No one said anything for a few seconds.
“Will we be able to catch him, Agent?” asked the Mayor, his voice not quite steady. “Can we stop him? I don’t get why he chose Celestia?”
“Those are all questions we’re working on, Mayor,” answered Emma. “Give us time. We are working through all the details, and soon we’ll have the crime scene processed from this murder.”
“What are you going to do now?” inquired Will Taylor, looking more than pale.
“We wait on the coroner, and then notify next her family. It’s all we can do at this time,” she answered.
No one spoke, knowing they were at the mercy of the killer.
It was the mayor who broke the silence next. “I don’t believe that she had any next of kin.” He looked up at their speculative gazes. “My daughter gets her hair done there, and she told me that Ms. Hart moved here because her family was deceased.”
Emma pulled out her phone and entered that information into a file she’d created.
Croft had given them all they needed to know. Anything past what was said was part of the official investigation. “Gentleman, if you don’t mind, we have a lot to accomplish today and it’s already three in the afternoon.”
Emma glanced up at the clock. The mayor and Will Taylor were already at the door, more than willing to escape her office. This might be the first time they left so easily. Maybe she needed to keep crime scene photos around more often for their Monday meetings.
Before leaving, the mayor turned to face her. “Sheriff, I believe it’s time you show us just why we hired you to take care of this town,” said Ron Tate, quietly. “Do your job and fix this!”
Croft tensed at the man’s words and the implication behind them. The threat wasn’t necessary and if it happened again, someone’s head would roll.
When they were gone, Emma sighed. “Well, you just have to love when people have faith in you,” she muttered. “What now, Agent Croft? It looks like my job is riding on us finding the killer.”
His eyebrow went up at her calling him by his last name while they were alone, but he let it go. “Well, Sheriff, I find it rather odd that the mayor reacted to both victims. I can see the crime scene photo of Megan Landry, since it was gruesome, but he had the same reaction to Connie Hart’s name. I find that a bit suspicious. Don’t you?” he inquired, sipping coffee.
She considered it. “It’s a small town. Everyone knows each other here. If they aren’t related, then they’re friends or acquaintances,” Emma answered
“No, you think it’s more than that too, Sheriff. I could see the way you hit him with the information. You were looking to get a response from him. You may have been fishing, but you knew what bait to put on the line.”
“I don’t think he’s guilty. The look on his face wasn’t practiced. He genuinely was caught off balance.” She tapped a pencil on the desk.
“I agree, but you saw his face when he heard the name. He may not be guilty, but I think he knows something more than he’s sharing.”
She stared up at him, already thinking the same thing he’d just thrown out there.
“Call it instinct. All really good cops have some form of it.” Croft was alluding to her too. She absolutely had it.
Emma didn’t bite at that one. Now, he was fishing, and there wasn’t enough bait in the world to make her go after it. “Call it whatever you want, but the mayor doesn’t like getting dirty. He couldn’t be the killer.”
They both knew that was the furthest from the possible truth. Anyone could be a killer. It was just a matter of finding the right trigger.
And losing control!
It was almost five at night, and Emma was still sitting in her office reading over the weekly reports. Greyson left two hours prior to work on some setup for the incoming agents. She imagined that there had to be a great deal of work involved with mobilizing an entire team. A few times, she heard him on the phone outside her office setting up the location for the lab and sleeping quarters for his people.
A part of her wondered if maybe he’d forget the promise to talk tonight, and she might be able to sneak past him and get home. Yeah, she’d gotten cold feet and wanted to run and hide. She was still thinking about the man when there was a knock on her door, grabbing her attention.
“Hey, Doctor Brooks sent over his report, Emma,” said Deputy Reese.
“Thanks.” She reached out to take it from him. “Can we talk for a moment?”
“Sure, what’s up?” Reese propped himself onto the corner of her desk, staring down at her.
“We need to talk about you calling me Emma during work hours.” This was a conversation she wished they didn’t need to have.
He laughed. “Emma, we’ve been friends for so long. I just do it unconsciously. It’s not on purpose, but I’ll try and cut it back to when we’re alone, or when Agent Croft isn’t sniffing around.”
“Excuse me?” she asked, horrified at the implications of his words.
“Em, the man stares at you like he’s going to devour you whole. You know that. You’re stubborn but not blind. I think the agent would like to get his hands on you.” He laughed, “How long do you think you can hold him off?”
“I’m not sure if I’m comfortable talking to you about this, Reese.” There was no way in hell she planned on admitting that she’d already been kissing the man and having not quite impure thoughts about him and his very sexy body.
“Em, I promised your brother I’d watch out for you. You’re like a sister to me. I vowed to make sure that you’d be protected and safe. That’s why I knew when the job opened up, in honor of Gage’s memory, I had to get you out of Philly. That place was eating you alive.”
She didn’t disagree in the least.
“Gage wouldn’t want you staying there and suffering. At least here, I can make sure you don’t get consumed by it all again. We’re family Em, plain and simple. A promise is a promise, and I aim to keep it.” He reached out and played with one of her loose strands of hair.
She smiled up at him, grateful to have someone who she could still consider family.
Generally, Greyson Croft considered his timing impeccable, but this time he wished it wasn’t so damn good. What he walked into in Emma’s office, knocked the wind from his chest, and sucker punched him in the gut. Croft arrived at the room in time to see Reese reach out, touch, and play with Emma’s hair. Then the angelic smile on her face, directed at another man, boiled a volatile brew in his gut.
To make it increasingly worse, when Reese reached out and took Emma’s hand into his, an eruption of anger ignited in his chest. The love scene in front of him pushed him to the edge. He needed to interrupt before he kissed her because that would drive him to madness and who knew what he’d do. Already, he considered her lips off limits to anyone but him. Maybe he didn’t make his intentions clear enough earlier to all the deputies. It appeared he’s need to rectify that immediately.
Emma Starling was off limits!
The proprietary overload was a bit much even for him, considering he’d only known her two days, but he couldn’t help it. He was being true to his feelings, and he wasn’t planning to make excuses, trying to rationalize it to his brain.
“I hear the report is here,” he snarled, leaning in the doorway, arms crossed and unhappy look plastered on his face. It gave him satisfaction to see Emma jump, but it irritated him that Reese didn’t drop her hand. The look that passed between the two men spoke volumes.
Wars had been fought over women, and Croft was mentally shining up the armor and sharpening the battle-ax.
Reese leaned down and whispered something to Emma, kissing her cheek and patting her on the hand before leaving the office. “Night, Em, and you too Special Agent Croft.”
What Croft missed was the wink he gave Emma when his head was turned.
When Reese was gone, Croft walked into the office and slammed the door. “That was a very touching show between you and the deputy.” Control was g
one as he struggled to not make it a giant fight.
She was sure the look on her face showed shock and general surprise at his words and tone. “Excuse me, Agent? I must have misheard you just now.” She could feel the flush of heat sliding up her body. When Reese had whispered in her ear that the man had it bad, she was entertained.
Now not so much.
“I’m just saying that was quite a moving scene.” The knot was now ablaze. “I wouldn’t think that you’d approve of a work place romance. I must have misjudged you.” He knew he should shut up, but jealousy consumed him as the vicious barbs flew from his mouth as he fought to regain control.
Damn it!
Emma got that sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. She hated confrontations especially ones that were this sexually charged. “Croft, you’re acting like a jackass.”
“Don’t make this about me. It wasn’t me that was just holding hands with my lover in my office!” His temper was getting ready to burst like an overfilled dam.
“Why should it matter if I was, Agent? What business is it of yours? Last I looked, I didn’t have to answer to you, and I sure as hell don’t have to explain what you saw in here.” Emma stood, bracing herself for any more bitter confrontation.
Anger slammed into anger as they faced each other down. Emma was infuriated at what he accused her of doing, and Croft was on fire with what he witnessed. Neither were prepared to back down.
Emma stared into his eyes from across the desk, daring him to say more.
Croft was about to dig the hole deeper, but the fire was doused as Briggs walked into the office.
Thank God!
Immediately, the agent knew something bad was brewing. His initial instinct told him to run for his life. “Oh shit! Sorry! I should have knocked. Reese said the report arrived, and I wanted to scan it and upload it before the troops rolled into town tomorrow.” He wisely didn’t move into the room, just in case he had to get out of the line of fire.
Emma allowed herself to relax. This wasn’t the time or the place for a fight. “It’s okay, Curtis. I want to look at it now myself. Come in and have a seat.” Back was the calm, rational woman who had a job to do.
He knew he needed to regain control. “I’d like to see it too,” Croft stated, swallowing the ball of anger lodged in his throat.
Emma picked it up and opened it. Laying it on her desk and scanning the data, it only took a few minutes to find the aberration that caught her attention.
“That explains why he’s escalated.” Croft said, seeing the same information.
“Oh my God! This keeps getting worse and worse,” she said, leaning back and rubbing her fingers over her eyes.
“What?” inquired Briggs, grabbing the report. He read down the columns of numbers and then found it too. Wordlessly, he handed it back to her.
Croft rubbed the tension from his neck. “She was pregnant.”
It hung between all three of them.
Emma responded first. “Now, we know why she fought so hard for her life. She was fighting for her child’s too.” Emma scanned the listing of wounds. Six stab wounds on the neck, four to the chest and twenty-two to the abdomen. She looked over her shoulder at Croft. “He knew she was pregnant. Most of the damage was at one central location. He wanted to make sure the unborn fetus didn’t make it. How much do you want to bet he stabbed her there first? That’s why she fought. The bastard knew she was carrying a child.”
Croft and Briggs said nothing.
Emma continued to read the report in horror and disgust. “Doctor Brooks puts her at around nine weeks pregnant. Somebody had to know about it. Now, we just have to find them and this might lead us to the killer.”
“What do two women from Philly, a woman from a small town and a pregnant hair stylist have in common?” asked Croft.
Briggs answered, “I’ll pull full checks on the two women who were killed. Maybe something will pop and we can find anything to help stop the next attack.”
“Good idea, Curtis.”
“I hope we can stop him,” he said, then received a look from Croft over the sheriff’s head.
“We will,” he reassured.
Emma stared down at her hands in her lap. “Could I get a few moments alone? I need to think.” She handed the file to Briggs to scan.
“Sure thing, Sheriff,” Briggs replied, looking worried.
Croft went to exit the room, feeling guilty. After the day she’d had, the confrontation was the last thing she needed. There were so many things he wanted to say to Emma at that moment, but he’d give her time to regroup before they talked again. Watching her from the doorway, he shook his head and walked out. Fresh in his mind was the scene between her and Reese. Later, they’d definitely finish what was sitting between them before it became too hard to overcome.
Emma watched him leave her office. She didn’t need to turn, since she could scrutinize him in the window’s reflection. Emma was waiting for him to say something, but instead he closed his mouth, dropped his hand, and just stared helplessly at her.
Why did she feel like she needed to explain anything to him? Greyson Croft had no business trying to get into her personal life. The day the killer was caught, he’d be packing up his team and heading home. Emma already knew it was a dead end. There could be no relationship between them. If she let it go any further, someone was bound to get hurt. Could she handle that? Did she want to watch him walk away?
All the questions stirred up her gut and emotions until she was feeling completely overwhelmed. She needed to escape and head home. Maybe a shower would help her relax.
Emma thought back to the scene with Reese and watching Croft ready to explode. It heated her and chilled her all at once. To belong to a man with that much fire in him was appealing. She’d missed that connection for a long time.
First things first, Emma needed to escape it all. Walking out of her office, she passed through the bullpen. All the deputies were in the conference room eating pizza. It was the perfect time to make a break for it. Slipping outside the building, there was a sense of safety locked behind the door of her vehicle. Now, she could go home to the solitude she craved. With one last look in the rear view mirror, she headed out of town.
Yeah, she was a big scaredy cat who was running away.
He wanted to give her a peace offering. Rescuing a slice of pizza from the deputies, he headed to her office to apologize for his earlier outburst. When there wasn’t a reply at his knock, he pushed the door open, staring inside.
The light was on, but Emma was nowhere to be found.
Immediately, the killer’s message popped into his head, and he rushed to the window to look for her vehicle. The reserved spot he’d parked in earlier was vacant.
“Son of a bitch! She left without me,” he muttered, believing he knew why she ran. He stormed the conference room grabbing Briggs’s attention. “Come on, let’s call it a night. We’ll be here late tomorrow.”
The younger man wasn’t going to complain. He was accustomed to logging mega hours with his partner. This was like a half day to him.
They locked up the files and headed out.
When Croft finally got his hands on her, he was going to shake some sense into her. They were supposed to talk, and now he was forced to chase her down. Well, he knew where she lived, and he’d get that talk yet.
“Our place or hers?” inquired Briggs, feeling the tension in his partner.
“Bring me to the cabin. I need a shower before I go to Emma’s,” he replied
“Take it easy on her partner. She had a rough day--even for a sheriff,” Briggs said, glancing over at him.
He sighed. “What? You’re taking her side too?”
“I’m just saying, cut her a break. You can be over the top sometimes when you’re mad. Don’t say anything hasty that you can’t take back.” Briggs took the turnoff to their cabins. “Cool off first, or she’ll never want to be anywhere near you.”
Croft sat there for a second in tho
ught. “I can’t believe I’m getting advice from a mere boy.”
Briggs laughed. “See? Things like that can be construed as insulting. I’ve been your partner for almost a year now. I’m going to place a little bet that I’ve been with more women in the last year than you have.”
“I’m not dignifying that with a response,” Croft stated, irritated that he was right. The FBI had all but made him celibate. Work consumed him and controlled his every waking thought until he met her. Now, he was tripped up and twisted into a knot.
“You don’t have to. I know you, and I know you only went out with that lab tech to prove a point. I also know you didn’t sleep with her because you’re even crankier than before those dates.”
“Shut up, Curtis.”
“She wasn’t your type anyway. After a while the woman would have bored you to tears.”
“Apparently, shut up wasn’t clear enough.”
Briggs snickered. “You, my friend, need to relax, take a deep breath, and stop trying to control the world. You’re attracted to the woman, so don’t let your temper screw it up. This is the first time in a year that anyone of the opposite sex has had your attention. Go with it.”
He thought about it. “Is it that obvious?”
“Uhhh, hell yeah, it is. I can tell by the way you look at her. Today, when she saw the message on her Jeep and screamed, you went running. The look on your face was pure terror. You can just tell that she has you all tied up in knots. You’re Mr. Cool on the job, and since arriving here you’re over the edge,” Briggs smiled, knowing he was right.
“Hearing her scream today turned my blood to ice,” he admitted, staring out the window.
“I know. It scared all of us, but you didn’t pull your gun and run out of the silo. You just ran, and that was very un-FBI-like of you. ”
They drove past Emma’s house, noting the lights were on inside.
Celestia is Falling (A Croft & Croft Romance Adventure Book 1) Page 14