Free Coup De Grâce by Lani Lynn Vale Page A

was the color of the tile floor they were laying on.
    “We have reason to believe that you might have seen the man who did this on your way to the scene. We’ve had three witnesses saying they saw a man walking his dog down the street just down the road from the crime scene. Black hoodie. Black jeans. Black dog.”
    I thought back to the day I’d driven to the crime scene.
    Remembered passing the mobile home park sign, then seeing a black dog off to the side of the road that I passed.
    I remembered thinking that the owner needed to get the dog the fuck out of the way when he heard lights and sirens blaring.
    “Yeah, I saw him,” I confirmed, thinking back to the man in question. “Black hoodie. Black pants. Red shoe strings in the shoes. Dog had a red collar with black lettering on it. Black lab.”
    Agent Elliott took notes on his pad of paper as I spoke.
    The other one just watched me closely.
    “Any cars in the area?” he asked.
    I shook my head. “Actually, no. I passed four houses before I got to theirs and hadn’t seen a single one. The couple had two cars in the driveway as well as a red mid-sized sedan belonging to the elderly couple. I did pass an abandoned car with hazard lights on pointing in the opposite direction I’d been going, but I also saw a man walking away from the car in a white t-shirt and khaki pants. ”
    The agent nodded. “Good. Thanks.”
    “We have reason to believe that the man’s a practicing doctor in the area. Or a nurse. Or a midwife. Possibly a registrar at the hospital. Each woman that’s been killed, their only connection, is them being in the same doctor’s office that practices in the Ark-La-Tex. It’s a large one that has over eight offices and seven doctors serving it. Only four of the doctors travel over the state line, and we’ve made a note of those four in this chart,” Agent Palmer said, sliding the three of us a stack of papers.
    I scanned the names on the list as well as the pictures.
    I didn’t recognize any of them.
    “So what do you need from us?” Chief Rhodes asked bluntly.
    They both shook their head, but Palmer was the one to answer.
    “Nothing. Not yet anyway. We’ve already been privy to the reports, photos, and crime scene data. We just ask that, if you encounter another one of these, you call us. We’ve been working this case for a little over two years now, and so far we have just as much now as we did then. A bunch of nothing ,” he said simply.
    I looked down at the papers in front of me, recording the faces of all the four doctors into my memory bank so I’d have it later if I had need of it.
    “As for why you’re here, Officer Perez, it’s just so that we can congratulate you for saving that child. He’s our first survivor, and I never wished more that a baby could talk than I do right now,” he said dejectedly.
    I completely agreed.
    I’d wished the same thing.
    I didn’t know what kind of heartless person could shoot an innocent baby like that, but whomever it was needed a single shot to the heart as his final coup de grâce .
    “So is it a coincidence that all these men are cops?” Chief Rhodes asked as he looked through his own folder.
    I flipped to the page behind the one I’d stopped looking at and saw what he was talking about.
    Longview Police. Kilgore Police. Shreveport Police. Gun Barrel Police. Gilmer Police. Bossier City Police. Benton Police. Tyler Police. Waskom Police. Hallsville Police.
    “What the fuck?” I exhaled.
    Not only did they kill pregnant women and babies, but the fucker was a cop killer as well.
    “So you have nothing, is what I’m understanding?” I asked carefully.
    The two of them nodded. “Nada.”
    I linked my fingers together, and steepled them while tapping the first two together.
    I was a fidgeter.
    Like major.
    I couldn’t sit still for anything, something I’d learned to live with.
    It drove my friends and family nuts. It was what it was , though. Nothing I could do to change