The Watched (CSI Reilly Steel #4) (27 page)

Sheldon
’s face drained of color.

‘
Now, before you start, I have something else I need some assistance with.’ He sat in his chair and pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. ‘I’ve been writing letters, short snippets really. Because this was my first foray into original work, I need this letter to be perfect. A clear thesis and statement of intent.’

Sheldon
uttered a long string of profanities that involved committing several acts that were illegal in most states.

‘Charming.’
The Maestro rolled his eyes. ‘Now shut your mouth and listen. I’m going to want an honest opinion.’

He
smoothed out the paper and read: ‘Many of you will have heard about my latest project and perhaps you suspect I have borrowed this idea from another film, but I did not. This fine piece of work is original, as will be the rest of the work I share with you from here on out. I will try my best to continue to produce artistic and merited work worthy of a receptive audience.’ He looked expectantly at Sheldon. ‘What do you think?’

Sheldon
crossed his arms defiantly.

The
Maestro sighed and nodded. ‘I suppose you’re right. It needs more work. Thanks for the feedback.’ He stood up, grinning in anticipation. ‘You get started on the next few scenes and I’ll work on another draft of my letter. I’ll be back later on to discuss casting and locations.’ He stuck his hands in his pockets, whistling as he stepped out into the warm, muggy air.

Things were certainly looking up.

Reilly wasn’t entirely sure how she was supposed to handle this. Todd had called Emilie and Peni into the lab to tell them about Bradley’s death.

Now the two women were sitting at their usual seats and Todd had pulled his chair over to them, leaving
Reilly on the outside. She didn’t know what she was supposed to do while the others talked and offered each other comfort.

She
wasn’t part of the team and hadn’t really known Bradley well enough to join them and it felt awkward – not to mention an invasion of privacy – to watch.

Finally, she decided to see what information she could gather to add to what they already knew. Since she was the least emotionally involved, there was one thing she shouldn’t have anyone else doing. She just didn’t want to do it either.

Steeling herself, Reilly stood up and went over to the nearest laptop. She knew of at least one movie with death by fire ants, but wasn’t sure if that was going to be right. After all, the movie had been set in a jungle, not a boat off the coast of Florida.

Still, it was better than nothing.

‘So what do we do now?’ Emilie sniffed, the poor girl sounding distraught. ‘If we’re not going to be allowed to work on the case.’

‘
Until I hear otherwise, it’s still ours,’ Reilly heard Todd say firmly.

Daniel had said he’d do what he could to try and keep the investigation within the local jurisdiction
but couldn’t make any promises. Reilly had passed the information along to Todd and his response had been the one he’d just given to Emilie. Until the Feds arrived to take over, the Tampa CSI team was still involved.

‘But we don’t have anything to review.’
Emilie took a shuddering breath as she gathered herself.

‘
That’s not entirely true,’ Todd replied. ‘Dr Kase has . . . the body, so anything that was brought in with it, we have.’

Reilly
could see how hard it was for Todd to refer to his friend as ‘the body’ and ‘it’, but she understood what he was doing. They all had to do it, separate the victim from who they were when they were alive. If they saw every victim as a person, they wouldn’t have lasted long in this job.

‘Emilie.’ He
handed an evidence bag with Bradley’s clothing in it to the redhead. ‘Analyze these, see if there’s trace – anything we can connect to our killer.’ He turned to Peni. ‘Keep working on the IP addresses and start searching for the new video footage.’ The computer expert looked suitably distressed and Reilly spoke up.

‘I’m on that,’
she said. Todd turned toward her, the expression on his face saying that he’d completely forgotten that she was there. Then he looked grateful.

‘OK, thanks.
I don’t think any of our guys need to see . . . that.’

‘
I’ll let Peni know if I find anything she needs to take down,’ Reilly continued. ‘She can stick with the IP addresses if she prefers.’

‘
Thank you again.’ Todd’s voice softened.

‘
What are you going to be looking at?’ Emilie asked Todd.

‘I’ve got some bugs to check out.’
Todd held up a container. Inside the murky ocean water floated several ants. ‘The Feds apparently decided to wash down everything and suck up the ants and the water together.’ He rolled his eyes.

‘
They compromised the clothing?’ Emilie frowned, the expression foreign on her usually smiling face. ‘They could have washed away trace particulates, changed chemical compositions . . .’ She looked frantic.

‘
I guess they were more worried about a few bug bites,’ Todd said darkly. ‘Which is why I want
our
team on this. Let’s get to work.’

It was the longest day
Reilly had had since arriving in Florida. The longest one she’d had in years, actually. Every search was fruitless as she watched the same footage over and over again, all unchanged.

It wasn’t until Todd finished his analysis on the ants that she began to suspect that maybe she was looking for the wrong film.

‘
Solenopsis invicta
,’ he said triumphantly, a little bit of life finally returning to his voice.

‘
What was that?’ Reilly turned to look at him.

‘
The ant. It’s the
Solenopsis
invicta
, a highly aggressive species of the fire ant,’ he told her. ‘Commonly called RIFA, the red imported fire ant.’

‘
Just a minute.’ Reilly pulled up a new browser window and typed a question into the search engine. ‘Damn it.’

‘
What?’

‘I was thinking the scene might have been
from
Indiana Jones
, you know, the part where they . . .’ She skipped to the important part. ‘It’s not the same type of ant. The ones from the movie, while not entirely real, were based on the
Dorylus
ant.’

‘
Maybe our killer couldn’t get his hands on the right bug,’ Todd mused.

‘
Or,’ she said, ‘maybe it’s not the right movie.’

‘Maybe,’ he agreed, but she could tell his mind was racing. ‘But
I’ll bet these ants aren’t easy to come by. I mean, they’re not like flies that you just go out and catch. If we can track down places that sell fire ants, maybe we can find out who bought them.’

‘
I may have something,’ Emilie spoke up then. ‘But I need a second opinion.’

Todd
crossed to the other woman.

‘
You know those fibers you found on Anton Williams?’ Emilie said. ‘The guy who had his jaw broken? I think the ones I found on Bradley’s clothes match.’

He
peered into the right microscope and then into the left one. ‘You’re right, they’re a match.’

‘
So the killer has some sort of uniform he wears when he kills?’ Emilie asked.

‘Or m
aybe,’ Todd said slowly, ‘they aren’t from clothes at all.’

‘
We ran them through a hundred different tests. Wool. Not something used in any type of car upholstery,’ Emilie countered.

‘They could be from a blanket,’ Reilly suggested, from where she’d been listening.

‘Something that might be kept in the trunk of a car,’ said Todd.

‘Exactly.’
Reilly nodded. ‘Which means both Anton Williams and Bradley were taken from one location and transported to where they were found, just like Holly and Aaron. The other three scenes, the killer was already on location. Since we have the truck the first victims were moved in, he must’ve gotten his hands on another mode of transport.’

‘
Something with a big enough trunk for a person,’ Emilie supplied.

‘
Which means we need to pull security footage around the docks and around the housing estate where Williams was killed. See if we can find a match,’ Todd finished.

‘
On it,’ Peni piped up. ‘Gives me something to do while I’m waiting.’

‘Good work, Emilie.’
Todd smiled down at the redhead and Reilly saw that the younger woman managed half of one back. While not back to her usual self, it was an improvement. ‘Maybe we’re getting somewhere,’ he added, though his voice held no excitement, only grim determination.

Worried, Reilly
watched her friend turn back to his workstation. His initial grief had vanished, leaving behind an almost robotic veneer.

She had a feeling he was going to crash, and soon.

CHAPTER 32

Todd wouldn’t say it, but Reilly knew he didn’t want to be alone that evening. She couldn’t blame him. Besides, after everything that had happened today, she was dog-tired and didn’t think she had the energy to drag herself back to the beach house, update Daniel on everything, and then be able to turn her brain off enough afterward to try and sleep.

Her nightmares were
bad enough most of the time. She didn’t want to think of what they’d be like after today.

On the way back to his apartment, inspiration had struck and she’d
asked Todd to stop at a nearby Publix grocery store. He might not feel like eating tonight, but nothing soothed her like cooking and a nice Cuban chicken sounded like heaven. She’d cooked a lot in Dublin in the very early days when she’d had more time on her hands, but finding anything like Texas sweet onion or adobo there had been virtually impossible.

Now, as the chicken breasts were sizzling i
n the pan, she chopped the last of the onion, added the adobo powder and a few small sprinkles of oregano, cumin and black pepper. She padded across the kitchen to Todd’s fridge to take out the mojo sauce she’d already prepared, even though she wouldn’t need it until everything was done. The tile was cool against her bare feet, in direct contrast with the heat of the stove as she leaned over to stir the chicken and squeeze in more lime.

‘
Again, thank you for coming with me today.’ Todd spoke up from the doorway where he’d been watching her.

‘It was nothing.’
She didn’t look at him, keeping her eyes on the contents of the pan.

‘
No, Reilly, it wasn’t nothing.’ Todd took a sip of his beer before setting it on the counter. ‘Seems like we’ve known each other forever, yet I couldn’t ever describe us as being close, even friends. What you did, coming with me today, calling my dad, and making me come away from the lab tonight, as well as helping out on this whole thing when you’re supposed to be on vacation – all of that is above and beyond. Just want you to know that I appreciate it.’

Reilly
slowly stirred the food, letting silence settle over the kitchen. She knew she should just say ‘you’re welcome’ and leave it at that, but part of her wanted to say more. There was a story that she rarely shared outside of the people who were involved, a reason she understood the pointlessness of words and the importance of a touch. The same reason why she hadn’t wanted to be alone tonight either.

‘
Did your dad ever tell you about my family?’ She asked the question without turning around, her voice soft. If he’d gone back into the living room, he wouldn’t hear her and she wouldn’t ask it again.

He hadn’t left.
‘Only that your mom was . . .’ he hesitated suddenly. ‘Your mom died when you were a teenager, and you pretty much raised your younger sister because your dad didn’t handle it so well.’

She could hear the curiosity in his voice, but he didn’t ask. He didn’t need to;
Reilly was going to tell him. ‘My mother didn’t just die, she was murdered.’

‘I knew that too. I’m sorry . . .’
Todd began.

She
poked again at the contents of the pan with the wooden spoon. As the food cooked, Reilly continued, working to keep her voice steady. She rarely told anyone about this, and for years hadn’t been able to talk about it with anyone other than Daniel. And then Chris.

‘Like you said,
I had a sister, younger than me by almost four years. She was Mom and Dad’s miracle baby. After me, the doctors said Mom couldn’t have any more, so when they found out she was pregnant again, they were ecstatic. I was too. I loved Jess from the first time I saw her.’

Reilly
closed her eyes, seeing her sister’s face as clearly as she ever did.

‘She was the one who murdered my mother.’ Her voice was flat. ‘Called me directly after it happened, possibly even before, I can’t be sure. Either way, by the time I got there, it was too late.’