23

The four of them worked for a couple of hours, trying to think of anyone who could be accessing information about the case, but they made no progress. Logan hated bringing up Jeff’s daughter, but that idea was shot down quickly. One of Jeff’s hard-and-fast rules was to never share information about a case with anyone outside of work. Especially family.

“It’s just not possible,” Logan said. “I know it’s not always easy to raise a headstrong daughter, but Jeff loved Stephanie. I saw them together a few times, and she loved him too. That was clear.”

“She’ll have to live with refusing to leave town when he asked her to,” Monty said. “She may blame herself for what happened.”

“If the UNSUB hadn’t used her, he would have used someone else to manipulate Jeff,” Kaely said. “I think he picks his target and then gets to them any way he can. He seems to be pretty dedicated to achieving his goals.”

“I agree,” Alex said. “We need to get back to our profile. We’re getting distracted. Can we look at the information from Australia? I’m really curious about it. It’s the only killing that happened out of our guy’s comfort zone. Bayne is the odd man out.”

“Sure,” Logan said, “but how about some lunch first? It’s almost two o’clock. I’m starving.”

Alex was surprised to hear the time. She hadn’t thought about food. For some strange reason, she kept feeling that she’d missed something, but she couldn’t figure out what it was. It felt as if it was right in front of her, but she just couldn’t see it.

Everyone agreed to break for lunch. As they walked toward the door, Alex said, “Are you sure those files will be safe?”

“I have a feeling the police officer guarding our door will be sufficient,” Monty said.

Alex smiled. “I think you’re right. Feels strange to have so much security. I mean, we’re profilers, not field agents.”

“You’re right,” Monty said. “But we still deal with unstable, violent criminals. We can always be a target for them, I guess.”

As they left the room, Logan locked the door behind them and spoke to the officer sitting in the hallway. Then he caught up with the others as they made their way down the gerbil tunnels. “He’ll be there for another two hours before the new officer checks in,” Logan told them.

“I don’t want to take too long,” Alex said. “We need to work.”

“We also need to eat and relax a little. I’m not at my best when I’m too uptight.”

“Okay, I get it,” Alex said. She smiled. “Look at you. Unit chief for such a short time, but you’re doing a great job.”

“Maybe. I think I like being an analyst better. Being in charge is . . . tough.”

As they headed for the food court, Alex realized Kaely had been surprisingly quiet. “Everything okay?” she asked.

Kaely nodded. “Just thinking.” But by the look on her face, Alex could tell something was bothering her. Alex ran everything that had been said through her mind, but nothing stuck out. Everyone was trying to narrow down the possible leak. Had Kaely seen something the rest of them missed?

They reached the food court, and Kaely went for Chinese. Alex ordered tacos, and the men asked for pizza.

On Alex’s way toward a table, Logan came up beside her. “I’m surprised you didn’t get Chinese food too.”

“I’m not idolizing Kaely,” she shot back.

She walked faster, getting ahead of him. She noticed the other half of their unit sitting around a table. She hurried over to them.

“Hey,” Robin said with a smile. “It’s weird we’re in the same building but rarely see you.”

“I agree,” Alex said. “Maybe we could meet here for supper tonight?”

“That would be great,” Todd said.

“You guys doing okay?”

“We’re working hard to come up with the investigative strategies Logan asked for,” Bethany said. “We’re also using ViCAP to look for possible suspects. Nothing so far.”

“We’ve been checking for possible connections to our victims as well,” Nathan said. “So far we haven’t found any names linked to all of them.”

Alex sighed. “Our profile is being fine-tuned. This guy is something different. I’ve never seen anyone like him before.”

“Neither have we,” Nathan said. He smiled. “We’ll keep at it, though. We’ll get him.”

“I hope you’re right. Look, I’ll talk to Logan about dinner. He’ll get back with you so we can set a time, okay?”

“Sure,” Todd said. “We’ll see you tonight.”

As she walked away, she was grateful none of them seemed upset about not being one of the agents working the profile. Jeff was the one who’d decided having too many people would add confusion. In her heart, she knew he’d been right, but it still felt awkward.

Alex had just sat down at the table across from Kaely when a tall man with dark wavy hair walked into the food court. Kaely saw him and smiled. He came over, leaned down, and kissed her on the cheek.

“This is Noah Hunter,” she said, addressing the rest of them. “My fiancé.”

As Kaely introduced each person at the table, Alex noticed she was beaming. Who knew she could beam? And her previous reticence had disappeared. Alex couldn’t help but feel a little jealous. She’d never been in love. Never known anyone who had made her feel that way. Before she realized it, her gaze swung to Logan. She silently chastised herself. She had no romantic feelings for Logan, nor did he have them for her. For all she knew, he was dating someone and just hadn’t mentioned it.

“Excuse me, please,” Kaely said. She got up and walked with Noah to a table away from everyone. When she sat down with him, he took her hand in his. She seemed so happy.

Alex looked away. Maybe that would happen for her someday, but for now, she just wanted to focus on her job. Staying single-minded was vital to her.

Everyone finished lunch and then headed back to the classroom. The clouds Alex had noticed earlier had delivered on their promise. Snow was falling pretty heavily. She loved snow. Although it sounded odd, she’d always felt safer when there was snow. Especially when she was a child. School would shut down, and the strange people her aunt associated with stayed away. It was as if snow stopped everyone in their tracks. Even people with evil intentions. She wondered if their UNSUB would have to change his plans if they got a heavy snow.

She sighed to herself. Probably not. So far he’d stayed ahead of them, pulling off his deeds perfectly—except for killing Monty. But he’d hurt him. If that was his real goal, he’d succeeded. Four deaths. How many more before they caught him? She looked at Kaely, who was a few steps in front of her. Was the UNSUB really going after her next? How could that be? People who didn’t belong had no way to get near them. And she still found it hard to believe anyone in the FBI or on Gorman’s team would help this madman anyway.

She noticed Logan hand a cup of coffee to the officer outside their room. Thoughtful. Alex nodded at their guard, and he smiled in return.

Once inside, everyone gathered around the table while Logan stayed on his feet. “We have a profile based on our first impressions of the UNSUB,” he said. “But I think you’ll agree that he keeps acting outside the parameters we set for him. That doesn’t mean we’re wrong, but we need to narrow down our depiction of him. See if we can make it easier to catch this guy.”

“Don’t you think we should first find out if someone’s working with him—and who?” Monty said. “I know it’s difficult to believe he’s getting help from within the Bureau or the police, but if someone is giving him information, until we root them out, we’re vulnerable.”

“I understand what you’re saying,” Alex said, “but if we get the profile right, that may lead us to whoever is helping him.”

A knock sounded on the door, and the same officer opened it. “Your detectives are here,” he said.

Ben Cooper and Julie Palmer came in. Julie smiled, but as usual, Cooper looked as if he wanted to be somewhere else. What was his deal? He was starting to get on Alex’s nerves.

“Welcome,” Logan said. “We were just talking about our profile. We want to see if we can refine it to help you find the UNSUB.”

“Did you discover anything at the station?” Alex asked. “Anyone who might be working with our UNSUB?”

“No,” Ben said sharply. “No one there would be involved with someone like this.”

“He means we’re still looking,” Julie said. “So far we haven’t turned up anything, but we intend to keep at it.”

Julie slipped into a chair next to Monty, but Ben grabbed one at the end of the table as if he wanted to distance himself from the group.

“Why don’t you sit closer to us, Ben?” Logan said. “It’s easier to share the information in these files that way.”

“Sure,” he said as he got up and sat next to Monty. Then he gave them all a quick, forced smile, but the tension rolled off him like waves of stench. What was wrong with him?

“Ben, we’re trying to stop a murderer,” Alex said. “He’s killed four people. Two of them were close to our team. I’m sorry, but I get the feeling you don’t want to be here. We need you fully invested in this case. Is there something we need to talk about?”

“Alex,” Logan said, “you’re not in charge of this group. Step back, please.”

She looked at Logan with surprise. He’d never spoken to her that way. Before she had a chance to get offended, though, she realized he was right. She’d overstepped her boundaries. Logan wasn’t her colleague now. He was her acting unit chief.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I was out of line.”

“But she has a point,” Kaely said slowly. “None of us want to challenge your authority, Logan. But you know as well as I do that we need to work as a team here.” She looked at Cooper. “Someone with a bad attitude can be distracting.”

“That’s enough,” Logan said. He turned toward Cooper. “Step out into the hall with me for a moment.”

At first, Alex didn’t think Cooper was going to go with Logan, but he finally followed him into the hall. Logan pulled the door closed behind them.

“I’m sorry about him,” Julie said. “He’s just having a tough time.” She shook her head. “I can’t tell you about it because it’s personal, but he has nothing against any of you.”

Alex didn’t say anything, but she was worried about Cooper. Lives were on the line. If he couldn’t get past his personal problems, he needed to be removed.

She rubbed the back of her neck. The muscles were hard and tight, and she could feel the beginnings of a tension headache. She had a terrible feeling the UNSUB was going to strike again. And soon.