AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Amber winced at that, and at thefact that Mallory was prepared to say it in the middle of an open crime scene. Amberhad, indeed, stolen her diary from the evidence locker of the local PD when shecouldn’t get it back any other way. But that had been because Mallory hadn’tbeen taking the link to it seriously, and Amber hadn’t seen any other way tosave lives.
“Palliser settled that,” Simonsaid, and now Amber could hear the protectiveness and the anger in his voice.
Agent Palliser was Amber andSimon’s boss. She had indeed smoothed things over with the diary, but she’dalso made it clear that Amber was on her last warning. There was no more roomfor her to slip up.
“We’ll see,” Mallory said.
“What does that mean?” Simon shotback, almost, but not quite, squaring up to the other agent.
“It means that there are peopleover Palliser’s head. Especially now your partner has gotten someone elsekilled.”
“Mallory, I think you need to gocheck the security footage of the building,” Simon said.
“You’re telling me what to do in myown crime scene?”
“I’m suggesting that you take abreath, because if you keep going at my partner, you and I are going to have aproblem.”
Mallory briefly looked as if hemight retort, but Simon’s expression had no give in it, and Mallory seemed torealize that he was serious.
“All right, I’ll check. But then Iwant you two out of my crime scene.”
“I’ll give Palliser a call and seewhat she says about that,” Simon said.
He led Mallory away from Amber, andAmber was grateful for that. It wasn’t just that Mallory seemed to bedetermined to take his frustrations about the case out on Amber, and the painof that was hard to ignore. It was also the fact that she needed to be able tolook at the crime scene properly. She needed to find answers here. She owedSinead that. She owed all of the victims those answers, when ultimately, all ofthis was about her.
Amber moved around the scene,trying to find anything that might give her a way into the case. The strangestthing was that there weren’t designs on the walls, the way there had been atthe last scene. It seemed that the killer had changed his approach again, as ifthere were a new iteration of the game each time.
All Amber could see was a smallsquare of card set by the side of the chess board, with just the words “SolveMe” on it.
“Has the card been tested?” Amberasked the CSI investigator she’d spoken to before, wanting to make sure thatshe wasn’t going to disturb evidence before she picked it up.
He nodded. “No prints, but we’vetaken DNA swabs just in case. We’ve run a UV light over it to see if thatpicked anything up, but nothing so far.”
"Test it for every kind ofinvisible ink you can think of when you get it back to the lab," Ambersaid. There was a good chance that the killer had hidden some kind of clue onthe card if this was the new game he was playing. He seemed to like to changehis approach with each kill so that he presented Amber with a fresh puzzle eachtime. Maybe he wanted to make sure that Amber couldn’t coast through thepuzzles he set, or maybe he wanted to make sure that the rest of the FBIcouldn’t do this without her. This was a game that he wanted to play with her,and he was determined that Amber was going to be the one to take him on.
Amber briefly looked over thechessboard. It was set up in a position. Maybe this was what the killer wantedthem to solve. Was it a puzzle? Was there an obvious win there for one side oranother?
Amber was still staring at it whenSimon came back in.
“No Mallory?”
“He’s still looking at the securityfootage.”
Amber looked up at him, and she wassure the gratitude she felt showed on her face. “Thank you for stepping in.”
She wanted to hug him for that. Shewanted to just be close to him. If it weren’t the middle of a crime scene, ifthey weren’t partners, still trying to work out exactly what they meant to oneanother, maybe she would have. As it was, all she could offer Simon was asmile.
Simon returned it, but then hisexpression turned grave. “I called Palliser. She says she’ll keep Mallory offour backs, but she also wants us back at the office.”
“Right away?” Amber asked. Shewanted to do more here, wanted to help more.
“Right away,” Simon said. “Shesaid… she says she has another case for us.”
CHAPTER THREE
Amber wasn’t sure what to think orfeel as she and Simon made their way into the FBI offices where they worked. Shewas frustrated at being pulled away from the crime scene, apprehensive aboutwhat case Palliser might have that needed her and Simon so urgently, but alsoeager to know what it was. Every case was its own puzzle, a chance to make adifference to someone’s life, and the prospect of a new one to solve did atleast a little to offset the pain of being pulled away from the case that Ambertruly wanted to work on.
Agent Palliser was waiting for thetwo of them in a large, glass-walled conference room. She was a woman in herfifties, taller than Amber, with shoulder-length dark hair cut through by asingle streak of grey. She wore an expensive suit that was a reminder thatthese days, she spent at least as much time dealing with FBI politics as out inthe field. As Amber and Simon entered the conference room, Palliser clicked ona screen to one side and started to call up a file.
