Saxon's Conquest Read online

  “Johnny Raymond, that’s the boy’s name. The reason Murray gave for the special attention was that the boy was borderline autistic. The date was 2003. It says Murray was able to pull him out of it. Do you believe that?”

  “No.” Alivia shivered at what they were finding. “Let’s do a search on Johnny Raymond and see what we can find.”

  She accessed Dragnet and inserted the boy’s name, the name of the Catholic home, and his social security number. In a few moments, they received some results. “Well, it looks like he tried to follow in Murray’s footsteps, but he flunked out of seminary in 2009.”

  “Poor fellow. There’s no telling what that poor boy went through. What else can you find?”

  “Oh, he married. His wife was…” Alivia made a grab for Saxon’s leg. “Look up our cold cases. Is one of them Ellie Raymond in 2011?”

  Saxon scrambled to find the files. “Yes, six years ago. A Miss Mardi Gras contestant in Beaumont. Strangled. Wife of…Johnny Raymond. Well, I’ll be…”

  “Saxon, this is too big of a coincidence, isn’t it?”

  Saxon ran his finger down the text of the investigation record. “Johnny was a suspect in his wife’s murder. He didn’t have an alibi, but the evidence was circumstantial. No charges were filed.” Lifting his head, he locked his gaze with Alivia. “God, I wonder if his wife was his first victim?”

  “Do you think he followed in Murray’s footsteps?” she asked. “Is Johnny Raymond Father Murray’s legacy?”

  “Dang. Could be.”

  Alivia scooted closer to Saxon. “Is there a photo?”

  He hooked an arm around her waist to anchor her in place, as she shuffled through the contents. “No, dammit.”

  “So, we’ll find a photo,” he promised her.

  Giving up that train of thought, she moved on to another angle. “There was a clue left at the scene, wasn’t there?”

  He laid down his laptop and placed the file between them. “Yes, but look…there wasn’t just one name; there was three.” Saxon fanned the pages out. “I-T-H-L-I-L.” This one is on the card, written in blood, but it’s not human.” He scanned down the page. “Bovine. And look there were two more names written on the wall, but these weren’t scrambled. Elijah and Elisha.”

  Alivia’s head began to spin. “Okay, I’m usually pretty good at this word scramble thing. Now, if we continue in the religious theme, what could this be?” She took a pen from her bag and began to jot the letters down, crossing them out and starting over. “If it’s a prostitute, it’s probably female. Lil… Oh, wow.”

  “What?” Saxon glanced at what she’d written. “Lilith? Never heard of her in Sunday School.”

  Alivia laughed wryly. “You wouldn’t have. Like Lucifer, she was rejected. Her name exists only in code. Screech owl.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “I guess you haven’t played Dark Stalkers. Lilith is one of the main characters. I got into it and did some research on the background. She’s an interesting figure in Jewish mythology, first wife of Adam.”

  “Wait. First wife? What happened to Eve?”

  “Well, according to ancient texts, Eve was wife number two. Supposedly, if you look at the first few chapters of Genesis closely, there’s a contradiction in the order of creation. The first time it speaks of God creating man, it says ‘male and female created He them’. The second time, we have Adam already walking around. He’s put to sleep, and a rib is extracted to make Eve. According to some ancient Jewish texts, you find out Adam had a little trouble controlling wife number one. She wanted to be on top during sex.”

  Saxon hooted in laughter. “You’re shitting me.”

  “I shit you not.” Alivia had to smile. “She grew angry at Adam, left him, and coupled with the Archangel Samael. When she was evicted from Eden for her sin, she became a demon of the night and a baby stealer.”

  “Wild.”

  “Yea, so…” She looked back at the file. “The first wife of Adam. Interesting.”

  “What about the other two names. Elijah and Elisha.” He popped a handful of Skittles in his mouth and crunched madly as his mind whirled. “Two old testament prophets. Elijah went up against Queen Jezebel, we’ve already had her name on a clue. He also didn’t die, right? He was one of only two people in the Bible who never tasted death. Him and…”

  “Enoch.” Alivia filled in his blank. “Elijah was taken up in a chariot of fire or maybe a UFO if you believe some interpretations, the mystical wheel within a wheel.” She tapped the paper with her pen. “But…before he left, he threw his mantle down on Elisha, his protege. That’s it!” She grabbed Saxon by the shoulder and pushed him to his back. “That’s it!”

  Saxon wrapped his arms around her and kissed her soundly. “I don’t need an excuse to do that, baby, but I don’t get it? What’s what?”

  “When Elijah left this earth, he passed his mantle to Elisha. The proverbial changing of the guard. Elisha inherited Elijah’s position as a prophet and his work! Curtiss Murray was Elijah, and Johnny Raymond is Elisha! We have the name of our killer. Johnny Raymond!”

  “Hot damn.” Saxon kissed her one more time. “Savvy! Let’s start digging!” he shouted. “Do a search on Johnny Raymond. I want a name and an address. Let’s find the son-of-a-bitch.”

  In a fervor, they all started tapping on their keyboards. No one spoke. They were all sitting straight. Tense. Finally, Alivia sighed. “He disappears. A year later, he’s gone. Like he never existed.” She looked at Saxon. “How can that be?”

  Saxon chunked his Red Bull into the garbage can across the room. “Simple. He changed identities. Maybe a cop got too close. Maybe he thought he’d made a mistake. Who knows?”

  “So, you think he assumed someone else’s identity?” Alivia asked, all the wind gone out of her sails.

  “It happens, identity theft isn’t something new. It’s easier nowadays, but it’s always happened. You just…”

  Alivia waved her hand at Saxon in an impatient way. “I know how it’s done. What I want to know is how we’re going to find him now? Are we back to square one?”

  “Not necessarily.” Saxon got up and started to pace. “We’ll just have to dig harder. He might’ve made a mistake somewhere. Left a clue.”

  “Arg!!!!” She flounced back on the bed. “We were so close!”

  “Alivia, it’s time,” Savvy announced.

  “Time for what?” She was still caught up in their investigation.

  “Time to get ready for the Welcome Banquet.”

  “Oh, I don’t want to go!” She pulled the pillow over her head. “Tell them I’m sick.”

  Saxon pulled the pillow off and kissed her. “Get dressed, then I’ll change clothes. I’m going with you.”

  This news made her feel some better. “Okay.” She dragged herself from the bed and headed for the shower.

  While she was gone, Saxon reviewed the files, trying to look at them with new eyes.

  “How can I help?” Savvy asked. “I need something to do while you’re gone. Leaving me here. All alone.”

  Saxon laughed. “Stop trying to manipulate me, girl. You can’t go to the banquet. No robots allowed.”

  “I don’t know whether to be happy you called me girl or sad that no robots are allowed at the banquet. This is confusing.”

  “Savvy, you’re experiencing what we humans call mixed emotions. Happens a lot, I’ve found.”

  “Okay. I’ll try to process that, so I’ll be ready for it next time.” She stood up to move closer to Saxon. “So, what can I do to help?”

  Saxon was just about to lift his finger to share an idea when there was a tap at the door.

  “Who could that be?” Savvy asked.

  “I don’t know.” Saxon went to the door and looked through the peephole. “Landry,” he growled. Opening the door, he was abrupt. “What do you want?”

  Titus gave him a bland look. “I’m here to take your place.”

  “What do you mean?” Saxon
had a funny feeling in his gut.

  “Micah said he could use your and the robot’s help. He needs to tie in all of the security cameras here at the hotel and at the Eisemann Center with our equipment, make one central system.”

  “I thought that was all set up,” Saxon protested. “What happened?”

  “There were glitches.” Titus shrugged. “Sorry.”

  “So, while I’m working on wiring interfaces, you’re…”

  Titus gave him a satisfied smile. “Escorting Alivia to dinner.”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  “Fuck that.” Saxon was fit to be tied. “Why did you have to send Landry to take my place?”

  “Because this is your area of expertise.” Amused, Micah handed Saxon a schematic of the electronics they needed to work on. “She’ll be fine. Titus is a professional.”

  “Hell, he may be a professional playboy for all I know.”

  “I doubt it.” Micah chuckled. “Nothing like a little jealousy to put things in perspective, huh?”

  “My perspective is just fine,” Saxon grumbled as he prepared to make the necessary connections for the control room. While they worked, he updated his associate on what they’d learned about the young man who’d been moved in with Father Murray, and how they’d determined he was married to one of the cold-case victims. He also explained about the Biblical references found at the scene and what they could mean. “He’s not a copycat killer; this younger guy is a successor. For a minute there, we thought we had him, Micah, but he vanished like a ghost.”

  “Well, we’ll have to get out our ghost hunting equipment out and find that sucker,” Micah quipped, then in all seriousness, he added, “what can I do to help?”

  “We need to find everything we can on this Johnny Raymond, and see if there’s any clue we can use to trace his new identity. A photo would be nice.”

  Micah knelt on the floor to connect some wiring. “I don’t know what I can accomplish that Alivia’s Dragnet can’t, but get me all the information you have on Raymond and I’ll see what I can do.”

  “Will do.” Saxon finished what he was doing, then came over to find his friend just about to splice the wrong wires together. “Whoop, whoop, hold on, Wolfe. You’re just about to blow all the circuits sky high. Hold up your hands and back away…slowly.”

  Micah chuckled. “Gladly. While you do that, I’ll check on Madison.”

  “Tell her I said hello.” With renewed determination, Saxon went to work, anxious to go check on his own woman.

  …Alivia felt like a filly being put through her paces. Smile. Glide. Turn. Be introduced. Photo op. Flashing lights and French perfume vied with elevator music and the smell of hairspray. Victoria stood on the sidelines, giving her the thumbs up. She missed Saxon like crazy, but Titus was doing his best to be totally charming. They visited the buffet table and sat down with two more couples, Miss San Antonio escorted by her coach, and Miss Alpine accompanied by her boyfriend. In a short amount of time, Alivia learned more than she wanted to know about their beauty regimes.

  Even though she attempted to blend in, like before, she felt out of place. Remembering what Micah had said, she loosened the top buttons of her red silk top, showing just enough cleavage to keep things interesting. Pushing aside her natural, nerdy reticence, Alivia worked the room. Remembering her grandmother’s sage advice, she did more listening than talking. One thing that surprised her was the lack of concern among the women. They were all about the competition; the pageant was king as far as they were concerned. She talked to Miss Tyler, a sparkling redhead, who told her that she adored having all the hunky security guards hanging around. In other words, there were even upsides to being stalked by a serial killer.

  “Hey, look over there,” Titus whispered in Alivia’s ear.

  She followed his line of vision and saw a photographer who seemed to be acting overly friendly. “I see him. Shall I go make his acquaintance?”

  “Yea, I’ll be close,” Titus agreed.

  Pasting a smile on her face, and putting a little wiggle in her walk, Alivia switched on her flirty persona and did her best to slink over to the man who was having such a great time snapping photos of all the beauty queens. He wasn’t built, not like Saxon, nor was he handsome in the traditional sense. In Alivia’s estimation, the only attraction she could figure he had for the women was the camera in his hand and the possibility of publicity. Trying to act as if that sort of thing mattered to her, she sidled up to him and laid a hand on his shoulder. “Hi there, big boy.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, a giggle burst from her lips. Did people really talk like that?

  “Hey, gorgeous! How are you?” He immediately slipped an arm around Alivia’s shoulder and held her a little too tightly.

  “Fine.” She never liked handsy people.

  “What’s your name, sweetie?”

  “Alivia.” She forced herself to smile. “What’s yours?”

  “Jerry Rendell, photographer for Pageant Times, at your service.”

  He leaned a little too close to her for comfort, and Alivia had to fight herself not to pull away. As she dodged his questing lips, her mind was working overtime. Jerry Rendell. Johnny Raymond. Same initials. “Nice to meet you, Johnny,” she intentionally used the wrong name, just to see his reaction.

  There was none. “It’s Jerry, but I’ll answer to anything for you.”

  “I bet you would.” Having learned what she needed to know, she tried to extricate herself from his grip. When she was unsuccessful, she glanced over her shoulder to look for Titus. To her surprise, Titus wasn’t waiting on her.

  Saxon was.

  Their gazes locked and her whole body came alive, her skin grew warm, and every nerve ending tingled. She didn’t have to attempt to pull away from the photographer again because Saxon walked up, placed his own hand on Jerry’s shoulder, and squeezed hard enough that Alivia found herself promptly released.

  “Excuse me, fella, I need to speak to my lady.”

  His lady. Was she his lady? A warm feeling washed over her at the thought.

  Saxon gathered her close and extricated her from the photographer’s company. “Thanks, Saxon.”

  As he steered her through the dimly lighted meeting room, he felt an immense sense of peace to have her at his side. “Who was that creep?”

  “Just a creep,” she answered, waiting to tell him the rest until they were out in the hall. “He was overly friendly, so I went up to see if I could sense anything. His name is Jerry Rendell, which is the same initials as our guy, but he didn’t even react when I called him Johnny.”

  “He was too busy looking down your blouse,” Saxon growled.

  “I was doing my best to get his attention.”

  “Well, you succeeded. Too well.” Saxon steered her toward the elevator. “Are you through for the evening?”

  Before she could respond, they were interrupted.

  “Alivia! Hold up!” It was Victoria. She came forward with a smile. “You’re doing so well! One of the judges asked about you tonight.”

  “Really?” Alivia wondered why. “Did they question how I managed to be in the pageant?”

  Saxon grumbled, “You’re the prettiest woman here.”

  Alivia’s eyes widened as Victoria laughed and agreed with Saxon. “You’re right. She has something few of these women have.” She winked at Alivia. “Class.”

  “Thank you. I get so caught up in the investigation, I forget I have to actually compete.”

  “And perform,” Victoria emphasized, lest Alivia forget the talent competition.

  Groaning, Alivia clung to Saxon’s arm. “Is there any chance I can get knocked out before I have to display my lack of talent?”

  “No.” Victoria patted her arm. “Don’t worry. What you’ve selected is unique and beautiful, you have nothing to worry about,” she assured her. “Go to your room and rest, you have rehearsal at ten in the morning, and the baseball game is at six.”

  “Baseball game?” Sax
on gave her a squeeze. “What position are you going to play?”

  “This is just a promo opportunity. The reigning Miss Texas will throw out the first ball.” Victoria gave her a kiss. “I’m off. Sleep well.”

  “I will,” Alivia promised.

  “Damn straight, you’re sleeping with me.” Saxon turned his face into her hair, so he could whisper, “Are you belly dancing for your talent?”

  Alivia giggled. “Close.”

  Now, it was Saxon’s turn to groan, “I want a private performance.”

  “Not until I practice some more.”

  “You can practice on me.” He ran his hand down her back until he was touching the top swell of her fine ass. “In fact, you can hone your lovemaking skills tonight.”

  “Do they need honing?” She nuzzled his neck as they waited at the elevator.

  “Oh, hell, no. I’m just addicted.”

  “What about Savvy?” Alivia thought about their roommate.

  “Got that taken care of.” He chuckled at the thought. “I bribed her to stay in the bathroom and watch television.”

  As he held the elevator door, she climbed on. “There’s a television in the bathroom?”

  “There is now. She’s hooked on QVC.”

  “Oh, no, good thing she doesn’t have my credit card number.”

  “I’m sure she can hack into something and get it,” he said with a snort. “But she won’t.”

  “You’re right. She’s honest.”

  The elevator door closed, and he took her in his arms. “Yea, she’s honest, but I bribed her to stay in the bathroom while we fool around by setting up a QVC account with my credit card. She has a limit, but she’s clothes shopping for herself.”

  “Oh, Saxon.” Alivia laughed, throwing her head back so he could kiss her throat. “You’re spoiling her.” She opened half of the buttons of his shirt and slid her hands in to palm his pecs, rubbing them in a slow circle.