Page 9 of The Killer She Knew

“You think he’s going to expect something in return for his help?” Ford braced himself against the door as it nearly ripped free of his hold. There was no chance they’d be able to get anything from Alice Dietz’s death scene in this weather. The best they could do was protect it until the storm passed, but from the look of the clouds to the east, that wasn’t happening anytime soon.

“More than likely.” Wind whipped her hair free of the ponytail at the back of her head and into her face as she raced out into the rain. They needed to get back to campus, butroad conditions weren’t getting any better. Alice Dietz had been murdered at the most inopportune time. Part of her wanted to believe it hadn’t been intentional. No one could predict the weather, despite all the technology and meteorologists claiming otherwise. No one had seen the incoming hurricane reaching Durham, of all places. But it was certainly paying off for their killer.

“I need to make a stop by my hotel on the way back.” Leigh wrenched the car door to her rental open and dropped inside. Her clothes stuck to her skin, squeezing her in all the wrong places. “I’ve got to check in on someone.”

“Boyfriend?” Ford whipped into the passenger seat with more grace than she’d owned in her life. He had the uncanny ability to throw his frame around like he weighed nothing. A solid presence she couldn’t ignore.

Years of earned suspicion knifed through her, but Leigh kept her head down as she started the ignition. “Are you asking me if I’m romantically involved with someone? Because that’s none of your business, Marshal Ford.”

The windows fogged as humidity escaped from their wet clothing, casting them into another one of those bubbles where it was just the two of them. Blocking out the world, the chaos of their jobs.

“You’re right.” He ripped the seat belt across his frame as rain spit against the top of the car at an increasing rate. “But if it makes you feel any better, I was mainly asking for the purposes of the case.”

“The case.” She didn’t give him more as she backed out of the space and maneuvered free of the lot. It took her a minute to let go of the smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. The wipers went full force, distracting her from the pull of Ford’s attention as Leigh directed them to the hotel. “No. I’m not romanticallyinvolved with anyone. My work doesn’t leave room for much of a personal life.”

Okay, she’d never had much of a personal life to begin with, but Ava had sparked a need to try for one. To make them a real family with nightly dinners, boardgame Mondays, movie nights, and trips to the beach. Thus far, attempts to start these had been met with the same response as a bout of dysentery.

“I’ll make a note of that. In case it becomes pertinent to this investigation.” His glasses fogged with the difference in temperature inside the rental. Ford swiped at them with a tissue he’d kept in his windbreaker. A Boy Scout through and through. Cute.

“I’ll be a minute.” She pulled the vehicle into the hotel parking lot, grabbing for one of the radios provided by the chief. Furious winds ripped at vinyl siding along the hotel’s exterior. A section dislodged, hurtling overhead and skimming down the street. Someone was going to lose a limb in these conditions.

Leigh pushed into the hotel lobby, leaving Ford to fend for himself, and jogged up three flights of stairs to her hotel room. Ava was still alive. Bored out of her mind without power. But alive.

“Take me with you.” It was the first time her adopted daughter had asked to be in the same room with Leigh, let alone go anywhere with her voluntarily. “I’m losing my mind sitting here alone.”

Leigh wavered. Despite the possibility of having to split her attention between the investigation and Ava, she wasn’t sure how long she could trust Ava here alone. And if Leigh got stuck at the university overnight, was it fair to leave Ava to cope by herself? She could at least keep an eye on Ava on campus. Not have to worry if she was safe or getting through to check in. Within minutes, they were descending the stairs, shoving back through the hotel lobby, and heading for the car.

Ford studied them through the blotted windshield.

“Who’s that?” Ava’s face—a younger version of her mother’s—scrunched up at the sight of the marshal in the front seat.

“A US marshal who knows how to chase down runaways better than Officer Caine. Do with that information what you will.” Leigh collapsed behind the steering wheel as Ava climbed into the backseat. The fifteen-year-old remained quiet as Leigh navigated through town and pulled off the side of Main Street in front of Thompson Hall. The tarps the crime scene had put down struggled to stay put against the onslaught coming directly for Durham.

Leigh shouldered out of the vehicle. “I don’t see any lights on inside.”

They should’ve been able to get the generator up and running by now.

She steered clear of the scene perimeter with Ava and Ford on her heels and hiked up the steps to the front glass doors decorated with overly excited pumpkin decals. The president was already there in the lobby with what looked to be a maintenance worker and a university police officer. “What’s going on?”

“Someone cut the power to the generator.” The president held up a mess of severed cables. “Electricity, internet, phone lines—they’re all dead. We have no way of reaching emergency services.”

SIX

Durham, New Hampshire

Wednesday, October 9

12:02 p.m.

Eighteen hours.

An entire lifetime since the killer had dumped Alice Dietz’s body in front of Thompson Hall.

Leigh studied the bunch of wiring in her hand. Severed clean from the emergency generator. Intentional. She tossed the collection of cables beside Ava and scrubbed her hands down her slacks. The forensic techs hadn’t found any fingerprints. Whoever had sabotaged the generator had most likely worn gloves. Marshal Ford had taken point in following maintenance and university police to the generator room in the basement. With any luck, their killer had left something of himself behind for them to follow. Without power, they no longer had access to surveillance footage taken from around campus. Had that been the intention? But why hadn’t campus police or Marshal Fordtried to access it before now? Why wait? Damn it. This storm was pulling every lead out from under them without even trying.

“Agent Brody?” A soft-voiced, pale young woman penetrated Leigh’s peripheral vision. She tightened her hold around her backpack straps at each shoulder as she approached, one of thirty-six stranded people in this building. Strawberry blonde hair. A dusting of freckles. No hint of nerves in her voice. Confidence bubbled from expertly done natural makeup to enhance blue eyes the color of the bay—nothing too heavy—and mid-label clothes meant to instill a sense of money. Most likely earned through her part-time job as a barista. Leigh could smell the coffee grounds from here. “I’m Tamra Hopkins. The police said you wanted to talk with me. About Alice.”

“Tamra. Thanks for meeting with me.” Leigh forced herself off the bench shoved against the lobby wall with an reassuring swipe at Ava’s knee. The surgical sites across her midsection stretched tight. While there wasn’t any pain left over from her last brush with the surgeon who’d stripped her of her uterus, her body clung to the phantom pain. Her blazer was still damp from the raging downpour, and she doubted there was any chance of it drying anytime soon as humidity worked through the main glass doors. “You and Alice were roommates.”

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