Page 17 of Chameleon Killer

She never chased headlines, not when she could chase the contradictions. The places where the story didn’t fit.

"The problem with that last one," I said, lifting my coffee, "is everybody lies."

She nodded. "Which means we stop listening to what they say."

I looked at the board. "And start looking at what they do."

A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. "Now we're getting somewhere."

"You take financials." I uncapped another marker and drew a line down the middle of the board.

She nodded immediately. "I'll pull every public filing connected to Reardon. Corporate disclosures, shell companies, campaign donations, board appointments. If somebody made money off his death, I want to know who."

We had interns, a lot of them. There were a lot of rocks to kick over and it was tedious as hell, but sometimes that was the only way to find the right thread.

In the meanwhile, I’d do what I could to answer the questions up there. "I'll work the people."

She looked over. "Sources?"

"Old ones." I shrugged. "Newsroom. Executive floor. Security. Facilities. Somebody saw something they don't realize matters."

"What about the FBI?"

I snorted. "What about them?"

She smiled into her coffee. "They're not going to tell us anything."

"No."

"But they'll tell Brewster."

I didn’t care for how she said his name. Hell, I didn’t like the guy in general, but I wasn’t going to make this about him. So I just shrugged. "They always do."

She tapped the marker thoughtfully against her chin. "So we let Brewster investigate the killer."

"And you and I will investigate the investigation." Us against them. The two of us working together just the way we should have been.

Her eyes lit. There it was. The spark I'd been waiting to see since Colin had been killed. "We're not chasing a murderer anymore," she said.

I looked back at the names on the board. "No." I circled Guy Reardon's name and then Colin’s. "We're chasing the reason someone wanted their murders to look like his."

Beyond hurting you. I kept that last thought to myself.

“Could get messy,” she murmured. “Network probably won’t approve it.”

No, they probably wouldn’t. “Good thing I’m the news director then.” I saluted her with my coffee and a small smile turned up the corners of her mouth as she raised her own cup.

We didn’t need to say what came next. If we were right, the story wasn't about a serial killer anymore. It was about someone who understood him well enough to weaponize his reputation.

Chapter

Four

THE AUDITOR

They say to get in anywhere, look normal and walk with purpose. If you look like you know where you’re going, people rarely question you.

Uniforms helped, credentials did even more. But nothing opened doors faster than the quiet certainty of someone who already expected to be allowed through them.