Page 26 of Built of Illusions

She frowned a little at that and then rolled her lips together for a moment. “What made you think about the lighter today?”

He thought about lying, but he couldn’t keep her safe if she didn’t know the truth. “We found a connection to another woman. That same lighter had been on the ground with the other stuff scattered from her purse.”

When he didn’t say anything else, she raised her eyebrows. “That’s it?”

“So far. As I said, I made a bit of a leap.”

Roman grinned. “He leapt right out of his seat and into the hallway. I barely caught him before he was driving. Not quite DeLorean speed, but close.”

Josie managed a little smile at that. “Is it the same kind of lighter?”

Roman nodded. “Looks exactly the same.”

Nico squeezed her hands again. “Have you found any other strange items? Any tourist-type trinkets?”

Her frown deepened and Nico’s entire system tightened.

“Maybe. The day I moved in, I found a Sacramento snow globe in the mailbox.”

Jesus. The other women had the trinkets of the town where they’d been killed with them.

He’d have to contact the other detectives and agents working on the individual cases. Had each woman received a series of trinkets? Was the killer showing each of them his route? His planned kills?

“Then today, at N20—”

“Wait. What’s N20?”

She rolled her eyes. “N20 is the art gallery where I sell my work. Or try to, anyway. Today was a good day.”

Her eyes faded at that. It had been a good day until he’d come barreling in with bad news. “Go on.”

“I hadn’t been in the gallery since coming back from Vermont. I’d sold—” She shook her head and continued. “That doesn’t matter. What does matter is that some of my pieces were on display. On one of the sculptures, I found a bracelet of Navajo design. Pretty, but definitely a tourist trinket.”

Shit. “The gallery owners didn’t put it there?”

She managed a laugh. “Most definitely not. They were going to toss it. I thought there might be a kid in the neighborhood who would enjoy it, so I took it with me.”

Josie pushed to her feet and rummaged in her purse. She used a tissue to pull it out. “I’ve already touched it, though, but you already have my fingerprints from when I started working with you. But I doubt you’ll get any prints off it at all.”

Roman put it in another bag. “Anything else you can think of?”

A tingle of dread went through Nico. “The postcard the other day. The night you bought pizza. What was on it?”

Josie closed her eyes briefly. “A covered wagon. It was a postcard from Abilene, Texas.”

Nico clamped his teeth together to keep the curses from escaping. Josie was definitely getting messages from this bastard. The bastard was going to regret all of it.

Especially because he’d just given them two clues they didn’t have before.

Josie found that keeping her emotions locked down was much more challenging as an adult. As a child, she’d learned to keep everything on lockdown until she knew she was in a safe place. She’d become an expert.

As an adult, she’d made sure she was in a safe place as often as possible so that she didn’t have to lock things in all the time. She’d become freer with her emotions over the years. Her home was supposed to be her safe place.

Now, there were two FBI agents and a couple of crime scene techs searching her yard and the house. Going through her things.

Her haven had seemed in danger for a while last night, but Nico’s kisses and his presence had made her believe she was safe.

She wasn’t.

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