Goddess of Justice by Dwayne Clayden (mobi ebook reader TXT) 📕

and eight a minute. I assisted ventilations en route. He has an airway in place and an intravenous to keep the vein open. Pupils unequal and reacting slowly to light.”

“Trauma one,” the triage nurse said.

They swung the stretcher next to the hospital gurney and with the help of the trauma team moved the patient. Sharma slid the ambulance stretcher out of the trauma room and into the hall.

Cook gave her patient report to the trauma team, then stepped back into the hall with Sharma.

“Someone gave that guy a shit kicking,” Sharma said.

Cook nodded as she watched the trauma team work on the patient. “Part of me hopes it was his girlfriend. He had it coming.”

“That’s as vicious of a beating as I’ve seen. I don’t think she could have done this unless he was unconscious.”

“I noticed a baseball bat lying in the bathtub. That would do it.”

Sharma cocked his head and chewed his lip. “Yeah, that would do it.”

“Let’s get X-rays and then a CT scan,” the emergency physician said. “Make sure he has circulation in his legs and watch for compartment syndrome.”

“I didn’t think of that,” Cook said. “When I splinted his legs, I didn’t see a lot of swelling, but I had a faint pulse.”

“The doctor just said to watch for it. If the swelling in the legs is severe enough, it decreases blood to the foot, and the pulse is not palpable, then the docs can deal with it. I should have mentioned that to you.”

Cook’s eyes cast downward. Her jaw clenched.

Sharma pushed their stretcher down the hall. “The trauma team is on top of this. Let’s clean up.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Brad hauled a stack of files into the compact conference room and set them on the table. For the next hour, he posted victim and crime scene photos on the walls. Under each victim, he added notes from the crime scenes and autopsies. His gut told him the deaths were all linked, unlike the sniper case a few months ago, but the link wasn’t obvious. He wasn’t the first to notice and point out that their recent spate of homicides seemed to involve karma serving up a cold dish to victims that wouldn’t be missed. Satisfied with his work, he stood back and reviewed each death.

The two drug dealers in Victoria Park were killed in the same manner, so in Brad’s mind there was no doubt about the same killer. He further believed the murder of Billy Tuck, the first drug dealer, had been the first in the series. The killer had hesitated or struggled with the first kill, but made up for it in the second Vic Park murder of Vito Sotelo.

The hit and run of James Duggan, the drunk driver, wasn’t a perfect fit. He wasn’t involved in the drug trade or prostitution. Too many DUIs, but just an elderly man who drank excessively. Now that Brad had posted the drunk driver, he didn’t see the connection and contemplated taking Duggan off the wall. The only thing he had in common with the others was a lengthy rap sheet.

The killer appeared to be gaining confidence with the pimp and bodyguard murder. Killing two asshats at the same time took balls. Walking up and shooting the pimp Owen Judd and his driver-bodyguard Anthony Moss while they sat in their car was gutsy. The accuracy of the shots was significant. The shooter had serious skills. And that the killer had done this without a single witness was another testament to his skills.

The killings at the tattoo parlor were well planned and perfectly executed. To surprise the large doorman and shove the knife into his heart was impressive in a dark way. Where did the killer learn this? The knife to the heart was the same style as in both drug dealer murders.

The execution of the rapist, the pornographer, and the cameraman again showed proficiency with guns, the tight, expert groupings drawing a connection with the pimp and driver double homicide. The added touch of hacking off their dicks and shoving them in their mouths seemed over the top. Maybe personal? A sister, girlfriend or wife who’d been raped? That’s a lot of anger.

Then another rapist is killed, Burke Baldwin II. This case he knew about from Jenni Blighe. She was as mad as he’d ever seen her when she lost that case. Brad couldn’t imagine the trauma suffered by the victim not only with the rape, but then the humiliation in court. Burke’s friends pointed the finger at the dad, Al Turner. Brad would follow up with a few phone calls to Turner’s workmates to confirm his alibi for the night, but Brad’s gut said the dad was innocent.

Brad’s rage wouldn’t be controlled if his daughter had suffered like that. Jeter Wolfe was already arrested when Brad had discovered what he’d done to Annie. Shooting Wolfe later was barely a consolation. Carving the word ‘rapist’ into the boy’s forehead seemed intended to send a message in the same way as the pornography case, with the castration and intentionally posed bodies. Though the methods of murder differed for some, every victim on the wall had a criminal history.

Brad pulled a chair in front of the wall and flopped down. His head shook slowly, and he exhaled deeply. In the sniper case, it had helped to use the board to work out patterns. This time whenever he recognized a pattern, the next murder was different in some aspect.

Maybe he was trying too hard to find a pattern. The first two drug dealer deaths had to be related with drug dealers as the common variable. The method was the same. The hit and run was an anomaly.

The next seven murders were all related to sex crimes. The method varied, but in five of the seven, the killer used a gun with precision. They had to be connected.

Was he faced with two killers? One taking out drug dealers? The second killer with a huge hate for the sex trade? Except