Humpty Dumpty: The killer wants us to put him back together again (Book 1 of the Nursery Rhyme Murders Series) Read Free Page B

realized he was going to have to transfer everything in the carry-on back into the bigger suitcase. The big case and the duffel bag weren’t too much, were they? He just had no frame of reference here.
    His cell phone rang. It was the theme to Psycho . His mama.
    “Had, sweetie. Just checking to see if you wanted brisket or my pulled pork for dinner tomorrow night. I haven’t used my smoker in almost a week, and it’s getting a little lonely.”
    Had sighed and rubbed at his forehead. “Mama, you know I’m not going to be here for dinner tomorrow.”
    “What? Oh, that thing with the FBI? You still tryin’ to pretend it’s happenin’?” Lynda Hadderly had grown up in the South, and even after living in Michigan most of Had’s life, a pleasant Mississippi drawl dominated her speech.
    “Come on, Mama. I told you, the BAU called me out to help. They arranged it with my boss and everything.”
    His mother chuckled in her throat. “Baby, I know you’ve wanted to be an agent since you were tiny, but don’t you think this is takin’ the whole thing a bit far?”
    Had placed two folded shirts next to each other on the bed. Which one would go with him? Gotta be the embroidered one. Never knew when you were going to have to hit a dance club. In the line of duty, of course. He placed it in his duffel bag, trying not to rise to his mother’s bait.
    “Well, I guess you’ll have to just wait and see when I don’t show up to your house tomorrow.”
    “Whatever you say, marshmallow,” his mama said, not paying any attention to him whatsoever. “I think I’m gonna get the brisket. That always was your favorite.” Her hanging up the phone acted as punctuation on the end of the statement of her doubt. He couldn’t blame her. It’s not like he’d been the most honest of kids, growing up.
    It had only been two weeks ago that Had had gotten the most exciting news of his life. He’d been in the middle of what he’d thought was the coolest experience of his life, the Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary serial killer case.
    It had been a bad enough case that they’d asked for the BAU to come out and get involved, and that was where Had had run into Agent Sariah Cooper. Coop. The Amazonian FBI agent of his dreams. Well, she would have been, if she were at all interested in him. Which she was not. At all.
    Dammit.
    At least now he wouldn’t have to ask for her stance on Latin dancing.
    Regardless, the connection had been immediate, and when Coop had realized that one of the body parts they’d found belonged to the Humpty Dumpty case, she’d asked for his help on it. Had was still reeling from that conversation, four days after it had happened. He was going to DC. Well, to Quantico, Virginia, to be precise. The FBI Academy, where the Behavioral Analysis Unit was housed, to be even more specific. He was going to be working with the FBI.
    Okay, so it was due to the fact that no one else would touch the case with a ten-foot pole, but that didn’t matter to Had. He didn’t have to worry about his “career” with the BAU. He was just thrilled he was getting to work with them.
    He was glad there hadn’t been anyone around to witness his subsequent happy dance. He’d been floating on a cloud since that conversation had happened.
    The real shock had been when his boss had given the okay. Had wasn’t being arrogant by saying that he was the best officer that Ann Arbor had on the force. The competition wasn’t all that fierce, to be honest about it. Had was pretty sure that one of the guys could be a poster child for the dangers of inbreeding.
    But the chance to get out and see a little bit of the country and work on one of the coolest serial killer cases in the last twenty years? It was too much. The Humpty Dumpty murders had gone into the realm of urban legend. When Coop had mentioned the famous killer the first time, Had’s initial thought had been that she was just playing a prank on the local rube cop. Just talking about it