Dead Don't Lie (13 page)

CHAPTER NINETEEN

E
VELYN
STEPPED
OUT
of the elevator. A yellow envelope hung limply from her hand. Marcus did a double take. When he’d left her this morning, her cheeks had been flushed, her eyes alive. Now, her creamy skin was pale and clammy, and the corners of her eyes pinched together, strain pulling across her face. She looked like she’d seen a ghost. He sprung from his chair and was beside her in two strides. He gripped her elbow and pulled her to her desk.

“Evelyn. What—”

She handed him the envelope.

He dumped the contents onto her desk. He stared down at the bloody hunting knife and a photo of the two of them embracing on her front porch. The hair on the back of his neck bristled.

The photo had a hole in the middle where the knife had clearly pierced it.

“What the hell is this?”

“What is what?” Ryan joined them, coffee in hand.

Marcus flipped the photo for Ryan to see, then motioned to the hunting knife.

Ryan’s eyes darkened. His jaw twitched. He snatched up the photo. “What. The. Fuck. Where did that come from?”

“I found it pinned to my door with the knife.”

Marcus’s head snapped up. “This morning?”

His skin crawled as she nodded. Marcus’s stomach sank to the floor. Someone had been watching Evelyn, waiting for him to leave.

“If there was any question about my being in this sicko’s crosshairs, it’s been answered,” she said with an irritated tone.

“What the hell were those idiots on detail doing? Sleeping through their shift?” Ryan reached for his phone. “Lazy sons of bitches.”

Marcus corralled Evelyn away from Ryan as he yelled into his phone.

“You okay?” Marcus asked.

She shook her head. “I’m fine. Just a bit rattled.”

A bit rattled
. Who was she kidding?

“Evelyn.”

“Fine. I’m pissed. Is that what you want to hear?” She glared up at him, her eyes moist. “Well, I am. I’m pissed. At this psychopath for besting me time and time again, and at myself for letting him.”

“Whoa. Wait a minute. You can’t possibly think—”

Ryan burst into another fit, his brutal tongue-lashing escalating. They both glanced at him, then moved farther down the hall.

Marcus took a step toward Evelyn, closing the space between them. He lowered his voice. “You can’t possibly think that all this is your fault. You aren’t in it alone. We’re a team, Evelyn. And this asshole is not going to get away with this.”

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath. She opened them again and locked onto him.

“This whole thing is spinning out of control. We need to do damage control, and we need to do it now.”

Marcus studied Evelyn’s face. She shifted, but didn’t break eye contact. Somehow he didn’t think she was talking about the case. He scowled.
Oh, no. You aren’t going to drop me that quickly, sweetheart.

“Did you see anyone when you left this morning?” she whispered.

“Not even the detail.” Marcus lowered his voice. “About last night—”

“It was unprofessional.”

“A hell of a lot of fun is what it was.”

She shook her head, crossed her arms. “It can’t happen again.”

“Evelyn, stop. It doesn’t need to be like this.”

She went to open her mouth when Kessler stuck his head out of his office. “Get in here. Now.”

Ryan slammed down his phone and grumbled. “How those assholes even got a badge is beyond me.”

He glanced up and shot her a troubled scowl. He tapped the photo and the knife. “This isn’t over.”

Evelyn nodded. Marcus slid the knife and photo back into the envelope and tucked it into his briefcase. The three of them walked into Kessler’s office.

His face was drawn. “We have another murder.”

“Another family?”

Evelyn’s voice sounded faint. Marcus glanced over and noticed that her face had grown pale. His fists balled together. When the hell would they catch this guy?

Kessler shook his head. “A mother and daughter, but similar MO. It’s on Mercer Island. I want you three to head over to see if it’s our guy. If it is, maybe you’ll get lucky and find something on this asshole.”

* * *

T
HE
SILENCE
WAS
PAINFUL
.
Evelyn knew Ryan was furious with her. Uncertainty clawed at her. Was Marcus? It wasn’t her fault their unsub had slipped past the guys on detail. But it was her fault they were there in the first place. If she wasn’t so stubborn, she’d have been in a safe house, and he wouldn’t have been able to get to her again. She glanced in the rearview mirror, but couldn’t read Marcus’s stoic face, and that made her heart ache.

The warmth of last night seeped away with each passing minute of silence.

At the address, Ryan threw the car into Park and got out without a word. They signed the log, then walked into the stunning three-story town house. The entire back wall was nothing but glass. Through it, Lake Washington glistened as sunbeams broke through the familiar Seattle cloud cover.

CSI agents scrambled around like an anthill had been stepped on. Her team followed the commotion to the left, toward the open kitchen. Ryan led the way. Evelyn was right behind him, taking in as much information as she could. A woman lay sprawled out on the Italian tile floor, a pool of blood collecting underneath her crisp, toffee-colored suit. Evelyn pulled up sharply. Marcus bumped into her.

He leaned closer. “What is it?”

She turned, horror in her eyes. Her hand fluttered to her mouth. “I know that woman.”

“What?”

She felt the color drain from her face. Her hands were clammy, her knees weak. “I know her. That’s Anastasia Kulik. At least, that was her name the last time I saw her.”

“Which was when?” He glanced past her.

“Fifteen years ago, in Milan. She was my roommate, the one the modeling agency assigned to me. Sweet girl. I haven’t seen her since Milan, or spoken to her since I left. I’d put that part of my life out of my mind.”

Marcus scrubbed his hands over his face. “Ryan—”

Her partner joined them. “What’s up?”

Evelyn didn’t want to tell him, but she wasn’t about to lie to Ryan now. She compartmentalized her emotions, channeling them into pure and unadulterated focus. She took a deep breath. “That woman. She was in Milan with me.”

“Shit.” Ryan ran his hand through his hair. “We need to fill in Kessler ASAP. Between the photo and the woman, this is hitting too close to home.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Marcus said.

* * *

T
HAT
EVENING
,
THE
five o’clock news dubbed the serial killer the Seattle Slayer.

“Can we not put a gag order on these idiots? Do they not know they’re only fueling this guy’s ego? Encouraging him to kill again?” Evelyn said, fuming.

Neither man had allowed her to stay at the crime scene. She’d argued and lost. So she’d pulled out her working profile. Something was off. She didn’t want to pull on the golden string right in front of her, but she didn’t think she had a choice. Not when so many pieces connected back to her...or at least appeared to. So she worked and reworked the profile, scribbling down notes in the margins.

The killer had to know her. Any doubt had been shredded when she’d stared down at Anastasia’s body. Evelyn tapped the pencil against the desk, then scribbled “how close?” in her notes. Was he a copycat killer or...

She scribbled “could it be him?” in the margins, then scratched it out.

Evelyn wasn’t willing to go there.

Yet.

At least not in public.

Bone-aching weariness washed over her. Irritated, she grabbed the TV remote and stabbed at the mute button. She had a job to do, and being chained to this desk for the past several hours wasn’t helping her attitude.

She swirled in her chair and tried to make out the tone of the conversation that was going on behind closed doors. Marcus had been in with Kessler for over an hour.

“It’s their constitutional right, Evelyn,” Ryan said in a tone that indicated he was still pissed at her.

“Don’t give me that shit. I know what their constitutional rights are.”

He didn’t look up from the file in front of him.

“Seriously, you’re ignoring me now?” She couldn’t believe how childish he was being.

“Ignoring people seems to be the going thing the past few days.”

“Excuse me?” Her blood simmered.

He threw his pencil down and glared at her. “You ignored both Marcus and me, and put yourself in harm’s way. Come on, Evelyn. You can be so bullheaded at times. It’s infuriating. I can’t do my job if I’m worrying about you. Help me out here.”

She glared back at him, but he didn’t waver as he stared her down. Finally she felt herself cave. He was right, after all. She could be stubborn. And had been from the very beginning of this case. She cradled her head in her hands. “I’m sorry.”

And she was. She’d let her emotional high get the best of her last night. She’d known not to cross that line with Marcus, yet she’d done it anyway. In that moment, it had felt right. But the instant she opened her door and saw that photo of the two of them, she’d known she’d made a mistake.

“Sorry enough to stop this shit?”

She threw Ryan a tiny smile. “Yes.”

He returned the gesture. “Good. Now I can call her off.”

“Huh?”

“Kate. She almost drove to the station to kick your ass this morning.”

Evelyn rolled her eyes. What a freaking mess. She threw a worried look toward Kessler’s office, then turned back to the TV. Seattle Slayer Eludes SPD was scrolling across the bottom of the screen.

“We can’t fuel this guy. We have to let the public know who they’re dealing with—the real facts, not the sensationalized ones. The public needs to be diligent about keeping their families safe. If we can have the whole city on the lookout, he’ll have fewer chances to slip through the cracks.”

The captain opened his office door and poked his head out.

“Davis. O’Neil. My office, please. I want you to hear Agent Moretti out for a moment.”

Ryan rose and grabbed his mug. Evelyn followed suit.
Agent Moretti?
The formality in Kessler’s tone couldn’t be good. They walked in and sat. Dark bags rested under Kessler’s eyes. He’d aged years in the past three weeks. Evelyn flicked her eyes to his hands.
Shit.
He was running his forefinger over the top of his thumb again.

An awkward silence hung in the room. Marcus eyed Evelyn, then took a deep breath. “This guy is targeting you, Evelyn.”

“Yes, I would say that’s obvious.”

She’d had her suspicions since the second murder but had brushed them off, blaming her edginess on the quickly approaching date on the calendar. She didn’t need to consider his statement, not with the photos and the knife. Her stomach pitched, her mind playing back a colorful image of what she’d witnessed on Mercer Island. Poor Anastasia.

“I don’t want to be the guy who points out the elephant in the room....” Marcus said.

She crossed her arms. “Then don’t.”

“These murders all have a familiar tone. One that’s remarkably close to your family’s case. I don’t think it’s wise to have you as lead—”

Her back stiffened as all the muscles in her body constricted at once. Her stomach rolled as the floor dropped out from under her. Her fists balled, nails cutting into the flesh of her palms as she stared at Marcus. Shock ripped through her, followed by crushing disappointment. She hadn’t expected him to throw her family’s murder in her face. Not after last night. She’d trusted him with the most vulnerable, delicate part of her soul and then shared her bed with him. Heat rushed to her cheeks. And now he squashed that trust by questioning her ability to keep from blurring the line between her family’s murder and the current case. Humiliation wrapped around her heart and squeezed tight. How could she have so wrongly judged him?

“Please...don’t say another word.”

“He has a point,” Kessler said.

“Captain, you can’t be serious.”

“But I am. Special Agent Moretti has a point that I refuse to ignore, especially at the risk of one of my people. Until further notice, I want you to take a step back,” Kessler said.

“What?” Angry tears sprung to her eyes.

“I didn’t say step out. I said
back
. You aren’t being demoted.”

“It sure feels like it.”

Kessler dismissed her with a flick of his hand. “I know how hard you’ve fought to be seen as an equal within this department, how hard you’ve worked to keep your past where it belongs—in the past. But I won’t risk your life, or the life of your partner, in order to appease your feelings. No matter how justified they may be.”

Evelyn stole a glance at Ryan.
Why wasn’t he defending her?
He stared straight ahead, shoulders back, spine straight, refusing to meet her eyes. Her stomach sank even further.
Did he agree with Kessler? With Marcus?
She shook her head and bit the inside of her cheek to keep the angry tears at bay. She couldn’t pinpoint which hurt worse: Marcus’s blatant abuse of her trust, or Ryan’s silence.

“Agent Moretti, give your men the green light to follow up with your theory.”

Kessler glanced at Ryan. “Detective O’Neil, you’re now SPD point. I do not, under any circumstances, want Detective Davis in the spotlight.”

“Yes, sir.” Ryan nodded.

Evelyn’s mouth dropped open. No argument, no pushback, nothing. Her partner had just singlehandedly railroaded her. She pressed her lips together and silently fumed.

Kessler turned his attention to Evelyn. “And you. I still expect 150 percent from you. You’re still our best profiler and closer. Get inside his head. Figure him out, shut him down, just do it under the cover of silence. We’re all on the same team. So let’s—”

“With all due respect, sir, he’s hijacking our investigation,” she interrupted.

She saw Marcus open his mouth to speak. Ryan shook his head. A quick nod from Marcus acknowledged their brief exchange, and he snapped his mouth shut. She bristled.