
Josiah smiled at him. “You’ll see.” He flipped open the phone turning it on. “I’m surprised you aren’t using one of those fancy smartphones. This damn thing is ancient.”
The pain from his broken nose radiated from the front of Derek’s face and reverberated against the back of his skull to the pounding of his pulse. “It’s a phone.” He looked up when he heard ringing coming from the speaker. “Who the fuck are you calling?”
Josiah held up his finger.
“Derek, Derek? Where the hell are you? We’ve been looking for you?” an agent on the other end asked.
Derek was about to say something when Josiah kicked him in the stomach again. “Agent Reed is slightly detained at the moment.”
“Who the hell is this?”
“This is Josiah Craig. The serial killer you have been looking for.”
Silence echoed through the phone.
“Listen, you need to come get your agent, or what will be left of him. He’s at the back of the Sunset Circus in the main supply tent. Although, I would hurry. He has a few significant injuries that need attention.” Josiah disconnected the call.
Derek’s head hung to his chest. He tried to glance up at the sound of his gun being loaded but only managed to raise his eyebrows.
Josiah sneered. “Don’t worry, this bullet isn’t for you.” He knelt right in front of the agent. “No way I’m ever going to outrun the FBI. But I sure as hell don’t want to go to prison. I think it’s time I meet my maker on my own terms.” He reached out and lifted Derek’s chin with the barrel of the gun. He hit Derek across the cheek with the weapon.
Derek’s head snapped to the side. The crunch of the bone caused starbursts to explode behind his eyes. An agonizing pain spread across his face like splintering wood.
“I hope you think of me once in a while.” Josiah turned his head and lifted the gun to his temple.
Derek watched in horror as Josiah blew his brains out inches from him. Brain matter spattered on Derek’s face and neck. It was the last thing he saw before he passed out.
CHAPTER TWO
One week later
Phoenix, AZ
3:00 a.m. Monday
Derek’s legs hung over the edge of the bed. “What the fuck was that noise?” He sat motionless trying to figure out what had woken him from a deep slumber. He shook the cobwebs from his head. The movement had him seeing stars. Home from the hospital for three days, his head throbbed from the resetting of his nasal bone.
Squeezing his eyes shut, he centered himself, slowing his breathing. He stood on wobbly legs and staggered into the kitchen. He braced himself against the fridge before opening it and grabbing a bottle of water. “Motherfucker,” he said as he rested his hand on the counter steadying himself. Dizziness swept over him like a tsunami.
“It’s about time you came in here.”
Derek’s back straightened, and the hair on his neck and arms stood on end. He stared down at the counter and breathed deeply. His body shuttered at who or what was in his kitchen at three a.m.
“Don’t pretend as if I’m not here. It’s not like I’ve been trying to get your attention or anything.”
Her voice echoed in the sparsely furnished kitchen. Derek lifted his head slowly turning in the direction of his visitor. The hand holding the water bottle shook. His chest constricted forcing him to breathe in sharp stinging breaths of air.
“For crying out loud will you sit down already. We need to talk,” she said.
Derek opened one eye and dropped the water bottle, gasping at the young lady before him. Blood ran from the gaping wound on her neck, and her head hung at an awkward angle as if it had been plopped on top of her shoulders. Her eyes were cloudy, and the bright blue color he remembered was now a pasty gray. “Chrissy?”
“Duh. Who else would show up here?” She lifted the cigarette to her lips and sucked in a long drag.
Derek watched in horror as the smoke billowed around her, escaping through the open neck wound. “This isn’t happening. There’s no way this is real.” He covered his ears and squeezed his eyes closed.
“Oh, it’s real—Derek. How could you not help me?”
A loud hissing noise made Derek open his eyes. He stepped back towards the counter, gripping the edge. Chrissy’s mouth opened, and black flies swarmed out. Her jaw elongated and distorted her face as she levitated from the chair.
Derek ran from the room heading for the front door tripping over his coffee table. He rolled onto his back trying to drag himself across the floor as Chrissy’s contorted figure moved towards him. “Go away. I did all I could do. I tried to save you—I tried to save you.” Derek curled into the fetal position as she inched closer to his face. “Please go away. Please go. I did all I could do.”
“You didn’t do enough Derek. You never do enough.”
Derek screamed at her, his body shaking. “I did everything in my power to help you...I did everything!” He covered his face and wept.
“Did you Derek? Did you do all you could?” Chrissy asked. “You’re lying to yourself. You didn’t. You never do. What about Sheila? Did you do all you could to help her?”
Derek shot up in bed gasping for air. Sweaty and tangled in his sheets, he struggled to free himself. He dragged a hand through his dampened hair. The pounding pain from his newly reconstructed nose brought him back to reality. Rat-a-tat-tat, his pulse beat like a machine gun against his temples. His rasping breaths burned his throat. He spun his head around, searching for Chrissy.
He swung his feet onto the cool tile floor. The thrashing behind his eyes added to the flood of nausea that engulfed him. Slowing his breathing, he reached for the pain meds on his nightstand but thought twice. “No fucking way I’m going back to sleep.” Derek threw the bottle of pills on his bed as he staggered to the bathroom leaning against the doorframe for balance. His legs slowly gathered the strength to carry him to the sink.
He stood in front of his mirror ogling his face. He wasn’t the best-looking guy to begin with, now with all this damage, he was even uglier. Josiah had not only crushed his nose but broke his cheekbone. The facial bruising was still blue and dark purple. A stark contrast to his bright green eyes. The effect of black eyes was made even more prevalent by the still slightly swollen right eye.
The light sheen of sweat coating his body caused goose bumps to form when the AC kicked on. The nightmare of seeing Chrissy seemed all too real. He understood his mind was looking for ways to rationalize what he witnessed, but he wished it would find some other way than scaring the shit out of him.
CHAPTER THREE
9:00 a.m. Monday morning
Derek walked through the lobby of the FBI Building in downtown Phoenix. The walk from the parking garage to the entrance felt as if he had slogged through a mud bog. The amount of energy needed to lift each leg had his head beating like a drum corps. If removing his nose from his face would relieve the radiating pain, he would chop it off right now.
The security guard scanned his ID and his thumbprint, letting him through without making him take off his weapon, bypassing the scanners. Entering the elevator, he removed his sunglasses. A young woman stared at his injuries. Her brow furrowed then softened. Yet, she couldn’t look away. When the doors opened, and he stepped out onto the seventh floor that housed the Behavior Analysis Unit, he turned towards her. “You should see the other guy,” he smiled at her expression as the doors shut.
Several agents stopped what they were doing as he passed by their cubicles. He nodded, winking at them. He walked with purpose into his unit’s section, and all heads followed his every move. Ignoring their ogles, he turned on his computer. As he waited for the ancient machine to boot up, he sensed someone behind him.
“Derek? What the hell are you doing here? Have you been cleared to come back to work?” Agent Davis asked. “Did you already see the psyche doc?”
“Why wouldn’t I be able to come back to work? It’s nothing more than a broken nose. The gash on my side is stitched up. What the hell do I need to wait for? And who put you in charge?” Derek stood and headed towards the coffee pot in the break room.
Agent Davis followed right on his heels. “Dude, you know the rules. If you’re injured during a case, you have to go to mandatory counseling.” Davis made the crazy sign. “You know, to make sure you haven’t lost your marbles. They don’t want you going on some kind of rampage because you have some serious issues.” He poured a cup of coffee out of the same pot that Derek used.
“Well, I have a psychology degree, I can do what all those counselor’s do. I don’t need to go to counseling.” Derek started back towards his desk when his boss cornered him in the corridor.
“Why are you here?” Assistant Director Fretz asked.
Agent Davis smirked as he scooted passed the AD. He glanced over his shoulder shaking his head.
“Why wouldn’t I be here? I work here. Unless you’ve fired me and neglected to tell me,” Derek said.
“Follow me to my office.”
Derek followed. As he walked past Agent Davis, the agent made the crazy sign again. Derek rolled his eyes at the annoying man.
“Shut the door behind you, Derek,” AD Fretz said as he sat behind his desk.
“How have you been? Catch the game the other night? Those Diamondbacks might take the pennant, huh?” Derek asked.
“Derek, you hate baseball. And the Diamondbacks don’t have a chance in hell of winning the pennant.” He folded his hands on his desk. “Why the hell are you here?”
“As I said to Agent Davis, I work here.”
“You are a thorn in my side. You know the drill. You need to be cleared by the doctors to get back out in the field.” The director took a sip of his coffee.
“Why do I have to go to a doctor? I’ve seen worse.”
AD Fretz’s jaw slacked. “Are you serious? You’ve seen worse than a young girl being raped and murdered in front of you, then have a man splatter his brains all over you?”
Derek shook his head. “You know what I mean.”
“No, I don’t actually. Can you fill me in?” When Derek didn’t answer, he continued. “Listen, Derek, I’m not sure how you see the connections you do when it comes to your cases. That’s what makes you one of the best profilers ever to come into the BAU. You seem to have a knack for seeing things that no one else sees. I know you figured out a connection between the carnival and the girls.” AD Fretz leaned back in his chair. “You went to the carnival and found Josiah Craig. You didn’t follow procedure and almost got yourself killed. Now you need to be medically and mentally cleared to work.”
Derek patted his pockets, searching. He stood and checked every pocket of his jeans, twice. “C’mon,” he said. He stopped and glanced up to find his boss staring at him. “Got any gum?”
AD Fretz smiled and reached into his desk. “You, of all people should realize you switched one obsession for another.” He threw a pack of unopened gum at him. “Quit avoiding this conversation.”
He removed two pieces putting one in his blazer pocket, while he stuffed the other in his mouth. “Thanks.” Derek tossed the pack onto the desk. “I’m not avoiding anything.”
The AD leaned back in his chair. “Have you been contacted regarding your appointment with the psychologist yet?”
“Nope,” Derek said, shaking his head. His brow furrowed. “How soon is my appointment?” At that moment his cell phone pinged. He pulled it from his pocket. “Well, I guess it’s Wednesday.” He shook his phone at AD Fretz. “That was the doc’s office.” His face was about to implode with every chew of the gum, but he refused to let his boss in on that secret.
“Good, the sooner he clears you, the sooner you can get back to work.” Fretz looked at his profiler. His arms looked weighted as if they pulled his shoulders low. Even though he had quick-witted responses, he lacked the humorous gaze that usually accompanied his sarcastic personality. “Derek, I read your report. While you gave a clear and concise break down of events, I would still like to know why you went to the carnival without backup?”
Derek squirmed in his chair. He drew his mouth into a straight line. Biting his bottom lip, he stared at his hands. Why did he think no one would ask him this question? “I didn’t think.”
“You’re a profiler, you’ve been with the FBI for over twelve years, how can you even use that as an excuse?”
He shrugged as he twisted the watch on his left wrist. “I had been studying the case and saw a connection that—that didn’t stand out until that night. I acted on a hunch.”
AD Fretz eyed his best profiler. He watched the unease settle around him. Hell, the man squirmed in his chair as if his pants were on fire. “I know you aren’t telling me the whole truth. Your report is somewhat satisfactory, but this question will come up again. And the real reason will come out.” AD Fretz took a drink of his coffee. “Your one saving grace is you stopped Josiah Craig. That’s probably the only thing keeping you from disciplinary actions. That, and the fact that you were hurt. How are the injuries healing, by the way?”
Derek bristled. The injuries were a constant reminder of how stupid he was. “They’re healing.”
“Any other residual effects?”
“What? What do you mean? What have you heard?” Derek leered at his boss. “If you’ve heard something, I need to know.”
“Wow! What the hell is your problem? I haven’t heard anything. I was just asking.” AD Fretz frowned at him. “Listen, maybe you should stay at home until you see the doctor. Get the clearance you need.”
Derek straightened in his seat. He tapped the face of his watch. “No. I’m sorry. I need the distraction. I’ve been at home since my two-night stay in the hospital, I don’t want to sit at home doing nothing. It’s making me crazy. Just let me stay. I won’t work on any active cases.” He continued to tap his watch.
AD Fretz dragged a hand down his face. “Oh man. I know this is a bad idea.” He sighed. “No active cases. You can work on cold case files. We have several of those. No going out in the field. You hear me, Derek?”
“Yes, Sir. I hear you.”
“Go. Get out of here before I change my mind.”
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