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Like I can stop it from happening.
Then Midas threw a glance at Lark.“Interesting meeting you.You weren’t at all like the wicked witch that I expected.”
“Thank…you?”
“And I’m not the son of the devil, either.Or maybe I am.Who the hell knows?”He lifted his hand in a wave.The door shut behind him moments later.
The silence grew thick.Heavy.
The big foyer with its fifteen-foot ceiling suddenly seemed too small.
“That’s an…unusual friend you have.”Her hands were still tucked in the back pockets of her jeans.
“That’s the only kind of friend I like to have.”Oliver headed for his study.Nervous energy hummed within him.He knew Lark wanted him to say…No, I don’t think your beloved brother is a killer.I’m completely convinced of his innocence now.And if he said that, maybe she’d throw herself into his arms, just like in the fantasies he’d had so many times.Fantasies where she said she never wanted to be away from him.Where she said she’d choose him, always.That he mattered more to her than anything else.
He turned at his desk, propped his hip against the edge, and watched as she tip-toed in after him.
“Prints are still being run on the Escalade.”He’d checked on the way home.“Unlike on TV shows, that kind of thing can take time.Theo is looking at traffic cams, though.So far, he can see the Escalade, but not get a view of the driver.Not one when the driver is not wearing that damn ski mask, anyway.”
“What about Jase?Has he turned up anything?Did he talk to the valet staff where the car was stolen?”
Oliver nodded.“He’s got video of a man in a black ski mask walking right up to the Escalade.Guy has a key.Doesn’t need to pick the lock.Just accesses it and drives away.He must have lifted the key from the valet station or had someone else lift it for him.”And that’s why Jase is spending extra time grilling every member of the staff there.“I want to go over.Take a look myself.But since I’m supposed to be stepping back, I was letting Jase have his run first.”
“I don’t think you should be stepping back.”
His lips twisted.“Not like there’s much of a choice.Can’t be having you in my bed every night while I’m running a case that involves you.Looks like a major conflict of interest.”Hell, like everything with her wasn’t a conflict?My days at the Bureau are numbered.But he’d known that for a while.Even with the special designation and privileges the Deputy Director had given Oliver, there was still too much red tape.Too many rules that he wanted to break.
And that was why he’d been in talks with the Ice Breakers.
Maybe it was time to go freelance.He could still do consulting work for the Feds, on the side.He’d also been offered several teaching positions at colleges.He could make his own schedule, teach when he wanted, and take the cases with the Ice Breakers when they needed him.Memphis had certainly been making a convincing sell in his arguments to Oliver over the last few weeks.
His phone rang.
Oliver pulled it out and glanced down at the screen.Speak of the devil.Well, technically, he hadn’t spoken about the devil in question.He’d justthoughtabout the Ice Breakers and Memphis Camden.With his eyes on a slowly approaching Lark, Oliver raised the phone to his ear.“Mind if I call you back?”
“Uh, mind if you start keeping my ass in the loop?”Memphis retorted.“Thought we were working together on this thing.Then I catch a news story about how Lark Lawson was attacked last night, by thesameman who abducted and killed those other women.”
“Sounds like the reporter was jumping the gun.Don’t have enough evidence to say that with certainty yet.”
“Don’t give me your FBI public relations bullshit,” Memphis huffed right back.“This is me.Was it him?”
Lark stopped just a few feet away.
“Trying to figure that out,” he said.
“She’s with you?”
“About three feet away, yes, and when I’m not with her, I have someone I trust who will be.Until we catch the guy from last night, she’s not going to be staying alone.”
“Good.I don’t like this shit.”
“Can’t say I’m a major fan, either.”
Lark watched him.
“I’ve got my team digging into the families of the vics,” Memphis informed him.“I know, I know, the Feds already checked them out.I want my own checking done.Withmypeople.The first vic, Casey—she came here to get married, right?Only she had a fight with her fiancé.She stormed off into the night.”
“Yes.Casey Gallows.The fiancé didn’t report her missing right away because the guy believed she was angry with him and that she’d hooked up with someone else.”And maybe she had.Maybe she’d gone off and met the wrong man.
