Seductive Reasoning (TASK FORCE HAWAII Book 1) (15 page)

What the hell had he given her? Her mouth was dry, as if she had been trying to eat cotton. Even now that she was awake, her thoughts seemed to not make sense. She studied her surroundings. It was dark, so dark, and she heard the sounds of night beyond the walls. She wasn’t in a house, but in something else. Before she could think of a way out of there, she heard the lock at the door.

Closing her eyes, she feigned sleep. Strong, masculine steps sounded on the floor. It was a wooden floor, but not strong wood. It sounded more like plywood. He stopped, fiddled with something on the table beside her. He turned to her and in the next instant she felt his breath against the flesh on her right arm. It took every effort she had not to freak out. The only way to get out of there was to pretend to be sleeping so that maybe he would leave.

He apparently wasn’t stupid.

“Tsk, tsk, Ms. Phillips. I am not quite ready for you.”

Then Jin felt a prick in her arm, the rush of something hitting her bloodstream, and she started to fade again.

T
he next morning
, Emma was drinking coffee and looking over things on her tablet when the same name she had previously seen appeared in a report from Italy. Damn her for not knowing Italian. She was pretty sure Sean knew it though, or maybe it was Randy. One of them knew it. She would definitely have to call them and go over. She really hated romance languages. Too weird to her ear, and that irritated her even more. She wanted to learn to speak them, but had some kind of barrier.

“What has your beautiful mind ticking this morning?” Del asked as he walked into the kitchen.

He leaned over to give her a kiss. It was all very…normal. And weird. She hadn’t really lived with another person for years. The short time she had spent with Sean didn’t count. At that moment, she realized she really liked having him there. Not just for the sex, but also because she just liked him. He didn’t make her feel as if she were weird, and he seemed to like having her around also.

She watched him go to the coffeepot and pour himself a cup of Kona.

“I found this report in Italy with a man’s name I’ve seen before, but I can’t read the report. It’s in Italian.”

He glanced over his shoulder. “Can’t you read Italian?”

She shook her head. “My forte is more the Asian languages. Romance languages make my head hurt.”

“Let me see it.”

“You can read Italian?”

He nodded. “Not that well, but I can read it. My forte, as you call it, is more the curse words, because my Nonna yelled them at us.”

She handed him her tablet, and he sat down at the table. With the first blush of sun brightening up the room, it brought out the golden highlights in his hair. For a man, he had the longest lashes. The sweep of lashes against his golden skin seemed to mesmerize her. If his face wasn’t so masculine, it would make him look like a woman. But there was no doubting he was a man.

He murmured the Italian words, and she almost sighed out loud. Bloody hell, she knew why they called them the romance languages now. Hearing the words fall from his tongue, all that Italian beauty to back it up, she was ready to jump his bones right there.

He looked up.

“What?”

She shrugged. “You’re really pretty.”

He didn’t say anything for a long moment, before returning his attention to the report. Then, ever so slowly, his cheeks turned ruddy.

“As I live and breathe, Martin Delano are you blushing?”

“I am not blushing. Men don’t blush.”

Delight filled her, and she couldn’t help but smile at him. “Drew blushes all the time. Any time Cat looks at him, he stutters and blushes.”

“He’s also barely twenty.”

“He’s actually almost twenty-eight, but you still can’t change the fact that you blushed,” she said laughing.

“I am going to ignore all of this. And tell you that a man named Stanton was detained. It seemed that a French woman, who had been on a holiday in Rome, claimed that he drugged her and raped her. There was no evidence of rape. The man claimed they’d had rough sex.”

“Yes.” She popped up out of her chair.

“What?”

“He was mentioned as a person of interest in Korea I think. Or Greece. Yeah, it was Greece.” She found the piece of paper and showed it to him.

“We need to find out if he is here, and if he was in the other places. This guy might just be the one.”

He looked over the paper. “It’s thin, but it’s more than we had. Let’s head into the office. I want you and Marcus working on it together. He’s been going through all males in the last couple of months who arrived in Hawaii. As you said, he had to have money, so he’s looking for high priced rentals off the regular path.”

“Okay. I’ll go in with you.”

He paused. “Are you sure you want to advertise that to everyone?”

“What?”

“That I came from your condo.”

“Everyone knows you’re at my flat.”

“Still...”

She rolled her eyes. “Seriously, all of Hawaii saw it on the news. And the bet is done, so who cares?”

He shook his head. “You never fail to surprise me.”

“Good. I would hate to be boring.”

I
t took
them less than twenty minutes to make it to the office. There was one thing to be said about a woman who could care less about clothing and makeup; she could be out the door at a moment’s notice.

They went in the back way. Reporters were still being a nuisance out front. As they stepped into the office, Del’s phone went off.

Adam saw him and clicked off his own phone. When Del saw his friend’s grim expression, his blood chilled.

“Hey, Boss, I was just calling. Seems we have another missing woman.”

“Got a name?”

He nodded, something close to desperation clouding his gaze. “Jin Phillips.”

I
f the press
had been bad before, they became relentless when Jin disappeared. In the hours that followed, the team went into overdrive. Del spent a huge chunk of his time and energy fending off both the mayor and governor. They had wanted to call in the FBI, and while he didn’t mind their help, he knew that they would want to take over, not just help. Add in that there was definitely a chance there was a leak in the HPD, they really couldn’t trust anyone but themselves.

They assembled around lunchtime in the squad room. Del wanted to get everyone on the same page, and make sure no one missed anything one of the other team members had discovered.

“What do we have?”

Adam shook his head. “Nothing, Boss. She went to meet a source, then…nothing.”

“Cell phone?”

Marcus shook his head. “Nothing. Just like before. Probably removed the battery.”

“So, no one knows who the source was, or are they keeping that from us?”

Adam shook his head. “I think they would tell us if they could. The other reporters did not like her, and the anchorwoman on the weeknights, lord, she was nasty about Jin. But, the crewmembers really like her. While the people in front of the camera might hold back, the others would not. They seemed seriously upset over this.”

Emma came out of his office then, her hurried steps propelling her so fast, she tripped over her own feet. He caught her just as she went flying. Her laptop landed on the tabletop.

“Whoa, what’s up?”

“I think I found him.”

Everyone turned to her.

“Him—as in the suspect?”

“Yes. Thanks to the information Marcus gave me, I worked it out.”

She stepped in front of Adam and punched in the info. A photograph appeared. It was a newspaper in Japan. The man was white, blond-headed, a square jaw—he looked like a freaking movie star from the 1940s. He was dressed in a tux, and it looked like he was at some kind of public event.

“Everyone, meet Richard Stanton. He’s a land developer who now calls California home.”

“California?” Del asked.

She nodded. “Well, he has his residency there, but he rents his home in Napa for several thousand a week. He hasn’t really returned to the mainland for quite some time now. Actually, as far as I can tell, when he arrived here, it had been over six years since he had stepped foot on American soil.”

“Is he a resident of California, in the legal sense?” Adam asked.

She nodded. “And from the records, he has paid his taxes on time. He has no issues with the law—at least in the US.”

“Him being here means nothing,” Graeme said. “What other connections are there?”

“First, let’s talk about the locations.” She tapped a few more keys on her laptop. A world map appeared on the screen. “Mr. Stanton has been a busy man. He’s developed shopping malls and condos around the world. He started in the US, but moved on to other countries. He first hit Britain four years ago. At the moment, I don’t know of any cases connected to him there, but he moved on to Italy, and we have that arrest.”

The arrest report came up.

“Sexual assault?” Adam said.

She nodded. “Del translated it this morning. Charges dropped because he claimed it was consensual. Next, he moved to Greece. There were three.”

She brought up the pics of the three women. “All abducted, raped, then strangled. They were left in places with a significance to the goddesses. No DNA was found.”

“That was three years ago.”

“And they did not connect them until the third one; by that time, he was gone. That is when Stanton went on to Finland. There were three murders there. Again, it took them awhile to connect them. Then, Korea, which you all know about, and finally Japan.”

“Why do you think we zeroed in on it so fast?” Adam asked

She shrugged. “He spaced the murders much further apart then. Plus, think of the nature of Hawaii. While these other countries aren’t huge, Hawaii is just a small town where everyone seems to know everyone else. As they like to say, there is probably fewer than six degrees of separation between everyone on this island. Killing women here gets front page news. I’m not sure if he expected it, or it completely threw him off. He does seem to be thriving on the celebrity that he is getting here.”

Cat nodded. “That makes sense with what you said, and what Elle and you were talking about the other day. Elle has a little background with serial killers, and the obsession is now a full-blown addiction.”

“What do you mean, Elle has experience with serial killers?” Graeme asked.

Cat frowned at him. “Ask her. I’m sure she’ll tell you.”

“So, getting back on track, we have a rich man who has been in every one of the locations of the attacks. We have nothing else to connect him other than a rape accusation that was thrown out?” Marcus said. “Not enough for a search warrant.”

Emma smiled. “No. But he is going to be at a charity event tonight. Amazingly enough, it is for women in need. The bastard probably gets a kick out of it. I found all kinds of things referencing him giving large contributions to charities that helped women.”

“And that is going to make it even harder to pin it on him,” Marcus said with disgust.

She nodded. “Exactly, and he counts on that. But, I’m going tonight, so we can get a better handle on the situation.”

A rush of fear swept through him, and a roaring sounded in his ears. Did she just say she was going to be in the same room as the suspect? Everyone kept talking, and Emma was giving logistics; Del just couldn’t make out the words. He was still trying to get his mind wrapped around the fact that Emma wanted to work surveillance on a man who got his kicks out of hurting women.

“You are
not
going to go,” he practically growled.

The pronouncement stopped her in her tracks. “Excuse me?”

“You will not dangle yourself out there as some kind of treat to this man.”

She looked at him as if he had lost his damn mind. Which he almost had at the moment. The idea of her being in danger made him think horrible thoughts.

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” she said, confusion filling her voice and her expression.

“You’re just as stupid as your brother. And look what happened in
that
operation.”

When a terrorist had targeted Sean months earlier, her brother thought using himself as bait had been the best idea. He had almost been killed in the process. Del was not about to have that happen here.

“First, I keep telling everyone, the man isn’t going to be interested in me. He knows I am involved. He is looking for single women. Stanton might talk to me, but that’s about it. He wants to use me.”

“What about Jin Phillips?”

“I don’t know about her personal life, but she wasn’t actually out on the dating scene when she was taken,” Adam said. “All of her dating revolved around work from what I can tell.”

There was something in his tone that told Del that Adam knew a little more about Jin’s dating life than he let on. He’d have to corner his second-in-command soon.

“Her obsession probably fed his own,” Elle said from the doorway. Everyone turned to her. “She put herself in the spotlight as his ally, and he probably couldn’t allow her to continue on her own. He had to possess her.”

“That makes a lot of sense,” Adam said.

“Wouldn’t he want her out there telling people about him, though?” Cat asked.

“Maybe. If the theory of the Trinity, of there always being three, tells us that he probably has one more kill here. What better coup than to grab a woman in the spotlight? It will make world headlines if he succeeds. He craves it like an addict craves the drug.”

“So far, he always has gotten away with it,” Cat said.

“Yes, but he would not have stepped this up in this manner if he wasn’t after notoriety. He wants to get noticed, not caught. Many of them do in a way, but I think this bastard doesn’t. I think this is all about gaining air time. Who are they going to pay attention to? A regular single woman, or a single woman who had been following him?” She looked at Del. “He’s after making you look like a failure.

“I got that. I don’t think it is something we need to worry about. We just need to focus on catching him.”

“I need to get a dress,” Emma announced as she bounded back to his office where she’d left her things. He followed her.

“You are still not going tonight.”

“I can go because KT Corporation will be there. We bought two plates, so I will go. And you. Get a tux.”

“This is
not
a good idea.”

“What other ideas do we have? He has Jin, and we only have a short period of time to save her. It might not even be him, but we need to eliminate him as a suspect. We need to move forward and this is the first lead we have.”

He realized his team was very interested in the conversation. He closed his office door and faced Emma.

“The same woman you called a bitch yesterday.”

“Not even she deserves this…and the longer she is with him, the worse it will be.”

He sighed knowing in the end, she would win. Del understood the danger, and everything she said was true. They were looking at a ticking clock, and he could not even imagine what Jin was going through. Still, he felt he should try one last time.

“I could call your brother and tell him.”

“And then I would have to smack you with a two-by-four again.” She set her messenger bag down and stepped closer. She slid her hands up his arms. “Listen, I know that you will protect me. I will be safe with you there. He isn’t going to grab me. We might be able to rattle him. Then your team can step in and take the bastard down.”

“You do have kind of a mercenary way of looking at things.”

She shrugged. “I believe in Karma, and this wanker deserves the worst payback. I want to see you make him cry.”

He chuckled and bent his head to brush his mouth over hers. “I like that about you.”

“
W
e should feel
wrong for watching this,” Elle said.

“Naw, it’s his fault for not drawing the blinds,” Adam said as he crossed his arms.

“Yeah. And how can we
not
look? It’s so damned sweet,” Cat said. “Who would have thought the boss would fall for someone so fast? If anyone, I thought you would, Adam.”

The two had known each other since he was in junior high and she was in the fifth grade. He had dated her cousin in high school.

“And why would you say that?”

“Marie said you were sweet.”

He remembered the heartbreak he had felt at the time, as if his world was ending. “So sweet that she dumped me.”

“Marie has issues.”

“I guess we’re working the party tonight,” Marcus said.

“Yeah, and I want you to see if you can double check these things for the boss. We need to make sure that others weren’t connected to the murders.”

Marcus nodded. “I also want to check out the guy with him in the picture. He’s in a few of them.”

Cat stepped closer. “His name is Frederick Morgan from what the caption says. He is in a lot of them, isn’t he?”

Marcus nodded. “If anyone knows insider information, it’s that guy. Also, let’s hunt up the owner of the property. My guess is Stanton didn’t buy the property. He rents it.”

“And if he does, the owner can give us permission to search.”

“Depending on their lease, but yeah,” Marcus said.

“I really hate weddings,” Graeme said out of the blue.

Everyone paused and looked at the Scotsman. Adam glanced around at the team, then back at Graeme. “Is that a fact? And what does that have to do with this?”

“Look at him. That man is going to get married, mark my words. And we’ll have to go.”

“What’s wrong with weddings?” Elle asked.

“You have to get dressed up, yes? I hate ties.”

“Dude,” Adam said, “You’re in Hawaii. No one gets
that
dressed up, and when the boss gets married, I doubt it will be too fancy.”

“I think the fact that you’re assuming there will be a wedding is a little premature. Remember, her brother isn’t married,” Cat said. “Maybe they are more about live and let live. I get that vibe from her.”

“That’s because Sean lives with a man
and
a woman. They can’t marry one and exclude the other,” Adam said. “And, if you think Martin Delano, only son and eldest child of the Delano family, isn’t going to insist on a marriage, you don’t know our boss.”

“I was at one last month. One of the interns got married. I would have killed to have worn a simple dress and been barefoot at my wedding,” Elle said. Everyone turned to face her. “What?”

“You’re married?” Graeme asked, a thread of anger shimmering in his voice.

“No. Was. Divorced now.”

Graeme opened his mouth to say something that would probably result in a fight; thankfully, Del’s office door opened up. He and Emma came to a stop and looked at them.

“What’s going on here?” Del asked suspiciously.

“Looks like Graeme and Elle are about to have another fight. I gotta call Jaime, get some help. See you later,” Emma said, brushing her mouth over his jaw and heading off. Del caught her by the arm.

He looked at Adam. “Got a moment? I have to call the mayor and give him an update.”

Adam nodded and escorted her out the back door.

“So, who won the bet?” She asked with a smile.

Adam chuckled. “Doesn’t matter, money went to the Humane Society.”

She slanted him a look.

“Okay, if the money was to be won, it would have been me.”

Emma smiled. “I had a feeling. You really
do
know your timing, Lt. Lee.”

E
mma was putting
on a jade green cocktail dress when Jaime walked into her bedroom. “I think that’s the one that will do it.”

She had been lucky enough that her brother’s lover understood her issues with shopping and had brought four dresses in her size. Along with the dresses, she’d brought a box from Liliha Bakery and bags of girl things.

“I don’t really care. Just one of them will work. I have to look like I belong.”

It was the fourth and final dress. If this didn’t work, Emma was worried that Jaime might overrule her and tell her she had to go out to a store. That worried her more than tracking a killer.