by Terri Reed
She began to shake as she backed toward the police station doors.
Behind her she heard the swoosh of the doors opening and she whirled around, her hand reaching for her weapon.
“Sami?” Drew held up his hands palms out. “What’s wrong?”
Relaxing her stance but not her senses, she once again scanned the street, the sidewalks, the buildings all around. Where had Birdman disappeared to?
“He was here.” She held out the bottle, using her index finger and thumb in the hope of preserving any fingerprints he might have left behind, but if he’d stayed true to form, there wouldn’t be any. She didn’t remember seeing gloves. “He touched this.”
Drew frowned. “Who was here?”
“Birdman.” She swallowed back the realization that crashed through her at full throttle. “Birdman followed us here.”
EIGHT
“Why would he toy with me like this?” Sami asked, but she knew Drew didn’t have the answer. No one but Birdman knew why he did anything. And that truth festered deep inside her like a sore.
After reviewing the station’s security videos, Sami and Drew were now sequestered in the chief of police’s office. Drew remained standing at her side while she sat in a chair facing Chief Heyes, who took his seat behind a wide desk.
The Canadian flag hung from a pole in the corner. Framed certificates and brass-plated plaques hung on the walls. A filing cabinet behind the chief sported a plethora of photos, some of people Sami guessed to be his family and friends, others of officers mugging for the camera.
Sami wiped her palms on her thighs. She despised the sense of powerlessness seeping into her marrow.
The video from the camera in the lobby showed the red-haired man had entered the station shortly after Sami and Drew had arrived. He must have followed them from The Grand Hotel. Had he been waiting there for her? He seemed to constantly be one step ahead of her.
The man kept his face turned from the camera as he approached the desk, spoke to the sergeant, then headed down the hall for the restroom. He returned to the lobby a minute after Sami, as if he’d been in the shadows waiting for her to appear. To what end?
First he taunted her with his bird drawings and bread crumbs, leading her on a wild chase from crime scene to crime scene. Then he blew up her house and tried to run her down, and then he showed up here, acting like a Good Samaritan.
“That was bold, coming into the police station like that,” Drew stated.
Her skin crawled. Birdman had been so close. If she’d only realized… Her fingers curled into fists.
“I’ll interview Sergeant Dodge myself,” Chief Heyes said, referring to the desk sergeant who’d talked to Birdman. Drew had explained to the chief the theory that a serial killer was on the loose in both the United States and Canada. “Agent Bennett, can you recall the man’s eye color?”
The chief was an imposing man in his sixties with a head of white hair and sharp green eyes that were fixed on her.
“Dark. He was at least six foot. Caucasian. The red hair wasn’t natural. Too bright, clownish, even. Possibly a wig, if not, definitely a bad dye job.” She closed her eyes and conjured up his image. Her lids popped open. Something about his face bothered her. “He had makeup on. Like theatrical pancake base.” She’d used the stuff during plays in high school. “And a nose ring.”
“We’ll disseminate his description to the rank and file,” Chief Heyes assured them as he made notes on his computer. “Do you have a safe place to go? I could have you set up in a safe house within the hour.”
“I’ve got us covered,” Drew said. “We’ll be going to a friend’s. The place is about forty minutes from here.”
“I’ll send one of our uniformed officers with you,” the chief said.
Sami was thankful for the extra backup. “What about the hotels? We know Birdman’s here, so there’s a body out there somewhere needing to be found.”
“We’ll take care of the search, Agent Bennett,” Heyes said. “Thank you for your help.”
Her hand tightened around the map on which she’d marked all the hotels in and around Victoria. She wanted to be a part of the search. It was her job to find the victims, her job to bring them justice. She drummed the fingers of her free hand on her knee.
Drew put his hand on her shoulder. “It’s better if we aren’t involved in this search. It may be exactly what Birdman expects.”
She stilled, disconcerted by how easily Drew read her. She blew out a breath of frustration.
“You’re right.” She turned to the chief. “Do you have a full-size map of North America?”
“I’m sure we can rummage one up for you.” He rose. “I’ll handpick the officer to accompany you.”
“We appreciate that,” Drew said.
When the chief left the office, Sami stood and paced. “Birdman must have followed us from Portland. I don’t recall seeing him on the flight. A guy like that stands out.”
“We’ll catch him.”
His quiet reassurance halted her steps. “You sound so sure.” She wanted to believe him. To believe in him. “I’ve been three steps behind him for the past six months.”
He closed the distance between them and pulled her into his embrace. “But you were on your own before. Now you have a partner. In fact, you have a whole team on both sides of the border.”
She tilted her head back to look at him. The word partner echoed through her mind. After Ian’s injuries, she hadn’t had a specific partner for longer than a single assignment. A team, however, sounded good. No one getting too attached to each other. “I pray a team will be enough.”
“It will be.” His hand smoothed down her back, leaving a trail of fire in its wake. “You have to have faith that good will triumph over evil.”
Knowing she should step out of his arms but unable to bring herself to do so, she laid her cheek against his heart. “I try to, but sometimes the injustice gets to me.”
Her faith wobbled at times. Like when she’d learned of Lisa’s death. And with each victim she’d found.
She wanted to trust God, to rely on Him as she’d been taught to do growing up. Some days her faith was the only thing keeping her going. Other days she questioned God, questioned her faith. “I don’t understand why God allows so much evil to exist. He’s all-powerful, so why doesn’t He wipe out the evil?”
“He could, but then who would be left? I’m certainly not without sin. And if all sin is evil, then…”
She couldn’t refute his logic, but that didn’t alleviate her frustration and anger at the senselessness of it all. She stepped out of his arms and stared at the smiling faces of the chief’s family pinned to the side of the metal filing cabinet. “Yeah, I hear what you’re saying. And you’re right. I get it. ‘He without sin cast the first stone’ and all that. But it doesn’t make injustice any easier to accept.”
With the crook of his finger, he drew her gaze back to him. “No, it doesn’t. We do what we can and leave the rest to God.”
With grim determination, she nodded. “And what we can do is figure out Birdman’s pattern and then flush him out like bird dogs.”
Drew grinned. “There you go. We’re big dogs with big teeth. He doesn’t stand a chance.”
She smiled back; she couldn’t help herself. His sense of humor appealed to her. He didn’t take himself too seriously, whereas she took herself way too seriously. A fact she accepted about herself, especially after the fiasco with Ian.
They had been partnered for a year before their relationship took a turn toward romance. Then things changed. He’d no longer treated her as his partner in the field.
Instead he’d constantly felt the need to protect her rather than having her back and allowing her to have his. His inability to separate their personal relationship from their professional one had cost him the use of one leg and ended his career as a field agent.
Chief Heyes returned to the office and handed Sami the map she’d requested. “Here you g
o. Can I ask what this is for?”
Sami looked to Drew to explain since this was his country and he’d done the research.
“Using the CPIC, we’ve matched a number of unsolved murders with similarities to the ones that Agent Bennett has compiled. We believe this Birdman is operating on both sides of the border. We hope by studying the case files and locations we can come up with something that will help catch him.”
Heyes nodded with apparent approval. “All right. Let me know what my department can do to help you.” He turned and waved in a tall blond-haired brown-eyed uniformed officer. “This is Chet Brown. He’ll accompany you to your friend’s house.”
After the introductions, Drew asked, “Chet, do you have a personal car and street clothes?”
“Yes, sir,” Chet replied.
Sami shot Drew a questioning look.
“If Birdman followed us, then he knows what our rental car looks like. I don’t want a repeat of Portland.”
“Right.” That had been a close one. “Good thinking.”
“I’ll go change,” Chet said. “My truck is parked in the lot out back.” He hustled away.
Sami turned to Drew. “We need to stop at a store on the way out of town. We’ll need more bandages and toothbrushes since our stuff is in the rental.”
“I could send an officer to retrieve your things from the car,” Heyes offered.
Drew shook his head. “The best thing will be to not have anyone approach the car. If Birdman is sitting on it as I suspect, we don’t want him knowing we’re not coming back to the car.”
“All right, then. And in case you’re right, I’ll have officers keep a watch on it for the suspect. Let’s keep each other apprised of any developments,” Heyes said.
“Yes, sir.” Drew shook Heyes’s hand. “Thank you for your cooperation.”
“Always,” Heyes said. To Sami he said, “Thank you for all your work, Agent Bennett. I thank you on behalf of my country and my city.”
Agitation battered her as Sami shook his hand and hoped that her work would be enough to capture Birdman before he could do any more harm.
*
Drew peered through the front window of Chet’s truck looking for the house number of his friend’s cottage. The drive from Victoria was on a winding road that took them through dense forest broken by the occasional residence. Though Drew knew Chet was alert to any sign of being followed, Drew had kept an eye on the side mirror, as well.
The three of them were squished in the cab of Chet’s large pickup. Drew sat next to the passenger door, Sami in the middle with Chet driving. He leaned into her to keep his back from bumping the leather seat. She was soft in all the right places, yet he knew a core of strength lay within her.
After leaving the police station they’d stopped outside the city limits at a Thrifty Foods to buy toiletries, over-the-counter pain medicine and food since neither of them had eaten since breakfast.
The injury to Drew’s back protested the day’s activities, and the bouncing of the truck didn’t help. He would have to take one of the strong painkillers tonight if he hoped to get any sleep.
“That’s it there,” Drew said as the truck’s headlights shone on the mailbox, revealing the correct number. The place was dark inside. The light of the high moon cast shadows on the exterior.
Chet pulled the truck into the driveway and shut off the engine.
“Who owns this place?” Sami asked when they were out of the truck and at the front door.
Drew hunted for the house key beneath a potted plant to the left of the door. “An old college buddy. I called him earlier to see if the cottage was free.”
He found the key and slid it into the lock. The door opened soundlessly. Drew entered with his hand on his holstered gun, found a table lamp and switched it on. In the living room, the hardwood floors were covered with geometric-patterned rugs. A plush-looking chesterfield sat against one wall and faced floor-to-ceiling patio doors that provided a view of the Salish Sea inlet. Moonlight danced on the water and illuminated a long dock.
Sami walked to the gray stone fireplace, which was a focal point for the room. “Nice place.” She ran her hand over the stone. “I like this. Very cool.”
“There are three bedrooms. Two on the main floor and a small one in the loft space. One washroom, down the hall past the kitchen,” Drew said.
Sami nodded and moved to the small dining table. She spread the map Chief Heyes had given her over the top. “Let’s get to work.”
With wry amusement, Drew said, “How about you start on that and I’ll fix us something to eat?”
“I can take care of the food after I do a perimeter check,” Chet offered.
Drew appreciated the younger man’s help. “Skookum.”
Chet saluted and headed out the door.
Sami cocked her head. “What’s ‘skookum’?”
“Means great or excellent.”
She laughed. “Good to know.” She sobered. “Do you have a pen I can use?”
“I’m sure there’s one around here somewhere.” Drew moved into the kitchen to search the drawers. He found a box of pencil crayons and carried them to her. “No pens but I found pencil crayons.”
She took the box from him, their fingers brushing against each other and creating a warm glow that spread over him. “These will work. And by the by, in the States we call them colored pencils. Crayons are made from colored wax.”
“Embrace our differences, eh?” He grinned at her.
“Sure, eh?” she shot back.
She took out two pencils and handed him a green one, while she took a blue one. “I’ll work on the US side, marking all the places Birdman has hit along with the date. If you do the same on your side of the map, maybe we can figure out if there is some rhyme or reason to his madness.”
“Ah, a little Shakespeare. ‘Was there ever any man thus beaten out of season, When in the why and the wherefore is neither rhyme nor reason?’”
Sami looked at him through her lashes, momentarily pausing her task. “Okay. If you say so.”
Chet returned with an all clear and went into the kitchen. The sounds of pots clanking and cupboards opening and shutting provided background noise as they worked.
“Not a fan of the Bard?” Drew checked his list and began circling cities and writing the dates of the corresponding crimes on the map.
“Can’t say that I am.”
“No Romeo or Juliet for you, eh? I thought most women liked that one at least. It’s a love story.”
She arched an eyebrow. “It’s a tragedy. I don’t do tragedies.”
“You see enough in your work.” He understood the sentiment. Anyone in law enforcement tended to see the world through jaded eyes. “But you believe in love, right?”
“Oh, you want to go there, do you?” She shook her head. “I’m not sure we’ve known each other long enough to have that conversation.”
He glanced up, surprised by her prevarication.
Interesting. Had she not fared well in the love department? Not that he had any room to talk.
Curious, he said, “We may not have known each other for very long but I feel like in the short time we’ve worked together we’ve already gone through more than most partners.”
She paused, her hand hovering over the map. Her gaze lifted. “We’re partners, working together on a case. There’s no need for this to get personal.” With that she went back to work.
He watched her for a moment, not sure how he felt about the boundary she’d just laid down. He was usually the one to limit involvement when it came to women. But that was dating, not work related.
He’d never had a female partner. Not that he would have been opposed. Though the RCMP employed women, the percentage of females was only a quarter of the sum total of officers.
“You mentioned you had a partner once,” Drew said. “What happened to him?”
Sami straightened and met his gaze. Her eyes flashed with pain and anger. “He took a
bullet meant for me. It left him lame in one leg.”
Ah. She carried guilt for his injury like a weight around her neck. “And that makes you angry.”
“Yes. Ian broke from his defensive position because he was worried about me instead of focusing on the job. If he’d stayed put, he would have stopped the suspect before he got a shot off.”
“You two were involved outside of the job?” He saw that his guess hit its mark by the way red crept up her neck and stained her cheeks.
“A mistake I will not repeat.”
“You have nothing to worry about here. Romance is the last thing I’m looking for. Been down that terrifying road once already.”
It was her turn to quiz him. She arched an eyebrow. “Bad breakup?”
“Divorced. I married my college sweetheart. The marriage lasted two years before she decided to upgrade to a doctor.”
Sympathy tinged her expression. “Ouch.”
He shrugged, hoping for nonchalance. The scar on his heart still stung. “Yeah, well, it was a lesson learned. Love doesn’t last.”
She frowned. “I don’t believe that. My parents and my grandparents have all had long marriages. And they’d all say it takes work.”
“So you are a closet romantic.” He wasn’t sure why that pleased him. “Just not when it comes to the workplace.”
She appeared startled by his observation. “Yes, I’d say that’s true. But I still don’t like how Romeo and Juliet ends.”
He chuckled. “Noted. What happened between you and Ian after he was shot?”
“We broke up. He moved to Washington, DC, and decided to go to law school.”
“You didn’t go with him.” If she had, Drew might never have met her. That thought didn’t sit well. “Why not?”
“I wasn’t in love with him. At least not enough to uproot my life to follow him.”
He liked her honesty. There was no pretense. She was who she was and made no excuses for it. She was the kind of woman a man hoped to find. The kind of woman he’d hoped to find. But unfortunately, their lives would never intersect after this case.
Once their partnership successfully brought down Birdman—and Drew was confident they would—he and Sami would go their separate ways. He would return to Vancouver and she would return to Portland. He pushed aside the hollow feeling invading him at the prospect of not seeing Sami after this.