Cynthia Eden - Fear For Me

The taunts had been personal.

For Lauren Chandler.

“There was a note,” Greg said as he reached for an evidence bag.

She glanced over her shoulder. The other body bag would contain Walker’s remains.

She still wanted to see him.

Cadence took a step toward the black bag.

“Here,” Greg said.

She froze and glanced back, quickly reaching for the evidence bag.

She read the scrawled letters. The blood is on you.

“We’ll get the techs to confirm that the handwriting is the same, of course,” Greg murmured, “but it looks like a match to me.”

It looked like one to her, too. “He was blaming Lauren.”

Greg frowned at her. “How do you figure that?”

“All of the notes were for her.”

“Listen, Agent—”

“When he killed her friend, Walker wanted Lauren to know her punishment was just beginning.” She rolled her shoulders, trying to push away the never-ending tension. “Then he sent her to Steve Lynch’s house because that was where he planned to abduct her. He was laying his trap for Lauren. Only she got away.”

One brow rose. “Why would that mean the judge’s blood is on her?”

“Lauren was the one meant to die, not Hamilton.” Cadence shook her head. “Lauren was the focus of Walker’s rage. She was the reason he came back here.”

It’s beginning.

“Tell me something else,” he muttered. “Why the hell is the guy slicing their throats and putting the notes in there? I’ve seen some twisted shit in my time, but—”

Knowing what she did about Walker, this part was actually easy for her to understand. “He slices their throats because he’s taking away their voices. They can’t speak, they can only carry his messages. It’s control.” Her temples were throbbing, her shoulders aching. Sometimes, she just hated these cases. “Even in death, he’s controlling them completely.”

“Sounds like he’s trying to control Lauren, too.”

Of course, he was. She turned toward Walker’s body bag. “I want to see him.”

“I haven’t started evidence collection yet. There’s not much I can tell you.” He walked around the table and approached the zipped body bag.

The slide of the zipper seemed overly loud in the small room.

Then she saw Walker’s face. In death, he almost looked peaceful. Death had a way of doing that to people, even the monsters of the world.

Her gaze slid to his chest. Two gunshots. One had come from Ross. One from Voyt. They’d made sure the killer didn’t get away again.

Based on the statements from the men, Ross had fired first. Then Voyt.

Her gaze swept over Walker. The clothes that covered him looked old—faded jeans, a dark T-shirt. He wore hiking boots. Soil on the bottom of those boots might give them insight into all the places he’d been.

“You really think there are two of them?” Greg asked as he waited beside her.

She glanced up at him. “Yes, I do.” She was actually certain of it.

“I heard talk from the cops. They don’t think that’s the case. There aren’t any bodies, and the only one who is sure another killer exists is the DA. And she’s remembering overhearing a conversation after she’d gotten her head slammed into a wall.”

Their gazes held.

“Speaking as a doctor,” he murmured, “those with concussions don’t make for the best witnesses.”

Her head cocked. “Why do I feel like you’re trying to warn me?”

“Because I am. The police captain was down here earlier, wanting to make sure I thought Walker was behind all the recent kills. Walker and only Walker.” A beat of silence. “One serial killer is bad for business. Two in the same town? That’s just a shit storm.”

One she was betting the captain and the mayor didn’t want coming. “They’re going to try and push this away, aren’t they?”

A nod. “No bodies, no deaths.”

“I won’t let this investigation end.” She glanced back at the body. “Where’s his cell phone?”

“No phone was recovered with the body.”

“But Lauren said—”

“Concussion, remember?” he murmured. “The guy might never have even had a cell phone.”

Bull.

“Or maybe it’s lost in the swamp,” Greg continued. “He spent so much time out there. Maybe the guy ditched it.”

Maybe. Kyle was out in the swamp searching the area around Judge Hamilton’s cabin. The techs had investigated, but Kyle liked to get up close and personal with the kill sites.

It was how he worked.

Talking to the dead—that was how she worked. She glanced back at Walker.

“Just what is it you hope to find by studying his body?” Greg leaned closer to her. Curiosity deepened his voice. “We know who killed him. Ross and Voyt admitted to shooting him. It’s no mystery how this guy died.”

“The mystery isn’t his death, but what was left behind.” She reached for a pair of gloves.

“What are you doing?”

“I went to med school, too.” She gave him a grim smile. “What I’m doing is assisting you. I’m not leaving this room until I learn every secret Walker carried on his body.” Secrets she would not let him carry to his grave.

“This city has been under the grip of terror for long enough,” Mayor Louis Daniels said as he crossed his arms over his barrel-like chest and lasered his gaze around the room. “Walker is dead, and it’s time to move on.”

The meeting had been called at seven a.m., in the mayor’s office. Lauren and Anthony had been given a thirty-minute warning, and they’d had to rush over to meet the mayor and the chief of police, Jeremiah Dodge. The homicide captain, Reginald Powers, was there, too, along with a very tired-looking Paul Voyt, the ME, and Anthony’s two marshals, Jim and Keith. In the back of the crowded room, the two FBI agents stood at attention, and Lauren could clearly see the tension in Cadence’s body.

“Now, I’ve read the files the FBI prepared about the so-called alpha team, but I don’t see one single piece of evidence that actually supports the claim that someone else has been working with Walker all of these years.”

Lauren’s heart was drumming in her chest. She’d dressed carefully, grateful for the suit that had been in her travel bag. She knew a power meeting when it was announced, and she wasn’t about to leave this meeting without getting what she wanted.

“Most of those missing-persons cases aren’t even in our jurisdiction,” the mayor continued, voice hard. “And without bodies…”

“We still have crimes,” Paul said, his own voice low.

Should he even be out of the hospital? He was so pale. Lauren cast a worried glance his way.

“Crimes that our DA would have a damn hard time prosecuting.” Louis’s dark gaze cut to Lauren. “Without the body, the jurors always have doubt in their heads. They always wonder, did she just run away? Did she just get tired of the life she had and decide to vanish? Hell, people up and abandon their lives and families every day. It happens.”

“This isn’t abandonment, mayor,” Cadence said, stepping forward. “These are very specific victim profiles that match our killers. The ages increase, every year, and the victims share the same hair color, the same general build, the same—”

“Why wouldn’t Walker have rolled on this guy?” the police chief demanded. “He was facing death. The guy should have bargained with everything he had.”

Cadence shook her head. “That wasn’t how it worked in Walker’s partnership. He and his partner had an agreement. When Walker went to prison, turning on the other perp might not have even occurred to him. They don’t think like regular people do. They think of blood and death and—”

“The city of Baton Rouge appreciates all of your help and cooperation on the Walker case,” Louis interjected smoothly, with a dismissive wave of his hand, “but the Walker case is over now, and so is your job.”

No. Lauren sucked in a sharp breath. She’d worked with Louis for a long time. Fury wouldn’t work with him. Emotion never did. “I heard Walker talking on the phone to his partner. He exists.”

Louis’s lips thinned. “You were terrified, Lauren. You thought you were going to die. You were bleeding, you had a concussion—”

“He didn’t slam my head into the wall until after I’d heard the phone call.”

The mayor sighed. “I read your medical report. You also had an injury to the front of your head. One you probably sustained during your abduction.”

She remembered hitting the ground. Everything going dark.

“You were concussed then. I can’t be sure that your memory isn’t faulty.” He paused as he studied her. “Be honest. If you had a witness who described the same situation you did, would you put her up on the stand?”

Damn him.

“Without any other evidence to back her up, would you let that woman testify to a jury? Even if she did testify, would that jury believe her?”

“There are over a dozen missing women who match the profile,” Lauren gritted. “Are we just going to ignore them? Act like they don’t matter?”

Louis shook his head. “No, we aren’t.”

“That’s something,” Anthony muttered, not sounding impressed.

Lauren wasn’t exactly impressed, either. She was pissed.

“Detective Voyt will pull the files for the women missing from Baton Rouge. Clyde will contact the police chiefs in the surrounding areas and alert them to the possibility that—”

“Possibility?” Cadence’s face had flushed. “There is no possibility. There’s reality. Listen to me, I am telling you, there is a killer still out there. A brutal, brilliant killer who has been hunting since he was a teen. He’s only gotten better over the years. He isn’t stopping.”