Page 122 of Love Me Fierce

I give her one last kiss. “You’re right.”

When I shift her so I can stand up, the movement wakes my laptop and the images I was looking at earlier flash into focus. Oops. I reach out to close the lid when Vivian stops me.

“Is he part of your investigation?” Vivian asks with a frown.

I study her face, confused. “What do you mean?”

Her eyes turn wary. “That’s Professor Milankovitch. Has he done something wrong?”

A cold flush slides down my spine. “Professor? Wait a sec, do you know him?”

“I did some work for him.”

“You… what?” I grip her shoulders. “What do you mean?”

“I compiled data for a research project he’s running,” she rattles off. “It was easy work, and the pay was pretty good. I just did it in my spare time. He was going to send me more, but…”

“But what?” I prompt.

“With everything that’s happened, I sort of forgot. He was supposed to send me more work, but… I guess he never did.”

I close my eyes for a second to get my bearings. “My god.”

“Did I do something wrong?” she asks, her voice wavering.

“No, it’s nothing you did.” I cup her face and lock eyes with her “But baby, I need you to tell me everything you know about this guy.”

Chapter Thirty-Five

EVERETT

I paceinside our conference room, fed up. “It’s him, damn it. I’m sure of it.”

“Just because Vivian worked for the guy doesn’t make him a killer,” our Assistant D.A. Rex Rolland fires back, tossing his pen onto the table.

From where he’s leaning against the back wall, arms crossed, Sheriff Olson gives me a thoughtful glance. “Rolland’s right. We need more.”

“At least now we have this guy’s real name,” Zach says from his chair across from me.

“That was some good work there,” Special Agent Luke Ballard says from the comm line in the center of the table. “I’ve got a team headed to Idaho Falls. They’ll be ready if and when we need to strike. In the meantime, how do we get what we need?”

Bitterroot Community College has no professor named Milankovitch. Neither does Western, Idaho State, or any other of the colleges our five victims attended. But it’s not just a fake name, Milankovitch was a nineteenth century scientist who discovered avariation in earth’s orbit that affects climate, a relationship now known among geologists as Milankovitch Cycles.

It's yet another example of how this guy’s been playing with us.

But thanks to CCTV footage of the Bitterroot Community College café parking lot, we were able to watch the professor get into a silver Honda CR-V registered to a chemical separations scientist from the Idaho National Laboratory named Christopher Tisdale.

It was only when we pulled up his driver’s license that I realized what had tickled my memory: Tisdale was part of the search and rescue team that volunteered the day we found Michelle’s remains in York Springs Mine.

I clench and relax my fists, just to keep from punching the wall. To think this guy has been hiding in plain sight all this time…

“A name isn’t enough,” Assistant D.A. Rolland says. “No judge is going to issue a warrant to do any kind of digging based on what little we have here. Find me something else.”

“Let’s review what wedoknow,” Ballard says from the speaker.

Zach clicks his laptop, and a new image comes on the screen. “Christopher Tisdale. Attended San Francisco State. Degree in chemistry. Dabbled in pharmacy sales until landing the job at INL. Owns a three bedroom house in Idaho Falls. No marriage license on file or dependents. No prior arrests. On paper, this guy’s clean. Not so much as a parking ticket. He buys an Idaho fishing license and a cross country ski pass to Bear Mountain Nordic Center each season.”

“No other vehicles?” Ballard asks.

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