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“She won’t be seen,” I say absently. “Dev Thomas was there that night, and he seemed certain he’d been spared when he talked to us earlier. I think she paid him a visit when he arrived in town today.”
“Why?”
“To see why he was here.”
He looks confused, but I don’t want to talk in front of everyone.
“I shouldn’t be involving you in this and forcing you to—”
“You’re not forcing me to do anything,” Leonard says on a sigh. “Like I said, I get why she’s doing it. This town has been killing and torturing people for years, and no one even cared about it until her.”
I start to say something else, but Donny walks up, silencing our private conversation.
“So our unsub goes from quoting Voltaire to leaving a crude ‘fuck you’ message with a heart? Maybe you were right about it being a female, but why bother with the men’s boot prints if you’re going to leave a heart signature?”
“That message is about as petty as your girlfriend,” Lisa says as she joins us.
Leonard chokes on air, but I remain composed.
“Says the petty girl who keeps trying to make her jealous,” Hadley announces as she walks in, avoiding eye contact with me as she squats down with her kit to start taking samples.
My eyes rake over her, seeing her wearing different clothes than she left in. What is particularly eye-catching is the fact she’s in a red shirt.
Over the years, I’ve heard her bitch more than once about the fact her red hair limits her wardrobe. She never wears red.
But I know someone who does.
“She spit gum in my hair,” Lisa hisses.
“When?” I ask, hopeful this was recently and hopeful it wasn’t recently at the same time.
“After I accidentally walked in on you two,” Lisa mumbles, her cheeks turning pink.
“And provoked her,” Hadley says from her crouch, not bothering to look up. “Twice. I would have slapped you. Lana went for a less obvious approach.”
Leonard tugs my arm, guiding me out as Hadley and Lisa bicker. As soon as we’re outside of the courthouse, he looks around, making sure no one can hear.
“They called Elise to New York to help with a case.”
“I know. I’m the one who told you. And Elise volunteered to go because she’s still not physically one hundred percent and wanted to make sure no one else was pulled.”
“They called Craig back for something else.”
I nod.
“It’s just a matter of time before they pull us out o
f here completely, even if it is one by one.”
“They’ll try,” I say with a shrug. “But short of any charges, the director has no weight to pull us completely.”
Leonard looks out into the woods behind the courthouse.
“She could have easily killed Lisa.”
My eyebrows hit my hairline.
“What?”
