Page 29 of Among the Innocent

She shook her head firmly. “This is my fight, Dalton, and I’m not hiding out. He killed my family. I want to be part of bringing him in. So unless you order me off the case, I am part of this.”

He ran his fingers through his hair. “All right, but you don’t take any unnecessary risks and I want you close.”

Sam stepped into the room, his attention darting between her and Dalton as if he’d interrupted something.

“What’s up?” Leah prompted.

“CSI finished up. The butts on the ground have been there for a while. They took them in to examine anyway. I doubt if they’ll yield anything useful, though. Whoever was smoking out there tonight took their cigarette with them.”

“Maybe the smoker was a kid and didn’t want to get in trouble?” Still, the excuse sounded flimsy even to Leah.

“Anyway, I’ll be at my desk if you need me. I’ve got some paperwork to fill out,” Sam said and stepped from the room.

Leah slipped into the chair across from Dalton. A lock of his dark hair had fallen across his forehead, which made him appear almost vulnerable.

Those intense brown eyes found hers. He moved slightly and grabbed his head. “I have a bugger of a headache.”

Leah smiled sympathetically. “Ellis kept some aspirin in his desk.”

Dalton rummaged around until he found the bottle and took a couple. “I can’t help but feel we’re running out of time. Walk me through what happened the night of the murders. You said you met John in the barn earlier that evening.”

Leah stared at a spot past Dalton’s shoulder. Her breathbecame familiarly shallow. Her body tensed. She was back in the barn with John. “Yes, I saw John earlier in the evening. He seemed excited about something.” And she’d been such a foolish girl. Attracted like a moth to a flame by John’s charm. “He said he had something he wanted to ask me.” She stopped as she recalled the look on his face. “When I arrived at the barn, he barely gave me time to come inside before he asked me to run away with him. He said he wanted us to leave right then. That night.” Leah focused on Dalton once more. “I couldn’t believe it. Though I was infatuated with John, I wasn’t ready to leave my family.”

“What did he do once you refused to leave with him?” Dalton’s deep voice washed over her, somehow reassuring.

“He changed. Immediately. He became enraged.” And she’d always known. Despite Ellis’s insistence otherwise, she’d known John killed her family. “He stormed from the barn. I returned to the house and eventually fell asleep.” Elijah’s room was next to hers and Ruth’s. Her parents were across the hall.

“I’m not sure what happened. I awoke to find a masked man standing over me. He held a knife to Ruth’s throat and forced us all downstairs. We were herded into the barn.” She stopped. Fought back tears. “And then he killed each one of them and forced me to watch. When he came to me, he whispered, ‘You’ll always belong to me.’ His voice sounded strange. High-pitched. I think he wanted to disguise it as part of the game.” She pulled in a couple of breaths and let the storm abate. “And then he slit my throat, only it wasn’t as deep as theirs.”

“He wasn’t trying to kill you.”

Her mouth twisted bitterly. “No, he was saving that for now.” She rubbed her fingers over the scar on her throat before continuing. “I somehow managed to get to my feet.” Hereyes met his. “I could tell they were in bad shape. I tried to get help.”

“You ran from the barn. That’s when you left your handprint on the door.”

She slowly nodded.

“You’re certain this was John?”

“Yes.” She hesitated before telling him something she hadn’t shared with another living soul. “And I think the person following me in the truck may have been John. Either it was part of his game or he wanted to cast doubt.”

Dalton reached across the desk and clasped her hand. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered. “You didn’t deserve having your family taken from you. But you have no idea how strong you are. Having gone through what you did and surviving.”

The tender way he said the words was her undoing. A sob tore from her lips. She’d worked so hard to rise above what happened. Make sure she never became a victim again, and yet tonight, she felt like that sixteen-year-old girl.

“Leah.” Dalton said her name softly and released her hand. He came around to gather her in his arms.

She struggled for composure and finally found it. Leah pulled away and scrubbed tears from her face. “I’m sorry. I don’t usually lose it like this.”

“Don’t be sorry. Having to relive what happened again and again must be incredibly hard.”

“I just want this to be over. I want him stopped.”

“And he will be.”

She put space between them. “Do you think he’s killed before my family? The pleasure he took in killing them. The way he appeared so organized—that couldn’t have been his first time.”

Dalton seemed to realize her need to shift the conversation away from herself.

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