A Profiler's Case for Seduction(16)

“I’d say that’s a wonderful idea,” Sarah agreed. He heard her calling for Grace. “Come on, Daddy is on the phone.”

“Daddy?” Grace’s little high-pitched voice was filled with excitement and then she was on the line with him. “Daddy, when are you coming to see me again? It’s been awful long. You should come right now.”

Mark couldn’t help the laughter that bubbled to his lips as he heard the mini-diva command in his three-year-old’s voice. “I wish I could be there right now, Gracie Ann, but I can’t. Daddy is in the middle of a big job.”

“You’re always in the middle of a big job,” Grace said with a bit of a pout.

“I promise when I’m finished here I’ll come and see you.” Mark clutched the phone closer to his ear. “We’ll go get ice cream together.”

“Two scoops?” she asked hopefully.

“Two scoops,” he agreed.

“Just you and me, Daddy?”

“Just you and me.”

“You pinky swear?” Grace asked dubiously.

“I double pinky swear,” Mark replied.

“Okay, Daddy, I’ve got to go now. Mommy wants to talk to you.”

“You won’t let her down.” Sarah’s voice filled the line.

“I’ve never broken a promise, especially not a double pinkie swear,” he replied.

“True, but the problem is you never make promises, Mark. I just don’t want this to be the beginning of any heartbreak for Grace. It’s bad enough that you see her so rarely as it is.”

“I know, I know, and I’m going to do my best to change that.”

There was a long moment of silence. “Did you find out you have a terminal disease or something?” Sarah asked finally.

“No, nothing like that,” he replied with a wince. “I just had a conversation with somebody who reminded me that little girls need their fathers.” Dora’s gray eyes filled his head. “She told me that it was important that I be the kind of father Grace needs in her life. I want to be that, Sarah.”

“Well, whoever it was, thank them for me,” Sarah said drily. “Apparently they got it through your thick skull when I haven’t been able to.”

“Sarah, you know why I’ve kept my distance,” Mark said softly.

“And I’ve told you a hundred times that Grace’s light is far brighter than your darkness,” Sarah said. “You can only bring good things into her life, Mark.”

Mark’s heart expanded at her words, at the utter faith with which she spoke them. After a few more minutes of conversation, they hung up. Mark remained leaning against the stone building, thinking about what Sarah had said.

She’d never truly understood the grip that darkness and evil had on him when he was in the middle of a case. He’d tried not to bring it home, but it clung to him like a cloak that he was unable to shed.

She hadn’t understood that he climbed into the very skin of evil, that he invited madness into his head. He became the killers he sought and there were many nights during their marriage he had stayed in a motel room rather than bring that home with him.

A glance at his cell phone let him know that it was time for a briefing inside. The room smelled of stale coffee and fresh doughnuts, the latter scent drifting from two boxes of the fresh pastries in the center of the tables. One of the boxes was already half-empty. He sank down next to Lori Delaney, who gave him a smug little smile.

“The scuttlebutt is that last night a certain agent was seen having coffee with a certain student in the campus coffee shop,” she said.

“Research,” Mark replied, despite the flush of warmth he felt climbing into his cheeks.

“Research, my butt,” Lori replied as she reached out and grabbed a chocolate-covered doughnut from one of the boxes.

Mark sat patiently while the others gave their reports...reports that led nowhere, as usual. “We’re coordinating our investigation with the local law enforcement,” Agent Donald Thompson said to the group. “Currently the liaison is Detective Nick Jeffries, and his team is scrambling just like ours with a lot of questions and too few answers.”

“What we need to do is find a solid connection between all three of our victims,” Richard Sinclair said. “The connection between Peter Burris and Senator Merris is obvious. Sheriff Burris was blackmailing the senator...they were both elbow deep in dirty dealings. But we haven’t been able to tie David Reed to either the sheriff or the senator. If we can find a person who had run-ins with all three before the murders, then maybe we’d have a better handle on our killer.”