This would require another gag, but the location was worth the silence as he worked, since what he was getting ready to do would not only frustrate Sept beyond reason. It would also get Teacher to talk to him again. This time he had everything he needed, including one of the books he’d taken from Estella’s store. He wanted to get this one right for two reasons. People sacrificed things for love to this god, who was married in the higher realm to Chango the warrior god.

  “You’re the luckiest one so far,” Novice said to Roxie as he put a red rose behind one ear, then stripped off his shirt. “What can be nobler than to give your life for love?”

  When Novice used his knife to cut through her clothes, Roxie pulled on her bindings, as if she knew what trap she’d fallen into. He sliced everything until she was naked, then took time to fold the pieces and lay them at her right foot. From his kit he took five copper pennies and lined them up along her forehead, only to have Roxie shake her head and knock them off.

  “I can see you’re going to be uncooperative,” he said, and without warning plunged the knife low enough that he imagined it went through her womb. He paused before he took it out, as the memories of doing this before made him almost forget that he couldn’t linger too long. “It doesn’t matter, though. There’s always more than one way to do something this important.”

  He dug his fingers into the hole he’d made and wet his fingers with her blood. Carefully, so he wouldn’t leave any fingerprints, he smeared a large swath across her forehead and waited for it to start to dry. That’s what he used so the pennies would stay put, even though Roxie still had the strength to fight him.

  “I call on Elegua to open the door I want.” He drew the shepherd’s hook under Roxie’s left foot. “And I call on Oya to show me the land of the dead.” He drew the number nine under her right foot. “The one I love lives there with my child, and I want them back with me.”

  He took the candles out next and lit a yellow and a red one and put one on each nightstand. “When you get there, order them back,” he told Roxie. Her eyes opened wide as he raised the knife again and stabbed her in the lower belly once more, but this time he brought the knife up and toward him.

  The act felt so good that he stopped when he reached her rib cage and was surprised he was breathing heavily. A swell of conflicting emotion settled over him like a bucket of warm water poured over his head. He was turned on, humbled, and grateful all at the same time because this woman he barely knew was willing to do this to help him get what he wanted.

  “I’m glad you were willing, because I couldn’t do it, no matter how much someone needed it.”

  He spoke to the lifeless body as he put on a pair of gloves for what he had to do next. It wouldn’t take long, since he figured Sept was predictable, and when he opened the closet he saw he was right. The box she used to lock up her gun was on the shelf in the closet toward the front. That went next to Roxie’s head, and inside he put a small piece of coral and a sprig of rosemary. In the top he sat the statue of Our Lady of Charity with the note he’d written.

  You walk in the land of the dead, but not for long. If the warrior tries to stop me from what I need to do, that’s where I’ll send her and those she loves. Remember that I fear no man or woman, and there is no place that I can’t enter to do what needs to be done. Nowhere.

  He stared at the altar he’d built and tears blurred his vision at the power that came over him. Sept seemed to have locked all of her strength in this box. “Only one thing missing,” he said, as if he were checking things off a grocery list.

  Roxie’s heart came out easily and made a dull sound when he dropped it on the bottom of the box. He then searched Roxie’s purse. He hadn’t cared to search the others’ things, except to find Frieda’s name, but they didn’t possess an NOPD badge. He took it out of its cheap leather holder and drove the fastener through her chest over where her heart had been. He wanted Sept to have no doubt of what he’d taken.

  Laughing, he stepped into the bathroom to wash the blood off his arms. After he put his shirt on and tucked it into his pants, he walked around the apartment to see how Sept lived.

  “This is the house of a warrior,” Novice said, as he turned in a slow circle in the main room and saw no personal objects. “I weighed my life down with the emotional baggage of a family, but I took care of that.”

  “You did, but it’s still haunting you, isn’t it?” Teacher asked.

  Teacher was criticizing him again, but Novice knew only that Teacher was back and as thirsty for more as he was. “I told you I’d keep going until I was rewarded, and tonight’s special.”

  “It’s actually genius,” Teacher said with a small laugh.

  Novice puffed up like a peacock and ran his hands along his chest. Then he noticed the button on his breast pocket was missing and panicked. He ran back into the bedroom and dropped to his knees next to the bed, but the damn thing wasn’t there. After searching for over twenty minutes he still couldn’t find it.

  “Sept,” Madeline called up the stairs. “You up there?”

  From his calculations, the neighbor was early. He’d have to do something about her because the stairs were the only way out.

  “You okay? You dropped all your groceries down here.” Madeline climbed the steps holding the bags. “Is this some ploy to make me carry your shit up?” She made it inside the door, her usual cigarette hanging from her lips. “Where do you want this?”

  Novice swung his baton at her head and watched her crumple to the floor. “Filthy habit,” he said when he ground out her cigarette under his shoe.

  “What about the button?” Teacher asked.

  “It’s probably at home or the dry cleaners.” He put his cap on low on his forehead. “I’m not worried about it.”

  “You should worry about everything, especially the small things. The small leaks, not the big cannon shots, can sink you.”

  “Right now I’m only interested in one thing, so don’t ruin it for me.” He packed everything he’d used in his bag and flung it over his shoulder. After checking the apartment one last time, he picked up Sept’s phone and dialed her cell-phone number. It rang only three times before she answered, but he wasn’t worried since she was with Keegan Blanchard again. He’d be long gone by the time she got here.

  “Savoie,” Sept said.

  “Ask yourself why the gods have forsaken you,” Novice whispered as he admired his work one last time.

  “Who is this?” Sept asked. “And how did you get into my house?”

  “Who am I?” He continued to whisper. “Someone who has not.”

  “Not what?” Sept asked. Novice could hear the siren in her car and laughed. Sept would never make it in time.

  “Been forsaken by anyone. Have a good night, warrior. You’ll need it.” Novice put the phone down and took a deep breath. The smell of blood filled his lungs and intoxicated him. “You’ll spend plenty of overtime on this one, warrior, but you don’t have enough hours in the day to find me.”

  The smell from the broken pickle jar permeated the stairwell as he descended, but the siren sounded close. It couldn’t be Sept, but he took the rest of the steps in a run, and on the street he forced himself to walk slowly until he reached the corner a hundred feet away. Once he reached it he ran, because the screech of tires meant Sept or someone else had already reached the scene.

  “I’m not worried about anything,” Teacher chanted repeatedly as Novice’s lungs began to burn, until he reached his car and threw everything in the passenger seat. His hands shook so badly as he took out his key he had to try several times to put it in the ignition. He was safe, but the fear was making him crazy, though not enough to speed out of the area like he’d run. After another deep breath he turned on his radio and started for home so he’d be ready to continue the game when the call came.

  “I’m not worried. See, no matter how close she is,” he said of Sept as he listened to her call for backup from the front of her apartment, “it isn’t close enough.” He had heard her siren. Perhaps Keegan wasn’t as enticing as Novice had thought.

  “No woman is going to make her lose her focus,” Teacher said. “Unlike you, who let a woman drive you to distraction.”

  “If you think that, you don’t know anything about me.” He banged his fist into his steering wheel. “I got rid of my distraction, in case you forgot.”

  “Yes, but you didn’t leave it buried, did you?”

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  “Get over here now,” Sept yelled into the phone as Nathan and she stepped around the spilled bags of groceries. “And get units on the streets looking for anyone dressed like a cop. I don’t care who they are. Detain them until we finish here.”

  The apartment’s front door was open, and she sped up when she heard moaning. Whoever was inside was still alive. “Nathan, you with me?” she asked, even though he was pressed almost against her back.

  “Right here, partner.”

  They went through the small place slowly, with guns drawn, ignoring for now the two women they glanced at. Everything about the scene practically screamed how close they’d been—from the water in the bathroom sink to the off-the-hook phone.

  “Madeline, can you hear me?” Sept knelt next to her and put a towel to the back of Madeline’s head, but all she did was moan. The cut had bled enough to stain the back of her white uniform shirt. “Nathan, call for a bus and for the team to get over here.”

  “You do realize that’s Roxie Stevens in there, don’t you?” Nathan asked as he came from the bedroom.

  “Let me call my father and take care of the living first. Maybe we’ll get some idea of who this fucker is, then I’ll worry about who he left on my bed.”

  Sebastian finally answered his phone. “Dad.” Sept motioned Nathan over to hold the towel to Madeline’s head. “I need you to come to my apartment, but drop Mom off at Blanchard’s before you go, unless one of the boys can sit with her.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “He left another one for us in my place, on my bed,” Sept said, and her father simply hung up. Her next call was to Keegan. “Hey, sweetheart.”

  “Hey, there. Promise me a vacation when all this is over. It’s a sin that we’re both working on Saturday night. You left so early this morning it feels like days since I’ve kissed you.”

  “You got it, and as soon as I see you I’ll kiss you a month’s worth, but right now I need to know if Al’s working tonight.” Sept walked into the bedroom, and any memory of the morning she’d spent with Keegan in this room was replaced with what she was staring at.

  “He’s outside as usual, why?”

  “I have another one, and he left her in my apartment.” Sept stopped when Keegan gasped from her end. “This one might take a little longer because I know her.”

  “Another of Brandi’s girls?”

  “A fellow officer from our precinct who worked Vice. I’ll tell you all about it, but right now I need to talk to Al.”

  “Hold on,” Keegan said, and her voice was replaced by soft classical music.

  Al came on. “Hey, Sept, you need something?”

  “You’re on the city clock now, Al. I need you to stick with Keegan until she’s done. See if you can get Jacqueline there as well, then escort both of them home and sit in the house until I get there. I’ll have my father call your superior and give him the heads-up on this. Don’t let anything happen to them.” Sept could see that Roxie’s eyes were still open.

  “Do what you have to and take your time, I got this end covered.”

  “Thanks, Al, I owe you.” Sept waited for him to put Keegan back on.

  “Honey, do you need anything?” Keegan asked.

  “Stay with Al, and tell Jacqueline no dates tonight. Be safe, and I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

  “Seven, you’re in more danger than I am, so you take that advice too, okay? Gran was over here again tonight asking about you, so I can’t have anything happen to you. You’ve evidently broken through her hard shell.”

  “All I care about is breaking through your defenses, babe. Having your grandmother like me is an added bonus. Talk to you later.”

  The ambulance had arrived while Sept was on the phone, and when she stepped back into the front room Madeline was on the gurney with her neck secured. Her eyes were open but her pupils were noticeably different sizes. She motioned Sept closer.

  “Sorry if your place is trashed. I came up to make sure you were all right, but this happened,” Madeline whispered, as if talking normally was too painful.

  “Don’t worry about the place. Did you see him?”

  “Hit me from behind.” Madeline was panting as she closed her eyes. “Sorry, it hurts like a mother.”

  “Take it easy and let them check you out. I’m the one who’s sorry, but thanks for looking out for me. I’ll be by the hospital later to check on you.”

  After the paramedics left, only those designated to Sept’s team were allowed access. George and Alex took pictures, then searched for fingerprints. Sept barely paid attention to them as she checked for anything missing. In the closet, a blood trace stained the edge of the shelf where the killer had reached for her safe box.

  “Man, I’m glad I’m not the one who has to inform Roxie’s family,” George told Alex as he swirled his powder brush along the headboard of the bed. “I never worked with her, but she seemed like a sweet girl.”

  “We never met,” Alex said.

  “Makes me want to call all my kids and make sure they’re all right,” George said as he pulled prints from the section he’d been working. “You want them to grow up and be happy, but when they’re out of the house and you see shit like this, you go crazy.”

  “Makes me glad mine’s still young,” Alex said.

  “How old’s your little boy now?” George asked him.

  “Almost four, and I really miss him.”

  “Where is he?” Sept asked with curiosity.

  “My wife and son are living with her sister in Mississippi until we can do something about our house. She didn’t think it was safe to be around while we’re rebuilding, and the trailer FEMA gave us is barely big enough for me, so they visit when they can.”

  “That sucks,” Sept said, and put her hand on Alex’s shoulder. “I’m sure you miss them.”

  “It’s tough, but a lot of people are in worse shape than we are, so I’m not complaining.”

  “Anything, guys?” Sept asked.

  “Probably a good set of your fingerprints on every surface in here, but we won’t be able to tell until we run all these,” George said.

  “You gonna read the note?” Alex asked.

  “I have to wait until we get it back to the lab later tonight, but y’all will be the first to know.” Sept gave the box and all its contents to one of George’s men, who put the whole thing in a bag and tagged it, then left it where it had been found.

  “Sept, Commander Savoie’s here,” Nathan said.

  “Another present for you, kid?” Sebastian put his arm around Sept since they were alone in the small foyer outside her apartment. “Tell me you’re a step closer to stopping this shit, because I just came from Fritz’s office and he’s losing patience with the slow progress.”

  “We’re still looking for Damien, if only to question him, but there’s no sign of forced entry.” She pointed to the door. “We didn’t find any fingerprints except probably mine, and he called my cell right before I got here. If Nathan and I had left ten minutes earlier we’d have him in a holding cell with the blood still drying on his hands.”

  “Are you absolutely sure this is Damien?”

  “Dad, I’m not sure about anything. Aside from everyone else in the family, Damien is the only one who knows where my extra key is, and none of you did it. I’ll admit a lot of people have my cell-phone number, but how many of them could’ve pulled this off?”

  Sebastian walked through the place to the bedroom and grimaced when he saw the death mask frozen on Roxie’s face. “Have you had your hocus-pocus guy interpret the scene?”

  “I’m sure he’d love your description of his profession,” Sept said as she glanced at Nathan.

  “He’s on his way, sir,” Nathan said. “I called him twenty minutes ago.”

  Julio arrived as George and Alex were finishing their field work. “I should know what we’re up against now, but each time I join you I’m more appalled.”

  “With any luck this will be our last one, Julio.” Sept shook his hand and tried to refocus him. “Take your time and make notes, if you want. We must be missing something.”

  Julio stood close to Sept as they studied the now-familiar wound pattern. “Whoever’s doing this is probably a novice.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Because the gods he’s sacrificed for have made sense to me, but not this one.” He pointed to the five pennies stuck on Roxie’s forehead in blood. “This Orisha is Oshun, the god of lovers, who is married to the most powerful of the Orishas, Chango, the warrior god. Did he remove the heart again?” Julio asked after he glanced at the burning candles with nothing next to them.

  “He did, but he placed it in something this time.” Sept pointed to the safe box now encased in an evidence bag. “It’s where I keep my gun when I’m at home. Why doesn’t this one make sense?”

  “The first one opened the door to the other gods, and the second god had power over the dead. He’s obviously trying to talk to the dead, but no one would ever sacrifice something, much less someone, to a god who watches over lovers. You give Oshun gifts that reflect the living, not the dead.” Julio studied the safe box and scratched the top of his head.

  “So this one is called Oshun, what else?”