♥ Deadly Desire ♥
Book Two
She was exquisite. Long black hair and light brown eyes that reflected the light around her. He had to have her. He would add her to his collection. She didn't know he was watching her, but none of them had known he was watching.
This was the part he was good at. Picking out the pretties to add to his list of beauties that died by his hand. He enjoyed this. The watching, the waiting, and the games they did not even know they were playing.
Yes, she would die. Not tonight, he had to finish playing with the one he already had. But when he was ready, he would be back for the raven haired beauty.
Doctor Kristin Young walked into the exam room.
"Hello, Johnny. How are you today," she asked the five year old sitting on her table.
"Hi. I waust my first toof, Doctour Woung," Johnny replied in his lisping five year old voice.
"You did," Kristin asked putting just the right amount of excitement into her voice.
"Uh huh," Johnny said nodding his head vigorously.
"Well, let me see," replied Kristin.
She laughed as Johnny grinned at her, opened his mouth, and pointed out his accomplishment.
"Wow, you did lose a tooth. Didn't you," asked Kristin. "So tell me what is going on with you today?"
Kristin listened as Johnny told her about his adventures of playing cops and robbers with one of his friends at the day care he attended while his mother worked. He had fallen off of the monkey bars and had a nasty little cut on his forehead. Kristin kept Johnny talking while she probed and cleaned the cut.
"Did you get the bad guys," she asked Johnny.
Kristin's patients loved her. She interacted with each child as if they were her own and when they were in her exam room, they were the most important person in the world. She always talked with them about their symptoms, what they were feeling, and gathered as much information from the child as she did the parents, providing the child was old enough to talk to her.
Kristin, a pediatrician in the Atlanta area, owned a small private practice not far from downtown. With her natural love and devotion to children, it did not take long to build a practice to just the size she wanted. She had gotten to the stage where she could be as picky about what patients, or mothers, she accepted, as the mothers were about choosing a pediatrician.
Listening to Johnny's excited chatter about the game he played with his friend made her smile. He was so into his story and what he was telling her, he did not even realize she had to put three stitches into the cut he received for his adventure.
"My, you put all of them in jail," she asked.
"Yep, all ov 'um. Me and Kyle make a gweat team, huh doctour," asked Johnny.
"You do make a great team," Kristin replied smiling at the little blond headed imp on her table. Johnny was one of the first of Kristin's patients when she started her practice. She knew the child and mother well. Johnny was forever getting into scrapes. He was a rambunctious child. Kristin would be worried if he wasn't. She often explained to his mother she would be more concerned for the child if she didn't see the bumps and bruises that told her he was an active, happy child.
Turning to the mother she said, "He should be fine now. If he complains of a headache, and he should with that nasty bump, just give him a little children's Tylenol or Motrin and he should be just fine. I think he will live to seek out many more adventures." Kristin winked at Johnny.
"Thanks, Doctor Young. I appreciate you seeing us on such short notice. I just panicked seeing him bleeding like that," Johnny's mother replied.
"No problem, Susie. That's what I'm here for. Never worry about needing to call me," Kristin said as she grabbed Johnny and swung him off her table.
"You know where the big boy sucker drawer is right, Johnny," she asked, though she already knew the answer to that question.
Johnny nodded and took off running across the room. His mother laughed and shook her head. Kristin was still smiling as she stepped out of the exam room and into the next to see her next patient.
Kristin had a full schedule that day, which always made her smile, but took a lot out of her by the end of the day. She was about ready to call it quits for the day when her receptionist reminded her about the new couple coming to interview her to be their new pediatrician. Kristin sighed and put her white lab coat back on. She knew most parents wanted a doctor that looked professional and qualified and while she was certainly both, she did not look like it.
Good genes handed down on both her mother and father's side of the family had the thirty-three year old doctor looking more like a twenty-one year old college student. Most of the parents who interviewed her were shocked by her appearance.
Kristin had long, raven, black hair that reached just past her shoulders and light brown eyes. Standing at just five foot three, she was a little on the short side. She was small and petite and looked as though she should be modeling rather than giving shots and taking temperatures. But Kristin loved what she did and it showed as she animatedly described her practice and her beliefs.
Most of the people who came to see Kristin were there because another patient's parents had highly recommended her. It still did not take away from the shock of meeting her for the first time and could be a turn off for some parents. Kristin was fine with this. She knew what she was capable off and did not need the judgment of others as she was treating their children. She either had the parent's full trust or she recommended they try another pediatrician.
Usually the high recommendations from her patients' parents were enough to convince other parents to seek out her services. Kristin doted on her patients and most parents enjoy when others notice and praise their child's accomplishments. Her love of children and her energetic personality combine to put parents at ease when she is treating their child.
Kristin's patients ranged in age from new born babies all the way up to eighteen years of age when she would often recommend a general practice doctor for the young adult. She had a few patients who have separation anxiety due to Down syndrome or some other mental disease and so she continued to see those patients, but mostly her waiting room was full of babies and toddlers.
Looking over the file her receptionist had started on the new family, she remembered the new mother-to-be's name from her work at the hospital when her new patients were born. No doubt that is where the mother had heard of her. Amber and Derek Stevenson were expecting their first baby in three months and the mother wanted her to be their pediatrician.
She read the information her receptionist had gathered. Mary Stone had been with her since she started her practice. She knew exactly what Kristin was looking for in a parent and often discouraged those she knew where not a good fit. It saved Kristin a lot of time and headache. Mary was more than just a receptionist.
Mary and Kristin had been friends in high school. Never dreaming the two would work together someday, they went their separate ways during college always keeping touch. Mary wanted to work in an office and Kristin wanted to be a doctor. After finishing medical school and working for another doctor at first, Kristin contacted Mary about opening her own office.
Mary jumped at the chance to work with Kristin and help her build her practice. Refusing to do managerial work, Mary preferred to interact with the parents and chose to stay the receptionist although Kristin had complete faith in Mary's ability to run her office. She knew Mary secretly did run the office though Kimber, her office manager would never admit that out loud.
Kristin loved her staff and was happy with the work ethic of everyone she employed. She wasn't sure how she had been lucky enough to have as great of a staff as she did, but she contributed a lot of it to Mary.
Kristin looked up from the file she was reading as Mary walked in. Her receptionist was the same age as she but slightly taller at five foot five. She had beautiful auburn hair which she usually kept clipped back out of he
r face. Her lightly tanned skin and brilliant green eyes often draws stares from the men who walk into their office, but Mary pays no attention.
"The Stevenson's are here to see you," Mary said.
"Thanks, Mary. You can send them in."
Although the girls were the best of friends, they both knew how to act professional in the office and in front of patients. Mary led the Stevenson's into the office and introduced them to Kristin.
"Doctor Young, I'd like you to meet Derek and Amber Stevenson," she said and then turned and left the room.
Kristin stood and shook hands with both Derek and his wife recognizing Amber from the hospital where she worked as a nurse. Amber sometimes filled in for sick or vacationing nurses in the maternity ward and she and Kristen had worked together a few times.
"It's nice to meet you, Derek. And it is good to see you again, Amber," she said warmly, sitting back down behind her desk. She decided Amber must have prepared Derek well for her appearance because he didn't bat an eye at her youthful face.
"It's nice to see you again too, Doctor Young," Amber said.
The ladies talked about their work at the hospital, forming a bond as Derek watched them interact. Amber had already described the petite, young, doctor to him so he was not surprised when he met her. He had complete faith in his wife's ability to choose a pediatrician for their first child and she said Kristin Young was the best.
"I know your reputation from the hospital," Amber was saying. "And I also know you are choosey about your patients."
"I am very careful who I choose to see although I do not often share that fact," Kristin said.
Amber laughed. "Nurses talk," she replied.
Kristin smiled and nodded and asked the couple a few questions. She then took them on a tour of her office, gave them the run down on her credentials, and explained her policies regarding her patients. She wanted any of her parents to know they could call her anytime with a question regarding their children and she would get back with them at her earliest convenience. If parents called the office afterhours, her cell and pager numbers were both listed as emergency numbers.
Amber nodded as Kristin talked. She already knew she wanted Kristin as her pediatrician and hoped she would accept them. She did not begrudge the young doctor for being choosey about her patients. She understood how many parents could ruin a doctor's reputation if you did not handle them properly. Kristin just wanted to treat children. She didn't want the drama that came with the parents. Because of these facts and her reputation at the hospital, Amber had not even discussed or looked for another pediatrician.
Kristin liked the Stevenson's immediately. Ending the tour she turned to Amber and said, "Welcome to my practice. I would love to treat your child."
"'Thank you, Doctor Young," Amber responded with a smile.
"Please, call me Kristin," she told her. "After all, we do work together, and now we will probably see more of each other."
The couple shook hands with the doctor again and left the office. Kristin went back to her desk, took off her lab coat, and hung it on the coat rack in the corner of her office. As she looked around, she couldn't help but be proud of her accomplishments. She had been told by college professors, fellow students, and other colleagues she would not be able to cut it as a physician. She had been criticized, mocked, and laughed at from the time she began medical school until a couple of years after starting her practice.
Now, she was a well-known pediatrician whom many of her colleagues respected and admired. She was often asked to consult on difficult cases. She smiled to herself. The mocking and criticisms only made her more determined to work harder. And she had done what everyone had told her she couldn't.
Matthew Stevenson was having one hell of a day at his office. The state police were all over him for not getting back to them sooner. They had a serial killer on their hands and they needed a profile fast. He tried explaining it didn't work that way. He needed their files, everything they had. He needed time to study what they had. And then, after days of studying and hours of concentration, he would give them a profile.
The state didn't want to wait. He understood that. The Governor wanted answers and so far no one had any. "The Georgia Terror", as the media had dubbed him, first came on the scene about two years ago from what they could tell. It wasn't until about six months earlier that the different counties he had visited began to connect it back to one man.
TGT, as the state now called him, liked to carve up his victims slowly and carefully, letting them bleed for days. From what they could tell so far, he started at their feet so they could not run. While slicing up their feet, he would carve a heart into his victim's right ankle.
This had led the police to identify eight victims so far, each from a different county in Georgia, and each dumped in another county in Georgia. They speculated he was at one body per three months.
Matt decided he would have to visit each county to get the information he needed from each case as the locals were not very forthcoming with all of the evidence. Each was too concerned with solving their own cases to allow the Federal Bureau of Investigation to interfere. Once the media had gotten wind of the connection between the bodies, the individual police departments had no other alternative but to hand over the evidence. He believed in cooperation and giving credit where is was due, so going to each local county and talking with the cops involved in the different investigations was best all around.
Thanks to the media, Georgia residents were in a panic. This could be good and bad. Good, because girls of the type of TGT's victims were being careful not to go out alone. Bad, because vigilantes, seeing something they think is suspicious, tend to hurt innocent people. Matt sighed and ran his hand across his face.
Matt reached for the phone and called his brother. He hated to bother him, but he wanted his input. Derek was with his wife looking for a baby doctor, but Matt knew this couldn't wait. He also knew his new sister-in-law would understand the urgency.
"Derek Stevenson," Derek answered the phone.
"Hey, Derek," Matt said.
"Hey, Matt. What's up? Miss me already," Derek teased his brother.
"Yeah, you know I just can't do my job properly without little brother looking over my shoulder," Matt quipped back. He had been thrilled when Derek had requested a transfer from his job in Washington, D.C., to his office in Atlanta. The brothers had often conferred on cases during their career but none so much as when Derek was tracking the stalker of the woman who was now his wife.
They worked well together and everyone in the Bureau liked the matchup. The brothers solved cases.
Matt filled Derek in on the cases coming across his desk and informed him he would need to go out of town to look into them.
"Want me to come with," asked Derek.
"I could definitely use your insight, but I don't want to take you away from Amber so close to her delivery," Matt replied.
"Amber will understand. Besides, the baby isn't due for three months. Surely we will have caught up with this maniac by then," Derek answered.
Matt breathed a sigh of relief. With the Governor breathing down his neck it would be nice to have Derek along for the ride. Two sets of eyes are always better than one. "Thanks, Derek," Matt said.
"No problem, Brother." Derek hung up the phone and turned to Amber who was looking at him with a question in her eyes. He explained what Matt had just told him and she agreed he needed to go with Matt. She assured him she would be just fine. They had just returned from the doctor's office so Amber went upstairs to pack a bag for her husband.
After finishing that task, Amber went into her kitchen and packed some homemade goodies for the men. Both enjoyed her cooking so she packed as much as she could so they would not have to eat fast food everyday they were gone. She kissed her husband and sent him on his way.
She thought about what Derek had told her. She hated to think about what
those poor girls were going through. She could relate to being stalked, but thanks to Derek, her stalker had been unable to harm her physically. Emotionally, yes. But not physically, although she had no doubt he would have tried.
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♥ Author's Note ♥
Thank you for taking the time to read my book. I would love to hear from you and would like some honest feedback on your thoughts and opinion of my writing. Whether or not you enjoyed the book, please email me and let me know how I can improve as a writer. You can reach me at
[email protected] and I am on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/emma.grace.1029770.
♥ About the Author ♥
Emma Grace is a small town Southern girl whose love of books has been handed down through the women in her family for many generations. Emma has often sat with her mother or grandmother each reading their own books and enjoying the others silent company. Emma is the mother of three beautiful children and is married to a loving, devoted husband. It was her husband and children who encouraged her to write her own books for others to enjoy.
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