“It does sound like it could be the same guy,” Drayton said. He sat suddenly, as if depleted.
Fin looked at the man and he shook his head.
“If I’d only caught the bastard, this wouldn’t have happened again!” Drayton said miserably.
“Listen, you have here what we’re going to need,” Fin told him. “Your work is solid. I believe it’s a stranger killing, and we all know that stranger killings are the hardest. Sir, your work is going to be very important to us.”
Drayton nodded, as if a little mollified. “Well, come on now. I have us set up. We can see all the security tapes you want to see.”
Fin thanked him. As he was rising, his phone rang. He glanced at the number and it felt as if his heart gave a little tremor of fear.
“Avalon?” he said.
“Yes, it’s me. I’m sorry to bother you...”
“I told you to call me any time. Are you safe? Where are you? You’re not in any immediate danger, are you? There’s a patrolman near—”
“I’m fine. I’m in no danger. I’m in my room at the house in the French Quarter. My room door is locked, the main doors are locked for the night and the fence to the courtyard is locked. But I’ve just had a strange...incident.”
“Go on.”
“I mentioned to you that I was going to do a website for a dominatrix. Lauren said that some of the young men who had worked as extras on the movie had been to see her. I don’t even remember the conversation, but the dark web came up, so I went on to see what it was... You need special software for the real dark web—and I don’t have it, don’t want to have it, but... I came across the most bizarre site, and then it disappeared. Fin...” she said, and he thought she had to be highly distracted to have finally used his given name. “Fin, a man was writing about his fantasy murder. And it was so creepy. He wrote, ‘I lay her out in beauty.’ It made me think of Cindy right away. I started to call you while it was up on my screen, but then it went down.”
“All right—I’m in Biloxi at this moment.”
“You’re in Biloxi?”
“Yes, it’s all related. It will be a few hours before I’m back. But speed may be important.” He hesitated, knowing that he had to trust someone among her friends. “Find Kevin, please, and stay with him. I’m going to get Ryder to get over to you as quickly as possible with one of his tech people. That will be fastest, and I’m not a tech person. But, Ryder has great guys, as good as agency people.” He glanced at his watch, cursing the fact that he couldn’t be in two places at one time.
He was decent at working with a computer, but he was nowhere near expert enough to know if the content she’d watched could be found again or traced in any way.
“Avalon, please. Call Kevin to stay with you until Ryder gets there.”
“Fin, I’m locked in my room in a locked house.”
“Humor me.”
“Okay. Maybe Kevin can find—”
“No. Even with Kevin, don’t say what you’ve found.”
“He’s one of my best friends. You just said to call him.”
“Yes. But we don’t give out details of a murder and we keep what we can quiet. Obviously, I believe you, and I trust in your faith in Kevin. But people say things inadvertently. I’m hanging up, calling Ryder. Please, Avalon, just do as I say on this.”
“All right, yes, fine!”
He ended the call and hit Ryder’s number on his speed dial.
Ryder answered right away. He swore that he could get to Avalon in fifteen minutes, with one of the best techs in the business.
“He’s going to want to take her computer, though,” Ryder warned.
“We’ll get her something else to use for now,” Fin said. “This may be important.”
“And it may be an idiot trying to instigate something on the internet,” Ryder said.
“It may be.”
“But we’re going to look at it just the same. Gotcha.”
Tom Drayton had been waiting politely by the entrance to the kitchen. He walked over to the table and asked, “You all right here?”
“Yeah, thanks,” Fin said.
“Sometimes, we have to trust in others, you know?”
“Yes, I do,” Fin said.
“It’s hard.”
“Yeah.”
“You’re welcome to take all these files. I’m not a cop anymore,” Drayton said. “But I am here to help. Do you want to see some of that footage? We’re set. It’s a five-minute drive to the station. You can take your car, too, if you want to get on the road right after.”
“I’ll do that. And thank you.”
“No. Thank you. I’ll be a happier man if you get the bastard. No, I won’t just be happier. I’ll sleep better at night, feel some peace.”
“This go-around, we have to catch him,” Fin said, gathering the files. “You’re sure?”
“They’re copies—they’re mine. Yeah, I’m sure.”
Drayton was right about the proximity to the station. He was also right about his relationships. Fin was introduced to several of the officers on the night shift and then the two of them were led to a room with a good-size screen and an officer ready to run security footage.
Tom Drayton walked him through the tapes. He saw the croupiers, the casino guests...and the young woman with her friends, laughing with them, shaking her head at poker and craps, sitting down at a machine where different cats danced across the screen. There were shots from the elevator when she went to her room.
He had footage from the casino where the croupier who had been flirting with her at his table was partying with his friends.
There were more shots of the casino floor on the night that Ellen Frampton had disappeared. Fin watched, searching the crowds, but it was nearing the end of that footage when he noted something at the entrance to the casino.
A car drove up to the valet. And a man stepped from it. He was wearing a long dark coat, like a trench coat, long to the ground. He was wearing a baseball cap; the visor covered most of his face.
He never looked up. He was maybe five-ten—not as tall as their killer, according to Miss Connor. But the man knew there were cameras, Fin thought, and he was careful that those cameras never captured an image of his face.
Tall... Maybe it was relative.
“There,” he said.
“Right. But he never goes in,” Drayton pointed out. “Look. He hangs around in front of the casino.”
“Can you switch back to the floor?” Fin asked the officer running the footage.
In the other view, Ellen Frampton was at a machine. Then she looked toward the entry, smiling. She cashed out and walked to the front doors of the casino.
The waiting man asked for his car and drove out of the shot.
Ellen Frampton walked out smiling—and she also disappeared from the range of the cameras.
“I think that could be him,” Fin said. “Can I get a copy of this?”
The young officer looked at Drayton.
“He’s a Fed, working the case. Hell, yes, we can get it to him,” Drayton said.
“If you can send it to our offices in New Orleans, that would be great,” Fin said.
“Sure thing.”
“Did you want to see the Amos Grimsby estate?” Drayton asked him.
“I do. But—”
“I’m at your service anytime tomorrow or whenever you’d like. Too dark now to see much out there, anyway, and I know you’re anxious to get back to NOLA.”
“Thank you,” Fin said. He stood and nodded his thanks to the young officer, then shook Drayton’s hand.
“Don’t thank me—get him,” Drayton said.
Fin nodded and hurried out to his car. At least it was late; traffic shouldn’t be too bad. Still, there was no way out of it—he had an hour-and-a-half drive ahe
ad of him.
He called Ryder as he drove.
Ryder answered on the first ring.
“I’m here. All is well. Jodi Marsh, one of our best technical experts, is with me.” He lowered his voice. “And Miss Morgan is just fine. She had a friend with her, waiting for me. She told him I just wanted to talk a little more about makeup and costuming for the women.”
“Thank you. Ryder, I owe you.”
Ryder laughed at that. “I don’t mind being second fiddle on this at all. Are you heading back? Did you get anything?”
“Yes. I’ll explain all when I see you. Ryder, I do think that this killer struck before—and it’s imperative that we catch him.”
“Right. Because if not, he will strike again. Get on back here.”
“Going as fast as I can without getting arrested myself.”
“See you here. I won’t leave your girl until you get here.”
They ended the call. Avalon Morgan wasn’t “his girl.” But...
She was bright, multitalented and had the sense to realize when she had stumbled upon something that might be extremely important. She saw the dead.
There was something about her. The killer had taken a victim and imitated her.
Fin couldn’t help it. Every protective instinct in him was rising to the fore. She fascinated him.
That wasn’t why he felt this urgency; he believed now, with all his instincts, that the two murders were related. That a clever, organized and very sick serial killer was out there. And Fin was afraid that he should have left Avalon Morgan out of his investigation—he was drawing her in far too close to a killer who’d slain a woman to imitate a scene Avalon starred in.
And that killer might just want the real thing.
* * *
It had been difficult for Avalon to ask Kevin to come sit with her while she waited for Ryder without telling him the truth as to why Ryder was coming.
But while she could easily resent Special Agent Fin Stirling, she felt that at least he had sound reasons for all that he said and did. It was too easy in conversation to let something slip—she and Kevin were all accustomed to being frank with one another and talking about anything.
She explained that she was just nervous.
“Why would this guy be questioning you at this time of night?” Kevin had responded.
“Because they want to catch this guy. Kevin, we have to catch this guy.”
“Right. I know.” Kevin shook his head. “I can’t even begin to fathom what goes on in the mind of people like this. Remember Brett Thompson from school? He was in the animation program, but by day he was a cop. He told me about the first time he had to shoot someone. Killed the guy, who had a gun leveled at a kidnap victim. Still said that killing a man was the worst feeling imaginable. So, what is it in the mind of these people...? I get sick when I see roadkill.”
When Ryder and the tech expert, Jodi Marsh, arrived, they thanked Kevin and let him go.
“You know, you can talk to me anytime, too. Day or night, middle of the night,” Kevin had assured Ryder.
And then, after Ryder had gotten Kevin out of her room, she had given her computer to Jodi Marsh, and she had tried to describe the site she’d been on.
Jodi was in her midthirties, a slender woman with short brown hair and a wiry frame. When they first arrived, she was friendly, setting Avalon at ease, and had explained she’d been one of those kids who had been in the “tech wave” and she’d been obsessed with computers ever since.
She asked Avalon to explain just how she’d gotten to the site, and then she asked about it.
Jodi worked with the computer a long time, saying she was probably going to have to take it.
Naturally, Avalon was alarmed; with the movie on hold, her laptop was her source of income.
“Not to worry—we’ll see that you’re covered,” Ryder assured her.
“How?”
“Not sure yet. Our FBI lead is on his way here.”
A few minutes later, Ryder’s phone rang. “That’s Fin. I’m going to go down and let him in.”
“There’s a keypad—an alarm system at the door. It’s changed every day since there are six rooms and people come and go,” Avalon said. “I’ll go.”
She hurried out of her room and down the winding staircase to the communal room and the front door. When she opened it, Fin Stirling was waiting on the step.
It was a strange moment; she barely knew him and yet she felt someone who meant everything had come back into her life.
Her temptation was to throw herself into his arms.
She stood rooted to the spot, though.
And yet she had the odd feeling he wanted to reach out and draw her to him, as well. Hold her tight. Breathe with relief.
She’d never been in any danger, she reminded herself.
They didn’t touch. But they stood there a bit too long, the air between them charged.
“Ryder and Jodi are here,” she said softly. “Um, let me lock the door and set the alarm.”
He stepped in, waiting for her.
She led the way to the staircase, up to her own room.
None of her friends had stirred. The house was almost eerily quiet. Ryder and Jodi greeted Fin; Avalon assumed they all knew each other, because, if she understood it all right, Jodi was with the New Orleans police. “I know how important this is,” Avalon said. “If my computer can help, I want you to have it, of course, but... I’m supposed to be taking photos for a website tomorrow and my notes are on the computer and... Should I put that all off?”
“I’m on this now,” Jodi said. “Ryder and I will take your laptop to the lab. I’ve got more tools there,” she explained to Avalon. “We’ll just work it through the night.”
Avalon bundled her computer cable and handed it to Jodi. “I hate for you to be up all night.”
“It’s part of the gig,” Jodi said.
“Don’t worry about rushing on my behalf. I’ll plan on just taking photos tomorrow. My notes are on the computer, but I haven’t even met the client yet, and I’m...I’m a decent actress. I can fake what I don’t remember.”
“I’ll get it back to you as soon as I can—it’s a challenge now,” Jodi assured her. “Ryder, ready to go? See you, Fin.”
The two police officers left, and then she was alone with Fin Stirling.
“Want to tell me about it?” he asked her.
He took the chair in front of the dressing table.
She perched at the foot of the bed, facing him.
“The site was called ‘My Fantasy Murder,’” Avalon told him. “It was decently written, which somehow made it more...horrible. He talked about choosing a beauty. He said that beauty came from everywhere—every continent except for Antarctica. He said he’d watch, he’d come close... I can’t remember exactly. But he wanted to stalk his beauty and...it was sick! He talked about watching the light go out in her eyes and that he’d lay her out ‘in beauty’ and then...”
“Then?”
She winced. “I think he rapes these women after he kills them.”
He stared back at her. She thought something was going on in his mind. Whatever it was, he was good at hiding his reactions.
“I hope they can trace that site,” he said fervently.
She nodded. “Do you think that it’s related?”
He sighed. “I think almost anything is possible. But, yes, this man who stalks beauty certainly sounds like someone who would display his victim.” He paused a minute and then asked, “What the hell were you doing on the dark web?”
“I told you—it just came up in conversation. And I guess... Well, if I’m going to do a website for someone, I’d like to make sure the person I’m working for isn’t... I don’t know. Doing strange things on the internet.”
“And?”
; She shook her head. “I didn’t find anything about the dominatrix.”
“Please, stay off the dark web.”
“It isn’t my usual,” she said. “Um, what were you doing in Biloxi?”
“Studying a similar case.”
“Something like this has happened before?”
“Similar.” He hesitated. “We’re going to have to be careful about how we handle all this—we have to warn the public, but it’s important to keep the details close. This web page you found—it could be someone just trying to be outrageous, and see how many hits he, or even she, might get. Then again, someone who displays bodies likes to draw attention to what he sees as his art.” He leaned forward, his gaze serious. “You have to remember every person has an agenda. In his eyes, his desires are far more important than the lives he takes. He sees beauty, but he sees it as an end to his own needs, and he sees himself as more important than anyone else. Right now, I don’t know if the website was a sensationalist who just likes to create havoc, or if he might be our killer. I don’t know if the same killer struck before. We have extensive connections at the headquarters in DC. Special Agent Angela Hawkins—our own research superpower—is seeing what else we can find. I’ll be heading back to Mississippi. And I wouldn’t mind at all if you’d come with me.”
“I... Okay. I’ll help in any way.”
She wasn’t sure she should go to Mississippi with him. There was a strange tension between them, and she was too aware of it now that he was here in her bedroom.
But she would do anything to help. She wasn’t going to cower.
“Should I change my plans for tomorrow? Even if I lose the client, it won’t be the end of the world.”
“No. But can you see your client in the morning? I’m going to have a meeting, brief the police and other local agents on what we know...and what we don’t.” His tone softened. “Don’t worry, there will be a policeman or an agent with you.”
“I wasn’t worried. I was going to go from the French Quarter to Magazine Street. I don’t need to be followed every step of the way. And Lauren is going to come along.”
He nodded, but it didn’t seem as though he was agreeing with her.
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