скачать книгу бесплатно
The Memory Killer
J. A. Kerley
Detective Carson Ryder faces a cunning and inventive adversary in this terrifying thriller from the bestselling author of Her Last Scream.Young men in Miami are being abducted and tortured after their drinks are spiked with a cocktail of drugs that leaves them unable to recall their ordeal. Despite this, Detective Carson Ryder knows the predator’s name, height, age, colouring … everything. It’s impossible for the perpetrator to avoid detection. Yet he does.When Carson seeks answers from his brother, a wanted criminal intimate with twisted minds, Jeremy’s odd behaviour sparks even more questions. With each abduction, the violence becomes more horrific, and it’s only a short time until torture turns to murder.But how do you catch an invisible man?
Dedication (#ulink_7cd7c684-71b2-53aa-9578-6867ba42bc5b)
To Mary Jane,
Who made me laugh
Table of Contents
Cover (#u868e0c87-f68a-5878-9db0-655aa54c707f)
Title Page (#ub586425f-be88-5d55-bd7a-7531036595fd)
Dedication (#uee670941-ada5-5dba-a2b1-0673ef922ccf)
Chapter 1 (#ud80c1ffa-96a2-5055-8881-9880786708e5)
Chapter 2 (#u65419f81-3001-52ef-8f67-54f0b401fdd3)
Chapter 3 (#uf97eb8f6-224f-5645-a91f-479ff4aa3ab1)
Chapter 4 (#ub6593683-678d-53dc-b759-53810683735e)
Chapter 5 (#uaddf5741-7531-56aa-9f2c-1ac7bfce4337)
Chapter 6 (#ud2cc4846-99ed-5cff-9fe1-d143007866b6)
Chapter 7 (#u876379c6-5085-51c1-bc7c-2cc844e4fd69)
Chapter 8 (#u78a0c1d3-7862-5bb0-82d1-073710058b66)
Chapter 9 (#ub05049c5-59d5-5144-9856-72523ca74f52)
Chapter 10 (#u694272a8-ce48-59fd-a08e-a3d14c08b89a)
Chapter 11 (#u9838b495-42d3-5dbe-86f3-3d63dbe63383)
Chapter 12 (#u8f41aa6d-d528-56eb-a337-0fa53ceba7a9)
Chapter 13 (#u6f6f5382-100b-5185-aa3a-441adc850b65)
Chapter 14 (#uf42a7745-bf72-5dbd-97b5-a6a726cd3d15)
Chapter 15 (#ue7ea7218-5747-5439-b719-2bccea85ca03)
Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 17 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 18 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 19 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 20 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 21 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 22 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 23 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 24 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 25 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 26 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 27 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 28 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 29 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 30 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 31 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 32 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 33 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 34 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 35 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 36 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 37 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 38 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 39 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 40 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 41 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 42 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 43 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 44 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 45 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 46 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 47 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 48 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 49 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 50 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 51 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 52 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 53 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 54 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 55 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 56 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 57 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 58 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 59 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 60 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 61 (#litres_trial_promo)
Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)
Also by J.A. Kerley (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
1 (#ulink_970c43c5-f84e-58b3-9e9b-798ffeec84f7)
“You’re beautiful, sweethearts! Brianna thanks you for coming tonight. And if you haven’t come yet, there’s always later!”
The performer blowing extravagant, double-handed kisses from the red-curtained stage would have been a stunning woman if she were a woman: large dark eyes with heavy lashes, delicate features, plump and roseate lips. Her hair was a wild, piled-high stack of scarlet, her gown built from chips of orange flame, sequins flashing as she kicked a long leg from the thigh-high slit, the slender ankle ending in a glittery, sling-back stiletto heel.
“You go, girl!” someone called, and the crowd roared approval as the sound system played the signature sign-off, Elton John’s “The Bitch is Back”. Brianna Cass – né Brian Caswell – winked to the crowd and ran caressing hands down the deep-cut décolletage of the gown to cup breasts built of neoprene foam. Her eyes widened in mock surprise.
“I think they love you! They’ve grown a full size tonight!”
Raw, raucous laughter and good-natured catcalls accompanied Brianna’s stage-step descent into an adoring crowd of gay men, the air a mix of alcohol, cologne and pot. Brianna flamboyantly sashayed to a large table beneath the stage. Someone handed her a Japanese fan, and she sat, fanning herself as laughing men clamored to buy her drinks.
“Hey, waiter. Hey!”
Alone at a tiny table in the corner of the shadowed club, Debro waved his hand to catch a server’s eye, but the waiter ignored him to take orders from a quartet of fortyish queens partying in a nearby booth. Debro’s table initially had three chairs, but he’d pushed two to another table. He had things to do and tablemates couldn’t be allowed.
The waiter took the queens’ orders and angled toward the bar.
“Hey, you,” Debro called. “Waiter!” Debro hated to yell – it garnered attention, which caused his invisibility to falter – but now that Brianna had finished her ridiculous, mocking act, he had to move fast.
“Waiter!”
The waiter looked toward Debro, sighed, walked over. “Yaas, do you need zomething?” he said in a faux accent, nose in the air. For a split second Debro imagined punching the man’s face and raping him on the floor of the nightclub. Instead, Debro nodded to Brianna, surrounded by well-wishers.
“What’s Brianna’s favorite drink?”
The twink gave Debro an appraiser’s stare, but Debro knew the waiter could only see himself in the wide mirroring lenses of his outsize sunglasses, the black knit hat pulled almost to the tops of the shades, a turtle-neck tee snugged beneath his chin. It helped make him invisible.
“Chom-pine,” the waiter said. “Brianna like z’chom-pine.”
“Champagne? What’s her favorite?”
“Z’most expensive, of courz. Creeesh-tal … Two-hondred-eighty dollars.” The waiter barely avoided sneering at Debro’s drink choice: Miller Lite beer.
“Bring me a bottle of the stuff,” Debro said, reaching for his wallet. “And one of those long champagne glasses.”
The server regarded Debro with new eyes. “A bottle of Creees-tal and a flute, zen?”
“Yeah, a flute. Whatever.”
The man bustled away and Debro shot a glance at Brianna, standing and waving at well-wishers before turning for the hall leading to the restroom. “Do you see the bitch, Brother?” Debro whispered into the darkness. “Will Brianna come home with us tonight?”
The waiter returned with the champagne and glass. “Do you vish me to pop z’cork?”
Debro nodded and the man unwrapped the wire and tugged the cork without success. “Goddamn things are impossible,” the man muttered in his real voice, Midwestern nasal, probably Ohio. Debro took the Cristal and his strong hands easily twisted the cork loose, wisps of vapor floating from the bottle. The waiter bowed and backed away, money in hand.
Sitting and sliding the table a foot deeper into the shadows, Debro reached into his jacket for his cell phone. Taped behind it was a tiny vial of amber liquid. His fingernails pried the cap from the vial and he tapped the phone above the flute as the vial emptied. Anyone looking his way saw only a man appearing to send a text.
Brianna re-entered the room, a half-dozen full glasses on her table, gifts from admirers. Her long red nails began doing an eenie-meenie-miney selection of what to drink first.
