Page 66 of Crash and Burn

Maggie didn't sleep for the next three nights. Marina’s news that the Blue River Killer had struck again was petrifying. Another woman was dead, maybe because Maggie and Sebastian hadn’t been able to act fast enough.

Though she knew it wasn’t truly her fault— the guilt was relentless.

She could still hear Marina’s voice in her head. “She was blonde, like all the others. Late twenties.” Maggie knew he struck younger or younger-appearing people—late twenties to even early forties. “She'd been out at one of the clubs.”

The way Marina said it, with an air of resignation, told Maggie that whatever they'd been doing or however they had educated the public had not been enough. The Blue River Killer hadn’t even had to change his MO.

She’d vented to Sebastian. “It’s been aweeksince we found the paper behind the brick. It was a hit list with his fingerprints all over it! How hard is it to get Merrit Geller’s fingerprints?”

Sebastian had sighed at her. “Not hard. But legally it can be a nightmare.” He’d then raised an eyebrow at her as though she should have known that.

She did. She usually appreciated the order of the system, and she understood that it was just that, a system. But it was failing her now. And it had failed that young woman who’s name Maggie hadn’t yet learned.

“If her name’s not released yet, that means they haven’t told her family,” she’d lamented to Sebastian before yet another sleepless night.

When she’d woken up—not rested—she’d rolled over to find Sebastian coming awake himself. She finally convinced him to go back to work. He’d protested. Hard.

“The La Vista Rapist isn’t coming here. He doesn’t care about the paper. Hasn’t he proven that? Nothing has happened except you aren’t getting paid and you are getting closer to losing your job.

She’d watched as his jaw clenched. She wasn’t wrong, and she knew it. Still, he’d argued back. “You’re more important than the job.”

“I appreciate that, but what happens if you have to move to get a new position? This isn’t tenable!”

“He's waiting for us to let our guard down.” The deep sigh moved his bare chest, a sight she could appreciate even as he disagreed with her.

“Well then, it's time to look like we've let our guard down.”

“What?”

“That doesn't meanactuallyletting our guard down.”

They'd gone back and forth this way. Maggie wondered if the relationship could withstand the pressure of a serial predator bearing down on them. In the end, Sebastian told her he hated that she thought she could get away with it, but he backed down. He conceded that she was an adult, and he had to let her make her own decisions.

She’d raised her eyebrows at him. “I haven’t heard that since I was a teenager and my dad thought I would learn my lesson.”

“I’m sorry.” He’d huffed the words out at her but didn’t push more. “Please understand that I don’t like the feeling in my gut about this.”

She’d left it at that, hoping the residual anger would eventually fade, and Sebastian told the chief he’d show up for his next shift. She’d compromised on letting someone stay with her overnight when he was gone. Itwasa good idea, she wasn’t stupid, and it made him feel better when he was clearly fighting trusting her decisions.

So he asked Jory Buckland from B, who readily agreed. Jory and Sebastian had gone to the academy together. The way he said this made Maggie think of her law school friends, though she was relatively certain the two trainings were very different.

That night Maggie had slept with Jory in Sebastian's old room across the hallway. She hadn't slept any more soundly than she did when Sebastian was here, but it was certainly better than if she'd been alone.

Three days later, Sebastian announced, “Jory can’t make it tomorrow night. Now what?”

Maggie had made a bold move. “Did you meet the new neighbor? Two houses down.” When she’d been with Rex, she’d fit right in with his friends. Now she had Sebastian’s friends. She needed her own. So she’d made an effort to cultivate a friendship with the woman who had just moved in. “I liked her right away.”

She didn’t tell Sebastian that she’d been shitty about sticking to small talk and that she’d wound up talking about the Blue River Killer with her new friend. Instead, she figured she’d save Sebastian and the firehouse the trouble and said, “I’ll see if I can line up my own bodyguard.”

She’d headed over two doors and knocked on the front door of the pretty Victorian. Not as big as hers, it was certainly in better shape.

“Coming!” the voice had called out. Then Seline opened the door, wearing a lab coat and clear goggles around her neck. A triangular flask of equally clear liquid sloshed in one hand. “Maggie!”

“Oh! You’re in the middle of something. I was going to see if you wanted to come to lunch. I have a question for you, so lunch is on me.”

“I’m almost finished. Can it wait twenty minutes?” Her soft french accent tilted the letters even as she spoke them. Seline motioned Maggie into the house, and Maggie soaked up all the information she could. The layout was much like her own, only without the massive number of rooms. Seline’s back room was larger than Maggie’s, though. It had been recently converted to a lab, with a black top island that looked as if it had been built in. A sink was set into one end, and a raised bar featured an interesting array of outlets.

At the far end was a bunsen burner and Maggie watched as Seline set her goggles back into place and swirled the liquid. “You should stay on that side of the room. I don’t think there are any fumes, but I don’t have a hood in here yet.”

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