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“You heard?”
“It was kinda loud.” He laughs and I blush.
“Sorry.” Wincing, I pull out a chair at the breakfast bar. “I think I should tell you that I’m not very good in the kitchen.”
“Then it’s as well that I am.” He grabs a large skillet and pours olive oil into the base before placing it over a medium heat. “Stir fry,” he adds, looking into the fridge.
“You like cooking,” I observe.
“My mother loved to cook so as an only child she’d insisted that I’d be as capable in the kitchen as she was.” He smiles. “My mom used to cook up a huge feast every holiday for family and friends. She was always the happiest in the her kitchen.”
“You said used to.”
“She still cooks, and only tends to cook up a feast when I go home.” He shrugs. “She’s in an assisted living facility. It’s one of the good ones. She likes it and has friends close by. I don’t worry as much as I did before I talked her into living there.”
“You’re a good son, Paul.” He blushes at my words.
“I try to be.”
“What does she think about your career choice?” I lean my elbows on the countertop and rest my chin on my hands, feeling tired as well as hungry.
He laughs and places a large cup of steaming coffee in front of me.
“Thank you.” Adding milk and sugar, Paul says, “She wore a fancy hat when I graduated from Quantico. She worries. I actually wanted her to move in with me, but she refused. Said I was too young to have his mother living with him.” He smiles. “She also said with a lot of meaning behind her words that she didn’t want to be in the way of me finding a wife and family.” He blushes again. “I’m getting married in five weeks.”
“I take it you haven’t mentioned to your fiancée about this assignment?”
“Heck no.” He shakes his head. “Anyway, what about you?” He raises a brow.
“I hate talking about myself.” I sigh and Paul stays silent. “I’m not sure about me anymore,” I admit quietly. “I thought my path was set, and now I don’t think it is.” Groaning, I add, “Actually, I think it is set just in a different direction than I had intended.”
“You’re being cryptic, but as an agent, I’m going to guess that Joshua and you are actually a couple.” He smiles softly. “I’m good at my job Mallory.”
“He was unexpected.” I circle the rim of the coffee cup with my index finger. “I’m his direct supervisor.”
&
nbsp; “I’m aware. So what are you going to do about it?”
I glance up and hold Paul’s gaze. “I’m going to resign and work as a consultant.” Until I utter those words I hadn’t realized that I’d made up my mind. “I need to talk to Joshua, but it’s what I want to do. It’s been hovering in the back of my mind for a couple of years now.”
Paul searches my gaze and finally nods. “I do believe you’re telling me the truth.”
I laugh partly with embarrassment. “I am.” I glance away. “There’s going to be a lot of paperwork to finalize this case once we’ve made an arrest, but then, I’m out.” I smile, feeling as though a weight has lifted from my chest. “We just need to catch him first.”
“Hmm, I’ve been thinking,” Paul says, placing a bowl of food in front of me. “We’re thinking it’s a man, but what if we have it wrong and it’s a woman? Couples are being killed so what if it’s a woman whose partner strayed. Maybe she didn’t want to take part in the swinger parties, but he did. He was the insistent one. So she’s now going around killing the couples who strayed.”
“That makes sense.” I frown wondering if we really have been looking at this the wrong way when I have a thought. “After the first murder we looked heavily at their son who was in his early twenties, but when it became apparent that we had a series of murders we stopped looking so closely at him. However, going off your theory of it being a woman, what if it’s a daughter and not a son? Because of the profile we didn’t dig too deeply into the daughters of the deceased.” My heart pounds when I realize we really have been looking at these murders all wrong.
Reaching for my phone, I curse and throw it back down. “No Wi-Fi or cell coverage.” I groan in frustration. “We need to let the others know what we’re thinking. I also need to call the office and ask Stephanie to find out where the two daughters are and what they’ve been doing. If I remember correctly Eve is eighteen and was the eldest daughter of James and Louise Seddon. Maria is twenty-three and was the daughter of Julie and Richard Brandon.”
“They’re so young,” Paul comments. “But it wouldn’t be the first time.”
“No it wouldn’t.” Lost in thought, I finish the stir-fry and shove my bowl away. “Let’s go and find Joshua and Samantha.”
“Wait!” Paul reaches and catches my wrist. “What about the other couples here? Do any of them have a daughter? Or even a son to cover all bases?”
“Let me try and remember who has what.” Grabbing my jacket, I pull it on and take a few minutes to go through each couple. It takes a few moments and then I start to place children with parents. “There are three old enough to pull something like this off. The others are under fifteen.” Inhaling deeply, I continue, “Ann is a teenager. Nineteen if I remember correctly. Then there is Joseph. Twenty-One currently at Paris Island. Simon is eighteen. He keeps to himself and doesn’t have any friends. None that he’d admit to or his parents.”
