Chapter 18
Because of the distance the senior Coltons’ home was from town and the first wave of snow sticking to the roads, Eli, Noelle and Kansas didn’t arrive at the ABI offices until forty-five minutes later.
When they reached Eli’s office, the light was already on, and they heard the low muttering of a male voice.
Eli raised an arm, stopping the women from proceeding until he poked his head around the doorframe.
Asher sat at his desk, on the phone with someone, and looked up when Eli stepped into the room. Asher held up a finger, asking Eli to wait a minute.
When he didn’t signal any danger to the women, Kansas and Noelle crowded forward to peer past him into the room. Kansas gave a discontented grunt when she spied Asher.
“What are you doing here?” she fussed the instant he disconnected his phone call.
“Last time I checked, I worked here,” Asher said, narrowing his eyes. “Why are you here?”
“Why shouldn’t I be? Within a few hours, I can bet my team will be called out for a search and rescue for the woman that was taken.”
Asher shifted his gaze to Eli. “So you heard about the abduction then?”
Eli nodded. “I’ll handle it. You should be home recovering. Until we know more about who the woman was and where the guy took her, it’s all office work. I can manage that, especially with Noelle as my sounding board.”
Asher’s eyes widened. “She’s a sounding board now, too?”
Eli huffed his pique. “She’s been through the files as meticulously as we have at this point. She’s smart, logical, good with analysis, and her software could prove valuable again.” He squared his shoulders. “You got a problem with me including her?”
Asher raised both hands. “Not if you think she can help. I’m ready to nail this bastard once and for all.”
“So…” Kansas strode over to Asher’s desk and pinned a narrow-eyed look on him. “Since Eli has Noelle’s help, you can go home and rest. The doctor told you to take it easy for at least a week before you returned to work.”
“You’re not my nurse, my mother or my conscience,” Asher replied, his own tone firm and somewhat irritated. “I can help here, and I feel fine. I’m staying.”
Eli chuckled. “It’s good to see your relationship back in form. I got nervous when you two were all friendly and concerned for each other’s well-being.”
Both Asher and Kansas sent Eli churlish glares.
Noelle made a T with her hands, signaling a time-out, and cleared her throat. “Um, folks, we have a kidnapped woman to find before she’s murdered. Can we focus on that now?”
Instantly the mood in the room shifted. Sobered.
“Of course,” Eli said, settling behind his desk and waking his desktop. “Who were you on the phone with when we came in? Is there any new information?”
“Not much. Reynolds at SPD says they have the footage of a couple security cameras from nearby businesses in their possession with more in the works. They’re sending it via encrypted email as we speak. Check your inbox.”
Noelle pulled the guest chair in front of Eli’s desk around beside him for a better view of his monitor. Kansas did the same at Asher’s desk.
The subject of Asher’s recuperation, Eli noted, had been tabled apparently. He was privately glad to have his partner’s help in light of the new turn the case had taken.
When his new emails loaded, the message from the Shelby police department had arrived, and Eli clicked through to open the attached video. Holding his breath, he watched the low-quality images play out.
When the man in the video hit the woman in the head and her body went limp, he heard Noelle suck in a sharp breath. His reaction mirrored Noelle’s. His gut tensed as they watched the man, whose jacket hood was up and obscuring most of his face, shove the woman in the passenger side of a blue sedan.
Leaning back in his chair, Eli ground his molars together before casting a glance to his partner. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t Scott own a blue Hyundai Sonata?”
Asher’s returned glare was dark and angry. “He does.”
“Well, that’s what we expected, isn’t it?” Noelle asked. “That the kidnapper was Scott?”
“Doesn’t make it any easier to accept that a guy you worked with and trusted could have betrayed you, the office and the public he works for,” Asher hissed in disgust. “And he could be responsible for such heinous crimes.” He slammed a hand on his desk. “Damn him!”
Kansas gave an exaggerated shudder. “Ugh! The guy flirted with me! Thank God I had the sense not to date a coworker.”
A ripple of ill ease spun through Eli. He recognized the feeling as the same whisper when he was on the verge of a breakthrough.
This edgy feeling had haunted him for several days, telling him he had all but one piece of an important puzzle.
When he fit it all together, he knew he wouldn’t like the picture he discovered.
He growled his frustration and impatience under his breath. Yet another woman had been taken. The kidnapped woman’s life was in danger, and he had to think harder, destroy any stumbling blocks that might have him shy away from the truth.
“Do we know the woman’s identity yet?” Noelle asked.
Kansas pulled out her phone and tapped at the screen. “I’ll check with my team and see if we have any new missing person reports.”
“No name yet,” Asher said, still studying and replaying the video of the abduction. “Witnesses describe the woman as Caucasian, medium height, long dark hair, slim and attractive.”
Eli hit Replay on the security footage, leaning close again to see what details he could have missed.
“Well, the video confirms the witnesses’ description anyway.
But it’s not much to go on.” When Noelle mumbled something under her breath that Eli missed, he cut a side look toward her. “What’s that?”
She twisted her mouth, hesitating. “I said, ‘I bet we can guess her eye color.’”
A chill raced through Eli, and he fisted his hands as he realized the truth of her assumption.
“How’s that?” Asher asked, a frown denting his brow.
Eli scrubbed a hand over his face and met his partner’s gaze. “It’s something Noelle and I realized a couple days ago when analyzing the information in the case files about the victims. They all have blue eyes. Dark hair and blue eyes.”
“Which is a somewhat rare combination, statistically speaking,” Noelle added.
Kansas jerked upright. “Wait. All of us Coltons have dark hair and blue eyes. Well, except Lakin.”
“Who was adopted,” Eli reminded her. “And you’re right. Every other Colton has blue eyes and dark hair.” He paused and sighed. “Including our Aunt Caroline.”
Asher’s frown deepened. “The one who was murdered when you were a kid?”
Eli nodded. “Exactly.”
Kansas threw up a hand. “Hold on. The guy that killed Aunt Caroline and our grandparents also killed himself at the scene. That case has been closed for decades.”
“True. But Scott is a forensic specialist. And evidence from his house proves he had accessed the case files from Aunt Caroline’s death. The Fiancée Killer is copying elements of the crime.”
The color in Kansas’s face drained away, and Asher divided a look between Eli and his cousin. “What elements is he copying? What exactly happened to your aunt? And why didn’t you tell me about this link earlier?”
“Because you were—are—on medical leave. You’re supposed to be resting, not working,” Eli said. “Besides, when we first made the connection, I wasn’t sure it would bear fruit.” He groaned. “Or maybe I was praying it wouldn’t.”
Asher scowled darkly, and Kansas leaned toward Eli. “So tell us now. It’s clearly important.”
Over the next several minutes, Eli and Kansas filled Asher in on the thirty-year-old murder and how the family had tried to put it behind them, not speak of it and move on when they relocated to Alaska.
“So the engagement ring, the pose, the victims’ similar physical description, the manner of death… Scott’s copying your aunt’s murder. But why?” Asher asked.
“Because he’s sick,” Kansas said with a sneer.
“True. But the last couple of days, Noelle and I have been working a theory that these murders, everything Scott is doing—” Eli hesitated, knowing how it egotistical his idea would sound “—comes back to me somehow. He’s mocking me or getting revenge or something.”
Asher sat straighter, then winced, and rubbed his temple. “You? How? Why?”
Eli elaborated on the details of being at the scene when Caroline was found, the very specific physical description and pose of the new victims, and his position in charge of the investigation.
“But… Uncle Will was with you when you found Caroline,” Kansas said. “Could your father be the focus of all this?”
Eli twisted his mouth and shook his head.
“More recently, Noelle’s brake line was slashed, and she wrecked her rental car on the highway just outside of town.
Noelle—who I dated in college and have been spending lots of time with in the past two weeks.
Scott knows I care about her. What better way to strike at me? ”
Noelle added, “My hostel was ransacked while I was out on Friday, as well, and the hard copies of the Fiancée Killer case files were stolen. We don’t have proof yet, because the thief was careful to stay out of view of security cameras, but Eli and I are working on the assumption it was Scott.”
“So…” Eli spread his hands, palms up. “Because I find it hard to believe any of this is coincidence, the facts seem to point to me.”
Noelle cleared her throat. “Again, people, we’re on the clock.
A woman’s life is at risk, and we have a storm closing in.
Unless there’s something about your aunt’s murder that will help us track Scott, we need to change direction here.
We have to find this woman…” she pointed to Eli’s monitor “…before she becomes victim six.”