Cold Fury, page 21
part #1 of Cold Justice® - Most Wanted Series
“I can talk to Hope Harper about doing exactly that.”
At Hope’s name Delaware’s eyes narrowed, and he opened his mouth as if to say something.
“Blake?” A woman knocked on the open door and poked her head inside. “Is everything all right?”
She had curly hair and rosy cheeks.
Delaware stood. “Melissa. These men are from the FBI.”
“Have you found Mr. Leech yet?” Her eyes were round, and she sucked in her lips.
“Mrs. Delaware?” Frazer stood and shook her hand as he introduced himself. “We offered to conduct a search of the premises, but your husband wants us to get a warrant.”
Her hand went to the front of her neck where a chunky gold necklace rested. “You don’t think he’s here, do you?”
“He’s not here, Melissa.” Delaware sounded resigned.
“Then why don’t you let them search, Blake? I don’t understand.”
Aaron hid a smile.
“Because Mr. Leech wouldn’t want me to.”
Her eyes were wide and imploring. “Well, if he’s not here, he won’t know, will he? What harm can it do?”
Exasperated, Blake threw his hands up. “Fine. Search the place. But Julius Leech is not here, and you’re wasting your time. Not to mention mine.”
“And managing the affairs of a serial killer is so much more important than catching one and keeping people safe,” Aaron muttered.
“Did he really murder two people yesterday?” Melissa asked.
“Technically, the day before yesterday,” Frazer answered.
Melissa’s eyes shot to her husband. “You swore he wasn’t dangerous.”
Blake’s expression turned pained, and he looked away. “I don’t think he is.”
“Then why did the murders begin again after he got out of prison?” she asked.
Finally, a person who was logical and not blinded by Leech’s polite manners and endless supply of cash.
“I can’t say.”
“Can’t or won’t?” Aaron poked.
Melissa’s frightened gaze shot to her husband. He stood and walked over to her. Took her hands in his. “Julius Leech isn’t a fool. Why would he come here when he knows the FBI will be questioning me and watching the place?”
She bit her lip again. “I would feel safer after having the FBI look around. Just in case.”
“Of course.” He clasped her shoulders and gave her a squeeze. “Shall we start from the top and work our way down? Or from the ground floor up?”
“Let’s do ground up.” Aaron swept his gaze over the room. No hiding places. “And if you two could stay here—”
“But—”
“Less chance of someone being accidentally shot that way.” Frazer smiled cheerfully.
Melissa grabbed her husband’s hand. “We’ll stay here until you’re finished. There’s a garage and a pool house.”
Blake’s expression grew pissed. “Any damage, and I will be billing you. Trust me, you can’t afford to break anything in this house.”
Aaron and Frazer left the room.
“Ever get the feeling some people value property more than human life?”
Frazer smiled. “Every damned day.”
They cleared the Delawares’ apartment first, a cozy two bedroom with a large kitchen and comfy living room. But it struck Aaron that they were more caretakers of a museum than living in a real home.
They were quick but thorough as they worked their way through the outside buildings that were largely empty, the enormous kitchen, dining room, up the stairs to an informal den/library combo that Aaron wanted for his own. They reached what had to be the master bedroom on the third floor.
Aaron and Frazer checked the giant walk-in closet. It was weird seeing all Leech’s clothes hanging there, neatly pressed. Not a lick of dust anywhere.
“It’s as if they’re expecting him back any moment.” Aaron shook his head.
“A week ago, I’d have said that’s a preposterous idea. Now I’m not so sure.”
“Do you think he’s here?” The guy could have some sort of bolt hole in a wall or floor like a miniature safe room. In a house this size, it would be almost impossible to find without the right gadgets.
“Mrs. Delaware didn’t look too excited at the prospect of her husband’s boss coming home.”
“I can’t say I blame her.”
Frazer felt along the walls as if looking for a secret compartment. Aaron checked out the massive en suite bathroom with its huge whirlpool tub and walk-in shower.
“I don’t understand.” Aaron checked out of the window at the back of the property with its narrow garden and pool. “I mean, really don’t understand. The guy has got everything he could ever want, and he sacrifices it all because he gets a taste for killing?”
Frazer quirked a brow as they moved to the next room. A guest bedroom. The bed was stripped.
“Murder has never been restricted to the poor or needy.”
Aaron frowned. “I didn’t mean to suggest it was. Just the guy had everything money could buy. Why couldn’t he be satisfied?”
“He didn’t have what mattered the most.”
“What was that?”
“He didn’t have someone who loved him.”
Aaron’s chest tightened. “So he started killing? Because people didn’t love him enough despite his obscene wealth?”
“I think he started to kill because the victims represented his parents in some way—and they hadn’t loved him enough not to murder one another.”
“And once he started, he couldn’t stop?”
“Some people get a taste for it.” Frazer shrugged. “It’s why I have a job.”
They cleared the rest of the house including an attic that was as clean and spotless as everywhere else. They headed down the beautifully crafted stairs and heard raised voices coming from inside the office.
“Trouble in paradise?” Aaron suggested.
“Apparently.”
Melissa Delaware opened the door and stormed into the foyer. She spotted them and stopped abruptly.
“The house is clear, Mrs. Delaware.”
She crossed her arms high over her chest. “Call me Melissa. And, thank you.”
Blake Delaware came to the office door, looking harried. “No one hiding in the attic?” His tone was sarcastic.
Frazer ignored him. “What happens if Leech dies?”
Blake shook his head as if to clear it. “I assume I will have to find a new employer, although I’d be in no rush.”
Melissa put a hand over her abdomen. “We’re expecting a baby. Blake will have plenty of things to keep him busy with or without running Mr. Leech’s affairs.”
“Does Julius Leech know about the baby?” asked Frazer.
“No one knows.” Blake pursed his lips and shook his head. “It’s early days. We haven’t even told our families yet.”
Melissa Delaware’s lips pinched with worry.
Frazer nodded. “Who holds the will?”
“That is held by Beasley, Waterman, Vander and Company.”
“Do you know what’s in it?”
Delaware shook his head.
Frazer stared at him for another long moment. “Get in touch with us the moment you hear from Leech. Aiding and abetting an escaped convict will earn you prison time, and that certainly won’t look good on your resumé or be good for your baby.”
Delaware nodded, but his eyes didn’t connect with theirs, and his wife’s face looked stricken.
Aaron rolled his shoulders as they left the house. “Why do I feel like I need a shower?”
“Because you have a rigid moral code and a fixed idea of right and wrong. The idea of working for a man who has murdered ten people in cold blood is abhorrent to you.”
“And not to you?” Aaron scoffed.
They walked toward the shiny Beemer. “Some might argue working for the US government is no better.”
“Come on. That’s not the same thing.”
Frazer smiled. “If you say so.”
“Would you honestly be employed by someone you know is a stone-cold killer?” Aaron frowned up at the heavy clouds.
“I would never work for a man like Leech, and I can’t see leaving my current employer for a few years yet—assuming they want to keep me.” Frazer’s eyes were icy cool as they met his across the top of the car. “Satisfied?”
Aaron grunted.
“Maybe you should ask yourself why you are so offended by me observing you have a rigid moral code and a fixed idea of right and wrong.”
“I wasn’t offended.” Aaron climbed into the vehicle, appreciating the heated seats. But perhaps he was lying. “I guess I don’t want to be seen as boring or incapable of nuance.”
“Are you boring and incapable of nuance?”
“No.”
Frazer stared at him. “Whatever she did to you, you have to know that she was the problem, not you.”
Aaron grunted again, hating that the profiler knew too much about him.
Frazer smiled, and Aaron realized the other man had neatly deflected the conversation away from himself and his own “nuances.”
Aaron’s phone buzzed, and he pulled it out of his pocket. “Uh-oh, I need to get back to the courthouse.”
28
Hope read police reports until her eyes bled. The lab work had come back on the Du Maurier case, but it was inconclusive, so the technicians had requested time to run more tests. She heard laughter in the corridor and looked up to see Sondra Wu flirting madly with Seth Hopper as he stood on duty outside her office door.
Frazer read case files at her other desk with a focused concentration she envied.
They still weren’t done with jury selection because Judge Penton had suddenly taken ill after lunch. Despite the fact tomorrow was a Friday and usually reserved for hearing motions on other cases, the judge had decided to complete jury selection instead.
Aaron Nash came into view and her breath caught. She didn’t know where he’d been and hated the fact she was curious. Sondra turned her coquettish laughter on the tall, dark, and handsome operator.
Hope gritted her teeth.
Sondra’s giggling irked her today in a way it didn’t usually. She was a solid prosecutor. Smart as a whip, fearless, but empathetic. Pretty too. Vivacious. Young.
Aaron’s dark eyes met Hope’s through the glass.
A mix of relief and excitement uncoiled inside her.
It felt a lot like madness.
She looked over at Frazer and found him watching her. “What?”
“Nothing.”
Aaron tapped on the door and poked his head inside. “Ready to go home?”
She glanced at the clock on the wall in surprise. “Six thirty already? Wow. Time sure flies when you’re having fun.”
A yawn took her by surprise. It had been a heck of a week. “Any updates?”
Aaron crossed his arms and leaned against the door jamb. The sight of him made her mouth go dry. She’d forgotten what lust felt like.
“Marshals are still concentrating their main efforts on Somack and Roberts as they were spotted again, this time on foot. They have several BORTAC teams and state agencies helping in the search area and have hopefully narrowed their whereabouts to within a twenty-mile perimeter. They’re being hampered by the weather as it’s proven impossible to get eyes in the sky to run thermal image searches. No sighting of Leech yet.”
There had been no sightings period of the serial killer whose face was all over the news. How was that even possible?
“No cameras in the vicinity of Sylvie Pomerol’s home so needless to say they didn’t pick up anything,” Frazer told her.
“Leech has to be staying somewhere. Why can’t we find him?”
“We have surveillance on the faithful assistant and another one of Leech’s friends—Eloisa Fairchild,” Frazer added.
Hope remembered an awkward young woman from the start of the first trial.
“And electronic surveillance on a few other likely candidates of people he might reach out to. We’re searching for any links to properties within a fifty-mile radius of the state where Leech could potentially be holed up.”
“Who did Delaware call after we left?” Aaron asked from the doorway.
She lifted her brows. She hadn’t realized they’d paid Blake Delaware a visit.
“His lawyer.”
Aaron gave that smile of his that said he wasn’t surprised. Christ. She shouldn’t be mooning over a guy. She was no better than Sondra, just a lot less secure about her own appeal.
“Think the wife’s fear was genuine?”
“Delaware is married?” she exclaimed.
“With a baby on the way,” Frazer said dryly.
She blinked.
“And I believe so,” Frazer answered Aaron’s question. “I checked into her background and didn’t find any red flags. All indications are that Blake is a loving and supportive husband.”
“Then he must be crapping his pants right about now.” Aaron shot a look over his shoulder toward one of Sondra’s high giggles.
“Especially as for all Delaware’s supposed ‘integrity,’ Alex Parker found several hidden bank accounts in the Caymans and Isle of Man.” Frazer lowered his chin. “He found several more he believes could belong to Leech. Maybe Delaware set them up at Leech’s request?”
“Can we cut them off?” Hope closed the files on her desk with a snap.
“Better to keep our eyes on them for any activity. It might lead us to him eventually.” Aaron dragged his hand through his hair.
Hope made a noise she hoped was interpreted as frustration. “Someone is helping him. That’s why we can’t find him. He’s in someone’s house with his feet up, planning his next murder and his ultimate getaway plan. Did he kill the other prison guard, do you think?”
Frazer shook his head. “Looks as if Humphrey Byron was killed when the van tumbled into the river. He didn’t have any water in his lungs.”
So he didn’t drown.
“He was fully clothed. It appears likely he released the prisoners before the van took its final plunge.”
“He died a hero.” She blinked away the moisture that tried to gather in her eyes.
“He died in the line of duty,” Aaron agreed. “Both guards did.”
Frazer looked unimpressed, but he was always difficult to read. “After the crash, it appears Somack and Roberts went one way, Leech another.”
“He couldn’t even make friends in prison.” Her tone was bitter. She couldn’t help it. Leech had considered her a friend. He’d said so on the stand. If killing families was how he rewarded friends, no wonder people steered clear of him.
“We suspect he somehow got ahold of Graham Burns’ cell and vehicle. According to his family, Burns was moving across country to start a job in New York City, but no one has heard from him since Saturday when he set off. We have a BOLO on the vehicle.”
“You think this Graham Burns is dead?” A knot of anxiety settled in her stomach. That would make three people he’d murdered since he’d escaped. Three they knew of.
Frazer met her gaze. “I’ll be very surprised if he’s not.”
“Any success pinging his cell?”
“Not yet.” Frazer shook his head.
“Leech has been lucky so far. It won’t last forever,” Aaron stated firmly.
But she wasn’t feeling it. Leech was still out there, defying the odds—killing people.
She felt Aaron watching her as she pulled on her winter coat. It was unnerving how hyperaware of her own body she’d become. As if she’d had a growth spurt and had to concentrate on each move because she no longer fit her own skin.
She contemplated taking files home but decided against it. She was tired, and if she decided to work, she could start writing her next book. Deadline was nine months out, but she liked to turn in projects early.
Being anonymous, she didn’t have to do any public appearances, but she did have to do the writing and edits. She’d hired someone to update her website and social channels through her agent—Danny’s agent—who was pretty much the only person who knew Hope’s secret identity, aside from Brendan.
She closed her laptop and put it in her leather briefcase.
“Want to come back to the house for something to eat?” she asked Frazer. He’d be the buffer she needed to stop making a fool of herself.
He rubbed his eye sockets. “No. Thanks. I’m going to spend another hour here before taking my hosts out to dinner. You are welcome to join us.”
Her lips kicked up at the sudden tension in Aaron’s body. Going out to dinner would be a pain in the neck for her team of bodyguards even if it was with two other FBI agents. It hit her then. “What if we don’t catch him?”
“We will,” Aaron said firmly.
She blinked. “What if we don’t? He could get on a private jet and end up in another part of the country—another part of the world…”
“If he was going to do that, he’d have done it before he killed Sylvie and her husband.” Frazer twisted his neck to the side as if working out a kink.
“He has an agenda.” She was high on that agenda. “HRT can’t guard me forever.”
The two men exchanged a look she couldn’t read.
“You won’t be left unprotected.” Aaron’s dark eyes bored into hers.
But they all knew Aaron didn’t make decisions when it came to HRT’s deployment. Suddenly, she couldn’t hold his gaze. The idea of him leaving left a hole inside her, and that hole scared the crap out of her because it was a faint echo of another pain she was all too familiar with. But the knowledge also prompted her to think about taking a chance. Not anything serious. Serious was for the young or people who weren’t inherently broken. Even the idea of anything serious made her crave a stiff drink. But something fun? Something frivolous? How enticing was that?
She still needed that stiff drink.
“Maybe you could show me a couple of those self-defense moves tonight. Just in case.” She should probably go to a gun range and practice her marksmanship too. Even if she didn’t have bodyguards, she wouldn’t make it easy for that bastard. If she was going down, she’d take him with her.
“We can do that.” Aaron didn’t look happy at the idea.
