Die For Me: A Novel of the Valentine Killer (For Me #1)(8)

She laughed, but it sounded hollow. “I guess I do.”



“Holy shit.” Mac’s curse heaved out on a hard sigh. “That’s her.”

Dane stared down at the computer screen. While he’d been waiting on the Boston PD to fax over the case files, he’d started doing his own research on Valentine.

The Internet was such a handy bitch. With a few clicks of the keyboard, a guy could find almost anything.

Including pictures of one Katelynn Crenshaw. The photo had been snapped by a reporter right after Katelynn discovered her fiancé carving up his latest victim.

Right in their basement.

Her hair was longer and blonde in the picture. Her skin golden, and not the pale ivory it had been today. Her body was fuller, filled with lush curves.

But her eyes were the same. No mistaking those eyes. Or her lips.

“No wonder she knew so much about Valentine,” Harley said as he crowded in near the computer screen. “She was screwing the guy.”

Dane’s shoulders tensed. The captain could be a real ass some days. “She told the cops everything she’d seen and spent months working with them as they tried to catch the guy.”

He remembered the details now. Like the rest of the nation, he’d caught the images on TV about the Valentine Killer. Katelynn had come home early and found blood in her kitchen. She’d called 911 and gone looking for her fiancé. She’d found him in the basement, carving up Stephanie Gilbert.

By the time the cops arrived, Valentine had disappeared. He had left Katelynn unharmed and he’d just…vanished.

No more bodies had been discovered after his disappearance, so the Boston cops had started to think the guy might have killed himself. Some profiler appeared on one of the major network channels spewing about how a serial killer like Valentine couldn’t go dormant for so long. Since he wasn’t attacking, the profiler had said the guy might have turned his rage on himself. Suicide.

Bullshit.

From what Dane could tell, the profiler needed to think again.

“Was she in on it, do you think?” Harley asked. “She had to know what a twisted freak he was.”

Sometimes you couldn’t see the monsters right in front of you. No one had believed what a twisted SOB his old man had been, not until it was too late. “If this is really is Valentine, he’s here because of her.” He’d tracked her, all the way down the Eastern Seaboard. This was one man determined not to let go.

“Yeah, well…” A chair squeaked as Mac rolled away. “You can sure bet that U.S. marshal will have her out of town as fast as he can.” Mac exhaled on a hard sigh. “They’re gonna want to keep her safe so they can pull her out at trial.”

“Trial?” Dane repeated and forced his gaze off the picture of Katelynn. Katherine. “There’s no trial to worry about now.”

“Just because no one else has caught him,” Harley interrupted smoothly, “doesn’t mean we can’t.”

Harley might be an ass, but the guy had never been afraid of a challenge. He also loved getting his face splashed in the papers. If his department took down Valentine, he’d be able to wallpaper his office with all the news stories.

“Here you go.” Detective Karen James handed a fat stack of papers across the desk to Dane. “All your info from a Detective Hobbs in Boston.”

Not all. Sean Hobbs had promised to copy the rest of the files and overnight them. This two-inch stack was just the beginning.

Dane began to flip through the pages. Valentine had been one grisly bastard.

And he had only one weakness.

“Dane.”

He looked up at the captain’s voice.

“I don’t want her leaving the city,” Harley said. “Whether we’re dealing with the real deal or some copycat, that woman is linked to these killings.”

“All of the guy’s victims in Boston were blondes,” Dane said.

“And now we’ve got us a dead brunette,” Harley cut in.

Dane met Mac’s thoughtful stare.

“Katherine’s a brunette now,” Mac said.

Yes, she was.

When he’d first found Savannah’s body and seen her clutching that rose, Dane had made the connection to the Valentine case just like the reporters had. He’d remembered that Valentine liked to bind his victims and then stab them in the heart.

But as for all the small pieces, the facts, the profiles…that was what he needed to discover if he was going to find out what the hell was happening now.

“Read that report. Start piecing together all that you can on Valentine,” Harley ordered. “We have to work fast, because if it is him, the bureau will be down here trying to take over my case.”

No missing the my.

“We all know you have a way with the ladies, Black,” the captain continued. Detective James, who’d stayed around to shamelessly eavesdrop, snickered at that. Harley ignored her and pointed at Dane. “So I want you to use some of that charm and keep Katherine Cole in New Orleans, you got me?”

Dane nodded. “Don’t worry, Cap. Katherine’s not going anywhere.”

Because she was the key to the case, and he’d be damned if he let the bodies start to pile up in his city.

Valentine had a weakness, all right, and Dane would be using that weakness against him.