I See You (Criminal Profiler, #2)(2)

He turned his face away. “I can’t be on camera. We’re not supposed to be here. I could get fired.”

“Take it from me—you don’t want that.”

The manager eased away from the door. “I’ll be back here.”

“Whatever works.”

Of course, she wasn’t actually going live. Given her luck, this entire adventure could be a stunt designed to humiliate her.

She plucked her phone from her back pocket and held it up, knowing a second camera angle might come in handy during editing. In selfie mode, she began to record. “I just received an anonymous tip through my website, Crime Connection,” she said, loud enough for the camera to pick up her voice. “My source tells me to look for a gray trunk in this particular location.”

She panned around the space and then propped her phone on an old dresser mirror and continued to move boxes filled with crap that should have been tossed a decade ago. Dust soon coated her jeans and very expensive turquoise top. The grime would enhance the television drama but would be hell on the dry cleaning bill.

The camera jostled when she bumped it with a dusty box. “It’s an average storage unit that most of us who’ve lived in an urban apartment would have used at one time or another.” She moved a lamp from an ugly 1970s-style end table and angled her body around the table.

Nikki looked directly into the frame, wanting the lens to catch her pensive look. As she turned, she spotted the gray trunk.

After grabbing the leather side handle, she hefted the trunk and found it much lighter than expected. She set the trunk in the hallway, where the light was marginally better. Though she felt a rush of excitement, she did not hurry the opening. The buildup could be as important as the payoff. “A gray trunk.”

She picked up the phone and pointed it toward the tarnished brass lock. Multiple angles always worked well in editing. Her fingers hovered over the lock.

As she adjusted the lens in for a close-up, the manager peered over her shoulder, partly blocking her shot. She swatted him back as she pressed the release button on the lock. To her delight, it popped open. She lifted the lid. The box was filled with stained, brittle tissue paper, which crumbled on contact. Her insides tingled. She still lived for this and remembered how much she missed investigative journalism.

As she scooped up paper, she froze as she stared at the box’s contents. “Is this a joke? Did Rick put you up to this?”

“Who’s Rick?”

“My former boss at the news station.”

“I don’t know Rick,” the manager said. “It looks like a Halloween decoration.”

It was a complete skeleton that was discolored and darkened. She reached into the box and wrapped her hands around the skull, expecting it to feel slick like plastic. However, the moment she touched the skull, she knew it was not made of a smooth synthetic. It was porous like a pumice stone.

She raised the skull, and the jaw immediately dropped. Darkness radiated from empty sockets as the lower jaw dangled in silent laughter before the delicate hinge joints failed and sent the mandible to the cement floor. It broke into several pieces.

The manager stepped closer. “Is that real?”

Her heart raced in her chest as she thought back to the person who had sent her the message. The tip had been anonymous, and she had not bothered to trace the sender. Why her? She was a pariah in television news now. All the visitors to her website were really drawn by morbid curiosity over the epic implosion of her career. She had yet to receive a legitimate tip.

Until now.

Maybe Nikki still had a few fans out there.

She dropped to her knees and carefully collected the broken bits of bone. Normal people did not get juiced over what looked like a torched skull. But she did. Especially if it got her out of purgatory.

For the first time in months, she felt like things were looking up.

Her brain shifted into tactical mode. She had been around long enough to know this skull could belong to your garden-variety murdered guy. He would get his five minutes of fame, and that would be it.

But she had always been a glass-half-full kind of gal. The story could be bigger. And if it was, her former backstabbing boss would be forgotten, and she would be back in the game.

Nikki reached for her phone as she unhooked the camera and aimed it at her face. “It’s real.”

“Who are you calling?” the manager asked.

She looked into the camera. “The cops.”





CHAPTER ONE

Sunday, August 11, 11:00 p.m.

Alexandria, Virginia

Two Days Before

Fresh from the shower, he dried his dark hair and walked across the drab, worn carpet of the motel room toward the television tuned to the local news station. Beside it sat a pizza box. He flipped open the top and grabbed the last slice, plucked off the onions and pepperoni, and discarded them into a pile with the others.

“It was a waste to order the extra toppings.” He liked his pizza plain and simple. “But I was trying to be a nice guy.”

The woman behind him said nothing.

After tossing a sliver of onion into the box, he grabbed the remote and turned up the volume. The mattress sagged as he sat on the edge of the bed. The news anchor was blathering on about local traffic congestion caused by a car accident during evening rush hour. “Same old, same old.”

He took a large bite. The pizza was cold and the cheese hard, but he had worked up an appetite and was willing to settle.