Seductive Reasoning

by Melissa Schroeder

  “What?” Del asked.

  Emma jolted as if she’d forgotten all of them were there. “Oh, sorry, I was thinking out loud.”

  “Why do you think it’s too late?” Adam asked.

  She sighed. “This level of obsession…it’s unhealthy. He needs something to replace the rush he got this time around. It will grow each time he kills…that need. If he doesn’t have one already, he’s at least zeroed in on a victim.”

  “And you think he has someone already,” Elle said nodding. “It actually makes sense.”

  “What the bloody hell does that mean?” Graeme asked.

  Elle opened her mouth to respond, but Emma stepped in and saved them from a drawn out argument.

  “You have to think of it like he’s an addict. As a cop, I’m sure you have had your run in with an addict or two. Think about them. At first, they are just having a good time. Sure, they are spending too much money on their drug of choice, but it isn’t like it controls their lives. Then, before anyone knows it, they are selling anything to get that next fix. They’ll steal from family, sell their bodies, anything. Because nothing is as important as that next high they can get.

  “Each fix is a woman he obsesses about. Sure, he might have had a high yesterday when he killed her, but now the low is setting in. He’s going to need another one. Since it appears Grace didn’t like tattoos, we know he gave it to her. He knew how long to keep her, and he knew their time was running out. He would have already been looking for a new woman. One to abduct. Or…he left this morning on a flight.”

  Adam nodded. “I could check all out bound flights from this morning.”

  Marcus stirred then. A veteran cop with fifteen years with the DC Metro, he had the most experience of his entire team. Tall, commanding, with a baritone voice and knowing dark cop eyes, he always gained attention from walking into the room.

  “Waste of time. We have no description. Unless he’s wearing a big shirt that says I killed a woman this morning, I doubt we could find anything.”

  Emma nodded in agreement. “Marcus is definitely right.”

  “A waste of our resources,” Marcus continued. “What we should look for is someone who arrived in the last two to four months. Someone rich. And any rentals of houses off the beaten path. That would give you more direction. It can’t be too hard to find out long-term rentals or new purchases like that. Not that common around here, right?”

  Adam nodded. “Yeah, and you would have to plunk down a large sum of money on this island to get some land around your house and find seclusion.”

  Emma was still staring at the screen of the body of Grace, and Del gave Adam a look. He took it down. She blinked and turned her attention back to the team.

  “Elle, you want to tell us everything?” Del asked.

  Elle nodded. “As you saw from the previous picture, she was dumped nude, no remnants of what she wore that night. All of her jewelry was gone.”

  “That was in the original report,” Adam said. “No word from any of the pawn shops about that, though.”

  “You wouldn’t find it. This man has money, and he probably kept them as souvenirs,” Cat said. “I can go back around, see if we can find anyone who has tried to pawn anything in the last few days.”

  Del nodded for to Elle to continue.

  “So, as documented, she was bound for a lengthy bit of time. The bruising around her wrists and ankles tells me that. The impression tells me that it is a rope of some sort. I sent it up to Charity to analyze, and I hope she can find something with that.”

  “Cause of death?” Del asked.

  “As I suspected, manual asphyxiation, and from the bruising, it was probably his hands this last time.”

  “What do you mean?” Cat asked.

  “I think he used other devices throughout her incarceration to torture her.”

  “So he strangled her with different implements until the end,” Emma murmured. He could see her working the issue out in her head. “The other times he was just toying with her. The last—that was personal. You have to get right up in her face to do that. It’s almost intimate.”

  “Indeed. A true sociopath more than likely. Of course, I noted the burn marks earlier. She was definitely raped and sodomized. The contents of her stomach didn’t give me anything either. Nothing.”

  “Does that mean you think he didn’t feed her?” Marcus asked.

  “I am sure he fed her something, but not in the last seventy-two hours.”

  “He knew his time was ending,” Cat said. “No reason to keep feeding her.

  Emma nodded. “Okay, is there anything else you need me for?”

  He blinked as his mind went completely blank. For a second, he couldn’t come up with a word. She was leaving already? He hadn’t talked to her in close to four weeks, and now she was popping off just like that.

  “Not really. Do you have another job?”

  Emma had a wealth of contracted work she handled. Most of it was done over the Internet, but he knew that every now and then she would get a local job.

  “No. I want to start on this. I have an idea.”

  Which meant she was going to run with it, and he needed to let her go.

  “Answer when I call.”

  She grabbed up her messenger bag and started toward the door.

  “I’m not your dog, Delano.”

  The door shut just as the snickers started.

  “That woman definitely knows how to handle you,” Marcus said.

  “You want to work graveyard tonight?” Del asked.

  Marcus shook his head, but he didn’t stop smiling. Del missed the days of being in the Army and just looking at one of his lieutenants would cause them to pass out. This team was seasoned and tended to know just how to handle him. Dammit.

  “So, McGregor, you and Cat go do another canvassing of the site. I assume that traffic cams picked up nothing?”

  “I haven’t talked to Charity, but I know she was going through them. I’m sure we’ll hear from her if she gets a hit,” Adam said

  “Nothing yet, when I was down there,” Elle said. “She was still going through all the footage.”

  Del nodded. “Marcus, see if you can call her friends again. We’ll leave the family alone for now, but make sure there was nothing different in her life. We need to start looking for patterns, so we can put the word out.”

  As everyone left, Adam approached him. He kept looking at Del, as if he wanted to offer him some advice. Adam always had advice.

  “What?”

  “The best thing you could do is take her to bed. It would relieve some of that tension.”

  Del didn’t respond. He didn’t want to. Bringing her in had been smart for the case, but not for his peace of mind. She tested him on so many levels, but she had no idea. Or pretended not to. Just being in the same room with her drove him to distraction. He headed to his office and tried to look busy. Which he should be, but he had to get his head unscrambled. Spending time with Emma always left him like this.

  “Boss?”

  He glanced up at Adam standing in his doorway. He saw the expression and knew exactly what it meant.

  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  Adam sighed. “But you should. Otherwise, you might end up shooting someone.”

  “Namely you,” he growled.

  Adam spread his arms out with his palms up. “Listen, I’m just trying to help here.”

  “Then maybe you can go make the announcement about the identification of the body.”

  “No, thanks. I handled the family, and that was enough.”

  He sighed and stepped into his office. “They already knew. It was hard not to.”

  Adam pursed his lips. “How did they find her to begin with? Was there a witness?”

  He shook his head. “A call. So there was a witness, we are not sure who, though. Or, it could have been the bastard himself. They have the tape and are supposed to be sending it to Charity.”

  “What k
ind of call?”

  “An anonymous one from a payphone down the street.”

  Adam folded his arms as he leaned against the doorjamb. “That sounds too convenient.”

  Del nodded. “Check with Charity and see if they sent it. If not, check with dispatch and get it to her ASAP. Maybe she can line up any traffic cams with the phone too. Carino was in charge until we took over. But I doubt he has anything more than we do. Plus, he’s still considered a haole, so you might get further than either one of us.”

  Adam nodded. “Got it.”

  He turned to leave, but paused to look at Del. “You know, Emma really has no idea of your attraction.”

  Del said nothing but stared at him unblinkingly. Adam was the brother he never had, especially since neither of them had a brother. He’d been welcoming and eased Del’s first year. He knew without a doubt he would have not made it through the first year with him.

  “No comment?”

  “What do you want me to say?” Del asked, trying to keep his voice level.

  “I thought you might want to share a little. Talk it out.”

  Del rolled his eyes. He had a good family, but they were Italian. There was a lot of yelling, lots of eating, and lots of love. When it came to his love life, there wasn’t much discussion—other than his mother pointing out that he hadn’t given her any grandbabies. His father had been gone most of the time, serving overseas in places that he now knew about all too well. But, even so, Joe Delano did not discuss things like feelings.

  Adam had been raised differently. His father had died in the line of duty with HPD, and he had been raised in a houseful of women and girls. He always wanted to share things that were just…wrong. Or maybe it was just Hawaiians. Lord knows his landlord always wanted to talk to him about Del’s lack of a love life.

  He realized Adam wasn’t going to leave until he answered him. “No, I don’t want to share. I don’t want to talk about it, because there is nothing to talk about.”

  Adam just shook his head as he walked away with a smile on his face. Maybe if Del said it out loud enough times, he could force himself to stop thinking about her all the time.

  Fat chance, Delano.

  The wail of a woman crying pierced his thoughts. Dammit, he was trying to concentrate and she would not shut up. They never did. He could hear it seeping from the room he had built. He didn’t feel any kind of remorse. Why should he? Women deserved nothing more than what he offered—an escape. They would no longer be tied to the convention of this world. They would be free of their baser needs.

  The sobs grew louder. Bloody hell, this one was louder than usual. She just would not shut up. It was time for another injection, so he could work on his art again. They were always so much better after he gave them something to calm their nerves. He went to the cabinet and pulled out the syringe. It was so much easier to keep the women quiet when he worked on them.

  Working in silence was a must.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  In the seventy-two hours following the discovery of Grace Singh’s body, Del had been put through the wringer. The press had hounded him, and all of the elected officials felt the need to tell him how important this was. It wasn’t like he was smart enough to understand anything.

  Del tossed a few aspirin back and took a swig of his cold, stale coffee. The bitter taste was so strong it almost made his eyes water.

  “Living the life, Delano,” he said, to nobody in particular.

  His head had been pounding for two days. He’d only gone home to take a shower and get a change of clothes. He needed sleep…a lot of sleep. Unfortunately, Jin had found out where he lived and had hounded him there until he threatened her and her station with a lawsuit. At least there he could claim it was private property. But, she was always waiting for him when he showed up at the office.

  On top of all of that, he hadn’t heard from Emma. He had made sure not to bother her, because he knew what she was like when she got in the zone. He really did worry about his safety when he interrupted her. Still, he wanted to know what she was working out, and he wanted to make sure she wasn’t zoning in too much. She had a tendency to forget about everything else while she worked.

  “Hey, Boss,” Adam said when he stuck his head in his office.

  The last few days had been tough on all of them—especially Adam. He’d been in law enforcement in Hawaii longer than any of them, and locals often went to him with their problems. HPD had been relentless, and Adam had done his best to shield Del. He had a better temperament than Del. The constant second-guessing from HPD was starting to get on Del’s nerves. It wasn’t that it was a slight at him. It was, but he was more pissed off that they were attacking his team. His team had not been in charge of the search and rescue. But for some reason now, they were supposed to solve a case with almost no evidence or leads in less than four days.

  “Yeah?” he asked, as he took another swig of coffee, quickly remembering it was stale. Fuck, that was nasty.

  “Have you talked to Emma?”

  Del shook his head and moved the coffee cup farther away. “Not yet.”

  Adam sighed and walked into his office uninvited. It had been like that since Del had hired him. While it had annoyed him at first, Del had realized it was just part of the way Adam operated. He didn’t bug Del unless there was something important to discuss. Now Del knew to pay attention.

  “Do you think she’s still working on this?”

  He grunted as he started going through his emails. Fuck, Satan had to be behind the idea of email. He’d just checked it half an hour ago, and there were one hundred new ones. If one more politician emailed him, Del was going to hunt down the bastard and punch him in the throat.

  “Boss?”

  He looked up and realized Adam was waiting for an answer. “Of course she is.”

  Adam looked out into the squad room, then shut the door to Del’s office. Dammit, he would never get any peace, even from his own team. If Adam closed the door, he felt they needed to share again.

  “Why do you say it like that?”

  He shrugged. “Emma always finishes what she starts. It’s an illness almost.”

  “Hmm.”

  He did not like the sound of that hum. When Adam had time to think, it usually ended badly for Del. “What?”

  “You seem to know her well.”

  “I told you. I dealt with her when her brother had that business before. You were the one in charge of her that night.”

  “Yeah, but she has never connected with me like she has with you.”

  Del thought it best to ignore Adam’s needling. “You’ve worked with her for the last few months. You’ve seen her obsession. She latches onto something and doesn’t let go. It’s why she makes so much money testing games. They know she will go in and test every angle there is and then some. When they get the report back from her, they know how to make it more difficult, or easy, depending on what they want to do with it. It is just the way her brain works.”

  “Man, that’s a lot of words about a woman you claim not to have the hots for.”

  “Listen, I know that you like to talk about feelings, but I don’t have the time. We have the mayor and the governor breathing down our necks, and that damned Jin Phillips is stalking me. She wants a fucking interview. I don’t have the time or energy to even think about a love life.”

  “Ah, so you do think about her that way.”

  Fuck. He needed some sleep. How did Emma operate on no sleep? He had been trained in the Army to go without sleep, but right now, even after drinking a ton of coffee, he couldn’t seem to concentrate. He was too old for this kind of sleep deprivation. Of course, just thinking that pissed him off. Seriously, he wasn’t even forty yet. He’d just hit mid-thirties this year, but he was already thinking like he was middle aged.

  This case had been driving him mental—as Emma would say.

  He didn’t address Adam’s assertions, but he did say, “We should probably check on her.”


  “Did you call her brother?”

  He nodded. “He said he talked to her yesterday morning when I called him last night. He assured me they were all keeping tabs on her.”

  All of them understood her interest could often turn to obsession. He was sure a shrink would say it had to do with her losing her family at the age of fifteen. Add in that she survived the natural disaster that had destroyed her family, Emma was a prime candidate for having issues. The fact that she had this one quirk was easy enough to deal with. Tag teaming with her family seemed to help.

  “But you haven’t talked to her?” Adam asked.

  He shook his head. It was the end of the workday, and while he had called her several times, she had not answered.

  “You might want to check on her. You know how she can get,” Adam said.

  “What?”

  “Just like you said. I have seen her like that. Remember that first case we were on with her, the dog fighting ring?”

  Emma had been devastated that people were abusing dogs that way. They had caught the case thanks to a fight between two of the operators, which had left one of them dead. The investigation had uncovered a multitude of activities, including prostitution and drug selling. Emma had obsessed about the dogs so much so that she hadn’t slept for a week.

  “I’m sure her brother will keep an eye on her.”

  But he knew better. Sean did overprotect her to a point. At the time of their blow up, he had noticed that her older brother was giving her more space. It had made Del even more nervous about her well being. The woman needed a keeper.

  “Go on and check.”

  Del looked up from his email. “Why don’t you come with me?”

  “I have a love life, and to prove it, I have a date tonight.”

  “Jeanine, the coffee girl?”

  He nodded. “So go check on Beautiful Mind.”

  Damn, he forgot about that nickname the team had given her. All of them were very careful not to use it around her, but it didn’t mean one of them wouldn’t slip up. They didn’t mean anything by it and, in fact, it made her part of the team. Del was just worried she wouldn’t understand it because things like that often didn’t make sense to her.