Latent Danger (On the Line #2)(7)
He was sure as hell thrown by hers. He wanted to call time out and talk to her. Find out how she’d been and what was new in her world. He knew through the grapevine she’d been married and divorced since they’d been together. He’d heard the ex was a real piece of work, but she hadn’t put up with it. She’d left him quickly and moved on.
She didn’t seem the least bit interested in him. She shook her head. “But that doesn’t account for the lack of posing. Even with a tremor, you could place hands across a chest and arrange a body, I’d think.” She looked like she was seeing the scene play out in her head. Like she was putting herself in the footsteps of the killer.
A dangerous move. A person could lose themselves doing that too much. But Shauna was committed to her work. It wasn’t a job for her. It was a passion. A calling.
“Something’s changed him.” Hutch’s expression was speculative and Zach wondered how many years he had under his belt. The cold case team had to be relentless to do this job. Relentless, patient, and willing to take a lot of disappointment. Cold cases were as tough as they came, where witnesses moved away or forgot things, evidence was often long gone, lost or deteriorated. It was a hard job.
“A stint in prison, a stay in a mental institution—” one of the other investigators offered, listing things that could pull a killer off the streets for a time.
“A long one,” Ronan said receiving head nods and murmurs in response.
Shauna’s face showed the depth of her thoughts as she scanned the photos before them again and again. She was damned good at her job. “Maybe an injury? Something that’s kept him confined, too weak to act?”
“And after thirty years of that, he’s up and around?” Hutch asked.
Shauna pulled a face and nodded. The theory was far-fetched, but it demonstrated that they needed to be thinking outside the box for this one. Whatever was going on, Zach had a feeling they were only at the start of it.
“An apprentice? Something kept our guy out of commission, but now he’s groomed an apprentice?” One of the others offered. “Killing vicariously.”
All eyes looked to Hutch and Shauna who now stood side-by-side for their opinion. Zach felt both a mixture of pride that the team clearly respected her opinion as much as that of Hutch, an investigator of some experience—and jealousy that the two looked like they might work together like a well-oiled machine. They each nodded thoughtfully in the way partners who didn’t need words any longer might communicate.
Zach didn’t even know if Hutch and Shauna were partners. Even if they were, being jealous of that fact was ridiculous.
“Has your medical examiner begun the autopsy yet?” Shauna asked, turning to look at Zach with those blue eyes.
“She was starting it as we were leaving.”
“Can you call and make sure she’s going to look for date rape drugs?” Shauna asked.
Zach nodded and pulled his phone from his pocket to text Dr. Kane’s assistant so he could get the message to her. He knew what Shauna was thinking. If their suspect was weakened in some way physically, it would make sense he’d needed a way to control Adrienne.
Cullis broke up the speculation. “Hutchinson, Cantor, Ross, and Manigault, you guys start pouring through records. Cover prisons, hospitals, look into any accidents on record at the time of the last killing thirty years ago that might have taken our guy out of commission. Check mental institutions.” The list brought a collective groan from the investigators. “Jameson and Wasser, you two comb through the physical evidence and then get it over to the lab for any updated testing they can provide. The last time this case was reviewed was over ten years back. See what’s changed. Maybe they’ve got new technology that can give us a leg up.”
The two nodded then grabbed two boxes off a nearby table and moved down the row of desks to the other side of the room to begin.
“O’Rourke, you’re assigned to the New Haven precinct to work directly with Cafferty and Reynolds for now.” Zach tried to read anything in Shauna’s expression as she nodded in response to the instruction, but she was completely unreadable. Nothing but a professional fa?ade.
Shit, it had been years since they’d been together. Why the hell did he think she’d feel anything for him?
Maybe because he still felt something for her?
“All right, guys. Get to it. This killer has too much practice under his belt for my liking. It’s time to run him to ground and get him off the streets.”
Chapter Four
To say Shauna was frustrated would be putting it mildly. No. She was good and ticked, but it was herself she was aiming her anger at. Being around Zach Reynolds had that effect on her. Because after all this time, despite knowing full well what an ass he was, she was still attracted to him. To the point of distraction.
She wasn’t a fool, though—hence, the frustration. Every minute with him was a repeat of a loop. She’d forget to be on guard and begin to think about him. This was followed by the sudden realization she was doing it again. She’d follow this up with determination to focus on the job, and voila! Frustration and anger with herself mounted.
For his part, he seemed determined to get under her skin. He’d been holding car doors for her and offered to take her backpack when they’d walked into the precinct together earlier. She tried to shoot him the kind of look designed to quell that sort of behavior, but he’d just grinned and shrugged like she should be grateful for the attention. Asshole.