“The police don’t want to do it?” Risa asked, her tone a little odd.
He shrugged. “Of course, they want to do it. But who’s going to put in extra hours for free? On top of the extra hours most officers already put in… There’s not money to cover overtime for trained officers. We could hire a couple of bouncers, but that doesn’t really work. An elite security firm could actually keep her safe. But Nicole’s an officer, too; she doesn’t have the money for that.”
Risa was nodding at him as she began to understand.
Ethan kept going, the complaints pouring out. “It doesn’t seem to matter anyway, because in order to get her security, I have to prove that she’s a witness to a serial killer. I haven’t yet proven that we even have a serial killer!”
He wanted to reach up and grab his hair just to do something to let the frustration out. But he didn’t. For whatever reason—one he wasn’t ready to admit to himself—he didn’t want Risa to see him lose it like a toddler after three days with no sleep. Still, that’s what he felt like.
Risa frowned at him. “Isn’t it obvious, the way Kaylee Schulte was cut and left out? That wasn’t a crime of passion or even a sexual assault. What else could that be but a serial killer?”
“It is obvious. It is to you, and me.” He was working to watch his tongue and not let his new information slip out. “In some cases, it would be enough to open an investigation. I have to meet certain criteria to declare it. The Missy Harrison case really helped in that regard. But I didn’t have quite enough information to connect the two. But we had Janet Deevers first, and she makes it less likely that it’s one person doing the killing. So we had a problem before we even had a link.” He was pacing the small space, unable to contain all the buzzing inside him.
“When we add in Ester Holtzclaw, it actually makes my case even less viable,” he said, hating the way it sounded. Hating the expression on Risa’s face as she frowned at him one more time.
“How is that the case? I mean, I thought the standard was three killings to prove that you had a serial killer.”
“Only one in some cases,” Ethan told her. The idea was to make it easier to start investigating the worst cases. Unfortunately, his was falling apart even as it came together. “And in fact, the Kaylee Schulte case could have been one of those. It is so obviously not this killer’s first time.”
“So how does Esther Holtzclaw make it worse?”
“Because it takes this case outside of the norms,” he told her, feeling the weight of the long day settle back over him. His SAC had just told him that he needed more. He wasn’t sure how much more he could find. “The Ester Holtzclaw case is seventy-five years old, which gives me at least a ninety-five-year-old serial killer. If it’s one person, the chances that he’s going to kill again in another decade are almost zero. He’s already beyond the average life expectancy! The chances that he’ll keel over tomorrow from diabetes or heart disease are much, much higher than the chances that he’ll live to kill the next child. Thus, he’s not considered a threat.”
“Mathematically, that makes sense. But he was ninety-five two weeks ago, too, and he just killed a child.”
“Right,” Ethan said. “We’re also assuming the killer is male. We don’t actually know that.” We don’t even know that we have only one killer, he thought. “The profile that eventually came back has too many gaps because of the number of cases and the time between them.”
Risa looked at him. “But you pulled all the cases from Dark Falls yourself. So you were already looking through the full history of the town.”
“I was,” said Ethan. “But the cases I matched are newer, and unfortunately, I’m struggling to line them up.”
“Well, look at mine. Maybe I’m wrong.” She shrugged. “Maybe he didn’t kill anyone two hundred years ago.”
But Ethan could tell from the look on her face that she didn’t believe that. She wouldn’t have copied them if she was just looking at missing kids. She wouldn’t have shown up at his office late at night with files unless she was convinced they matched.
As Ethan looked through the three files, he felt more weight settle on his shoulders. Risa wasn’t wrong. Then she said, “I think he broke into my apartment.”
And Ethan went cold.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Risa had watched him change as the words came out.
“When?” Ethan’s stance was suddenly still, predatory.
“Last light.” She let it all tumble out—the moved mat, the bolt looking loose the other day. She protested, “It might be nothing.”
“It might be everything. And the timing is too perfect to be a coincidence.” His breathing was heavy.
“This is why I didn’t want to tell you. What if I’m wrong?”
“What if you’re not? He’s killed, Risa. I can’t let that happen to you—” The words stopped abruptly as though he were censoring himself. Then he started babbling. “I can’t get you a detail. Stay with me.” When she started to protest, he shook his head, cutting her off. “Nothing has to happen between us, but you stay at my place or I stay at yours. You don’t walk alone—”
“Ethan!” she interrupted him. “I’m five-ten. I’m a trained firefighter—”
“He’s not a fire! He’s a killer!” Something in his eyes made her give in.
“Fine. Just read the files. See if I found anything…”
Her concession apparently didn’t strike him as convincing, but he sat down and read through the files. She watched as his eyes drifted closed for a moment, needing a break from pictures of the bodies of dead children. She watched as his shoulders slumped right before he told her she was right.
“Two of these are boys.” He said it without inflection.
She tried to think of why she’d pulled them. “I went in the old newspaper files again. All the way back to when it was the Dark Falls Examiner.”
He looked at her, his eyes squinting as he shook his head like he was trying to figure something out. “How did you figure out the newspaper changed hands?”
“I volunteer at the library. I know the town.” She shrugged as though it were no big deal. “You’ve only been here about six months.”
“You’ve only been here a few years,” he countered quickly.
“Maybe that’s why. It’s my job to learn as much as I can. Where fires will start. Where I’ll run into medical emergencies. Which streets clog at three p.m. when the schools let out…” She paused. “At the library, I see a lot about the town’s history.” She had to give Carol Kastrop credit for that one.
“Well, I’m going to get fired for having you on this case already. I might as well use you…”
“Fired?” She jolted back, “because of me?”
“Not because of you. Maybe if I don’t get this case solved…”
“Are you really worried about losing your job?”
He tipped his head side to side in as much of an admission as he seemed willing to make. It was the first time she realized he was concerned about his livelihood. Being an agent was what Ethan Eames was. He’d worked hard for that badge, just like she had for hers. The thought that he could lose it was humbling, especially when she’d seen nothing from him but the actions of an exemplary agent.
“Come with me? Let’s head over to the records building and pull the police records from these cases. Maybe something will prove these aren’t related.”
She could tell he wasn’t really hopeful about that. But she couldn’t tell him no, either.
The distance to the courthouse was walkable, and with a few reassurances from her that she was slow in her boot, but not in pain, they headed down the street. The walk was quiet, Ethan stuffing his hands into his pockets then immediately pulling them back out as though he needed to be ready. He’d rolled up his sleeves, and she was sneaking glances and thinking about how far gone she was to be ogling forearms.
He pulled a ring of keys from his pocket and let her into the courthouse, holding the doo
r as she walked past him. It felt strange walking into the empty building, and stranger still heading down the stairs. Her footsteps echoed oddly, the boot squeaking on the linoleum as Ethan’s wingtips made a soft patter. He flipped the light as she headed past him and started looking for the dates they needed.
The shelves were deep and tall, and though they were organized, they also contained a mosh of different kinds of boxes and containers. There were paper bags folded, labeled, and stapled, and occasional piles of manila envelopes, tied shut with red string.
Two hours later, Risa sat back, exhausted. She’d helped Ethan pull the evidence he needed. She’d even grabbed the sign-out form off the wall and hopped up onto the desk to fill it out.
“This is a crappy system. Anyone could run off with evidence,” she commented even as she diligently entered codes and dates.
“Only three of us have the keys. Usually there’s a gatekeeper.” He pointed to the desk she was sitting on.
He was close. Risa concentrated on the codes. No transposing numbers just because she could smell him. Her body reminded her what it felt like to kiss him. What it felt like to be under him, on the brink of an orgasm.
Ethan moved closer, his leg brushing hers. Suddenly, he was standing between her knees. She didn’t look up, not all the way, but enough to see his chest moved with heavy breaths. She knew that chest. She knew those lips, slightly parted, waiting, wanting her.
He pulled the clipboard from her hand and set it aside. Her arms wound around his neck as his fingers grabbed her hips and pulled her forward. In a second, she went from hot to on fire. This man did it to her every time.
He didn’t speak, but he convinced her to do everything he wanted. She wanted it, too. She wanted his fingers popping the buttons on her blouse. She wanted him to push it off her shoulders and peel the spaghetti straps on the thin cotton camisole she wore underneath. She enjoyed the way his breath sucked in when he found out the camisole had a built-in bra and he’d bared her to the empty room. She wanted his mouth to follow the same path as his fingers.
Her eyes flitted to the door to see that—at some point—he’d closed it. The building was empty. So she unbuttoned his shirt and helped him shrug out of it. She was pushing up the clean, white tank underneath it before he even had his arms free from the sleeves.
“Risa, Oh my God. Give me a minute.”
“No.” She was smiling, her mouth tracing the lines of his abs. “You can’t come at me like this and expect it to be slow and docile.” She licked up to his neck and placed tiny bites along the muscles corded there.
He moaned and tried to get himself together, even as his hands moved on her. He did it again. On the third time, he gave up and lifted her hips, laying her back across the large desk calendar. The thought that she was on someone else’s desk had barely passed through her brain when she realized he had her skirt rucked up and her panties pulled aside.
She was gasping as he touched her, driving her insane. She heard him undoing the buckle on his pants and pulling the zipper, and the sound turned her on even more, if that was possible. “Ethan!”
He leaned over her, his mouth capturing hers. He spoke as he kissed her and touched her. “Condom.”
She could feel his movements as he covered himself, but she could only writhe on the desktop in this basement room that should have been the un-sexiest place ever. He was whispering to her as he moved. Dirty phrases, sweet ones. Everything he wanted to do to her.
Then his mouth was on her. She’d been expecting him to enter her, and she’d almost bolted off the desk. “Ethan!”
He didn’t even shush her. Or if he did, it made her eyeballs roll back. There was no room for thought as she leaned back on her elbows, the cold metal desk suddenly the best place she’d ever been as she came undone.
She was gasping for air when he stood up and asked, “Ready?”
“Ready” didn’t begin to describe what she was, but she nodded, and he was pushing into her and whispering against her ear how good she felt.
It seemed like hours afterward that she sat on the desk, curled up against him and around him. He didn’t speak now, all his words used up during sex. But his breathing was steady, and the man who’d slumped earlier now seemed perfectly content.
Eventually, she realized they had to get out of here. Slowly, they put themselves back together, straightened the desk, and gathered their things. He locked things behind them as they went. In the hallway, just before he unlocked the front door again—this time to let them out—he turned to her. “Risa, remember, you’re coming home with me tonight.”
She wanted to say no. She wanted to tell him she’d be safe. She wanted to not need him.
He must have seen it. “Risa. Please. I need you with me.”
She nodded. She couldn’t tell this man no for anything, it seemed.
They stepped out into the night and headed down the street hand in hand. Anyone could see them. Though they hadn’t declared—even to each other—that they were together, anyone looking would certainly presume that they were.
She smiled up at him, her smile growing wider as he smiled back.
That was when the hair on the back of her neck prickled.
“Ethan, I think we’re being followed.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Ethan looked at the trailhead at the edge of the national forest with a little bit of trepidation. Risa stood beside him, sneakers on both her feet, her workout gear distracting him from the task at hand.
While she’d spent the night with him two nights ago, she’d insisted she needed her space last night. He’d spent the night in his bed alone, clutching his cell phone, petrified. He’d never found anyone following them. Though he’d inspected everything more carefully than he normally would have, he couldn’t prove her bolt had been tampered with and hadn’t just failed, or that her doormat had been moved. The super had replaced the lock with a better one, and Risa insisted she’d be safe.
Ethan had felt like vomiting until she called him this morning. Now she’d showed up here, in leggings and a tank top and a light jacket, as though it were any day. Now that he knew she was safe, he’d relaxed his guard just a little, and the shape of her was constantly tugging at his attention.
He wanted her. All the time. He wasn’t used to the whole package. Usually he admired a woman, or she was fun, or she was sexy. Risa was all three. And her being in danger was scaring him.
She was a bomb going off in his life when everything was already a fucked-up mess. But here was Risa, right at his side. Strong, capable, smart, and completely distracting in those blue leggings.
He wasn’t sure what he was doing with her. Obviously, they were lovers, but beyond that? He didn’t know. Ethan didn’t know he had anything real to offer her. After Florida, he’d been floating along, not even sure how much his job meant anymore.
He’d never intended to stay in Dark Falls, but Risa was growing slow, firm roots into the town and its people. The two of them weren’t at any point where he could ask her to come away with him if he got a promotion, and he wasn’t at any point to get a promotion. At best he’d get transferred to some outpost in Siberia.
This case was like digging his own grave and climbing in. Having Risa on the trail beside him wasn’t going to do him any professional favors, and he told her so. “I don’t think it’s legal to have you along on this search.”
“Look,” she said. “I just happen to be here, hiking. This is the last trail I tried to run, and maybe I want to walk it again.”
He raised one eyebrow at her. “Like anyone is going to believe that. I can’t just requisition a civilian to come along on official business.”
“Yeah. You understand that I’m not really a civilian, right?” She looked at him sideways, stubborn, and he knew she was going to win this argument. But he wasn’t ready to hand it over quite yet.
“Oh, you’re an FBI agent now?” he asked.
“I’m on the Dark Falls SARE—the search and
rescue and evacuation team. You’re heading into a national forest. A lost FBI agent would not reflect well on either the city or the bureau, would it? So, if you would, please explain to me how familiar you are with the forestry area...” She looked up at him, as though she were innocently awaiting his answer.
Score one for Risa, he thought. “I’m familiar with the hike up to where Kaylee Schulte’s body was found.”
He was not from around here, and though he was athletic, he ran on city streets, not wooded trails like Risa did. Which, of course, was exactly what he was doing today—heading out to where Ester Holtzclaw had been discovered. He was checking several sites associated with other murders, too. He was in workout gear. If anyone saw him, he didn’t want to look like a fed in the woods, just a man out hiking the trails on a decent day.
“Exactly,” she said. “Please explain to me which portions of the forests are open to hikers and joggers and which are closed to the general public due to mudslides, fast water, sharp trails, and—”
“Oh, shut up.” He grinned at her. “Clearly, you know the area better than I do.”
“So, I’m your guide,” she smiled back. “I’m also an arson investigator, so while I’m not a crime scene tech, I can be helpful. You can give me an official title in your report.” She shrugged as though it were a done deal.
Ethan mulled it over. It was a good excuse, but… “I don’t think I’ve heard of anyone taking a firefighter along with them before.”
“Well, there’s a first time for everything. I’m guessing Dr. Lee wasn’t available, which is why you’re coming out here by yourself.”
He didn’t even answer her. Being in these woods alone wasn’t the brightest thing to do. Perhaps if he got himself lost it would give the bureau the excuse it needed to fire him. If anything happened to him, he could be stuck without even a phone signal, which would be beyond embarrassing. He did have his gun and badge on him, so he wasn’t helpless, but it wasn’t the same as contact with civilization. Or a buddy.
Dark Echoes: (Dark Falls, CO Romantic Thriller Book 7) Page 14
