Banner made by me. (The first one I ever made
)Author: Chad
Disclaimer: I have nothing to do with the making of or characters of Roswell. No infringement is intended.
Rating/Category: AU/Adult/Mature for eventual graphic violence and just plain out nastiness.
Summary: Max Evans is a member of RISK (Roswell Investigators of Serial Killings). An elite group of Police investigators who specialize in doing just as the name implies: stopping serial killers. When a string of cop murders start to show up in Roswell, taking the life of his partner Tommy, Max makes it his duty to find out who the culprit is. However, he isn’t counting on having the aid of a new partner. Elizabeth Parker has idolized Max Evans since she was a rookie at the Roswell Police Academy. It’s a dream come true when she is assigned to be his new partner. But Max doesn’t want anything to do with her. She’s too green and too damned cute for his taste. But all that will change once Max discovers who the killer’s next target is.
Beta(s): Thanks to Christable, who is betaing for me now, and to BelevnDreamsToo, who betaed for me before.
AN: This is a repost of my very first fic. I started this fic way back in June of 05 and put it on hiatus around August of 06. Now I’m finally getting around to finishing it. I apologize to those of you that have already read the first thirteen chapters of this. Nothing about the story has changed drastically, but I have made a few edits to the original version so if you have already read it…well lucky you, you get to read it again. Hopefully it will not take me too long to get to the new stuff.
Prologue:
“Are you scared?” he asked pointing the gun at the dead center of my forehead. “Are you afraid to die?” I don’t know what he wanted me to say. I suppose I could have mumbled “mmmm mmmm mmm,” for him, but I don’t think that would have helped my situation. If he was looking for an answer from me then that was all he was going to get. Hell, I was gagged and tied to a chair with a gun shoved so far into my skull I’m sure it would leave a print. Worst of all, I was stark fucking naked, and my partner was laid out unconscious on the floor.
“Talk to me you little prick! Say something!” I rolled my eyes as my captor shouted at me like the raving lunatic I knew him to be. Talk to him? It wasn’t exactly the ideal time to exchange pleasantries. Not to mention, I wasn’t exactly capable of communication at this moment, seeing as how the idiot had me gagged. He reached for my mouth yanking the gag out.
“Thanks a lot balls for brains,” I said, spitting the foul taste of grubby rag out of my mouth. The damn thing tasted like it had been soaked in muddy water and left there for weeks. I aimed my spittle at my crazed captor’s face, praying that it would land somewhere in the vicinity of his eyes. To be honest, anywhere on his face would have been sufficient. It didn’t land where I had hoped it would, but he did end up with a heaping glob of saliva on the front of his shirt. That sure ticked him off.
“Ahh!” he said, jumping back and surveying the damage that I had done.
“Oh sorry Andy, did I get some on ya?” I asked him with a wry smile.
I guess it may have been a bit much. I wasn’t exactly dealing with a sane person, and my tendency to let my words spill out before my brain had a chance to filter them was on overload. BillyBob here was already certifiable. I suppose I shouldn’t have been pushing him any closer to the edge than he was already dangling. The bite of the gun pressed in the back of my head was testament enough to his lunacy.
“You’re real funny Evans. You always got something to say, always real quick with the comebacks,” he laughed, the laugh of a man who had truly lost his cookies. Then, he used the palm of his hand that wasn’t holding the gun trained on me to wipe the dribble off his shirt.
“That about sums it up, Ralphy.” I said. My filter was all the way gone, and I didn’t give flying fuck what I let get past my lips.
“You damn cops are all the same. Always harassing the innocent, always thinking you’re above God Himself. You’re above God aren’t you Evans?” Wack-job asked me the question as if he were expecting me to agree with him. Damn, this was worse than I thought. Whenever guys like this started talking about God and holiness I knew things were about coming to a close.
“Sorry Chucky. I ain’t above God. I ain’t above nobody. You’re the one with the devout tendencies. You think you have the right to take other people’s lives. That you can decide who lives and who dies? You think by ridding the world of us cops, us ‘omnipotent beings’, you’re doing the world a favor?” I stop for a moment so that I can give Bart here time to let my words sink in. Rule number one of being held hostage by a psycho: always try to throw your subjugator for a loop.
“But, hey don’t worry about it, Robby. I guess you are doing us a favor. By not masquerading as a normal human being, you’re showing us the type of person that you truly are.”
My new friend didn’t take too kindly to my words. He showed his aggravation by bringing the gun down hard against my skull. It didn’t tickle. The force of the blow caused my head to ache like the very devil. But I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of hearing me cry out in pain. So, I just closed my eyes, and forced my mind to concentrate on anything besides the pain of the huge throb that was now in the back of my head.
I gave a haughty laugh, just to tick Cody off as much as I could. Also, because I was more than a little sore about that blow to the head. “Don’t kid yourself. You’re not on some mission from God,” I continued my rant from earlier, not missing a beat. I wanted Peter here to feel as if a knock on the head had not affected me at all. “You’re not doing ‘His’ works by getting rid of the people that you surmise think that they are better than Him. You’re just a sick little man that someone gave a gun.” Damn Second Amendment. “Well guess what, Davey? I’m taking you down. One way or another, I’m taking you down…”
Chapter One:
~Max~
My partner was dead. ~Max~
After three years together. Three long years of what I guess you still couldn’t really call friendship, Tommy Ray Anderson was dead. We weren’t friends. Not even a little bit. Hell, I didn’t even like the guy. But I’d never wish death upon him. He had a wife. He had a family, and maybe I didn’t know much about that…well I didn’t know anything about it, but I knew was he was a good man, and a damn good cop.
“Shit!”
The Captain came over to me, looking at the blood bath that was the back of the ally where Tommy had been gunned down. Kyle Valenti was a man who rarely used expletives. But when he did, you could be sure as hell that he was in a foul mood.
“Not Tommy,” he said, shaking his head. “He’s got a baby on the way.”
Had a baby on the way. It was a sad truth, but a truth all the same. I didn’t let the words escape my mouth though. It wasn’t the time or the place. However, now Tommy was quite dead, and the sound of the hysterical screams of his pregnant wife: a wife, who had to be restricted by three deputies, not a small accomplishment for a woman that looked like she were ready to burst at any moment, put a solemnest into all of our souls. I purposely kept my back to Kelly Anderson, not wanting to see the face of the woman who was living the greatest fear a cop’s wife could ever live. Instead, I kept my gaze focused on the corpse of my dead partner. Honestly, looking at Tommy’s dead body was easier than watching the stream of tears that I knew went along with Kelly’s panic-stricken screams. I gave myself a mental shake, shocking my body back into a staid mode. It was the only way I was going to be able to deal with this in a proficient manner. As I examined Tommy’s body I allowed myself to go over the facts of the situation in my head.
His body was at an awkward angle, his legs folded beneath him, broken. Not from the strength of a sledgehammer, a crowbar, or any item that was heavy enough to break bones. The way the bone was broken just so, could only be the work of a bullet. His limbs clung to his body as if they were held together by skin alone. Whoever had done this had obviously broken his legs, denying Tommy the luxury of running away. Tommy wasn’t stupid. He was off duty and unarmed. If he had come upon an armed man he wouldn’t have engaged him. He’d have gotten out of the situation anyway that he could. The person that had shot Tommy had shot him in the leg to make sure he couldn’t get away.
“He was off duty,” I said as I caught site of the grocery bags that was strewn across the ground. “I checked his pockets when I got here. His wallet was still there, along with the exact change from his receipt.” From what I could gather from the scene, Tommy had been out to get a couple of late night items for his wife. The peanut butter and can of sardines that had rolled out of the bag led me to that conclusion. I would have to get a statement from Kelly later to confirm my suspicions, but I was pretty sure that I was on the mark.
Kyle looked at me as if he was aware of what my next words were going to be before they had a chance to leave my mouth. “Whoever did this didn’t do it for cash, or bread and honey. They did it because they wanted Tommy dead.”
Kyle sighed and ran a troubled hand across his face. A sign to those who had known him as long as I had that he was truly disturbed. Deciding that it would be best to get this over with, I continued to go through everything that I had observed about Tommy’s death.
“There’s a bullet wound in his head, but there are also marks around his neck that suggest he’s been strangled. See those grooves? They’re probably from fingernails.” Tommy had obviously given his killer an arduous fight. I looked over at Kyle, who I was sure was noticing the same things that I had noticed upon my arrival on the scene. “The question, is why would the killer shoot Tommy in the head if he’d already been strangled?”
Kyle didn’t answer me. His concentration was centered completely on Tommy’s body. I knew he was observing the layout of the scene. Kyle was nothing if he wasn’t thorough. Finally he looked back to me. “Maybe to make sure he was dead.”
I shook my head no. For some reason, I just didn’t buy that theory. “Not likely. If the killer wanted to be sure Tommy was dead, he would have shot him to begin with. Strangling requires that you have some sort of an advantage on your pray. That means that our killer must have shot out Tommy’s legs, strangled him, and then shot him in the head.” But why? Why go to the trouble of shooting him, drawing more attention, after he was already dead? It didn’t make since.
“Ok, so why would you shoot a man you just strangled?” Kyle asked
I looked from Kyle to Tommy’s dead body.
“Honestly, I don’t know, but I sure as hell am going to find out.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~
That night, I did some research, looking into the records of homicides that had taken place in Roswell in the past year. It had just been a rough search to see if I could find any cases that were similar to Tommy’s. As it turned out, I found some pretty interesting information. Tommy had been the sixth cop killed in this state in the past two months. Six cops in two months? Not exactly what you would call a small fete. Although New Mexico had the 5th highest rate of murder in the country, it was less than likely a coincidence for six cops to turn up dead in such a short span of time. All off duty, all murdered. But there was something else that connected the victims, besides the fact that they were all officers of the law. They had all been strangled, and all of the victims had an unexplained fatal bullet wound that had obviously been given to them after they had already been murdered. No, their deaths definitely weren’t a coincidence. It seemed as if we had ourselves a cop killer.
When I walked into the station the next day I prepared myself for the looks I knew I would receive form my fellow cops. They were the same looks that had been given to all cops when they lost their partners. Although, the looks that were cast my way were slightly different. People looked at me strangely, as if they were expecting me to flip at any moment. As I walked past, some of them even backed away. I had to stifle a laugh. I wasn’t known for being the most levelheaded guy in the precinct, but I wasn’t going to attack any of my co-workers because Tommy was dead.
“Max, the Captain told me to tell you to meet him in his office as soon as you arrived.” The dispatch/secretary told me as I made my way over to Kyle’s office. I just nodded, fully aware of the fact that Valenti was going to want to see me first thing this morning, and boy did I have some news for him. News that I was positive he wasn’t going to like.
As I entered Kyle’s office I noticed the stack of files that were sitting on his desk, as well as the thermos full of what I could only assume to be coffee. But if the Captain had been at his desk all night, I was pretty sure that it wasn’t coffee in that thermos at all.
“Long night Captain?” I took the seat that was directly across from Kyle’s desk. He of course was standing; which was his normal practice when he was worried about something.
“You know you shouldn’t be here Evans,” Kyle said ignoring my question. “Your partner just died.”
“Well I’m not going to find out who did it by sitting in my apartment and waiting for him to kill someone else.” I reclined back in my seat, crossing my legs at the ankles.
“No, I didn’t expect that you would even conceive of not coming in today,” Kyle sated. He and I had been working together for a long time. He knew me; he knew my style and the type of cop that I was. “I suggest that you take some time, but I know you’re not going to yield to that suggestion, so can we just get down to business?” It didn’t surprise me that he didn’t expect me to sit idly by during this investigation. Although it was the norm for cops to be excluded from cases involving the death of their own partners, seeing as how they were often too close to the situation to handle it properly, Kyle knew that the fact that Tommy was my partner would only fuel my fire to handle this case smoothly and efficiently.
“You need a new partner,” Kyle said unabashedly.
I just shook my head. “I’d do better on my own.”
“I don’t care about that. You still need a partner. That’s how this works. I don’t want you getting killed because you’re too stubborn for your own damn good.”
I shrugged my shoulders casually. “I’m not stubborn, Kyle. I’m practical. Any partner of mine would just be a liability. It’s best if I do this on my own.”
Kyle stood from his desk and walked around to stand in front of his window. He pulled the blinds back looking out at the street and then turned back to face me. I knew I was in for a lecture.
“Evans you’re a good cop; one of the best that we have actually. I like you.” Kyle stopped as if he had to think about whether or not that statement was true. “At least as much as a boss can like a subordinate, but you’re too damn cocky and too damn rash.”
“I was never good at doing things by the book sir.” I interjected.
Kyle just kept speaking as if I had said nothing. “I decided that I need someone calm for you. Someone that will compliment you. Someone who is reasonable while you are…” he stopped and gave me an assuming look. “…Not reasonable.”
“You gave me a stiff?” I asked.
Kyle didn’t answer. He pressed down the button on his intercom that would allow him to speak with his secretary. “Olivia, will you send Ms. Parker in please.
Ms. Parker? That name sure got my attention. I sat up a little straighter in my seat. If what I thought was about to happen was about to happen then Valenti had set me up with a woman. It was not that I had any objections to being paired with the opposite sex; it’s just that I had objections to being paired with the opposite sex. After all, women were known as the fairer sex for a reason. And I was a rough-and-tumble type of guy. I had enough trouble being paired with a man. I actually preferred to run solo, but protocol was protocol.
“You put me with a woman?”
Kyle just nodded his head in the affirmative. “I think Liz Parker is exactly what your feral ass is going to need.”
Liz Parker. Though I had never met her in person, I had heard the name Parker around the office several times before. She was a rookie, new to our little club of public defenders, but apparently she was only a rookie in the sense that she didn’t have that many years under her belt. Aside from that, Word was she could hang with the best of them. That didn’t change how I felt about the situation, if anything it made it worse. It gave me the feeling that she wasn’t going to be satisfied with just backing me up.
The door to Kyle’s office swung open slowly in one of those banal moments that seemed to come straight out of a movie, and wasn’t actually happening in front of me. It was like a theatrical scene that was meant to build suspense for the audience, only the suspense was for me. I watched as my new partner stepped from behind the mask of the door and into my range of view for the first time. My first look at her confirmed that this was even more of a bad idea than I had thought it would be, only minutes earlier.
She was absolutely gorgeous. Not in the sense of superficial beauty, but in a way that was all her own. Her hair was in a ponytail so loose you could barely tell that it was being contained. She didn’t wear a suit like the other females I’d seen in the office. Instead she wore a tight sky-blue collared blouse that pressed against her skin very nicely, along with a black skirt that stopped mid thigh. The top two buttons of her shirt were left undone creating a desirable V of cleavage, and her skirt was secured around her hips by her belt holster. She had on the sexiest pair of black fuck me boots that I had ever seen a woman wear. The only jewelry she wore was a silver chain that hung in the V of her unbuttoned shirt. A small sliver pendant that was in the shape of a gun accented the necklace.
“Max Evans, I would like you to meet your new partner.” I watched as Ms. Parker turned around to face me. I watched her eyes as they took me in, wondering what she was thinking of me as I was thinking what I was thinking of her.
“Liz Parker.” Of course I was not able to read her gaze. She was all sleek and professional. She walked over to me and stretched her hand out to me in greeting.
“Mr. Evans, it’s an honor to meet you.” She took my hand firmly in hers.
“Likewise,” I said with an equal amount of professionalism in my voice. I could tell she was examining me the same way that I was examining her. Of course I supposed she was a bit less obvious with her examination. But every now and again her eyes would gaze over me and I could tell that her eyes were not entirely focused on what I would believe they were focused on.
“The two of you will be working very closely on this investigation, so I suggest you take some time to get to know each other better,” Kyle said.
“Sir, actually there was something that I wanted to talk to you about,” I said trying to get his attention. I wanted to inform Kyle of the information that I had discovered.
“Later Evans. It’s been a long night, and I think it’s about time I go home to my wife.” Completely disregarding the importance of what I had to tell him, Kyle stood up, taking his thermos of ‘whatever’ off of his desk, grabbed his coat. “Parker.” He said nodding to her and then headed for the door, leaving me alone in his office with my new partner.
TBC
