“We have a lot more in common than you think, Brynn.”
Allie casually looked over her shoulder, but she didn’t have a line of sight to the parking lot any more than when she’d been three feet away from the bench. Was her imagination working overtime? It was doubtful, given the circumstances.
“You’re wondering why the killer hasn’t targeted me.” Brynn crossed her arms as she focused on something out in the water. “I mean, I lost both of my parents. I was a little hellion back in the day, and I certainly gave Rose and Tiny a run for their money.”
Allie had already put two and two together. Rose and Tiny were the reason Brynn had never been chosen to join the other young girls in their new home. She’d inadvertently gotten her own family who’d stepped in to raise her, nurture her, and love her.
“You’re very lucky to have Rose and Tiny,” Allie said softly before breathing in the lake air, the crisp scent warning them that winter was just days or maybe a few weeks away. “Have you considered—”
“If you’re not working this investigation the way we all thought, what is going on between you and Mitch?”
Allie had been trying to steer the conversation in the direction of Brynn’s role in town. Owning The Cavern put her in direct line of every single resident who graced the doors to the bar. The way rumors spread and the manner in which the townsfolk talked over a beer or two, important information must have been said at one time or another. It was just a matter of remembering.
It appeared that particular discussion was tabled until Allie answered a few questions of her own.
Honestly, she should have seen this coming.
“Mitch and I are…” Allie waved her hand in hopes that words would magically appear before her, but that didn’t happen. Damn it. “It’s complicated.”
Allie liked it better when she could blame the tequila.
“I don’t believe there’s been a relationship in existence that wasn’t complicated.”
“Mitch and I have been friends for a very long time. We, uh…well, we inadvertently crossed that line around a year ago.” Allie shuffled her feet and leaned forward on the bench a bit. She was a profiler, for fuck’s sake. She should be able to redirect this conversation in a matter of seconds. “We corrected our mistake, he reached out to me to call in a chip, and I came here to help out if I can.”
Brynn continued to study Allie. The roles should have been reversed, and she realized just how far this conversation had gotten carried away from her. She cleared her throat and tried once more to take back the reins of this conversation.
“The line has disappeared again, but it will be back in place before I leave for D.C.”
“Not home?”
Allie shot Brynn a look, wondering how she could have missed her previous declaration.
“Yes, back to D.C.”
“You don’t call D.C. your home, other than to reference your childhood. You always call the city by its name.”
“Are you sure you’re Brynn and not Shae?” Shae was the psychiatrist, but a bartender came damn close. “I get it, Brynn. You’re concerned about Mitch. You don’t need to be.”
“We all are,” Brynn replied with a small smile. “Mitch is what holds the Kendall clan together. He’s the glue that keeps the family bond intact the way Mary would have wanted it, and no one wants to see him get hurt.”
So, this was the reason that it hadn’t been hard to pry Brynn away from The Cavern.
“We both are well aware of what happens at the end of my two weeks’ vacation.”
Right?
Allie’s entire life was back in D.C. She’d be a fool to walk away from her job in the Bureau. It wasn’t like Mitch had asked her to, anyway.
Thinking back over her career, maybe this was why Allie didn’t take vacations. Time away from work made a person reevaluate his or her life. She didn’t need to do that, because being a profiler was all she’d ever wanted.
“You came here to spend your vacation with Mitch and give him advice on the profile of a serial killer,” Brynn surmised, crossing her ankles in an effort to capture some heat. It really was getting quite cold sitting here on the bench in front of the water. “That must have been one hell of a favor you owed him.”
Allie relaxed somewhat as cherished memories from her past began to surface.
“Oh, you don’t know the half of it,” Allie laughed with a shake of her head. She was glad she’d left her hair down so that the heavy strands covered her ears. A hat would have been more preferable, but she figured they’d start to walk back to their vehicle shortly. One more story, and then they could begin to head back. She really would love to take another look at the vehicles in the parking lot. “Mitch covered for my ass after our CO—that’s the Commanding Officer of our unit—caught me sneaking into the officer’s club supply tent to steal a bottle of booze. You see, while on deployment, only officers have access to hard liquor in the field. That is, if you don’t manage to pack it in yourself.”
Allie can still remember the fear that shot through her at being caught red-handed. She’d pretty much done things by the book from that moment on, with very few exceptions. This case being one of them.
“Mitch is a good man, Brynn. I’m glad I was able to spend this time with him, as well as give my two cents worth on this investigation. It’s clear that he feels responsible for this town.”
“Blyth Lake represents Mary Kendall in every way that counts, and Mitch wants to protect that legacy.” Brynn shot Allie another glance, this time with mischief in her eyes. “It might only be for another week, but we’re all glad that he has you by his side right now. He’s not nearly as edgy as he was before you arrived.”
“Edgy?” Allie let loose another laugh, knowing exactly what Brynn meant about the manner in which Mitch carried himself. “There were quite a lot of adjectives we all used to describe Mitch back in the day, and edgy is being polite. I’ll add it to the list, though.”
“I really should be heading back,” Brynn said reluctantly before pushing to her feet. “What are you going to do for the rest of the day, Miss I’m Just Vacationing? Word has it that Agent Thorne doesn’t want you in the station.”
“Agent Thorne is just doing the job he was hired to do,” Allie countered, not stating anything that wasn’t fact. They were purposefully keeping the status quo, because it was just a matter of time before the unsub made a move against her. If the day came when she was supposed to return to the city that action hadn’t been taken against her, those involved with the investigation would come up with an excuse as to why she was extending her time here. She was hoping it wouldn’t come to that…for several reasons. “I’ll just head back to The Cavern with you, if that’s okay. I’d like to ask you some questions about the night Emma Irwin was taken. It might help me round the corners on the profile I crafted for Mitch. And it will give me something to do until he gets off his shift later.”
The sheriff’s position was technically a twenty-four-hour job, but Brynn understood what Allie meant in the broad spectrum of the workday. She fell in step as they both headed back down the sandy beach to where the stairs led up to the parking lot above.
“Of course, but I’m pretty sure I answered every question that was asked over the last twelve years,” Bryn answered wryly. She shoved her hands in her jacket now that they were walking into the wind. “Ask away.”
Allie, Mitch, and Jay had sat for hours the other day poring over the interviews that had taken place back then and now. Frank Percy had covered the ground pretty well, given that he hadn’t been all that proficient at his job. There had been one specific question that hadn’t been asked by either Frank Percy or Detective Kinkaid.
“We all know who was at the bonfire that night,” Allie said, holding out hope that this new direction might poke a hole in the darkness that cloaked this case and let in a bit of sunshine. “Who wasn’t in attendance that night who you believe should have been there, Brynn? Who was missing?”
&n
bsp; CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“Come back to bed.”
Mitch couldn’t stop his lips from forming a smile, even though Allie couldn’t see his reaction as he continued to sit on the couch. He’d heard her light footsteps coming down the stairs. It was a comforting sound that had him reevaluating this past week, but now wasn’t the time to talk about the change in their relationship status.
He leaned back against the cushions, having been hunched over various witness statements for hours. The dull, constant ache in his hip didn’t help matters, either.
“I couldn’t sleep.” Mitch held up his hand, loving the feel of hers as she locked her fingers with his. She came around the left side of the couch, never once breaking contact with him. “Hey, I spilled coffee on that shirt.”
Mitch was usually quite neat when it came to his home. That being said, he’d grown used to having her there to come home to every night for a week. He’d gotten into the bad habit of letting his clothes hit the ground while being distracted by her tantalizing beauty.
“Ask me if I care that it smells of coffee and you.” Allie had taken a seat next to him, but she’d swung her legs over his lap. He held them against his chest so that she didn’t get chilly. He’d had to turn the furnace on with this cold front that had come through after the holiday. “I love your cologne.”
Mitch caught himself just in time. He’d been going to say more than me, but it would have caused an uncomfortable rift between them that he couldn’t deal with right now.
“I know you’re concerned about the gravesite you found on Raymond Dixon’s farm, but I don’t believe he’s our unsub.”
“That leaves us back at square one.” Mitch gestured toward the numerous files in front of him. “You and I both know this son of a bitch is to blame for those two graves. And now that Lester Feen has basically announced to the entire town that he found two open body-sized holes in the ground, we’ve had to settle for a few discreetly placed trail cameras and foot patrols at random intervals instead of leaving an officer to monitor the area.”
“Even though it is unlikely the unsub will return, Jay will still have someone surveying the area for activity using those cameras. I bet we’ll catch at least a few media types snooping around up there. It might be a waste of time, but it’s protocol. Who knows, we might get lucky. Maybe the unsub didn’t hear the latest news circulating The Cavern.” Allie rested an elbow on the back of the couch, but her graceful movement appeared almost too calculated. Something was up, and she now had him on edge. “The unsub hasn’t used the graves yet. That tells me that there’s still a chance that Charlene Winston is alive. He could be holding her someplace as a prisoner until he figures out how to dispose of her without violating his code.”
Allie was still keeping something from him. He’d known her for a very long time. There wasn’t a sentence that came out of her mouth that hadn’t been run through that brain of hers twice over.
“Thorne was thinking about stopping by in the morning to run a few scenarios by you, barring nothing else happens by zero seven hundred.”
“Really?” Allie’s brown eyes was taking in every expression that crossed his face. He braced himself once he recognized the drip of sarcasm from her one word inquiry. “Are you also going to invite the two men who have been monitoring my every move today?”
Damn it all to hell.
“You do realize that I could have been arrested for murder had I done a little hunting of my own?” Allie wasn’t going to cut him any breaks, and she had every right to be pissed. “I can’t believe you brought Chaz and Deet in on this. What were you thinking, Ken?”
Mitch had been contrite until she’d used his nickname.
“I was thinking that Thorne has enough to deal with, and that you need someone watching your back twenty-four-seven.” Mitch removed her legs from his lap so that he could stand. His defenses had been breached. He knew it, she knew it, but he’d made the decision all the same. “How the hell did you make them? They haven’t set foot inside town.”
“No, they haven’t made that mistake. Yet. And it wasn’t until Brynn and I drove up to the lake that I thought I’d caught sight of a vehicle tailing us a couple hundred yards back.” Allie lowered her hand from the back of the couch, wrapping her arms around her legs as she got comfortable. This meant they were a long way from returning to that warm bed upstairs, but he had no one to blame but himself. “Does Thorne know you brought in mercs from the outside?”
“No, and I wouldn’t call them mercenaries…at least, not to their face.” Mitch debated on leaving his answer at that, but he could easily sense the anger ratcheting up in this situation. He would still make the same decision if he had to do it all over again. “Who sets up this type of sting without surveillance, Allie? No one. And I don’t like that Thorne is playing this part of the investigation so loose. You’re a viable target, and it’s only a matter of time before the unsub makes contact with you to judge your viability for himself.”
“And when have I ever been alone?” Allie pointed out one of the rules she and Thorne had gone over numerous times. If the unsub saw that she was being guarded, their plan would be for naught. Mitch got that, but he didn’t have to like it. She uncurled herself from the couch, giving him a glimpse to the fact that she wore nothing underneath his t-shirt. He’d like nothing better than to take her back upstairs, but she was just getting started as she lifted a hand to use her fingers in listing off the procedures they’d all put in place. “I never go anywhere alone. I always carry my cell phone with me, which allows Thorne to see my every move. I check in on the hour, every hour. And my nights are spent here with you, with a fucking grade-A alarm system that’s better than the one on my office at Quantico. No one can get to me, let alone the unsub.”
“Don’t even go there, Allie.” Mitch had been right to call in Chaz and Deet. They were professionals who easily equaled anybody Thorne could have selected from his own Hostage Recovery Team division. She was about to go off half-cocked, and Thorne was so far at the end of the rope that the man might actually go along with whatever she’d concocted in that head of hers. “First off, the plan we have in place certainly isn’t foolproof. There are a million ways the unsub can reach you, especially if he’s someone we all trust.”
“You don’t trust Billy Stanton.”
“No, but he has never been—”
Mitch was beginning to hate that she had such intelligence to weed out the useless facts of a case within days. No one trusted Billy. Emma might have trusted him back in high school, but opinions had changed over the years.
“So, you’re ruling out Billy?” Mitch asked warily, knowing full well he wasn’t off the hook about the whole Chaz and Deet caper. “Is that wise? He fits the profile in almost every way. He also had the chance to take Emma the night she went missing. Everyone at that bonfire said it wasn’t five minutes after Emma left for home that everyone else began to disperse due to the incoming storm. Every young male at that party had ample time to abduct her before she made it out of the woods.”
“I asked Brynn a question today that I believe holds some merit, and it was a question no one has thought to ask her up to this point.” Allie leaned down and began to search through the files, and it didn’t take her long to find the one she wanted. He always did like a specific logical order when it came to working a case, and it appeared she’d caught onto his precision rather quickly. “Who wasn’t at the bonfire who should have been there? Someone who everyone expected to see that night, but didn’t.”
It was an angle that could easily be looked at in depth, though it would require some time. Granted, their high school didn’t hold the number of graduates that others outside of Blyth Lake had in comparison. It still made for a long night.
“You need to call off Chaz and Deet. Put them on call, if you’d like. But pull them for now.” Allie shook her head when Mitch went to argue, giving him the very reasons why it had been a bad idea to begin with. “They’re going to g
et caught by someone, most likely by one of the agents working the case with Jay. Either that or one of the locals will take matters into their own hands when they find out that Chaz and Deet are using their deer stands. They’re using them in the fields to give them a vantage spot so Deet can use those fancy pair of tactical binoculars he’s is so fond of. You’re going to blow my cover, Mitch, and then we’re going to lose the only shot we’ve been given.”
Mitch couldn’t counter her logic. He tried to come up with any precaution that would keep her marginally safer, given the situation. Unfortunately, he was at a complete loss. The damnedest part of what they were facing landed at his feet. He was responsible for putting her in front of the son of a bitch who’d spent most of his adult life killing young women for the sole purpose of establishing a bond with his victims.
“I’ll be fine, Ken.” Allie gradually closed the distance between them before wrapping her arms around his waist. She tilted her head back when he sighed in agreement. “It’s not that I don’t appreciate you wanting to keep me safe. I do, but this is part of my job. I know how to protect myself.”
“And what if it wasn’t part of your job? What if you didn’t work for the FBI anymore?” Mitch had always been a man who was upfront about everything in his life. Honesty made the days easier, and it sure as hell helped him sleep better at night. There was no need to hedge his bet when he spoke the truth. “What if we made a mistake by walking away from each other a year ago?”
Allie slowly released her hold on him until she was able to step back, giving her the space that she obviously needed to collect herself. He had to curl his fingers into the palms of his hands to keep from reaching out to her.
“We didn’t.”
“How can you be so sure?”
Mitch took in every fleeting expression that crossed her beautiful face. She appeared scared. When he’d walked away from her in D.C., it had been because of personal shit that he hadn’t been able to put in its rightful place back then. He’d rectified that, and he now had a home. A home with a front door that he was ready to open in order to finally allow other people to walk into his life.
Unlocking Darkness (Keys to Love Series, Book Five) Page 15