Cold Fury, page 28
part #1 of Cold Justice® - Most Wanted Series
Frazer stepped over to where Eloisa stood reading the paperwork. “You might want to call your lawyer, Ms. Fairchild.”
She pressed her lips together, and her eyes glittered. “I would if he hadn’t been murdered last night.”
Interesting.
“You realize Julius Leech is a suspect in Jeff Beasley’s murder.”
Her eyes flashed. “Julius didn’t murder Jeff.”
“How do you know? And where were you between 6 and 8 p.m. last night?”
Her smile was mean. “Why don’t you ask the FBI agents you had watching the house? Or did they fall asleep on the job?”
Frazer gave the field agents the nod to get started. They knew what they were looking for—any correspondence from Leech, including any cell phones or computers or gaming platforms. But first they had to conduct a thorough search of the premises, including any possible wall or floor cavities big enough to hide a man.
She looked down at the piece of paper. “You can’t seriously be taking my cell phone? How am I supposed to contact anyone?”
“You don’t have a landline?”
“Who uses landlines anymore?”
“Spammers and con artists?” Aaron offered.
Eloisa’s eyes sparkled at that.
The operator looked different this morning somehow. Less tightly wound. Frazer wondered if Hope had anything to do with that. He’d certainly noted the energy between them and encouraged the connection. As long as it didn’t compromise Hope’s safety, he didn’t care—and he didn’t see how having an armed man in her bed could make her more vulnerable to Leech or others.
Unless there was an imbalance of power or abuse going on, Frazer wasn’t interested in who was sleeping with whom. He didn’t exactly play to the letter of the FBI’s rulebook—not that people generally appreciated that.
He was more concerned with getting a friend over the worst day of her life. Maybe Aaron Nash was the guy to do it? Or maybe they’d break each other’s hearts—what did he know? He could only hope they had the sense to figure it out without destroying each other in the process.
He used his experience and knowledge to help predict or decipher human behavior, but add sex or God help him, love, into the mix?—that twisted logic and defied reason. There was nothing sensible about his feelings for Izzy. Nothing rational about how he’d react if anything bad happened to her.
He started as he realized Eloisa was staring at him pointedly, clearly waiting for an answer while he was busy woolgathering like some first-year theology student.
“If you cooperate, I will see that your cell phone is cloned on site, and you can retain it for use.”
She tilted her head to one side, her fine hair dancing with static. “That sounds as if you’re doing me a favor and yet, as I’ve done nothing wrong…”
“You know the deep state, Ms. Fairchild,” Aaron said wryly. “Always wanting to control you. If not nano-machines in your veins, it’s FBI raids on your cell phones.”
“Which, as you monitor them anyway, makes turning up on my doorstep moot.”
“And, yet, here we are.” Frazer was fast losing his patience. “We have the warrant, Eloisa, don’t make us arrest you for defying it.”
“Oh, I’m sure you’d enjoy that, however, I’m not defying anything.” She turned to calm down another woman who came running toward her. The housekeeper.
“It’s okay, Cerise. The FBI are looking for evidence we’re sheltering poor innocent Julius.” She turned back and sent him a look that was probably supposed to be coquettish but came off as creepy.
Dear God, he missed Izzy and wanted to get home.
The housekeeper nodded and disappeared back into her domain.
“Anyone else in the house?”
She shook her head.
“You’re sure?” He narrowed his eyes.
“Yes.”
“And what about your dog?”
She frowned in confusion and then pulled her lips to one side. “I was watching him for a friend.”
“We might need the name of that friend.” Frazer had warned her lying to the FBI was a felony offense.
“Of course.” Eloisa’s expression was blank.
“Where are your safes located?” he pushed.
She examined her nails which were bitten to the quick.
“Don’t pretend you don’t have at least two on the premises. We know who installed them. I will find them. I’d hate to have to tear them out to take them into evidence.”
Her gaze flew to his, and she held up her pointer finger. “Firstly, I want to call the lawyer’s office. As much as I hate disturbing them when they are mourning their colleague, I want legal representation present.” Her smile didn’t reach her eyes. “To protect my interests.”
“Your interests? Or your son’s?” Aaron asked out of nowhere.
Frazer blinked.
“How do you—” Eloisa’s mouth stalled. “I don’t have a son. Cerise has a son. You must mean him?”
“Why was Cerise’s son sleeping upstairs last night? Why not in her apartment?”
She gaped at him. “He… I… We have lots of room.”
Aaron crossed his arms over his chest. “So why doesn’t Cerise sleep upstairs too?”
She looked as if all the energy had been drained out of her, but she wasn’t done trying to lie. “How do you know she doesn’t?”
Aaron gave her a humorless smile. “Call it a hunch.”
Eloisa clasped her hands together and sucked in her lips. “Let’s discuss this inside.”
They followed her into the parlor again, but Frazer was seeing the situation through a new lens now. He’d known Aaron was smart, but he hadn’t appreciated how perceptive he really was.
She closed the door firmly as if that would help keep her secrets.
A child made all the oddities fit together a little more cohesively.
“Why did you want to keep your son a secret?” Frazer asked softly.
She spun to face him. “Samuel is Cerise’s son. We’re very close, and I often let him sleep upstairs.” Her forced laugh was supposed to be bright and cheerful. It reeked of desperation.
“How does he feel when you pretend he’s not yours?” Aaron watched her with pitiless eyes.
Her fingers clenched into useless fists.
“Does Leech know?” Frazer leaned casually against the mantel.
She lost every ounce of color then. Her bottom lip vibrated visibly before she lowered herself carefully to the ugly green velvet chair. Rather than denying it this time, she went with the other option rich people used when their backs were against the wall. Litigation.
“If word of this gets out, I will sue the FBI for every penny they have, and I will make it my personal mission in life to make sure you are both demoted—”
“That’s not really how it works,” Frazer cut in. “Letters of censure can be added to our personnel files, and we can obviously be fired.” He held her haughty gaze. “But not for doing our jobs. Not when a suspect is lying to us. And”—he ran his fingers across the cool marble—“I think you’ll find my friends are more powerful than your friends.”
She looked furious, and he suddenly understood why.
He sat across from her, braced his elbows on his knees and leaned forward. “We have no reason to release any information about your son, Eloisa, I promise you that. As long as he’s safe. As long as you haven’t handed him over to Julius Leech—”
“No! No. I would never do that.”
“For all your protestations of Julius’s innocence, you don’t trust him with his son?” Aaron prompted.
“I don’t believe he’s a killer.” Her chest heaved as if she was running. “But I don’t want Samuel to have to carry the weight of Julius’s wrongful conviction. It’s not fair on a little boy.”
“Is that why you didn’t tell Julius he fathered a child? Because you didn’t want him telling the world? The boy stands to inherit a fortune.”
“Money isn’t always a positive thing.” She wrung her hands together. “Julius and I had a bumbling drunken one-night stand not long before he was arrested. It didn’t mean anything. It just happened. I was four months along before I even realized I was pregnant. I’d been so upset about Julius’s arrest I wasn’t really paying attention to anything else. And I had sex with another man I was seeing around the same time, but I took precautions with him.” She squeezed her hands tight between her knees. “I knew it was Julius’s baby.” She blinked away what looked like tears. “I contemplated having an abortion, but I was shocked to discover I actually wanted the baby. Wanted the chance to be a mother. I decided to wait until after the trial was over to tell him, sure that he’d be found innocent. And I was delighted when he was released.” She put a hand to her head as if she was in pain.
Hiding a secret this big would give anyone a headache.
“I spoke to him on the phone after his release, and we arranged to meet for lunch the next day. He was beside himself with relief.”
“In the meantime, he went to Hope Harper’s house and killed her family.”
She shook her head. “I don’t believe that.”
Frazer could understand now why she so vehemently rejected the idea that Leech was a sadistic murderer. It had nothing to do with the facts and everything with not wanting her son to have a serial killer for a daddy.
“Where is your son now?”
“I sent him to stay with friends who are heading to the Hamptons for a short vacation. They have a boy around the same age. Cerise dropped him off this morning.”
“You trust them?”
She nodded, stiffly, then bit her lip.
“You didn’t want to risk Julius arriving on your doorstep and seeing the child, knowing you’d lied to him all these years.”
Her eyes flared wide in fear.
That was it.
“Have you spoken to him since he escaped?”
She looked away and finally nodded. Then she covered her face and released a sob. “I offered to drop some money for him, and, and”—she hiccupped—“I left it in a car in the woods near Harrisville. Cerise picked me up in a rental—she didn’t know why I was leaving the car there.”
The housekeeper must be an idiot if she didn’t suspect—or keen to keep her job.
“I didn’t want him coming here and seeing Sammy.”
She started sobbing uncontrollably, but Frazer wasn’t feeling particularly sympathetic.
“Please don’t arrest me. If you do, the press will figure out about Sammy, and Julius will find out I lied to him.”
“You’re scared of him.”
“Yes,” she snapped, eyes suddenly earnest. “Yes, I am. It’s the one thing he said he hated beyond all reason. People who lie.”
Frazer raised an unimpressed brow. If Eloisa hadn’t helped Julius Leech, Sylvie and her husband, not to mention Jeff Beasley, might still be alive.
“I want to know exactly where you left that car. I want to know what the model and registration is, and I want access to every letter he ever sent you. And then, if you fully cooperate, I’ll talk to the DA’s office about trying to keep your son out of the spotlight after his mother confessed to aiding and abetting a wanted fugitive, not to mention lying to the FBI about it.”
Eloisa drew in a shocked breath and covered her mouth as if she only then realized the seriousness of what she’d done.
Aaron straightened from his position near the window. “I’m sure the DA will understand. After all, if anyone comprehends your fears regarding your child’s safety, it will be ADA Hope Harper.”
42
It took ninety minutes to drive to the exact location in Harrisville that Eloisa Fairchild had marked on the map. It took another ten minutes of driving down little used nearby tracks to spot a small dark gray sedan parked along the side of the road near a hiking trail.
“Same make and model Graham Burns drove, but different plate.” Aaron pointed out to Frazer, who was driving.
They pulled up a short distance away.
Frazer called in the license plate, and it came back to a Toyota Camry not a Chevy SS.
They both got out of the Beemer and walked toward the other car. Frazer handed him a pair of surgical gloves.
They walked around the vehicle slowly, careful to avoid any tracks in the snow and frozen earth. Frazer took photos with his cell from multiple angles.
“Door’s unlocked,” Aaron noted.
“Probably hoping it would be stolen.”
Aaron nodded and eased open the door, avoiding the vague indented footprints that led from it. It had snowed since the person, presumably Leech, had dumped the car. Frazer placed a quarter on the ground and took more photographs from various angles. He obviously believed this was the car they were looking for. So did Aaron.
Aaron reached inside and popped the trunk. They both walked to the rear of the car. The orange jumpsuit and the brown of the prison guard’s uniform were instantly visible.
Frazer took more photographs.
This was definitely the right car.
The profiler reached inside and gently pulled the heavy jacket back to reveal the pale face of a young man who’d been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
At least the cold weather had held decomposition at bay.
“Graham Burns.” Sympathy welled within Aaron’s chest followed by anger. “Think Eloisa Fairchild will believe this evidence?”
Frazer’s mouth thinned. “I think she’d find a way to convince herself Leech was innocent even if he stabbed her with a letter opener.”
“Are we about to ruin her kid’s life?” Because Aaron didn’t mind Eloisa paying for breaking the law, but he had a hard time condemning a child.
“I’ll talk to the DA. If we can get her full cooperation, maybe we can use her to help catch this bastard. Spring a trap.”
“At least we know what he’s driving.”
Frazer shot him a glance. “We know what he was driving yesterday.”
Aaron swore. Checked his watch. “You call it in and organize evidence recovery techs to get out here. I’ll see if I can get a local cop to guard the scene in the meantime. I need to get back before Hope leaves work.”
Frazer’s eyes gleamed at the mention of Hope’s name, but Aaron ignored him. He took another long look at the young man who’d been murdered and dumped in the back of his trunk like so much garbage. This was who Leech really was. Not the mansion or the private jets. Not the wardrobe full of fancy suits or protestations of innocence. He was death and destruction and egocentric self-gratification. And perhaps Eloisa Fairchild had been right to deceive him, because who would want that man, a serial killer, as the father of their child?
Aaron stared up at the tops of the trees as the naked branches swayed and tried to keep his own fears at bay. Julius Leech wanted to kill Hope, a woman Aaron was starting to care deeply for.
He strode to the BMW, suddenly anxious to get back to her side. Frazer locked up the other car while Aaron called the local police department. He didn’t have time to waste, but Graham Burns deserved the respect of being guarded, being watched over and protected in death.
Aaron thought about Burns’ loved ones and how they’d never get the chance to say goodbye, and of Hope’s overwhelming grief at the loss of her family. It hit him with sudden insight that he could no longer hang on to his lingering resentment about what had happened with his brother and ex.
Life wasn’t perfect, and it was surely too short to hold grudges, especially if it meant him missing out on occasions that had always been important to him.
Look at Leech and his twisted need for revenge because he couldn’t let go of perceived wrongs. Or Minnie Ramon blaming Hope for simply doing her job.
It was exhausting.
His brother and sister-in-law were blissfully happy and, however Aaron had felt about it at the time, he was over it now. Done. Finished. And the last thing he wanted was to go to his own grave with this lingering resentment haunting his soul. He wanted his brother back even though it would never be exactly how it had been before. He wanted the chance to know his new niece or nephew because he loved kids and wanted his own someday. He wanted the cousins to be friends. He desperately wanted to be free of the stinging resentment and hurt and to accept what had happened, not just as a cross to bear but also as a blessing, a lucky escape. It wasn’t as if he still loved his ex. He didn’t. He really didn’t.
And, although it wasn’t exactly the same kind of situation, Hope had found a way to coexist with Brendan despite their issues. She clearly set boundaries, and the relationship was far from perfect, but she’d found a way to make it work.
He was tired of living in the past. It was time to put it behind him and truly forgive. He needed to move on while he still had the chance.
43
“Ella get home safe?” Hope looked up as Colin came into her office.
“Yep. I even mailed her mother’s birthday gift for her.” He pulled out some cash and tried to hand it over.
“Keep it.” Hope waved him away. “I’m grateful you could go with her.”
He cleared his throat. “Talking of mail…” Colin pulled an envelope out of his suit pocket, placed it on the desk in front of her.
She recognized Leech’s neat handwriting, his expensive stationery with his initials, an elegant gold scroll, stamped in the corner—which he must pay the prison warden for the privilege of using.
She didn’t want to read it, but Frazer wasn’t here, and neither was Aaron. She needed to check if Leech had written anything that might point to a planned escape or to a place where he might hide. She could ask Colin or Hunt Kincaid who stood at the door to read the letter, but she didn’t want to appear scared of Leech. She refused to let him affect her.
She checked her cell for a text from Aaron but there was nothing. Had they discovered anything at Fairchild’s house? They’d been gone for hours.
Because her communications were being monitored, she could hardly call and ask him if he was okay or tell him Ryan Sullivan knew where he’d spent some of last night.
Or ask him if he wanted to do it again tonight.
She pressed her lips together, and her eyes glittered. “I would if he hadn’t been murdered last night.”
Interesting.
“You realize Julius Leech is a suspect in Jeff Beasley’s murder.”
Her eyes flashed. “Julius didn’t murder Jeff.”
“How do you know? And where were you between 6 and 8 p.m. last night?”
Her smile was mean. “Why don’t you ask the FBI agents you had watching the house? Or did they fall asleep on the job?”
Frazer gave the field agents the nod to get started. They knew what they were looking for—any correspondence from Leech, including any cell phones or computers or gaming platforms. But first they had to conduct a thorough search of the premises, including any possible wall or floor cavities big enough to hide a man.
She looked down at the piece of paper. “You can’t seriously be taking my cell phone? How am I supposed to contact anyone?”
“You don’t have a landline?”
“Who uses landlines anymore?”
“Spammers and con artists?” Aaron offered.
Eloisa’s eyes sparkled at that.
The operator looked different this morning somehow. Less tightly wound. Frazer wondered if Hope had anything to do with that. He’d certainly noted the energy between them and encouraged the connection. As long as it didn’t compromise Hope’s safety, he didn’t care—and he didn’t see how having an armed man in her bed could make her more vulnerable to Leech or others.
Unless there was an imbalance of power or abuse going on, Frazer wasn’t interested in who was sleeping with whom. He didn’t exactly play to the letter of the FBI’s rulebook—not that people generally appreciated that.
He was more concerned with getting a friend over the worst day of her life. Maybe Aaron Nash was the guy to do it? Or maybe they’d break each other’s hearts—what did he know? He could only hope they had the sense to figure it out without destroying each other in the process.
He used his experience and knowledge to help predict or decipher human behavior, but add sex or God help him, love, into the mix?—that twisted logic and defied reason. There was nothing sensible about his feelings for Izzy. Nothing rational about how he’d react if anything bad happened to her.
He started as he realized Eloisa was staring at him pointedly, clearly waiting for an answer while he was busy woolgathering like some first-year theology student.
“If you cooperate, I will see that your cell phone is cloned on site, and you can retain it for use.”
She tilted her head to one side, her fine hair dancing with static. “That sounds as if you’re doing me a favor and yet, as I’ve done nothing wrong…”
“You know the deep state, Ms. Fairchild,” Aaron said wryly. “Always wanting to control you. If not nano-machines in your veins, it’s FBI raids on your cell phones.”
“Which, as you monitor them anyway, makes turning up on my doorstep moot.”
“And, yet, here we are.” Frazer was fast losing his patience. “We have the warrant, Eloisa, don’t make us arrest you for defying it.”
“Oh, I’m sure you’d enjoy that, however, I’m not defying anything.” She turned to calm down another woman who came running toward her. The housekeeper.
“It’s okay, Cerise. The FBI are looking for evidence we’re sheltering poor innocent Julius.” She turned back and sent him a look that was probably supposed to be coquettish but came off as creepy.
Dear God, he missed Izzy and wanted to get home.
The housekeeper nodded and disappeared back into her domain.
“Anyone else in the house?”
She shook her head.
“You’re sure?” He narrowed his eyes.
“Yes.”
“And what about your dog?”
She frowned in confusion and then pulled her lips to one side. “I was watching him for a friend.”
“We might need the name of that friend.” Frazer had warned her lying to the FBI was a felony offense.
“Of course.” Eloisa’s expression was blank.
“Where are your safes located?” he pushed.
She examined her nails which were bitten to the quick.
“Don’t pretend you don’t have at least two on the premises. We know who installed them. I will find them. I’d hate to have to tear them out to take them into evidence.”
Her gaze flew to his, and she held up her pointer finger. “Firstly, I want to call the lawyer’s office. As much as I hate disturbing them when they are mourning their colleague, I want legal representation present.” Her smile didn’t reach her eyes. “To protect my interests.”
“Your interests? Or your son’s?” Aaron asked out of nowhere.
Frazer blinked.
“How do you—” Eloisa’s mouth stalled. “I don’t have a son. Cerise has a son. You must mean him?”
“Why was Cerise’s son sleeping upstairs last night? Why not in her apartment?”
She gaped at him. “He… I… We have lots of room.”
Aaron crossed his arms over his chest. “So why doesn’t Cerise sleep upstairs too?”
She looked as if all the energy had been drained out of her, but she wasn’t done trying to lie. “How do you know she doesn’t?”
Aaron gave her a humorless smile. “Call it a hunch.”
Eloisa clasped her hands together and sucked in her lips. “Let’s discuss this inside.”
They followed her into the parlor again, but Frazer was seeing the situation through a new lens now. He’d known Aaron was smart, but he hadn’t appreciated how perceptive he really was.
She closed the door firmly as if that would help keep her secrets.
A child made all the oddities fit together a little more cohesively.
“Why did you want to keep your son a secret?” Frazer asked softly.
She spun to face him. “Samuel is Cerise’s son. We’re very close, and I often let him sleep upstairs.” Her forced laugh was supposed to be bright and cheerful. It reeked of desperation.
“How does he feel when you pretend he’s not yours?” Aaron watched her with pitiless eyes.
Her fingers clenched into useless fists.
“Does Leech know?” Frazer leaned casually against the mantel.
She lost every ounce of color then. Her bottom lip vibrated visibly before she lowered herself carefully to the ugly green velvet chair. Rather than denying it this time, she went with the other option rich people used when their backs were against the wall. Litigation.
“If word of this gets out, I will sue the FBI for every penny they have, and I will make it my personal mission in life to make sure you are both demoted—”
“That’s not really how it works,” Frazer cut in. “Letters of censure can be added to our personnel files, and we can obviously be fired.” He held her haughty gaze. “But not for doing our jobs. Not when a suspect is lying to us. And”—he ran his fingers across the cool marble—“I think you’ll find my friends are more powerful than your friends.”
She looked furious, and he suddenly understood why.
He sat across from her, braced his elbows on his knees and leaned forward. “We have no reason to release any information about your son, Eloisa, I promise you that. As long as he’s safe. As long as you haven’t handed him over to Julius Leech—”
“No! No. I would never do that.”
“For all your protestations of Julius’s innocence, you don’t trust him with his son?” Aaron prompted.
“I don’t believe he’s a killer.” Her chest heaved as if she was running. “But I don’t want Samuel to have to carry the weight of Julius’s wrongful conviction. It’s not fair on a little boy.”
“Is that why you didn’t tell Julius he fathered a child? Because you didn’t want him telling the world? The boy stands to inherit a fortune.”
“Money isn’t always a positive thing.” She wrung her hands together. “Julius and I had a bumbling drunken one-night stand not long before he was arrested. It didn’t mean anything. It just happened. I was four months along before I even realized I was pregnant. I’d been so upset about Julius’s arrest I wasn’t really paying attention to anything else. And I had sex with another man I was seeing around the same time, but I took precautions with him.” She squeezed her hands tight between her knees. “I knew it was Julius’s baby.” She blinked away what looked like tears. “I contemplated having an abortion, but I was shocked to discover I actually wanted the baby. Wanted the chance to be a mother. I decided to wait until after the trial was over to tell him, sure that he’d be found innocent. And I was delighted when he was released.” She put a hand to her head as if she was in pain.
Hiding a secret this big would give anyone a headache.
“I spoke to him on the phone after his release, and we arranged to meet for lunch the next day. He was beside himself with relief.”
“In the meantime, he went to Hope Harper’s house and killed her family.”
She shook her head. “I don’t believe that.”
Frazer could understand now why she so vehemently rejected the idea that Leech was a sadistic murderer. It had nothing to do with the facts and everything with not wanting her son to have a serial killer for a daddy.
“Where is your son now?”
“I sent him to stay with friends who are heading to the Hamptons for a short vacation. They have a boy around the same age. Cerise dropped him off this morning.”
“You trust them?”
She nodded, stiffly, then bit her lip.
“You didn’t want to risk Julius arriving on your doorstep and seeing the child, knowing you’d lied to him all these years.”
Her eyes flared wide in fear.
That was it.
“Have you spoken to him since he escaped?”
She looked away and finally nodded. Then she covered her face and released a sob. “I offered to drop some money for him, and, and”—she hiccupped—“I left it in a car in the woods near Harrisville. Cerise picked me up in a rental—she didn’t know why I was leaving the car there.”
The housekeeper must be an idiot if she didn’t suspect—or keen to keep her job.
“I didn’t want him coming here and seeing Sammy.”
She started sobbing uncontrollably, but Frazer wasn’t feeling particularly sympathetic.
“Please don’t arrest me. If you do, the press will figure out about Sammy, and Julius will find out I lied to him.”
“You’re scared of him.”
“Yes,” she snapped, eyes suddenly earnest. “Yes, I am. It’s the one thing he said he hated beyond all reason. People who lie.”
Frazer raised an unimpressed brow. If Eloisa hadn’t helped Julius Leech, Sylvie and her husband, not to mention Jeff Beasley, might still be alive.
“I want to know exactly where you left that car. I want to know what the model and registration is, and I want access to every letter he ever sent you. And then, if you fully cooperate, I’ll talk to the DA’s office about trying to keep your son out of the spotlight after his mother confessed to aiding and abetting a wanted fugitive, not to mention lying to the FBI about it.”
Eloisa drew in a shocked breath and covered her mouth as if she only then realized the seriousness of what she’d done.
Aaron straightened from his position near the window. “I’m sure the DA will understand. After all, if anyone comprehends your fears regarding your child’s safety, it will be ADA Hope Harper.”
42
It took ninety minutes to drive to the exact location in Harrisville that Eloisa Fairchild had marked on the map. It took another ten minutes of driving down little used nearby tracks to spot a small dark gray sedan parked along the side of the road near a hiking trail.
“Same make and model Graham Burns drove, but different plate.” Aaron pointed out to Frazer, who was driving.
They pulled up a short distance away.
Frazer called in the license plate, and it came back to a Toyota Camry not a Chevy SS.
They both got out of the Beemer and walked toward the other car. Frazer handed him a pair of surgical gloves.
They walked around the vehicle slowly, careful to avoid any tracks in the snow and frozen earth. Frazer took photos with his cell from multiple angles.
“Door’s unlocked,” Aaron noted.
“Probably hoping it would be stolen.”
Aaron nodded and eased open the door, avoiding the vague indented footprints that led from it. It had snowed since the person, presumably Leech, had dumped the car. Frazer placed a quarter on the ground and took more photographs from various angles. He obviously believed this was the car they were looking for. So did Aaron.
Aaron reached inside and popped the trunk. They both walked to the rear of the car. The orange jumpsuit and the brown of the prison guard’s uniform were instantly visible.
Frazer took more photographs.
This was definitely the right car.
The profiler reached inside and gently pulled the heavy jacket back to reveal the pale face of a young man who’d been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
At least the cold weather had held decomposition at bay.
“Graham Burns.” Sympathy welled within Aaron’s chest followed by anger. “Think Eloisa Fairchild will believe this evidence?”
Frazer’s mouth thinned. “I think she’d find a way to convince herself Leech was innocent even if he stabbed her with a letter opener.”
“Are we about to ruin her kid’s life?” Because Aaron didn’t mind Eloisa paying for breaking the law, but he had a hard time condemning a child.
“I’ll talk to the DA. If we can get her full cooperation, maybe we can use her to help catch this bastard. Spring a trap.”
“At least we know what he’s driving.”
Frazer shot him a glance. “We know what he was driving yesterday.”
Aaron swore. Checked his watch. “You call it in and organize evidence recovery techs to get out here. I’ll see if I can get a local cop to guard the scene in the meantime. I need to get back before Hope leaves work.”
Frazer’s eyes gleamed at the mention of Hope’s name, but Aaron ignored him. He took another long look at the young man who’d been murdered and dumped in the back of his trunk like so much garbage. This was who Leech really was. Not the mansion or the private jets. Not the wardrobe full of fancy suits or protestations of innocence. He was death and destruction and egocentric self-gratification. And perhaps Eloisa Fairchild had been right to deceive him, because who would want that man, a serial killer, as the father of their child?
Aaron stared up at the tops of the trees as the naked branches swayed and tried to keep his own fears at bay. Julius Leech wanted to kill Hope, a woman Aaron was starting to care deeply for.
He strode to the BMW, suddenly anxious to get back to her side. Frazer locked up the other car while Aaron called the local police department. He didn’t have time to waste, but Graham Burns deserved the respect of being guarded, being watched over and protected in death.
Aaron thought about Burns’ loved ones and how they’d never get the chance to say goodbye, and of Hope’s overwhelming grief at the loss of her family. It hit him with sudden insight that he could no longer hang on to his lingering resentment about what had happened with his brother and ex.
Life wasn’t perfect, and it was surely too short to hold grudges, especially if it meant him missing out on occasions that had always been important to him.
Look at Leech and his twisted need for revenge because he couldn’t let go of perceived wrongs. Or Minnie Ramon blaming Hope for simply doing her job.
It was exhausting.
His brother and sister-in-law were blissfully happy and, however Aaron had felt about it at the time, he was over it now. Done. Finished. And the last thing he wanted was to go to his own grave with this lingering resentment haunting his soul. He wanted his brother back even though it would never be exactly how it had been before. He wanted the chance to know his new niece or nephew because he loved kids and wanted his own someday. He wanted the cousins to be friends. He desperately wanted to be free of the stinging resentment and hurt and to accept what had happened, not just as a cross to bear but also as a blessing, a lucky escape. It wasn’t as if he still loved his ex. He didn’t. He really didn’t.
And, although it wasn’t exactly the same kind of situation, Hope had found a way to coexist with Brendan despite their issues. She clearly set boundaries, and the relationship was far from perfect, but she’d found a way to make it work.
He was tired of living in the past. It was time to put it behind him and truly forgive. He needed to move on while he still had the chance.
43
“Ella get home safe?” Hope looked up as Colin came into her office.
“Yep. I even mailed her mother’s birthday gift for her.” He pulled out some cash and tried to hand it over.
“Keep it.” Hope waved him away. “I’m grateful you could go with her.”
He cleared his throat. “Talking of mail…” Colin pulled an envelope out of his suit pocket, placed it on the desk in front of her.
She recognized Leech’s neat handwriting, his expensive stationery with his initials, an elegant gold scroll, stamped in the corner—which he must pay the prison warden for the privilege of using.
She didn’t want to read it, but Frazer wasn’t here, and neither was Aaron. She needed to check if Leech had written anything that might point to a planned escape or to a place where he might hide. She could ask Colin or Hunt Kincaid who stood at the door to read the letter, but she didn’t want to appear scared of Leech. She refused to let him affect her.
She checked her cell for a text from Aaron but there was nothing. Had they discovered anything at Fairchild’s house? They’d been gone for hours.
Because her communications were being monitored, she could hardly call and ask him if he was okay or tell him Ryan Sullivan knew where he’d spent some of last night.
Or ask him if he wanted to do it again tonight.
