Ambrosia (Frost and Nectar, #2)(78)

I’d already committed most of their faces to memory—the two men with beer guts in cheap suits who probably had low-level positions in one of the nearby banks; the man in the white hat with track marks up his arm; the cluster of teens who’d convinced someone to serve them beer, at least one of them more interested in trying to get laid than anything else going on here. But photographs would make it easier for other cops to study the crowd after the fact.

From a far corner of the square, a man in a gray suit approached us, a serious expression on his face. “Detective Stewart.” He nodded at Gabriel. I pegged him at about fifty, his hair silvery gray. He wasn’t bad-looking, like a giant George Clooney. He was at least as tall as Gabriel, and powerfully built. Standing next to them, I felt roughly the size of a young child. Was everyone in Britain a giant?

“Chief.” Gabriel nodded at him, then motioned at me. “This is Agent Liddell from the FBI. Agent, this is Detective Chief Inspector Steve Wood.”

“Oh, yes.” DCI Wood’s voice was deep, pure gravel. “The profiler.”

He didn’t sound thrilled either. It was becoming clear to me that the high brass had gone over everyone’s head when they’d contacted the FBI. Still, he offered me his hand, and I shook it.

“So what are our preliminary findings?” he asked.

For a second I thought he was talking to me, but Gabriel cut in, “This murder is slightly different from the rest. More aggressive. More… public. And he left a note shoved in the victim’s throat.”

“Are we sure it’s the same killer?” DCI Wood asked. “With the different MO—”

“The MO is the same,” I interrupted. “The signature is different.”

Damn it. I was doing that American thing.

The chief glanced at me. “Is that so?”

“Well, um, perhaps…” I blustered. Ah, fuck it. “The MO is the method used to commit the crime. In this case, cutting a young woman’s throat with a knife is the MO. It’s how he’s killed all his victims. The signature is what he did later to satisfy his emotional needs. Mutilating her body postmortem—that’s his signature. But this time he left a note. His signature has been modified. ”

“I see.” He nodded slowly. “And what does a different signature indicate?”

It was a sensible question, but his tone clearly implied he thought I was full of shit.

“Serial killers modify their signatures constantly,” I said. “They evolve and change after each murder. A different signature isn’t unusual, but it suggests that his emotional needs may have changed.”

He looked at Gabriel. “What are your thoughts, Detective?”

Gabriel shrugged. “I agree with her assessment so far.”

The crime scene technicians were wrapping the body’s hands with paper bags, and someone had rolled over a stretcher.

How long would it take to clean all this up? Would tomorrow’s bankers stroll past the large stain on the cobblestones, not knowing why it was there?

As DCI Wood walked away, I nodded at the crowds. “How are Londoners handling the crimes?”

Gabriel frowned. “A mixture of fear and rage. They think it’s a form of terrorism.”

Irritation sparked. “It clearly isn’t.”

“For now, Wood is keeping the media in the dark, so they’re creating their own narrative. Foreigners did it. That’s the story.”

I exhaled slowly. If Wood allowed this to continue, people could get hurt.

Gabriel stared at the body. Under his breath, I heard him say, “The savage man is never quite eradicated.”

Surprised, I turned to him. “Thoreau. He’s from my home town.”

He seemed to study me for a minute, as if his curiosity had been piqued. “Where are you staying? I can walk you to the hotel.”

“No need. I’m only five or ten minutes away—the hotel connected to Liverpool Street Station. And I don’t imagine our killer will be striking again within the next fifteen minutes.”

“Are you sure?”

“Gabriel,” I assured him. “I’m an FBI agent. I can take care of myself.”





ACKNOWLEDGMENTS


Thank you to our lovely writer friends who read excerpts of the book and provided feedback: Mike Omer, Linsey Hall, Elizabeth Briggs and Sarah Piper.

Thank you to the people who have helped me promote the series, including Rachel from Nerdfam, Thais, and Candice.