Chapter 13
Nikolai was pleased to find a folder with the composite drawings waiting for him on his desk when he came in the next day.
He'd believed Yeager would send them electronically, but maybe they worked differently here than in his former department.
He texted Frode, not wanting to wake him if he was asleep.
He wouldn't have minded hearing his voice as he spoke the first words of the day, but last night had been...
He didn't want to fuck up their tentative truce by annoying him first thing.
Prickly bastard.
When his phone buzzed moments later, he grinned.
"Wow, were you body-snatched?" Isaac was watching him from the doorway.
Nikolai gave him the finger as he read Frode's: Be there in a bit.
"Are you sexting?"
"No. I'm texting with Frode. He's on his way here."
"You're fucking the Maiden?"
Nikolai stared at him. "The Maiden? You want to rethink the name?"
"Sun-Maid, the raisins."
Yeah, Nikolai didn't know what was up with the raisins, quick sugar most likely, or something sweet to mask the taste of vomit maybe, or maybe it helped against the trembling.
"You're calling a thirty-seven-year-old man the Maiden."
Isaac shrugged. "Everyone calls him the Sun-Maid or some version thereof."
Nikolai highly doubted it. Hjalmar would've had heads rolling if it was the case. "He calls you the puppy."
A wide grin. "Yeah? What does he call you?"
Nikolai didn't know, but he was sure it was flattering. He snorted to himself. "Anyway, he's on his way in to talk about the composite sketches."
"There are more than one?"
"Two." Nikolai grabbed the folder and headed toward the conference room. "Anything from forensics?"
Isaac shook his head. "Not yet. Photos, but no facts. I'm sure Saylor will let us know as soon as he has something."
They went over the photos from the crime scene, compared them to the ones from the previous victims, when there was a light knock on the door.
Isaac went to open and grinned as Frode greeted them.
His hair was down today, and Nikolai held back a smile.
He shouldn't have told him he liked it up; now he'd most likely never see it again.
"Frode, darling. Good to see you."
The glare would've made his head explode if Frode had possessed superpowers, but Nikolai acted as if Frode wasn't planning his demise and smiled. He grabbed the folder with the composite drawings.
"Talk to us about these." He placed them on the table.
A loud exhalation, then Frode neared the table. "This guy is the one I think is the killer." He gestured at a man who looked to be in his mid-forties with a round face and almost boy-like features. "And the other one was the last to touch the rug before this man touched it the first time."
Nikolai lifted the drawing of a handsome, dark-skinned man off the table and studied it. He didn't recognize him. "Have you seen either of them before?" He'd remember, right?
Frode shook his head. "No."
"And you're sure?" When Frode gave him an annoyed look, he hurried on. "I mean, you'd know without doubt. You'd have remembered if you'd seen them before."
Frode opened his mouth, then closed it again, and something shifted in his eyes. "I remember every face I see while touching something, not necessarily every person I see in the grocery store. I don't have a photographic memory when I see with my eyes." He glanced at Isaac. "If that makes sense."
Nikolai nodded. "So what you can give us with certainty is you haven't touched anything either of these two men have touched before the rug, but you might have stood next to one of them while picking apples in the store."
Frode nodded.
"How sure are you this is the killer?" Isaac grabbed the drawing of the suspect.
"As sure as I can be." Frode grimaced. "He touched the rug after the victim's last time, but before Saylor. After Saylor, there was the dark-haired man."
"Who?"
"Don't know his name, but he's on the forensic team. Dubose also touched it, but not until later."
Nikolai glanced at Isaac. He didn't know the names of everyone on the crime scene investigator team; it hardly mattered, but maybe Isaac knew who the dark-haired man who wasn't Saylor was.
"Zachary Mallon?" Isaac was frowning.
Frode shook his head. "He never touched the rug. I believed he was the one who did the autopsies and such."
"He is." Nikolai hadn't talked to him much, but he was the one who'd done the autopsies on all the victims and was most likely working on Morgan Benham right this minute. A wave of nausea washed over him. He didn't envy him for a second.
"I don't need to know his name." Frode waved a hand. "He's on the forensic team. I've seen him before."
"Okay, so what you're saying is after Gabriela Montes last touched the rug but before the forensic team did, this man was there?" Isaac waved the drawing.
"Yes."
"And, to play devil's advocate, is it possible he dropped by and touched the rug without having anything to do with the murder?"
"Possible, yes. I can't tell how much time has passed between touches. Was he the one who called it in?"
Nikolai shook his head. "Neighbor."
Frode nodded. "So if he didn't murder her, he was there to watch the carnage, touched the blood-soaked rug, and then left without reporting it.
" A shrug. "Either way, you have to prove he did it.
My word holds no weight in court. I'm as certain as I can be of him being the guy, but you must do your job, and both find him and prove it. "
He was right. They still had to do their job, still had to gather evidence. "Let's ask the neighbors if they've seen him."
Isaac gave a clipped nod. "I'll put some uniforms on it."
"Want to go visit Saylor?" Nikolai looked between Frode and Isaac.
Isaac grinned. "He'll get annoyed if we show up before he's called us."
"Not if we bring Frode." Nikolai wiggled his eyebrows despite not liking the idea of putting Frode and Saylor in the same room.
"I should leave." Frode glanced at the door. "You have a job to do. I'd only be in your way, plus I'm not sure you're allowed to share any details with me. I'm not a cop."
Valid points, but Nikolai didn't want him to go.
* * * *
Frode walked along Nikolai and Elmore down the corridor to Saylor's workplace. He wasn't sure what he was doing there. The forensic team worked in a building on the other side of town, and he'd never been there before.
Elmore stopped by an open door to a spacious laboratory with white walls, clean desks with sharp lights, microscopes, and other things Frode only had seen in crime shows before.
Saylor was standing in the middle of the room, wearing a white lab coat, and protective gloves. At Elmore's knock he looked over and scowled, then his gaze landed on Frode, and the scowl softened. Fuck.
"I wasn't aware we had an appointment." Okay, so maybe the tone was a little biting. Frode didn't mind.
Nikolai only grinned. "We don't. Frode came by to discuss the composite sketches from the first rug, so we figured we'd drop by while we had him with us to see if you can tell us anything about the latest one."
"You want to touch this one?" Saylor's entire focus was on Frode.
"Not if I can avoid it, and certainly not if it's a well-used rug."
Saylor shook his head. "I'm not done with the processing, but I think it's fairly new. It's machine-made, printed pattern, synthetic fibers, no wear and tear."
Frode held his breath. It didn't sound too bad, but he didn't want to touch it. "How sure are you?"
Saylor gave a slow shrug accompanied by a grimace. "I can't guarantee anything. All I can tell you is it isn't damaged other than by the blood and decomposition, but I have no idea how many have stepped on it."
Pleading looks hardly ever helped, but Frode sent Nikolai one anyway. When Nikolai placed a hand on Frode's shoulder, he jumped.
"You don't have to do anything. We have the drawings. We'll see what comes of it."
Saylor stared at the hand lingering on Frode's shoulder, and Frode wondered if Nikolai had touched him to annoy Saylor.
Petty, but he didn't shake it off. Saylor might be cute, but he was a bit...
overzealous. Maybe he was being unfair, but he wasn't sure he'd have spared Frode so much as a glance had he not been psychic.
"If we get stuck, we can see which one of the other rugs has the least wear and tear and see if you're willing to risk it, but for now, you don't have to touch anything.
" Nikolai sounded as if he meant it. It was a huge change from him accusing Frode of lying about his ability and then pushing to have him touch all the rugs.
Frode was grateful, but what had changed?
"I'll let you know when I'm done." Saylor looked between Nikolai and Frode, and Frode stepped away from under Nikolai's hand. It was a bit too possessive.
A small smile appeared on Saylor's lips. "Your brother had some more bullet casings for us too."
"He did? Today?"
"Nah, yesterday."
Frode nodded. Was it why he'd sounded a bit off yesterday? "He hasn't asked me to touch anything."
"Word around town is he and Givens had a fight."
Frode flinched. "Ah...yeah...that's my fault."
Saylor chuckled. "Your fault?"
"I might have threatened to report her to HR, and Hjalmar might have overheard her calling me a circus freak or something along those lines." He shrugged. "I don't care much, but Hjalmar wasn't pleased."
Nikolai, Isaac, and Saylor were all looking at him as if he was insane.
"What?"
Nikolai was more growly than normal. "She called you a--" He waved his hand. "And Hjalmar heard?"
"Not a happy camper." Frode grinned. He didn't like Givens, but she wasn't his boss, so he wasn't overly bothered by it.
"For fuck's sake." Nikolai was snarling now. It was...interesting.
"Hey, you didn't want a fucking psychic either, so you shouldn't talk."
"It was not what I said."
"Ehh, are you sure?" Frode poked his side, and Nikolai jumped away. Ticklish? Interesting.
"Yes, I'm sure."
Frode wasn't, but he couldn't remember exactly what Nikolai had said. He'd been a tad upset himself. He shrugged. "I prefer to work with Hjalmar, but when it comes to lieutenants, Medlin is nicer."
"You should come work with us." Saylor gave him a warm look.
"Yeah, I don't know. Like I told Dubose, there is no way I can touch everything from a crime scene. I'd end up in a coma within days."
Saylor winced. "Right, we don't want that."
No, Frode did not.
* * * *