He wasn’t worried about being caught. He was smarter than they were and had been proving it for years. He was setting up to prove it all over again with Marie Claire, his beautiful prey.
Chapter 32
Washington, D.C.
Friday morning
“It’s about time,” Captain Michaels said when Sean and Aidan showed up at his office. “Sit down and give me an update.”
Sean reached into the folder he carried and handed over a list. “We have a file covering approximately two hundred male clients of the dating service. These names are being run through the computers right now for prior offenses, known aliases, and so forth.”
“How long will that take?” the captain asked.
“At least two weeks. We’ve monopolized the computer techs, but they still can’t run more than a dozen a day between them, if we want to be really thorough.”
“Shit, we don’t have time for this,” Michaels muttered.
Aidan nodded. “That’s why we’ve decided to go through the two hundred candidates with our witness and see if we can’t fine-tune the list. At least then we could come up with some prioritization for the background checks.”
“Does she remember any more about the night of the murder?”
“Not as far as I know,” Aidan said. “Even when I took her over the basic self-defense moves yesterday, which had to be pretty scary considering she was recently attacked, nothing came back to her. But she’s confident she’ll be able to help us narrow the field.”
Michaels said nothing as he skimmed the column of names. “Detective Richter?”
“Burke has finished a preliminary psych profile,” Sean said, using the name most of the department associated with his cousin. “It’s a good start, but we both feel there are gaps. We’ve also been putting together a plan for the dating sting, based on the possibility that the killer is actually a member. We need to proceed very cautiously if we’re going to draw this guy out of hiding with such an obvious operation. Of course, that’s assuming that we’re not wasting our time altogether with this idea.”
Captain Michaels heard the veiled criticism. “I realize you’re still not comfortable with the plan, Richter, but dragging your feet won’t help. The chief is tired of dodging media bullets about the murder.”
“He’s weathered worse storms before,” Sean said.
“Yeah, but that was before Shelly Whitcombe started doing nightly updates on the news.”
Sean’s eyes narrowed. The woman was an ambitious menace who had lied, cheated, and screwed her way to minor fame in the D.C. journalism world.
“She’s sniffing around here after every press briefing,” the captain said. “She gets someone to leak her information and we’ll all be in deep shit.”
Aidan muttered something about size six scum-sucking parasites.
Sean leaned forward in his chair. “All right, we’ll pick up the pace. But I want a full background check on anyone Claire Lambert gets into a car with.”
“Fine,” the captain said. “Even though Burke took the precaution of giving her a short course in self-defense, if anything went wrong with one of her dates, and he had a rap sheet we’d overlooked, the press would crucify us.”
“A bad date wouldn’t do much for Ms. Lambert either.”
Aidan started talking fast, before Sean got in more trouble. “It would be a big help if we could get some time with an FBI profiler. We have to plug the holes in our psych analysis of the killer. It could help Ms. Lambert and us look for behavioral traits or red flags.”
Captain Michaels pulled on his lower lip as he thought about the request. “Talk to the department shrink. He’s been able to give us some insights before. If we don’t get anywhere with our own staff, then we’ll consider bringing in the FBI.”
“Sir, I think we should have a better idea of what kind of personality we’re looking for before we start letting our witness spend the evening with strange men,” Sean said, trying to be diplomatic in his response. “I’m very uncomfortable not taking every precaution in a case where we’re using a civilian as bait.”
“So noted. But do you have any idea what the press would do if they caught wind of the fact we were consulting with an FBI criminalist? It’s too early to bring in the Feds.” Captain Michaels stood up to indicate that the meeting was over. “Talk to the department shrink first, see what he has to say.”
Sean was halfway down the corridor before he trusted himself to say a word to his partner. “Michaels doesn’t give a shit about her. We might as well send her out with a big red target painted on her.”
“He’s a politician. He’s looking at the big picture.”
“Fuck the big picture.”
“That’s why he’s the politician, not you. And not me,” Aidan said.
“You’re a better diplomat than I am.”
“So is a rabid grizzly.” Aidan looked at his partner’s tight face and knew trouble was coming. “Ease up. Claire has us to watch over her, and the captain knows it. We won’t let anything happen to her.”
“Yeah? Are we going to stay over at her place, follow her to the store, stand outside the bathroom while she showers?” Sean demanded, knowing how easy it would be for a determined person to get to Claire.
“If that’s what it takes.”
“If I’m living in her back pocket, how the hell am I supposed to focus on the investigation?”
“Good question,” Aidan said. “You’ve got two hours to find an answer.”
“What?”
“We’re meeting Claire and Afton at Camelot before lunch.”
Chapter 33
Washington, D.C.
Friday morning
Claire looked impatiently out the window of the cab. The Friday morning traffic was heavy, as people had taken cars and taxis due to the steady rain that fell. She checked her watch again—late. She should have taken the metro and walked from the Dupont Circle station to Camelot. It certainly would have been faster.
But she hadn’t been ready to face the memories of what had happened the last time she’d taken that exact same route.
Claire jolted when the cabbie turned around and asked for the fare. She realized that they’d arrived while she’d been daydreaming. She paid the driver and hurried upstairs.
Sean and Aidan were already at work with Afton when Claire rushed into the office. “Sorry I’m late. One of my accounts went nuclear and I had to stop by the office for an emergency meeting. You find anything on my first five choices?”
“Where’s Olivia? I thought for sure she’d want to be involved in the action,” Aidan said.
“She had a court appearance this morning or she’d be here. And believe me, she was pissed I wouldn’t push this meeting until later in the afternoon. She’s been a bit concerned about me recently,” Claire added, rolling her eyes at the understatement.
“Family has that prerogative,” Aidan said, eyeing his partner.
“Can we get on with it?” Sean asked, straightening the stack of papers in front of him. He didn’t look at Claire.
Afton said quickly, “Our security firm rechecked their data on the five men Claire chose. Nothing of interest showed up.”
“We’re still running the names through the law enforcement computers,” Sean said. “The first two came back clean this morning, so we can go ahead and set something up with them.”
“I’ll contact them today and see if we can arrange a dinner meeting with each of them this weekend,” Afton said. “I’m sure there won’t be any problems, especially once they see Claire’s picture,” she added, smiling across the desk.
No doubt, Sean thought sourly. The two losers will be slobbering at the thought of going out with someone like Claire. Then they’ll try to slobber all over her.
“We’ll arrange for her dates to do the pickup and drop-off at Camelot,” Afton continued. “They’ll take a taxi to the restaurant, which is a pretty standard security measure.”
“What about af
ter the date?” Claire asked.
“Our couples usually come back here. The presence of our uniformed security guard generally acts as a deterrent to, ah, questionable behavior at the end of the evening.”
“Sounds good,” said Aidan. “Once Claire gets in a taxi with the guy, either Sean or I will take up a position right behind. The other one will go ahead and be in place at the restaurant.”
Sean flipped to the next page of his notes. “We’ve arranged to use Très Chic on M Street as our location. The management has agreed to reserve certain tables so we can keep an eye on Claire, and we’ve set up some of our surveillance equipment there. The facility has a restaurant, bar, and small dance floor, so there really shouldn’t be a need to go anywhere else in a first date situation.” Sean pinned Claire with a look. “If he does suggest another place, you’re going to develop a sudden headache and give us the signal to end the evening.”
“Unless, of course, I want to go with him.” She gave Sean a brittle smile.
“Not on the department’s nickel. You want to get cozy with someone, you’ll have to wait until the investigation is over,” Sean said, hoping his voice was calm and professional. “Otherwise, the only male you’re alone with had better be wearing a badge.”
Aidan gave his cousin a sideways glance.
Claire didn’t push it. She didn’t see much possibility of wanting to be alone with any of the dates she had selected for their potential to be a serial killer. She’d just wanted to yank Sean’s chain. Something about his cool, professional attitude brought out the devil in her.
“Let’s review the five candidates Claire picked out of the catalogue,” Aidan said. He stood up and spread the photos and brief descriptions across the desk where everyone could see them. “Okay, we’ve got Taylor North, stockbroker, and Luis Cardinale, technical support supervisor. These two have been fully screened,” he said, tapping one picture and then the other.
“What about the other three?” Claire asked.
“We’re still waiting to hear back on Billy Green, congressional staffer. Also on Dr. Leonard Petrov, podiatrist, and Randy Klein, ad sales executive,” Sean said. “Any particular reason why you picked out these five?”
Claire shook her head. “I was flipping through the pictures and paused on these ones. I just blew by the others.”
“Maybe we have something here,” Aidan said thoughtfully.
Sean stared at his partner. “We have nothing!”
“Look at their physical descriptions,” Aidan said. “All of them are at least six feet tall. They have dark hair, medium complexion, and all but one have light-colored eyes.”
“You think it’s a hint about the killer’s physical characteristics? Maybe a subconscious reaction?” Claire asked hopefully.
“Either that or you just happen to like tall guys with dark hair and light eyes,” Sean said absently, studying the photos again. Then he realized what he’d said and made a big deal out of writing something in his notebook.
Sure her cheeks were flaming, Claire looked at the pictures. Thankfully, none of the bachelors she’d chosen had more than a superficial resemblance to Sean.
“When will you finish the background checks on the other three?” she asked.
“Sometime tomorrow,” Sean said, grateful for the change in subject.
“Well, you’d better get moving. I’m going on a dating marathon. Five dates in five nights. I tried to think of a way to do more than one a night, but I was afraid it would end like a French farce with men hiding in the closet and under the bed.”
Aidan laughed, but not Sean.
“I think of it as the New and Improved Dating Game.” She smiled with true humor for the first time that day. “It’s so nice of the taxpayers to foot the bill.”
“I don’t want to rain on your parade, but this is serious business,” Aidan said.
“What my partner means is that your life could be at risk on any one of these dates,” Sean cut in.
“Welcome to dating in the modern world.”
“I’m serious.”
She widened her eyes and drawled to both men, “Y’all sure about the danger? It never occurred to silly ol’ me.”
“This may be a joke to you,” Sean began.
Aidan kicked him under the table. “You’re going to be wearing a microphone so we can track your conversation,” Aidan said quickly. “You’ll be in visual contact with at least one of us at all times in the restaurant. Even when you’re in the car with your date we’ll be no more than fifty feet behind.”
Claire winced. This is supposed to make me feel better? Christ, Sean and his bad attitude are going to be following me like my own private thundercloud.
“Wonderful,” Claire grumbled. “You guys going to hand me toilet paper under the stall as well?”
“It won’t be quite that bad,” Aidan said. “But if you sneeze, several cops will be saying ‘Gesundheit.’”
She laughed ruefully. “Well, I wanted to be involved in the investigation, so I’ll try not to complain about the downstream effects.”
Such as having to live within reach of the one man she was determined not to reach for.
Chapter 34
Washington, D.C.
Friday night
“So tonight’s the big date, huh?” Olivia asked. She was watching Claire get ready in Afton’s small guest bathroom.
“I’d hardly call it a date. The police are going to be listening to every word we say. It’ll be more like an evening of ‘Voyeur TV’or something.” She winced as she reached up to fix her hair. “That tape bites.”
“What tape?”
“The stuff plastered over me to hold the microphone in place.”
Olivia studied her friend. “Doesn’t show.”
“It better not. I’d have a hard time explaining about the mike and the earphones Aidan and Sean are wearing and the machinery recording everything we say.”
“Hey, if you let the stockbroker get into your dress, he won’t be thinking about anything but your boobs.”
“Ha, ha.” Claire carefully blotted her lipstick. “I’m not looking for anything like that right now.”
“What are you talking about? You joined a dating service not two weeks ago, plunking down God knows how much money to be set up with dates like this one.”
“That was then. This is now. I’m not looking for Mr. Right.”
“Why, because you’ve already found him?” Olivia said. “And don’t look at me like that. Somehow I think you were cooking more than gumbo that night I walked into the kitchen.”
Claire blushed and pointed at her hidden microphone, even though she wasn’t in transmission range. “I told you that I’m not about to get involved with anyone when my life is in chaos.”
“We can’t always pick the time and place, sweetie.”
Claire rolled her eyes and touched up the dark liner underneath one of them.
Olivia sighed. “Keep an open mind on your dates. You could have something in common with one of them.”
“Ever the optimist.” Claire dabbed on perfume.
“Listen, you don’t need to find the love of your life in the next few weeks. Just be open to finding someone who’s good company and who shares some of your interests. What’s to prevent you from having fun?”
“Oh, I don’t know. A serial killer, perhaps?” Or maybe a certain police officer who would be watching her every step of the way. And listening.
Olivia’s blue eyes darkened with worry.
“Hey, it was just a joke.” Claire touched Olivia’s arm, then reached out to adjust a lock of her friend’s upswept hair. “You look all dressed up yourself. Headed out?”
“Ah, yes. Some coworkers and I are going to get together for drinks and dinner. In fact, I should leave soon.”
“Where are you guys going?” Claire asked.
“We haven’t decided yet. Probably some place in Georgetown,” Olivia said vaguely.
“Have fun. I’m off to
Camelot to meet my Prince, or catch a frog. Something like that,” Claire said with a wry smile. A horn blew outside, telling her that the taxi had arrived. “Wish me luck.”
Chapter 35
Washington, D.C.
Friday night
Sean had won the coin toss, meaning he would follow Claire and her date to the restaurant. Aidan was there already, staked out at a table with an excellent view of the area where Claire would be sitting.
Sitting behind the wheel of his beige sedan, Sean watched Claire leave the taxi and listened while she introduced herself to Taylor North, stockbroker.
Taylor—what the hell kind of name is that, anyway?
Sean ran his eyes over Claire, taking in every bit of her appearance. Just so he’d be able to keep tabs on her throughout the evening, of course. Her hair was up in a twist, leaving her neck bare. She wore a cocktail-length dress in dark blue, with a matching short-sleeved jacket. Her legs looked long and lean in the strappy heels she was wearing.
Reading body language, Sean could tell the guy was very interested. Taylor North did a really thorough once-over of Claire while they introduced themselves. Sean watched as the guy directed her toward the cab, hand lingering on her lower back. Creep.
Claire was thinking pretty much the same thing as the warm hand settled above her butt. Barely above it. Gritting her teeth, she told herself that Taylor was simply being a gentleman. He didn’t know—and certainly hadn’t guessed—that she hated absolute strangers intruding in her personal space.
She got into the taxi and slid all the way to the opposite side. Desperately she tried to remember his biography. Nothing came to her. So she concentrated on making small talk—weather, sports, headlines, anything to find a common ground.
When the Storm Breaks Page 16