Page 414 of Cold Case, Warm Hearts

“Special Agent Franklin!”

Addie winced. She clambered to her feet, the gun at her side.

In jeans and a hooded sweatshirt, McCauley came over to her, one hand on his holstered pistol, a thunderous expression on his face. “What just happened?”

“He shoved me and ran. He’s fast.” Addie touched the back of her hair and winced.

“You need an ambulance?”

“No.” She didn’t shake her head. Instead, she turned to the cabin.

McCauley’s hand landed on her shoulder. “Ready.”

Addie stepped into the cabin and swept left to right.

The place was one open-plan living and dining area with the kitchen in the left corner. One door at the far end. “That was locked.”

It had been. She and Jake had tried to get out during a time where they’d been free—not tied to chairs.

She shook her head, dissipating memories. “Clear.”

“Clear.” McCauley motioned to the door secured by padlock the last time she was here.

Addie avoided the memories that tried to surface when she looked around and grasped the handle. McCauley stood ready. She opened the door and covered him while he went in first.

“Clear.”

She stepped after him into the room. “Bathroom?”

He nodded. They repeated the sequence where he opened the door and her going first, which meant she got hit with the smell before he did. The sharp tang that meant fresh blood.

McCauley shifted behind her. The proximity made all her instincts fire, but she shoved off the tension that would only get worse. “We need the ME and the crime lab. Officers to secure the scene.”

“Copy that.”

Addie took a step back, out of the bathroom. She checked under the bed and in the closet, unwilling to deal with any surprises from anywhere. There had been far too many of those since she got back.

Captain McCauley seemed like a decent guy and a good cop—except he hadn’t pushed back when the finger of suspicion pointed at Jake. But she didn’t know him. Couldn’t trust him.

She grabbed her phone and sent Mona a text. Asked for a photo of this Austin guy she’d been seeing. Addie tried to feel sympathy, but when the guy was a messed-up predator at best and at worst something far darker, she wasn’t exactly going to get upset he could very well be the man dead in the bathroom.

The text came back seconds later. A shot of Mona and the guy Russ had restricted her from seeing.

Addie winced.

“What is it?”

She enlarged the picture to show only Austin and turned the phone to McCauley.

“You know this guy?”

Addie moved into the bathroom. Holstered her gun as she went. The bathtub was full, though the level remained four inches from the top. The occupant’s identity had yet to be confirmed.

“Nasty.”

Addie agreed with McCauley’s observation. “This needs to be confirmed by the ME, but it’s him.”

The man in the bathtub had his head and shoulders out of the tub, the torso covered in cuts and slashes. Defensive wounds on his forearms, where the knife had cut him as he lifted his hands. Tried to fight off the attacker.

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