Page 30 of Chameleon Killer

“Then we establish one.” The words came out too easily.

Flores’s typing stopped and I could feel the way Sykes’ gaze drilled into the side of my head.

I heard the sentence after I said it. Damage control time.

“If Radley Pike checks out as false, if he accessed Reardon’s office under fabricated credentials, and if he came into contact with McBryan, we have grounds to reassess her risk level.”

Sykes didn’t relax. “You mean grounds to control her.”

“I mean grounds to keep her breathing.” The answer was sharper than I intended. Mallory had a real talent for making people sharper than they intended.

Even when she wasn’t in the room.

Expression full of doubt, Sykes unfolded her arms. “Full victimology in five,” she said. “Conference room B. You need to be there.”

“I’ll be there.”

“And Elliot?”

I didn’t answer.

“If this becomes about her instead of the case, you won’t see it until it’s already cost you both.” She left before I could respond.

Probably wise.

I turned back to the monitors.

Flores cleared his throat. “Preliminary search on Northbank Risk Assessment is clean.”

“Clean how?”

“Registered LLC. Website. Business line. State filings. Insurance categories. Looks legitimate.”

“Looks?” I honed in on that word.

“Looks.”

Good. At least Flores understood the difference.

“Dig deeper.”

“Already am.”

I moved to the conference table and opened the latest folder with the updates on the victim profiles.

Photographs stared back.

Daniel Price.

Roger Corbin.

Branson Kellerman.

Samuel Pritchard.

Gerrald Garcia.

Colin Thorne.