Eli cut a glance from the road to Noelle and nodded. “I am. I’m just not sure what to do with it.”
“So spill. What did you learn?”
Eli drew a fortifying breath. “In college, did I ever tell you I had an aunt who was murdered when I was five years old?”
He heard her low gasp. “What!” Then a beat later, she said, “Wait. I think you did, just in passing. You didn’t want to talk about it, so I let it drop. I mean, I had my touchy subjects that were taboo, so…” Noelle shifted on her seat. “What about your aunt?”
“The details of the murder scene, how she was killed, how she was dressed and posed, even the engagement ring her killer put on her hand and made sure we saw are almost identical to the Fiancée Killer. My aunt’s killer left her in my grandparents’ living room, not out in the wilderness, and he killed himself beside her. But there are too many similarities to disregard.”
Noelle said nothing for a moment, and when he glanced her way, her expression said she was deep in thought, digesting this new information in light of what they knew.
“Maybe it’s just a coincidence?” she said, though her tone said she didn’t believe that theory any more than he did.
“I’ve told you my belief about coincidence, especially in police work.”
“But if Scott is behind all this, like we think, and he’s recreating the scene of your aunt’s murder—”
“Which I was the first to come across when it happened.”
Noelle inhaled sharply. “Eli! You never told me that! At five, you saw your murdered aunt?”
He confirmed this with a bob of his head. “And here I am investigating the new murders.”
“How can you sound so casual about this? He set a bomb to try to kill you when you sniffed out his guilt!” Noelle raised both hands to her face and groaned. “Eli, has this all been about some grudge Scott has against you? I mean, we determined earlier that the victims all have dark hair and blue eyes like the Coltons, likeyou! But when he started killing women, how could Scott have known you’d get the case instead of some other ABI agent? And what in the world did you do to set him off like this?”
Eli scrubbed a hand over his chin. “Hell if I know. Scott’s never really registered on my radar before now. He was just this geeky guy from forensics I saw around the office from time to time. I may have teased him at some point, but nothing vicious. Just the kind of good-natured ribbing all men do with each other.”
“So, what does this mean? If this has something to do with a vendetta against you, where does it go now that Scott knows you’re onto him and his first attempt to kill you failed?”
“Well, for one thing, I want you out.”
“What? No!”
“Noelle, I want you far away from this case for your own safety. And we have to make sure anyone who knows you were working on the case with me says nothing about it. I don’t want him coming after you to get to me.”
She touched his arm, drawing his attention away from the road. Her face was grim. “He already knows.”
“Huh? How?”
“That morning I came by ABI headquarters to get your files on the case, he stopped by. You told him you were including me on the investigation as a consultant.”
Eli’s gut swooped. “I did?”
“You did.”
When the day in question replayed in his brain, Eli slapped the steering wheel and muttered a bad word.
“What’s more, someone has already come after me. Someone cut my brake line, remember?”
The heat of anger rose in his blood and climbed to his cheeks. His temples pounded as he mulled the truth from a new perspective. Someone had targeted Noelle. Scott knew of her involvement helping with the case. Fresh resolve hardened inside him. “Well, then, here’s the new plan. I want you to stay close to me until we figure out where he is and what he’s planning. I know that puts you in the line of fire, so to speak, but I can protect you better if I’m with you than if I’m not.”
“You really think I—”
“Or…” Eli squeezed the steering wheel as another option occurred to him. “Maybe you should go back to Seattle now. Handle your sister’s funeral from there. I can see that your directions for her remains are handled the way you want.”
“Go home?” Her voice was soft and flat. “Is that really what you want?”
“No. But I want you safe, and you’ll be safer far away from Shelby.”
