CHAPTER THREE
Assistant Director Victoria Winters could easily be mistaken for an actress or a wealthy socialite.
The tall, statuesque woman had medium-length hair dyed red that she kept perfectly straight.
Today, she had bangs, and they fell perfectly over carefully plucked eyebrows and framed high cheekbones and skin that needed no cosmetic aid to remain taut despite Winters’ age being closer to sixty than fifty.
She wore an olive turtleneck that advertised another part of her body that was firmer than her age suggested, and over that, a navy-blue sport coat that looked like it cost well into the four figures.
The charm ended there. Winters looked like an actress and could play politician with the best of them, but when it came to her agents, she was all business. Especially when one of those agents was Kate. She got straight to business before Kate and Marcus took the seats in front of her desk.
"Four victims: Jordan Prescott, a florist from Louisville, Kentucky; Karen De Luca, a postal worker from Buffalo, New York; Gloria Prentiss, a retired schoolteacher from Greenfield, Indiana; and finally, Warren Schulz, an accountant from Dayton, Ohio.
All of them killed by asphyxiation due to manual strangulation, although Mr. Schulz was knocked unconscious by a hard blow to the back of the head prior to strangulation. "
Marcus, not looking up from his notepad where he was furiously scribbling notes, asked, “Anything to connect this to the Commandment Killings?”
“No, not explicitly.”
Both agents looked up at Winters. Kate spoke first. “So why are you asking us to look at this?”
Winters sighed. She looked very unhappy. “This could be related to the manhunt.”
Marcus frowned. “How so?”
“Cox’s preferred MO is manual strangulation.”
“Same with almost every other serial killer.”
“Yes, but we’re looking at a killer on the move.”
“Same with… not every other serial killer, but it’s happened before.”
“The first murder was seven weeks ago.”
Kate’s heart clenched. That was about two weeks after Cox broke out of jail for the second time.
Marcus sighed. “Okay, so what’s the connection? It’s not enough that the timing matches.”
“The MO matches and the fact that there’s no sign of forced entry at any of the homes also fits. The killer was invited in. Cox prefers to gain his victims’ trust, even if only just long enough to invade their sanctuary.”
Invade their sanctuary. That made a lot of sense.
His first confirmed string of crimes involved burning people he believed were false prophets in their place of worship.
A Catholic priest in his confessional, a televangelist in the office from where he ran his ministry…
And his second string of deaths involved killing workaholics at their places of business.
That’s what Cox did. He found you where you thought you were safe. He took that safety away. Then he took your life.
“What about between the victims?” Marcus asked. “Did they know each other?”
“It doesn’t look like there’s any connection between the victims. We’ve run their names through every database we can find. Nothing’s come up.”
Marcus rubbed the bridge of his nose. He did a poor job of hiding his frustration when he asked, “Okay. So why do we think this is Cox?”
“As I said, the timing is suspicious. The method matches him, and the fact that the locations are spread out across the upper eastern half of the country suggests someone moving constantly but not fast enough to get very far.”
“Someone taking buses or hitching rides,” Kate inferred.
“Or relying on disciples to ferry him from place to place.”
Marcus lifted a hand, palm out. “Let’s not act as though we have a connection when we don’t.” Winters eyes flashed at the rebuke, and he backed off a bit. “I’m just saying, we need to hear hoofbeats before we think zebras. At this point, all we have is trampled grass.”
“Who asked us to take a look at this?” Kate asked.
“Dayton Police Department,” Winters replied.
“Schulz was the most recent victim. They took a look at the scene and decided it was similar enough to the others that they were probably dealing with a serial killer. They notified the Bureau, and Jack passed it along to me when he spotted the similar MOs.”
“Except that Schulz’s MO was different,” Marcus reminded her. “He was hit from behind before he was strangled.”
“He was also six-three and two hundred fifty pounds. He’d be a lot for Cox to handle.”
“He’d be a lot for most people to handle.”
Winters’ brow furrowed. “Is there a reason you’re having so much trouble with my orders, Agent Reid?”
Marcus, six-three and a solid two-ten to -twenty himself, lifted his hands, palms up. “I’m just saying, a guy bigger than me is a lot for most people to handle. It’s not enough evidence to suggest that Cox is involved.”
“Which is why I want you two to look at the crime scene photographs. Take a look, decide if there’s something worth pursuing, and bring it to me.”
“I’ll get right on that,” Marcus said, snatching the unopened file and heading for the door.
“Reid,” Winters called sternly. “Both of you.”
Marcus’s shoulders bunched. He turned around, gentle brown eyes not so gentle as they pinched together on either side of a nose bent permanently from a break that never healed properly.
With that nose, his buzzcut, and his burly weightlifter’s build, he should have been the opposite of Kate’s type.
Instead, she found him the most attractive man on Earth.
She hated that she noticed that now in the middle of everything else. Fuck Tuesday.
“Ma’am, I respectfully submit that including Agent Valentine on this case is a mistake.”
Kate flinched. Hey, look at that. Not attracted to him anymore. “What?”
“I believe—it is my professional opinion that you will see connections that aren’t there out of a desire to see Cox apprehended.”
Kate started laughing at apprehended and kept laughing when she replied, “Really? That’s what you’re gonna do? You’re gonna pull out the old, ‘she’s obsessed’ card?”
“You are obsessed. You’ve been obsessed. Your record is replete with proof that you’re obsessed.”
Kate felt the edges of the giant melon baller as it dug into her ribcage and scooped out her heart.
Marcus had always supported her work on the Commandment Killings.
Even when he was worried about how far she was taking things, he always had her back.
Hearing him talk about her like this hurt worse than anything that had happened between them, far worse than when they broke off their burgeoning romance.
She was so hurt that Winters spoke before Kate could formulate a reply. “Your complaints are duly noted, Agent Reid. Now work with Kate to solve this case.”
“Were any ciphers found at the scene?” Marcus demanded.
Winters sighed. “No.”
“Oh, for God’s…” Marcus turned around and put his hands on top of his head.
“Again, your complaint is duly noted,” Winters said drily. “Now work with Kate and get this done. Will that be a problem for you, Agent Reid?”
Marcus chuckled softly. “No, it won’t be a problem, Director Winters. I live to serve.”
“And that is the limit of the disrespect I will tolerate,” Winters said and meant it.
Marcus lowered his eyes and growled a reluctant, “Yes, ma’am.”
“Dismissed.”
Kate followed Marcus out of the office, noting that he didn’t bother to gesture with his head this time. She waited until they were back in the office they shared, then slammed the door shut and demanded, “What the hell was that, Marcus?”
“The truth.”
“Screw you! You know, I get that you and I aren’t in love anymore, but—”
“Who said we were ever in love?”
Kate was too emotionally exhausted to process any pain that comment might have dredged up. “But we are still partners, and you of all people should know better than to suggest that I’m incapable of doing my job!”
Marcus lifted his eyes to hers. “You sure about that, Kate?”
Kate’s lower lip trembled. She swallowed to get it under control, then said in a soft, sharp voice, “What are your concerns, Agent Reid?”
Marcus’s expression faltered. His shoulders slumped, and he lifted a hand to his face, wiped it over three-day stubble, then let it fall. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”
That helped, but only a little. “And you think pulling me off the case is going to keep me from getting hurt?”
“Well… yeah. Cox knows you have a bug up your butt about him. He put it there. He knows he can lure you into danger because he’s done it already. He’s going to do the same thing, and you’re going to bite even though you know it’s bait because you need to know if he’s right about your father.”
Kate couldn’t avoid the pain that comment brought. It showed in her voice when she snapped, “I need a serial killer to stop killing people.”
“It goes beyond that with Cox, Kate. For you, it goes beyond that, and you know it.”
Kate nodded. Tears threatened at the corners of her eyes, but so help her, she wouldn’t let them fall. “So you told my boss I’m unfit for my job because you’re worried I might be too zealous when I try to do it?”
“Yes.”
Kate threw her hands in the air. “Jesus.”
“Yes, Kate, you might get overzealous! You might get some clue or some warning from him and fly across the country without telling me. You might ignore all of my calls and texts and try to stop him yourself. Or, you might imagine things that aren’t there and convince yourself that Cox is behind all of this even if he isn’t.
And if he is… I can’t watch you die, Kate. I can’t lose you.”
“You already have.”
Marcus winced, and Kate almost regretted that statement. Almost.
“Let’s look at the photographs,” Kate said. “Maybe you’ll get lucky, and I’ll decide it’s a false alarm.”
“We’re never lucky, Kate,” Marcus said wearily.
He set the file on the desk and opened it so they could both look at the information they’d received from four different crime scenes in four different states.
Four bodies in four different states in seven weeks.
Cox had wasted little time getting back to work after breaking out of what was supposed to be the most secure prison in the United States.
No, they were definitely not lucky.