Harlequin Romantic Suspense July 2021 Box Set Page 3

  Simone had a good understanding of the human mind. She was also good at picking up cues and tells in behavior, behavior that often occurred in people in an effort to hide real emotions.

  She knew that Jared’s parents, Rob and Marilyn, owned a furniture store and that Jared had a grandmother who lived overseas. She also knew Jared’s parents had been desperately making arrangements to send him overseas to escape the charges against him. Fortunately, he had been arrested before that could actually happen.

  The interview lasted about an hour. “Thoughts?” Brad immediately asked when it was finished. “Opinions?”

  She frowned. It had been a bit difficult to stay completely focused on the tape as she had found Brad’s closeness to her a bit distracting. His body heat had radiated toward her and a couple of times his arm had brushed against hers, shocking her as pleasant tingles had rushed through her.

  “I’d like to see more before I tell you what I’m thinking. Do you have additional video of Jared and his parents being interviewed?” she asked.

  He nodded and pulled up a new file and opened a new video of the same five people. Once again, she did her best to focus on not only what was being said, but what was not said, which could be equally as revealing.

  The video was a little over an hour and a half long, and by the time they were finished, it was nearing one thirty. “You want to take a break and let me treat you to lunch?” he surprised her by asking. “There’s a little deli around the corner that serves great sandwiches, and to be perfectly honest, I skipped dinner last night and so I’m starving.”

  “You don’t have to take me to lunch,” she protested.

  “Really, Simone, I’d like to.”

  It was the first time he’d called her by her first name and she was surprised by how much she liked her name on his lips. “I only had a bagel for breakfast, so lunch sounds good.”

  “Then let’s get out of here.” They didn’t speak again until they stepped outside of the building.

  “Ah, fresh air,” he said. “I love spring and early summer. What about you?” They fell into step side by side in a leisurely pace down the sidewalk.

  “I prefer summer and winter,” she replied.

  “Ah, a woman of extremes,” he said.

  “Not really. There are just so many storms in the spring and fall, and I’m definitely a bit of a scaredy-cat when it comes to thunder and lightning.”

  A touch of emotion rose up in her chest. “I can’t tell you how many times when I was little that my dad would hold me and rock me in a rocking chair I had next to my bed until the storm outside passed.”

  To her surprise, Brad reached out and touched the back of her hand. It was brief, but she knew his intent was to comfort. “I’m so sorry, Simone. I’m so damned sorry about what happened to your father and your uncle.”

  “Thanks. I’m just hoping we can get these two killers in prison where they belong. Just imagine how many more people they would have killed if they hadn’t been found out. Just imagine if Leo is still out there killing people.”

  “Now, that’s the stuff of my nightmares,” he said ruefully.

  Their talk stopped as he led the way into the little restaurant. It was a typical deli with a long counter and different kinds of meats and cheeses in a refrigerated display case. Small tables were scattered around the space and a huge handwritten menu blackboard offered a variety of sandwiches and a special of the day. Today the special was a cup of tomato basil soup and a turkey-avocado sandwich. Since it was late for lunch and too early for dinner, only a few of the tables were occupied.

  “I’m sure this isn’t exactly the kind of place you usually eat at,” Brad said. “But over the last couple of months I’ve tried pretty much everything on the menu here and I can tell you it’s all good.”

  She looked at him curiously. “What makes you think this kind of place is out of my wheelhouse? There are many days when I eat in the college cafeteria or I grab a sandwich at a deli near the campus.”

  “I just figured with your family background you were accustomed to a finer dining experience,” he replied.

  She laughed. “It’s obvious you don’t know me at all. I’m really just a nerdy professor.”

  He smiled. “Then maybe I’ll get to know you better over lunch.”

  For some reason his words caused a pleasant rivulet of warmth to rush through her. She quickly broke eye contact with him and instead looked up at the menu.

  Minutes later they were seated at a table in the back with their lunch before them. Simone had ordered a turkey-and-cheese sandwich and Brad had ordered a ham and swiss. They both had chips and sodas.

  “You want to talk about what you’ve seen so far on the videos?” he asked.

  She frowned thoughtfully. “Not yet. You said you have more video of Jared being interviewed with his parents?”

  “I have two more, but unfortunately I’m not going to be able to show them to you today. I have some meetings later this afternoon that I need to attend.”

  “Would I be able to view those tomorrow?” she asked.

  “I can set you up to see them tomorrow at the same time as today. Does that work for you?”

  “That definitely works for me,” she agreed. This close to him, she noticed that his eyelashes were sinfully long. He had an intense way of gazing at her, as if he were trying to delve into her very soul. If she was a criminal with something to hide, she would find his gaze quite daunting. “Thankfully I finished the last of my daytime classes and I’m not working through the summer,” she added.

  “Do you enjoy teaching psychology classes?” he asked.

  “I love it, although for the last couple of years my schedule has become pretty heavy. Everyone likes to take classes in psychology and then three years ago I added courses in deviant behaviors and the criminal mind. What I didn’t expect was for those classes to become so popular. I’m just grateful I only have a couple of night classes left to finish up and then I have two months free.”

  When she got nervous, she tended to talk too much and she flushed as she realized that was what she was doing. “I’m sorry. I’m doing all the talking here. So, what about you? Do you like what you do?”

  “I feel like I was destined to hunt down killers.” He looked at her for a moment and then stared at someplace just over her head. “When I was twelve, my mother was killed by a serial killer.”

  Simone gasped. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry.”

  He smiled at her. “Thank you, but it was a long time ago. But it set me on the course of what I wanted to do with my life.”

  “Did the authorities catch the person who killed your mother?” The fact that at one time in his life he’d probably felt the same emotions, the same pain that she felt somehow made her feel a strange connection with him.

  “No, they didn’t. He raped and killed six women in six days and then stopped the killing spree. He left few clues behind and the authorities were unable to arrest anyone for the crimes. It has remained a cold case. I’m just glad we were able to give you some answers about who killed your father, although it was no thanks to the profile I worked on.”

  “What do you mean?” She picked up a chip and popped it into her mouth.

  “I spent so much time trying to tie your father and your uncle to the other two victims. I was convinced there had to be some connection between them and I spun my wheels trying to find it.”

  She smiled at him. “Don’t beat yourself up. I did the same thing. I worked for hours trying to profile the killer but never guessed that it was two teenagers killing random victims.”

  She didn’t want to talk murder anymore. She’d been immersed in it for the past six months. Now she found herself interested in the man seated across from her.

  “So, tell me more about you. I know you live in Washington, DC. Do you have a family there? A wife a
nd children?”

  “No, it’s just me.”

  “So, you aren’t married?” She wasn’t sure how old he was, but he appeared to be in his midthirties or so.

  “No. Got close once, but it fell apart before we could get to the altar. She thought I was already married to my job and she refused to marry a man she didn’t believe would make her a priority. What about you? Have you ever been married?” Once again, his eyes held an intensity that threatened to half steal her breath away.

  “No. My last relationship broke up a little over a year ago and I haven’t really dated anyone since then.” She smiled at him. “I, too, have been accused of being married to my job.”

  For the next few minutes, they ate and small talked about the weather and life in Chicago. She told him about the sudden appearance of two mystery heirs attempting to claim part of the family business and he asked questions about Colton Connections.

  She was surprised by how easy he was to talk to. He’d always appeared stiff and professional when he’d met with the family about the murder. But today he was a bit softer and far more approachable than she would have thought. She could have sat and talked to him forever, but she was also aware that he needed to get back to his very important work.

  When the meal was finished, they stepped outside into the bright sunshine. “Thank you, Agent Howard, for allowing me the opportunity to view the tapes, and thank you so much for lunch,” she replied.

  “No problem, and please call me Brad.”

  Once again, he’d surprised her. “How about I call you Brad only when the two of us are alone?”

  He smiled at her, a wide smile that slightly crinkled the outward corners of his eyes and filled his features with a heart-stopping warmth. “That works. And I’ll see you again tomorrow morning at ten.”

  “You can count on it,” she said with a smile of her own.

  A few minutes later Simone was heading home with thoughts of the attractive FBI man in her mind. She should be thinking about the taped evidence she’d seen, but thoughts of Brad intruded.

  Today she’d seen pieces of the man and not the agent in charge of her father’s murder. And she’d liked what she’d seen. She tried to tell herself she was eager to go into the station the next day to see more video, and she was. But the truth of the matter was she was also eager to spend more time with Brad.

  She needed to get her head in a better space and focus on the fact that it didn’t matter how attracted she was to him. Ultimately he was doing a job, and when the job was finished, he’d go back to his life in Washington, DC. Besides, what would a very hot FBI agent find attractive about a nerdy professor who was scared of storms?

  * * *

  Brad left the deli and Simone, and then headed back to headquarters. He shouldn’t have had lunch with her, and he definitely shouldn’t have gone into any details about his personal life. The fact that he’d been reluctant for the lunch to end was definitely problematic.

  In all his years of working as a homicide detective, he’d always managed to keep professional and personal very separate. There was just something about Simone Colton...

  Maybe it was because her bright blue eyes emanated not only strength and intelligence, but also a soft vulnerability that somehow drew him in. Or perhaps it was because her hair looked so shiny and soft and touchable and her lips had a small pout that looked extremely kissable.

  Jeez, what was wrong with him? It was definitely time he wound up this case and got back to his life in DC—his very lonely life in DC.

  He shoved this thought away. He knew part of the flaw he suffered from was most of the time he preferred to spend time in the minds of killers rather than in the minds of ordinary people.

  At thirty-six years old he’d pretty much written off love and marriage for himself. It had also become more difficult to have a group of buddies to hang out with.

  Most of his friends were now married with families of their own and Brad no longer felt comfortable being a third wheel in their lives. The exception to that was his partner, Russ, and his wife, Janie, who always invited him to dinner or to spend special occasions with them.

  The single men who worked with him tended to be bitter, burned-out cops who drank too much and talked about their ex-wives and taking early retirement.

  He had no idea what he found so appealing about Simone, but it was an attraction he certainly didn’t intend to explore. In fact, as he settled back down in his office, he consciously shoved all thoughts of her out of his mind.

  As soon as he settled back in, he made a series of phone calls to check with the men who were out on the streets looking for Leo Styler. The kid had to be somewhere, but so far they hadn’t been able to find his location.

  He pulled up a photo from a social media profile. Styler looked like a punk wannabe. He was fond of camo pants and black T-shirts. A heavy gold chain and lock that could be used as a weapon hung around his neck, but Brad sensed they were used just to intimidate others.

  In talking to some of Leo’s peers, Brad had gotten a picture of a kid who wanted to connect with members of the opposite sex, but his antisocial behavior was a big turnoff.

  Neither of the boys were big in academics, which was why they were attending a community college rather than the kind of colleges their parents could afford. However, the two boys were into the sport of mag-fed paintball gaming.

  Brad had needed to educate himself in the sport when he heard about it. He’d learned that mag-fed meant magazine-fed paint guns, giving the player the experience of loading and shooting guns that were similar to the real thing. There were two such clubs in Chicago and Brad had men undercover and hanging around them in the hopes that Leo might show up at one of them. But so far the kid had been a no-show.

  Brad didn’t believe that Leo’s parents had managed to get Leo out of the states and now his name was flagged, so it would be difficult for him to even get a bus ticket out of town. James and Miranda Styler professed they didn’t know where their son was, but Brad was betting they were somehow keeping him funded so he had a motel or someplace to crash in and food to eat.

  He had men sitting on the Styler home to see if the kid tried to sneak back home. Brad felt as if he had covered all the bases and it was just a matter of time before they got Leo behind bars.

  The day was long with the task force meeting to update each other. Brad was the liaison between the two FBI agents who had come with him from DC and the three Chicago detectives who had been lent to him during the investigation.

  Unfortunately, there was no news. He had another interview scheduled with Jared and his parents the next day. He was hoping to get a confession out of Jared so that when they found Leo they could book him on murder charges.

  It was almost dark when he left the police station and headed back to the hotel that he’d called home for the past two months. He stopped in the deli and grabbed a sandwich to take with him and then walked on.

  Minutes later he was in his hotel room. The room was nothing fancy, but it had a good king-size bed, a small round table with chairs, a television with cable and a mini fridge.

  He made himself a cup of coffee in the one-cup coffee maker and then sank down at the table and opened the sack containing his sandwich.

  As he ate, all the events of the murders rushed through his head. For months the officials had worked the case believing that the killer was perhaps a family member, a disgruntled worker at the family business or a business enemy.

  With Colton Connections having fifty full-time employees, it had been a time-consuming process for the Chicago PD to interview each and every one of them.

  Then Larry Kidwell and Jonathon Paxton had been shot, using the same MO as in the Colton case. The two businessmen had been killed in the parking lot outside their business warehouse, just like the Colton men. At that point the FBI had been called in. Nobody had anticipated that
the killers were a couple of kids.

  Brad had just finished with his sandwich when a knock fell on his door. Even though he suspected who it was, he still grabbed his gun before opening the door.

  FBI agent Russ Dodd grinned at him and held up a six-pack of beer. “Feel like a cold brew before bedtime?”

  “Sounds good to me.” He ushered Russ in and to the table. Russ was also from DC and had worked with Brad for the last six years. The two men had both a good professional relationship and a strong friendship. Russ now slid one of the cold brews across the table to Brad. They both opened their beers and then settled back in their chairs.

  Russ took a deep drink and then released a deep sigh. “Well, another night ends without that little punk Leo in jail,” he said.

  “Yeah, and no confession from Jared.”

  Russ snorted. “You’ll never get a confession from him as long as his parents are hovering around, answering questions for him and telling him to keep his mouth shut.”

  “Don’t remind me,” Brad replied. “How’s your family doing?”

  Russ grinned, causing the freckles on his face to dance with the gesture. “They’re doing okay. They miss me, but I FaceTime once a day with the two kids and then I FaceTime Janie right before I go to bed.”

  “You’re a damned lucky man that you found a woman who supports your work,” Brad replied.

  “Trust me, I know how lucky I am.” He released a small laugh. “And if I threaten to forget it, Janie reminds me just how lucky I am.” Russ took another drink, and when he finished, he eyed Brad curiously. “Speaking of women, I couldn’t help but notice you had Simone Colton in your office for a long time today. What’s up with that?”

  “You know she’s a psychologist and she’s studied extensively in the area of deviant human behavior.”

  “And?” Russ raised one of his light red eyebrows.

  “And I’m allowing her to view the taped interviews we’ve conducted with Jared so far. What I’m hoping is that she’ll pick up on something that I’ve missed, something that might help me crack Jared.”