Page 53 of Ace

I have no idea who we're going to be facing. We were escorted into the plain, no-frills conference room when we got here, and we're currently waiting for an agent to speak to us about their expectations with this case.

With the obvious connection to the Full Deck Killer, this is more than a simple murder investigation, if you can call any murder investigation simple. There are a lot of hands in a lot of pies, and I fully expect someone to show up with their dick out, trying to prove he's the best man for the job. I've seen it more than once, and for some reason, there are a lot of men and women who work for governmental agencies who like to look like the big dog. They pull rank and need to feel like they're the leader of the pack, others asking how high when we're requested to jump.

It's why I hiss a breath of relief when the door opens and Mike walks inside.

"Thank fuck," I mutter when he grins at the relief on my face. "They put you on this?"

"You're stuck withme," he says as he gives Cora a sad smile.

"I'm so sorry for your loss, Ms. Preston."

"Thank you," she says. I've gotten to know her well enough, seen her vulnerable enough in the last twenty-four hours, to know she's fighting a losing battle on trying to hold herself together.

I dart my eyes to Mike's when I feel his gaze turn to me. It makes me wonder if he can sense just how much I want to wrap my arms around her and demand he leave the room so I can comfort her and remind her just how strong and capable she is.

"If you don't mind, can I ask you to wait in the other room?"

Cora snaps her eyes to me at his request.

"Anything you have to say to me, you can say in front of her," I tell him, drawing a frown to his face.

I lift my chin a little higher, leaving no room for argument. Mike isn't ranked higher than me and, even if he was, he isn't an asshole. But he could also remind me that I'm not here in the capacity of an agent.

I turn to Cora before he can get started. "You're going to hear some gruesome facts about the case. I know you want answers but sometimes it's better not to know the details. Are you sure you want this?"

She dips her head. We had this conversation before leaving the hotel room earlier, and she assured me that she knew it was going to be hard, but she wanted to know everything.

I honestly think it's a way for her to punish herself, but from a man who lost his shit for months and months after Noah’s death, I don't really have a leg to stand on when it comes to how she wants to manage her grief and regret.

Rather than worry about Mike's opinion, I reach for her hand on the table and pull it into my lap, nodding at him to let him know he can get started.

He doesn't miss a beat or give me a questioning look. Maybe it looks like I'm comforting her, or maybe he assumes it's something I'd do for anyone in this situation. It would be a hell of a lot simpler if that were the case.

"We don't know a lot about the Full Deck Killer," Mike says as he opens the file folder he brought into the room. "We've linked him to over twenty deaths, but we've only been able to solve one of them, and that was through the conviction of the man who hired the hit on his business partner. The information we have—"

"Hit?" Cora asks, looking at me before turning her attention back to Mike. "I knew she was murdered, but hitman?"

Mike's lips form a flat line as if he's disappointed that I haven't shared the limited details of the case with her, but that isn't my responsibility. Part of me knows I didn't tell her because she's always going to look back at these moments with a reminder of who gave that information, and I didn't want to be in her memories in that capacity. What can I say? I'm a selfish fuck.

"Your sister's death was an ordered hit, and from the two of hearts being left in her body, we have it on good authority that it was someone close to her, a family member."

I watch her throat work as if she's fighting the urge to argue with him, but she stays quiet, a tear silently rolling down her cheek. She seems too wrung out and exhausted to dash it away.

"In her body?"

Mike gives me a look, telling me he isn't as comfortable talking about such gruesome details with the victim's family, but when he looks back at her, he continues.

"The Full Deck Killer shoots his victims, then he rolls up the playing card and inserts it into the wound. We suspect he does this so it doesn’t get missed, and he's certain it will be found during autopsy."

"Is it possible it's someone trying to make it look like it was this hitman hired by a loved one? Maybe one of the connections she made while on drugs?"

Mike shakes his head, and I pull in a deep breath before he can explain, knowing what's coming.

"The murders connected to this killer haven't made the media. The deaths are scattered all over the US. They usually happen in very small towns, ones without a lot of investigative resources. It takes forever for information to make it into national databases. Not to mention the lack of experience of the people working the cases. He's a smart guy, and he's taken great care not to get caught. There can't be a copycat killer because no one but federal agents are aware that the cards link them."

Her face falls, as if she'd put a ton of hope in his answer and is disappointed that the focus of this investigation points right back to William.

"Do you have pictures?" she asks after a long moment of silence.

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