Page 100 of Obsession

He laid his fork down and then checked the front of his shirt. “Did I spill something?” When she shook her head, he asked, “Then why are you looking at me like that?”

“Why would your client accept you and not me to work on the project?”

“He doesn’t know you, but he does know and trust me.”

She could see his point, but that didn’t mean she had to like it. “With my credentials—”

He stopped her. “I will assure him you will do the job better than anyone else. Satisfied?”

“Yes, and thank you.” Sometimes being straightforward worked.

He picked up his fork again. “What did you discover in that hole at Mount Locust?”

55

While the file printed, Sam dialed the number the hospital had given him for the ICU nurses’ station. Both Mr. Selby and his daughter were still hanging on and still critical. He disconnected and texted the information to Emma before he relayed the news to Brooke.

“I hope they make it. Emma must be pretty shook up over it,” she said and walked to the kitchen.

“She is. I’m going back by her apartment when I leave here.” There was a case of water in the corner, and Sam grabbed a bottle, uncapping it.

Brooke came back with a cup of coffee. “So, how is it going between you two?”

He almost spat the water out. “What do you mean?” he said when he quit coughing.

“Anyone can see you two belong together. Never knew why you broke up in the first place,” she said. “I take that back. Emma has trouble giving relationships time to gel.”

“Why do you think that is?” Sam asked. Maybe if he knew why, he could reduce the fallout when he told her his secret.

Brooke pressed her lips together. “That’s something you two should talk about ... not me and you.”

“You’re right,” he admitted. “But if you have any suggestions ...”

She thought a minute. “If you hit a rough spot, make Emma talk about her feelings. Don’t let her cut and run.”

The printer shut off, and Sam retrieved a stack of sheets from the tray. In the query, his parameters had included murders with couples as victims and where the female received flowers from an unknown subject. It appeared that four fell within that framework. He would spread his search nationwide after he looked over this report, if he thought it was warranted.

After scanning the pages, he set aside two of the cases. In one, the murderer was caught prior to Mary Jo’s death. In the second case, the flowers the victim received had been roses. Neither of them felt right for a connection to Mary Jo, but he may have found the connection he was looking for in the other two cases.

He made notes on a yellow legal pad as he read the reports. The first murder occurred just outside of Oxford, Mississippi, two years after Mary Jo’s death. The man’s body was found by hunters. He was shot in the back, just like Sandra Wyatt. The woman was found a couple of days later in a wooded area within half a mile of the man, and the coroner put her death at a day later than the man’s. Cause of death was listed as blunt force trauma. She held a crushed daisy in her hand. A family member had told police she’d received a bouquet of daisies just days before she was murdered. The police were never able to discover who had sent the flowers or who committed the murders.

Sam stared at the report, and then he handed the file to Brooke. “Read this and tell me what you think.”

He read the next file, writing more notes. This murder had taken place four years ago, and like the other case, the man was murdered first and then the woman, with their bodies found within a mile of each other in a heavily wooded area near Raymond, Mississippi, a small town in Hinds County south of Jackson. Again, the man had been shot and the woman had blunt force trauma. She had received daisies only days before her death.While no daisies were found at the murder scene, two days after her funeral, a bouquet showed up on her grave.

Sam handed Brooke the second case and then leaned back in his chair as he read the witness reports. In both cases, it appeared the woman had been stalked. “What do you think?” he asked as Brooke laid the second file on the desk.

“Looks like the women were the target of the same stalker.” She chewed her bottom lip. “There are four years between these two murders, with the first one occurring two years after Mary Jo and Ryan were killed—if Ryan was killed the same night. I think they were his first kills, then these.”

“But why kill the man?”

“They were always first, so to clear the way for the stalker?”

“Could be,” he said. “Have you ever heard of erotomania?”

“No. What is it?”

“It’s when someone believes another person is in love with them despite clear evidence to the contrary. A couple of famous cases involved Jodie Foster and her stalker, John Hinckley, and then there was Peggy Ray, who stalked David Letterman.”

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