Page 41 of The Killer She Knew

Leigh caught sight of a band of bruising at the victim’s throat. Reaching toward Ford, she wiggled her fingers. “I need your flashlight.”

“What for?” He grabbed it from the floor nearby and handed it off.

“There’s something here on his neck. It’s hard to see with his chin tilted down.” Leigh hit the power button and managed to eliminate another inch of distance. There. A sliver—maybe half an inch—of discoloration. “That looks like… a strangulation mark.”

Ford tried to get a better view. “How can you tell?”

She wasn’t a medical examiner, but that didn’t stop the memories of previous victims from infiltrating this case. Three bodies. Two young women. One adult male—Ava’s abductor and rapist. “I’ve seen marks like these before.”

Leigh forced her attention back to the body in front of her and not on the past. “He wasn’t supposed to be there.”

“You think the unsub is responsible for this?” Ford had gotten close without her noticing again. Right over her shoulder. Probably to get a better view of the remains, but she hated the feeling she couldn’t shake the sogginess in her brain.

She was tired. Running on fumes. Had nearly died—twice. Not to mention the drain of emotionally losing Ava hour by hour. A heaviness she wasn’t prepared to fight intensified in her muscles. Shards of memory—of being guided out of the basement—fit back together as she looked up at Ford’s face. Almost the same angle he’d been at pulling her down the flooded corridors. Except she couldn’t make his features fit. Then again, she’d been disoriented. And it’d been dark.Stay with me. The voice filtered into the present, but she couldn’t assign it to the man in front of her. Too many differences.

“There’s no way the killer set up shop in that room to kill Alice Dietz or Pierce Morrow without noticing a body in the closet. He would’ve searched and memorized every inch of that basement to get the advantage. I think our new friend here surprised him, and the killer had to adapt in the moment.”

“By strangling him instead of poisoning.” Ford looked as though he wanted to nudge the body with the toe of his matte black shoe. “So who is he?”

“Let’s ask campus police if they’re missing one of their officers.” She ran her gaze over the body again, trying to pick up something—anything—to tell them what’d happened. But the headache at the base of her skull thudded harder. “I want to check in with the university president on the key codes used at the biomedical lab while we’re at it.”

“Good idea. Until then you look like you could use a nap or an exorcism.” He circled her face with a finger. “You’ve got something green and a little terrifying on your face.”

“How nice of you to notice.” She would not throw up again. Shower. She needed a shower. And a nap. “It’s not like I almost died.”

His laugh filled the oversized classroom. But there was something in it that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Let’s go, Brody. I’ll check in with campus police and the university president.”

They’d made it to the top of the amphitheater stairs—not without a few stops along the way—when the classroom door wrenched open. One of the forensic techs looked between her and Ford. “Agent Brody, we managed to pull some information from one of the driver’s licenses you recovered from the biomedical lab.”

“Whose is it?” she asked.

He handed over the warped plastic. “It belongs to Pierce Morrow.”

TWENTY-FIVE

Durham, New Hampshire

Thursday, October 10

2:07 p.m.

She couldn’t get the slime out of her hair.

Leigh shoved her slacks, blazer, and blouse into the garbage can inside the door of the women’s shower. No amount of soap, shampoo, and conditioner was going to get rid of whatever had been in those preservation jars. The smell alone churned her stomach. She only hoped whoever had tried to strangle her was having the same issue. Would serve him right, after all. And it’d make him much easier to identify if they came across a drenched man with a cut on his forearm and slime in his hair.

Which begged the question: How had her attacker managed to stay hidden all this time? The network of tunnels beneath campus must have alternate entries and exits. She made a mental note to ask maintenance for blueprints of the flooded maze.

With the slightly green tint to her blonde hair, she was beginning to fit in with the school’s witchy decorations and she had to admit that despite it all, she felt a little more human. A dull thud pulsed behind her eyes. Ish. Turned out, it took more than a shower to recover from nearly drowning, but they’d long run out of food with no supplies able to get onto campus. People were going to start getting sick if they didn’t do something.

“Look at that. She lives.” Ford shoved away from the wall where he’d stationed himself while she showered.

The smile was automatic. Honestly, she liked his barbs. His sarcastic sense of humor. “Thanks to you. Can’t say the same for my clothes, though. I had to call dead on arrival.”

“I’ve gotta say. I like the sweats.” The marshal stared down at her, more at ease than he had been after pulling her from the basement. She understood his reaction. The sense of helplessness that came with not being able to do anything for someone you cared about. It told her a lot about the importance of relationships in his life. Ford slid his hands into the front pockets of her borrowed hoodie and skimmed her belly through the rough fabric. “Takes away some of your intimidation.”

“You find me intimidating?” She couldn’t help but tip her chin up to meet his gaze head on. This was a power struggle, one she didn’t intend on losing. His hair was slightly askew, and damp. He’d taken his own shower, and the effect pooled heat low in her belly. Uncomfortable and a little desperate.

“Well, not anymore.” He cocked his head to one side, increasing the intensity of his strokes through her sweatshirt. A renewed heat trailed from every touch, and she had to remind herself they were working a case. Getting this close was sure to come back and bite them in the ass if they weren’t careful. “Kind of hard to be intimidated by someone once you see them throw up.”

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