The Ninth Life Read online

  The Ninth Life

  by

  E. H. Reinhard

  Copyright © 2016

  All Rights Reserved

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  This book is a work of fiction by E. H. Reinhard. Names, characters, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Locations used vary from real streets, locations, and public buildings to fictitious residences and businesses.

  The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  E. H. Reinhard

  http://ehreinhard.com/

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  The Ninth Life: Lieutenant Kane, Dedicated to Death Series, Book 2

  An anonymous phone call sends Tampa homicide lieutenant Carl Kane straight to the scene of a murdered woman, a sight far too familiar in his line of work.

  What’s even more familiar is the manner in which the woman’s life was taken—the slaying is identical to that of victims of a satanic lunatic named Koskinen, yet Kane had captured and put the man away years before.

  It seems that Koskinen has found himself an admirer, maybe a follower or, worse, someone to kill on his behalf.

  The first body is just the beginning. The ending holds something much worse.

  See all of the Lieutenant Kane books at:

  http://ehreinhard.com/available-books/

  Want to make sure you don’t miss my next book? Sign up for my VIP e-mail list at:

  http://ehreinhard.com/newsletter/

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 1

  Eve spotted the car in the mall’s parking lot—it was the make and model she was looking for. She’d walked past the vehicle a couple of times, taking note of the items in the interior. Some clothes and shoes covered the vehicle’s floor. A couple of hair ties were wrapped around the shifter. A turtle-shaped air freshener hung by a string from the car’s rearview mirror. A University of Southern Florida sticker was stuck to the back window. Eve figured that the chances of the car’s owner being a college-aged female were high—which was perfect.

  She’d sat in her car and waited. Three hours passed as she watched the vehicle. The mall parking lot had emptied, and just a few vehicles remained—last-minute shoppers and store employees, she figured. At just after nine at night, she finally saw the lights flash, signaling that someone had unlocked the car. Eve grabbed her steering wheel and used it to pull herself up from her slouched position in the driver’s seat. She stared out of her tinted window, her head on a swivel, trying to spot who’d unlocked the white Acura.

  A female approached, walking down the center of the parking lot. She was dark haired, petite, and wearing a long-sleeve maroon shirt. Eve thought she looked as if she was somewhere in her early twenties.

  “Be her,” Eve said. “Oh, please be her.”

  The woman veered left toward the car. Eve reached for her door handle.

  The woman stopped, looking back across the parking lot. Eve turned her head to see what she was looking at. A pair of women were at another vehicle that was parked a row over. They seemed to be talking to each other. Eve cracked her window to try to get a listen to the conversation—she caught the last words that were yelled across the lot from one of the two women at the other car. “We’ll follow you over there,” the one girl said.

  She looked back at the female at the Acura. The girl opened the driver’s door and ducked into her car.

  Eve looked back toward the other women and the mall entrance. The pair of women had gotten into their vehicle. Eve scanned the rest of the surroundings—a couple of people still walked from the entrance to the mall and rummaged the lot. Eve saw the Acura’s headlights turn on and the car back from the parking spot.

  Eve started her car, clicked into Reverse, and backed up. She saw the car with the other two women follow the Acura from the mall’s parking lot.

  Eve kept a bit of a distance and tailed the two vehicles from the mall. Both cars made matching right-hand turns from the parking lot. They stopped one behind the other at the stoplight at the mall’s exit onto the main street to make a left. Eve got behind the second car that the two girls were in—a newer Hyundai sedan. The arrow light flashed green, and both cars made a U-turn.

  “Damn,” Eve said.

  Making the same turn behind them would make it obvious that she was following. Eve made a left through the light and watched the cars as she pulled through the intersection. She saw both of the cars’ brake lights light up just as they went out of view.

  Eve sped to the next intersection and made a U-turn through a red light. She floored the gas and got to the right lane, leaving her directional on to make the right down the street that the women had turned on. She turned and slowed. Off to her right, where she saw both of the cars’ taillights light up, was an Irish pub and grill. Eve turned in to check the lot. She stopped as three girls walked to the pub’s entrance. Her car’s headlights lit them up. The female in the center of the group was the maroon-shirt-wearing Acura owner. The woman gave Eve a wave for stopping and allowing them to cross the lot in front of the car. Eve didn’t wave back.

  “Well, aren’t you the friendly one?” Eve said.

  Once the women passed, Eve pulled forward and found the women’s vehicles parked near the back. She found herself a spot on the far side of the lot where she’d have a visual on the Acura. She went back to the waiting game. An hour passed. Eve had made a pair of phone calls—both went to voice mail. Another half hour passed, and the parking lot began to thin out. The time inched up on eleven o’clock. During her time spent waiting, Eve had searched the business and its hours on the internet. The bar and grill closed at eleven on Mondays—the woman would be leaving at any moment.

  Eve kept her eyes on the Acura—at 10:48 p.m., the lights flashed. She watched as the women said their goodbyes.

  “About damn time,” Eve said.

  The woman got into her car and pulled from the lot. Eve followed, making a right out of the pub and grill’s exit and passing by the mall down the side street.

  “All right. Let’s see where you live,” Eve said.

  She continued to follow.

  The woman made a right at the back of the mall. Eve did the same. She watched the street sign pass, North Twenty-Second Street. The woman drove a couple of blocks up and mad
e another right. Eve followed suit. She watched multiple apartment complexes pass by on her right. The woman driving ahead wasn’t stopping for any of them. She continued to a stoplight and got in the left lane. The light was red. Eve had no choice but to get directly behind her and stop to wait for the arrow. Eve dipped her head and looked up to catch the street they were turning on—Livingston. Her line of sight dropped to the woman in the Acura in front of her. The woman flailed around in her car. It took just a moment for Eve to realize that the woman was dancing around to whatever song was playing inside of her car. Eve continued to watch as the woman put her hands in the air to the music.

  Eve reached for her radio, turned the volume up a little, and scanned through the stations to try to match up whatever songs played to the woman’s movement. She found a country station that seemed to mesh just as the arrow turned green. The woman put her hands back on the wheel and pulled through the intersection. Eve followed but let the distance between the cars grow. The woman drove another two blocks and made a right into a shopping center.

  “Come on!” Eve snapped. The woman was testing Eve’s patience. She let out an annoyed puff of air through her nostrils and followed the car into the lot. The Acura parked in front of a grocery store located in the shopping center. Her phone rang. Eve’s annoyance immediately vanished. She kept eyes on the Acura and hit Talk on her phone.

  “Hey, baby,” she said.

  “Hi, beautiful. Sorry, I couldn’t answer the phone before.”

  “No, no problem,” Eve said. She watched the woman get out of the Acura and head for the front doors of the grocery store. Eve found a parking spot where she could view the car and pulled in.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “Following number five.”

  “Still?” he asked. “You found the car how many hours ago?”

  “She must work at the mall where I found it, or something.”

  “She? So it is a woman?”

  “Yeah. And baby, she’s perfect.”

  “I told you that he’d provide exactly what you needed,” he said.

  “I know, but I mean, she couldn’t be better. Early twenties, dark hair, same car. It’s just like your first.”

  “Where are you now?” he asked.

  “I just pulled into a parking lot. She went into a store. This is after she went to the bar.”

  “Just be patient,” he said.

  “I know. I’m good. We’ll see where she goes after this. Hopefully, I can get this done within the hour.”

  “Just be smart about it. This has to be done a certain way.”

  “I know. Don’t worry.”

  “Try calling me after,” he said. “I should probably get this phone hidden. I’ll check it later. Leave me a message if I don’t answer.”

  “Okay,” Eve said.

  “I love you, babe,” he said. “You’re doing so well.”

  “Thanks.” Eve smiled. “I love you too. More than anything.” She clicked off and went back to watching the car.

  A half hour passed of Eve staring at the Acura and glancing back at the main entrance and exit of the grocery store. At 11:36 p.m., she saw the woman pushing a cart full of bagged items toward her car.

  “Late-night grocery shopping, eh?” Eve said.

  She watched as the woman loaded the items into her trunk, pushed the cart to a nearby return, and got back into her car. Eve fired the motor and again followed the woman. The Acura took a different exit from the shopping center than the one they had used to enter and headed east. She made a left at the first set of lights, drove a little over a half mile, and made another left on a main road. Eve caught the arrow to follow just as it turned yellow. The woman drove a quarter mile and clicked on her turn signal to make a right. The Acura slowed and made the turn in front of a gas station. Eve looked up at the street as she followed—Livingston Avenue, again. A few blocks up, the road went single lane in each direction. Another mile or two up, and the streetlights vanished. The stretch of road was dark, straight, and had no stop signs and very few traffic lights—a Florida country road with driveways jutting from the sides. The only light came from the occasional development of condos, apartment homes, or houses that would pass by out of the car windows before the road would go dark again.

  Eve glanced down at her car’s odometer—they’d been on the road almost six miles. She looked back up at the Acura ahead of her, about the distance of a city block ahead. The car passed through the yellow light of an intersection, one of only two that they’d passed for miles. Eve sped up, but the light went red before she got to it.

  “Dammit,” Eve said.

  She kept her eyes on the car as she slowed for the stop. The distance between them grew. The intersection wasn’t lit aside from the traffic signals. Out of her right window was a small convenience store—the lights off, closed. No cars came from the direction of the road. Eve snapped her head to the left and saw an abandoned produce stand in front of an old run-down looking building—no lights were on, and no headlights were coming from the road that passed it. Eve ran the red light and sped up. She could see the then-familiar taillights of the Acura, still traveling in the same direction, a quarter mile ahead of her. Eve sped up a bit to close the gap. She watched as the taillights flashed and the left-hand turn signal went on. The car made the turn. Eve sped up more. She could see the car off to her left, driving through the parking lot of a gated apartment complex, as she neared the turn. Eve’s eyes shot to a pair of gates, which were closing.

  “Shit,” Eve said.

  She made the turn fast, but the gate had shut. A pair of parking spots to the left of the gate caught her eye. Eve pulled nose in and killed the lights and motor. She could see the Acura in the distance, across a fenced pond, pulling up to the garage of the apartment building farthest to the left. Eve popped her car door and stepped out. She jogged to the gate. Beside the larger in-and-out section for cars was a waist-high gate on the sidewalk for those on foot. Eve went to it and gave it a tug—locked. A lit-up keypad was mounted to the left of the gate’s latch. Eve put her hands on the top bar, pushed herself up, swung one leg over and then the other. She lowered herself to the other side. Eve looked left. The garage door at the apartment was open and lit. The Acura was inside of the garage.

  Parking spots sat to the left and right of the blacktop that made up the streets of the complex. Eve jogged to the woman’s building, staying as close to the fenced pond as possible to avoid most of the parking lot’s lights. She slowed up just as she neared the T-intersection of the parking lot. Eve looked to her right. The street and parking continued to multiple other buildings. She looked to her left—five or six parking spots and then the pond which wrapped around the woman’s building. She stared directly ahead. She didn’t see the woman, but the garage was still open, as was the car’s trunk. The Acura was parked to one side of the two-car garage, which led Eve to believe that someone else parked on the other side, someone that wasn’t there. If the woman lived at the place alone, she would have parked in the center. Eve started over to the building. She saw the woman enter the garage from the back corner of the room. Eve figured that was where the garage led into the apartment itself.

  Eve took another quick look around—there wasn’t another person anywhere. She walked straight to the woman. “Excuse me,” Eve said. “Excuse me, miss.”

  The woman froze in the garage, near her trunk, and stared out at Eve, who continued walking to her.

  “Yes?” the woman asked.

  “Sorry, I don’t mean to spook you. I know it’s late or whatever. My boyfriend and I are just moving in,” Eve said.

  “Okay,” the woman said.

  Eve stopped and stood just outside of the woman’s garage. “Where the hell do you put the garbage around here?” she asked. “We have a ton of boxes from the move that we need to get rid of.”

  “Oh. Sure,” the woman said. She took two steps to the garage’s edge and toward Eve.

  Eve towere
d over the woman, who was a good six inches shorter and seventy pounds lighter.

  The woman pointed out of the garage off toward the other buildings. “Right back there,” she said.

  Eve glanced down to see the woman’s car keys in her other hand.

  The woman continued, “On your way toward the clubhouse is the trash compactor and a couple of dumpsters.”

  Eve looked to where she pointed. She didn’t see anyone. Eve’s hand went to her hip, and she lifted her shirt a bit. “Right back there?” Eve asked. She pointed with her left hand.

  The woman looked to where she pointed and confirmed.

  Eve yanked the knife from her hip, turned, and plunged it into the woman’s stomach.

  The woman dropped the keys to the garage floor.

  Eve let go of the knife handle and grabbed the woman by the front of the shirt. She pushed her back into the garage until the woman’s legs were against her rear bumper. The second they touched, Eve grabbed the woman’s right leg with her right hand and dumped the woman into the open trunk on top of her groceries. The woman didn’t even get out a scream. Eve slammed the lid and looked left and right over her shoulder. No one was there. She snatched the keys from the garage floor and went to the driver’s seat. She had to use the lever to move the seat back before she could even get inside. Eve looked at the woman’s purse lying on the passenger seat. With the driver’s seat adjusted, Eve hopped in, started the car, and backed from the garage. She stopped just as the nose of the car exited, and reached up for the opener to close the overhead. She didn’t find one. Eve pressed a couple of random buttons on the visor, but the door didn’t lower.

  “Screw it,” Eve said.

  She backed from the garage and drove from the lot, then exited through the same gates that she drove in through. Eve glanced at her car as she passed—she’d return later in the night to retrieve it.

  Eve made a right out of the apartment complex and drove down the dark street. She neared the intersection where she’d seen the closed convenience store and abandoned looking produce stand in front of the old building. She needed a dark place to finish the woman off, and the old building behind the produce stand would do. Eve pulled through the intersection and into the beat-up old parking lot. Most of the cement had broken up into gravel, which crunched under the car’s tires. Her headlights lit the left side of the building, and a wooden fence–lined alley that provided access to the rear of the building caught her eye. Eve killed her headlights, made a quick Y-turn in the parking lot, and backed down the alley. She stopped as soon as the vehicle was out of view from anyone passing and clicked the car into Park—she’d found a perfect spot.