A Profiler's Case for Seduction

by Carla Cassidy

  “Good day?” he asked.

  “The usual day. Classes and work, but yes, it was good. What about you?”

  “We brought in a suspect late this afternoon. He’s being held for questioning in the murders.”

  “Really? Who is it?”

  “I mentioned him to you last night. Troy Young, whom we’ve now discovered had motive to want all three of the murdered men dead. We’ll hold him for as long as we can and in the meantime tonight several of the men are conducting a search warrant on his place.”

  “Shouldn’t you be there?” she asked, immediately feeling guilty about taking him away from his work.

  “Nah, they can do it without me,” he replied easily.

  “So, you think he’s the one?”

  Mark didn’t reply and he stopped walking, his eyes with that hazy cast that let her know he’d disappeared into his head where murders were solved and where his desire for her had been stowed away when she’d denied it any life the night before.

  She allowed him to stay inside his head for several minutes and then tugged on his arm. “Mark? Come back to me.”

  He looked at her with the heavy-lidded blink that indicated he was rejoining the here and now. “Do you think you have the right man behind bars?” she repeated.

  “To be honest, I don’t know. There are still some things that bother me,” he said as they continued on down the sidewalk.

  “Things like what?”

  He smiled. “Things that you shouldn’t be worrying about.” They passed a new banner that hung between two trees. Go Gladiators, it read. The background was bright red and the letters an electric yellow. “So, tell me about more about these homecoming festivities. Do you usually participate?”

  “It would almost be sacrilegious not to,” she replied with a small laugh. “I always attend the bonfire on Friday and then go to the football game on Saturday night. That’s about the extent of my participating.”

  “If I’m still in town could I join you for the fun?”

  She looked up at him and as always her heart leaped in her chest. “I’d like that,” she replied as they reached the coffee shop.

  As she took their usual table and he went to get the coffee, she thought of his request. If I’m still in town...it was a definite reminder that he was only here temporarily to do his job and then he’d be gone. They already had a viable suspect under arrest. Mark would probably never make it to homecoming. He’d be gone back to Dallas and his life.

  A bittersweet feeling of both regret and relief flooded through her as she thought about the near-capitulation of the night before. She’d wanted more than anything to let him take her into her bedroom and make love to her until the morning light.

  She knew she’d made the right decision in denying them both what they wanted, and his words about homecoming merely confirmed her decision.

  She was used to being with the wrong men. Unfortunately, she believed that Mark might have been the right man, but at the wrong time.

  When he returned to the table they sipped their coffee and talked about other cases he’d worked on in the past. Dora found it...him...fascinating. She told herself it was because she wanted to go into his line of work, but she knew it was much more than that.

  She loved his clean scent and the way his slow, sexy smile began at the left corner of his lips and then spread out. She liked his abruptness, found his awkwardness in a social setting endearing. She was fascinated by the host of trivial information that occupied so much space in his amazing brain.

  She was going to miss him when he left. He’d filled a space in her life she hadn’t realized was empty until he’d given her back the pen he’d borrowed.

  They were just about finished with their coffee when Amanda Burns came whizzing through the door. She looked exhausted and frazzled as she headed to the counter. After she got her coffee, she turned and appeared for the first time to notice Mark and Dora.

  “Hi, Dora,” Amanda said, her brown eyes deep with weariness.

  “Hello, Amanda. Amanda Burns, this is FBI agent Mark Flynn,” Dora said.

  “Nice to meet you, Agent Flynn.”

  “Please, make it Mark.” He offered her a friendly smile.

  “Amanda, you look absolutely exhausted,” Dora said.

  Amanda offered her a grim smile. “To tell the truth, I am. Professor Grayson is on a research jag, and I seem to be the one assigned to do all the work.”

  “What kind of research?” Mark asked.

  “Everything I can find on sociopaths. Sociopathic killers in society, traits and backgrounds of known killers who have been diagnosed as sociopaths.” Amanda shrugged. “I think maybe she’s secretly writing a book or something.”

  “Isn’t that the name of the course she’s teaching? Sociopaths in Society?” Mark asked.

  Amanda nodded. “Yes, and she’s already gotten everything she needs for the course. She just wants more on the topic.”

  “She’s well published in the industry,” Mark said, and both Amanda and Dora looked at him in surprise. He smiled at them. “What can I tell you, I have an eclectic taste in reading material.”

  “She is well published in psychiatric journals, but I get the feeling that this is for something much bigger than just an article. It’s just my guess, but I think it’s a book. Maybe she was offered a big deal after her kidnapping.” She checked her watch and frowned. “And I better get going.” A tired smile curved her lips. “It was nice seeing you again, Dora, and nice meeting you, Agent...Mark.”

  As she hurried out of the door, Dora watched her go with concern. Amanda was a sweet girl and Dora hated to see her so harassed and stressed-out.

  “Poor thing,” she said, more to herself than to Mark. “She looked so exhausted.”

  “Professor Grayson seems to be a tough taskmaster,” Mark observed.

  “I know she’s a tough teacher,” Dora replied, always more than a little bit uncomfortable when it came to talking about Melinda with anyone else.

  “I should probably get home,” she said as she stood. It was time for the coffee shop to close and time for her to allow him to walk her home and then go on about his own official business.

  “I can’t thank you enough for doing this,” she said as they hit the sidewalk outside. Night had tumbled down, darkening the area except for where an occasional streetlamp pooled a halo of light to the ground.

  “Believe me, I know what it’s like to be scared, and it’s not a feeling I’d want anyone to experience if I can help it.”

  She looked at him, his features cast in darkness. “Does your work sometimes scare you?” she asked curiously.

  “Scares me lots of times,” he admitted easily. “But, fear is a good, healthy response to a perceived danger. It’s a primal response that helps keep us alive.”

  “In any case, I appreciate you helping to alleviate some of mine even though I can’t imagine why I’d be in any danger. I still think it’s possible I’m just a little bit on edge and imagining things because of what’s happened here in town.”

  They had almost reached Dora’s house when Mark stiffened beside her and grabbed her arm with a sense of urgency. “Your imaginary stalker is at the window on the side of your house,” he said softly as he reached inside his jacket.

  Dora released a startled gasp as she spied the dark figure at the side of her house.

  “When I say go, you run straight to your front door, get inside and lock the door,” Mark whispered.

  “What are you going to do?” Dora asked in alarm. She wanted him to come with her, to run inside the house and lock the door against any danger to either of them.

  “Go,” he replied, and gave her a little shove as he took off running toward the house. Dora ran just behind him, her heart beating frantically, her gaze focus
ed entirely on her front door.

  Get inside and lock the door. Her brain screamed the command as she hit her porch. Mark had disappeared in the darkness, and the fear that screamed inside her begged to be released as she realized her fears were true...somebody was really stalking her.

  * * *

  Amanda raced back to her apartment, coffee already half-gone and her thoughts spiraling out of control and shooting in all directions. The day before, Melinda had given her the assignment to research everything she could find on the internet concerning sociopaths. Initially Amanda hadn’t thought it a big deal...until she’d actually started the daunting task.

  There were thousands of articles about the mental illness, thousands of pages about killers, child abusers and other criminals who had been diagnosed with the personality disorder.

  Much of it Amanda knew Melinda already had in her books and papers on the subject, so she didn’t understand why she had been given a task that felt remarkably like stupid busywork.

  And something was definitely going on between Ben and Melinda. Something wrong. Amanda reached her apartment and sank into the sofa, sipping the last of the coffee as she thought of her boss and her coworker.

  Secrets. They seemed to share secrets that didn’t include her. If she entered a room when the two of them were there, there was a sudden pregnant silence. They didn’t seem to want her to hear them.

  Things had just gotten weird and Amanda couldn’t quite place her finger on what was going on. She only knew that for the first time since she’d started working for Melinda she’d begun to see some flaws in her idol.

  The fact that Amanda was relatively certain Melinda had invited Ben into her bed wasn’t just nauseating, but so beneath the brilliant woman Amanda had thought she’d known.

  Lately Melinda would occasionally fall silent, as if in her own world inside her head, and a small curve would lift her lips. But when jarred out of her thoughts, there was a second when her huge green eyes looked hard and wicked and frightening.

  The truth of the matter was that Amanda had begun to distrust the woman she’d once admired above all others. She certainly couldn’t talk about her feelings with Ben, who had always been a besotted fool where Melinda was concerned. If Melinda told Ben to jump off a cliff he wouldn’t hesitate if he knew it would make Melinda happy.

  She thought about the FBI agent she’d met. Mark. He’d seemed nice and she’d always liked Dora, but what would she tell them? That something strange was going on but she couldn’t put her finger on it? That her coworker was sleeping with the boss and Amanda was jealous of the relationship they seemed to have formed? A relationship based on sex and secrets?

  She tucked a strand of her long blond hair behind her ear with a weary sigh. Maybe everything seemed strange because she was functioning on empty. What she needed more than anything was about twenty-four hours of uninterrupted sleep. Unfortunately, that wasn’t in her near future.

  She drained the last of her coffee and headed to the computer where a screen saver of butterflies filled the monitor with splashes of color. It would take all night for her to accomplish what Melinda wanted done by morning and even then it wouldn’t be a complete job. There was just too much to do.

  Fighting back weary tears, she sat down and got to work.

  Chapter 8

  Mark raced after the dark figure that he’d seen at Dora’s window. It was definitely a man. Clad all in black and with a ski mask on, the man made it difficult to discern anything else about him other than he was fast on his feet.

  “FBI...halt!” Mark yelled, but the figure continued to race ahead.

  Unwilling to fire a gun in the dark without knowing who else might be around, Mark followed after him, slowly gaining ground in the foot chase that took them from Dora’s house, down the sidewalk and across to the campus grounds.

  A ping off a nearby tree had Mark jumping for cover as he realized the man he pursued not only had a gun but wasn’t afraid to fire it.

  He dove behind a trash bin, his heart pounding with the rush of adrenaline. When he saw the back of the figure, he left his cover and once again continued the pursuit.

  They were in the middle of the campus now, between the history department building and a row of fraternity houses. When the man in black turned back toward Mark, Mark leaped behind a tree. He heard the sound of a bullet whiz by.

  Once again as the figure disappeared around the side of a building, Mark burst out from behind the tree. He ran at full speed, ignoring the stitch that nagged at his side.

  His heart pounded so hard it felt as if it threatened to burst out of his chest. His only thought was that he needed to get to the man—he needed to find out who he was and what he wanted with Dora.

  When he reached the corner of the building, he paused and then whirled around in a shooter stance. And there was nobody to shoot.

  The moon shone down on the empty ground, and Mark had no idea in which direction the man had gone to completely disappear. He searched for another fifteen minutes and then headed back to Dora’s house, his heart still banging with fight-or-flight adrenaline.

  Why would a man with a gun be at Dora’s window? One thing was clear—Dora’s imaginary stalker definitely wasn’t an imagination. Somebody was after her and what he needed to figure out was who and why.

  By the time he reached Dora’s house his heartbeat had returned to something resembling normal and his gun was back in his holster. He’d already contacted a couple of the members of his team to do a sweep of the campus and intended to meet them at Dora’s place. Mark wanted to see if they could find the bullets that had just missed him.

  With a bullet they would at least find out what kind of gun had been used, and if and when that gun was found the markings on the bullets would match to it.

  In the meantime he needed to make sure that Dora was okay and he needed to have an in-depth talk with her about who might want her harmed.

  She unlocked her door after he knocked and called out her name. When he stepped inside the entry she fell straight into his arms. Tears streamed down her face as she hugged him close. “I was afraid. I was so afraid for you.” She stepped back and gazed at him from head to toe, as if to assure herself that he was truly okay.

  “He got away from me. But the man at your window had a gun.” He ignored her gasp of shock. “Your imaginary stalker is very real, Dora, and nobody comes knocking on a window on the side of your house with a gun in his hand and goodwill in his heart.”

  She stepped back from him and stumbled against the sofa, dropping as though she’d been hit with a stun gun. “But, who...why?” She looked up at him with her beautiful gray eyes.

  “That’s something we need to figure out,” he replied. He sat down on the sofa next to her, trying to maintain a professionalism when all he wanted to do was wrap her in his arms and carry her away from any danger. He wanted to take the simmering fear out of those beautiful eyes. “Do you have any idea who might want to hurt you?”

  She shook her head, softly at first and then more vehemently. “No, I can’t imagine. I mean, I’m just a student here. I mind my own business, go to classes and work in the bookstore. I don’t make any close friends, but I also don’t make enemies, I just focus on my studies and my job.”

  He knew that would be her answer because he already knew that about her. He was the anomaly in her quiet, orderly life. He was the friend, the wannabe lover, the only man she’d allowed to get close to her in some time.

  “What about your ex-husbands?”

  “Oh, Mark, I haven’t seen or heard from either of them in years. Billy and I parted ways when I was twenty and Jimmy and I divorced over eight years ago. That can’t be the answer. There would be absolutely no reason for either of them to want to hurt me after all these years.”

  The doorbell rang and she jumped nearly
a foot off the sofa. “That will be members of my team.” He got up to open the door, and Richard, Donald and Joseph came in. Mark quickly made the introductions and filled in his fellow agents on what had happened.

  “Joseph, I’d like you to sit on this house for the rest of the night,” Mark said. “I don’t think this creep will return, but we can’t be sure and I don’t want to take any chances.” He turned his attention to Richard and Donald. “We need to see if we can find the bullets he fired or anything else he might have dropped while he was running from me.”

  Dora got up from the sofa as Mark and the other agents prepared to leave. Mark grabbed her by the hand. “You’ll be safe for the night. Joseph will be right outside and nobody is going to come near this place.”

  She leaned toward him, as if needing his arms around her, and he couldn’t deny himself or her. He pulled her against him and gave her a kiss on the forehead. “It’s going to be okay, Dora,” he said as he finally released her. “We’re going to get to the bottom of this.”

  With these words Mark left the house with Richard and Donald trailing just behind him. “Getting pretty cozy with the bookstore lady,” Donald observed.

  “She’s a nice woman,” Mark replied, and hoped that particular topic was dropped.

  “She’s a nice woman who looked pretty much at-home in your arms,” Richard said, ignoring Mark’s sigh.

  “I like her, okay? I like her a lot. She’s been a piece of sanity in this whole mess of a case, a person to talk to when I need to unwind and just enjoy somebody’s company.”

  They moved to the window where Mark had first stopped the potential intruder. Richard flipped on a high-power flashlight and together they scanned the area for anything the perp might have dropped or left behind. “I’ll print the window,” Richard said.

  “You won’t find anything. He was dressed all in black, like a ninja warrior. I’m sure he was smart enough to wear gloves. Besides, when I saw him he wasn’t trying to get inside, he was just crouched down by the side of the house.”