Once Cold

by Blake Pierce

Riley took another bite of her cheesecake and sighed with approval.

  “This is the best cheesecake I’ve ever tasted. And raspberry—that’s my favorite!”

  Blaine stifled a chuckle.

  Yes, I know, he wanted to say.

  Maybe later on he’d tell her how he knew.

  It depended on how things went from here.

  When they both finished eating, Riley said, “Thanks so much, Blaine. I’ve had a lovely time.”

  “Oh, but the evening’s not over yet,” Blaine said.

  Riley looked at him with a dubious expression.

  Oh, no, he thought. She thinks I’m making a pass at her right here and now.

  He’d made plans of a different sort.

  And now he was feeling awfully nervous about how those plans would play out.

  “Would you like to take a walk?” he asked.

  What if she says no?

  “I’d love that,” Riley said.

  He helped her into her jacket and they left the restaurant.

  It was a cool March night with a pleasant promise of spring in the air. The area around Blaine’s restaurant was charming, a restored cultural district. A few temporary booths had been set up, and materials were scattered about for many more to follow.

  Blaine explained as they walked, “Tomorrow there’s going to be a big arts and crafts fair here.”

  “Oh, yes, I read about that,” Riley said. “It sounds like it’s going to be marvelous.”

  “Yes, there will be lots of people and music. Come on, let me show you something.”

  As Blaine led Riley toward a particular building, he was glad to hear the music playing inside. He had expected that, so things were moving along just fine.

  He escorted her inside, where a large hall had been decorated with colorful flowers and trees to welcome the spring. A band was on a platform rehearsing for tomorrow.

  When the leader of the group saw Blaine and Riley, he grinned and nodded.

  Blaine gave the bandleader a wink.

  Then the band started playing an old song—“One More Night” by Phil Collins.

  Riley gasped with delight.

  “Why, that’s my favorite song!” she said.

  “I know,” Blaine said. “I asked my friend Mickey to play it tonight.”

  Riley looked at him with surprise.

  “You know? How?”

  “The same way I knew that raspberry cheesecake was your favorite dessert.”

  Riley stared at him for a moment, trying to catch his meaning.

  Then she rolled her eyes and laughed and said, “Oh, no!”

  Blaine laughed.

  She’s figured it out, he thought.

  That afternoon, April had called Blaine to make sure he knew everything he needed to know for his date with her mother. He’d asked April about Riley’s favorite dessert and favorite song. April had been thrilled to give him that information and much more.

  Still laughing, Riley said, “I’m going to give that girl a serious talking to the next chance I get.”

  “Don’t be too hard on her,” Blaine said. “She was just doing her job.”

  “Tattling about her mother’s favorite things?”

  “Precisely.”

  Riley just looked at him for a moment. Then with an impish glint in her eyes, she said, “May I have this dance?”

  Blaine smiled and nodded, then led her through a pair of double doors that led outside into a dimly lit garden patio. The lovely music followed them into the cool night air.

  They started to dance slowly and close.

  After a few moments, Riley lifted her face up to his, and their lips met.

  When the kiss came to an end, a strange and curious expression crossed Riley’s face.

  Blaine wondered—had the kiss been OK?

  He suddenly felt terribly insecure.

  Then Riley said in a quiet voice …

  “O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?”

  Blaine felt a smile rise up inside him.

  What an amazingly romantic thing to say! he thought.

  But then he realized that Riley wasn’t looking at him at all. She was looking at a balcony that hung over the garden. A young woman was standing there staring into the night.

  “Of course!” Riley murmured aloud. “Why didn’t I figure it out before?”

  Blaine couldn’t help feeling a bit deflated.

  Their romantic moment was definitely over.

  “Has this got something to do with your cold case?”

  “No,” Riley said distractedly, still looking away from him. “I mean yes. Another cold case.”

  Then she looked at him and said, “Oh, Blaine, I’m so sorry, but I’ve got to go home right now. This has been wonderful. We’ll do it again. I promise.”

  Blaine smiled a bit stiffly and led her to his car.

  As he drove Riley home, Blaine told himself that the date had been as much of a success as he could have hoped for.

  But he had to wonder what on earth she had meant when she’d said …

  “O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?”

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

  Instead of responding to Blaine’s occasional attempts at conversation, Riley was focused on a different set of words. She had very little to say as he drove her home. She was listening to the line that kept rattling through her head.

  “Deny thy father and refuse thy name.”

  Of course! she thought. The meaning of Hatcher’s message should have been obvious to her right away.

  But she had been distracted by the thought that the message had something to do with her own troubled relationship with her father—that is, if it meant anything at all.

  But now she knew—it was all about that name that came in the very next Shakespearian line.

  Romeo, Romeo, Romeo …

  She remembered something else that Juliet had said in that same scene …

  “What’s in a name?”

  As things turned out, there was a lot of meaning in that name—Romeo.

  That is, if Riley’s new insight was right.

  She knew she was being rude, but she couldn’t help it. If her hunch was correct, she was on the verge of a discovery that was going to change her life forever. The thought had taken her breath away.

  When Blaine pulled up in front of the townhouse and parked, Riley leaned over and gave him a swift, unromantic kiss—nothing at all like the lovely kiss they’d shared back in the garden.

  “Oh, Blaine, I’m so sorry to bail on you like this but …”

  Blaine smiled rather weakly. Riley knew that the poor guy had no idea what her sudden mood change was all about.

  And she couldn’t tell him.

  She couldn’t tell anybody—at least not yet, and maybe never.

  “It’s OK, Riley,” Blaine said.

  “We’ll do this again, I promise.”

  As soon as the words were out, she wondered if they were true.

  If things in her life changed as much as she expected, would there still be a place for Blaine in it?

  How could she know?

  How could she make such a promise?

  She told herself that she was being irrational. After all, what would it mean to finally bring her mother’s killer to justice?

  Surely it would make everything in her life better—including her relationships.

  I’ll make things right with Blaine, she told herself.

  But doubt kept tugging at her.

  Blaine smiled and silently squeezed her hand. Riley got out of the car and hurried into her townhouse. She went straight upstairs and plopped herself in front of her computer. She paused for a moment, mulling over her hunch.

  She remembered that her father had served in the 11th Battalion of the 30th Marines infantry regiment.

  But he’d never told her the actual name of the company he’d commanded.

  He’d always seemed to be almost superstitious about saying the name aloud.
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br />   Riley knew that “Romeo” was the word the military used for the letter R—like “Alpha” for A or “Charlie” for C. She also knew that the Marines sometimes used those words to designate companies.

  She went to the US Marines website and looked at a list of the companies in the 11th Battalion, 30th Marines.

  She gasped a little when she saw that one of the companies was indeed called the Romeo Company.

  Then she asked herself, What years did Daddy serve?

  She remembered that he had been in Vietnam during the late 1960s.

  She ran a search and quickly found the 1968 roster of the Romeo Company. And sure enough, she found her father’s name:

  Sweeney, Oliver J. CAPTAIN

  This is it, Riley thought. The unit Daddy commanded.

  She had found the trail that Hatcher had wanted her to find.

  But how was she supposed to follow that trail?

  It looked like there were more than two hundred names on this roster.

  Was one of those the name of her mother’s killer?

  Riley had always been told that it was a guy who had come into the candy store to rob it and whoever happened to be there. A random act of robbery that turned into murder. The possibility that the murderer was somehow connected with her father had never occurred to her. He had been overseas at that time.

  But that seemed to be exactly what Hatcher was suggesting with his cryptic clue.

  And now, how was she going to find the killer among these names?

  Riley didn’t even know how many men on this list were still alive.

  Riley dialed the phone number for Marine Corps Base Quantico. The switchboard connected her with a man in the general information department. Riley explained that she was a BAU agent, although she didn’t mention that she wasn’t officially working on the case.

  She said, “I need all the information I can get about men who served in Romeo Company, Eleventh Battalion, Thirtieth Marines, in the late 1960s. I’ve got a roster for 1968 in front of me, but I need to know more. Is that kind of information available?”

  “Certainly,” the man said. “But I’m afraid not at this hour. You should call tomorrow between eight and five. Explain what you need to know to an administrative assistant. We’ll be glad to help you then.”

  Discouraged, Riley thanked the man and ended the call.

  Then she sat at her computer feeling stranded.

  There wasn’t a thing she could do right now.

  But how was she going to get any sleep tonight?

  All I can do is try, she thought.

  She undressed and got into bed.

  *

  All was darkness, except for one spot of light directly in front of Riley.

  Someone stepped into that light.

  It was Blaine.

  He stepped toward her with a friendly smile on his face. Without knowing why, Riley pushed him sharply aside.

  Then Bill stepped into the light and approached her. She pushed him aside as well.

  Behind Bill was Brent Meredith, and she pushed him too …

  … then Ryan …

  … then Gabriela …

  … then Jilly …

  … and even April.

  She pushed away every single person in the world she cared about.

  She didn’t know why, except that she had a terrible feeling that they were all standing in her way.

  Finally, she found herself facing a silhouette of a man. She couldn’t see his face, but she knew who he was.

  He was her mother’s killer.

  She had found him.

  And now she was alone with him.

  She could hear him snickering with satisfaction.

  He thinks he’s won, Riley thought. He thinks he’s beaten me.

  Then with dread she wondered …

  Is he right?

  Riley awoke and sat bolt upright in bed. She was sweating and shaking all over.

  Just a nightmare, she realized. But it was unlike any other nightmare she could remember having.

  And for some reason, it was uniquely terrifying.

  What did it mean?

  Without knowing why, Riley dreaded the answer to that question. Just thinking about it only frightened her more.

  It meant nothing, she decided. Nothing at all.

  Riley lay back down and went to sleep again. She managed a dark dreamless sleep for the rest of the night.

  *

  Riley woke up early the next morning—too early to make that call to Marine Corps Base Quantico.

  As she got out of bed and got dressed, she found herself thinking …

  No phone calls. Not today.

  For one thing, she doubted that she could get all the information she needed over the phone. For another thing, she felt the need to do something, to get out of the house and deal with someone face to face.

  Riley walked downstairs and found Gabriela already making elaborate preparations for tonight’s dinner.

  “Buenos días, Señora Riley!” she said with a bright smile. “I didn’t hear you come in last night.”

  “Are the girls up yet?” Riley asked.

  “No. They were wondering last night what you would want to do with them today. I didn’t know what to tell them.”

  Riley’s heart sank. Of course, it was Saturday.

  She hadn’t considered that the girls might be looking forward to doing something together today. But she was completely preoccupied with the Romeo code. She would just have to make it up to them somehow.

  “Gabriela, I’ve got to go out on some errands,” she said. “I’ll just grab a roll and go.”

  “When will you be back?”

  Riley gulped.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “It may take a while.”

  Gabriela gave her a silent, penetrating look that made Riley wince. She grabbed a breakfast roll and left the kitchen. She ate the roll quickly on her way to the car. As she pulled out of the parking area, that sinking feeling deepened, and she felt mysteriously sad.

  Riley knew that it was only a short drive to Marine Corps Base Quantico.

  Even so, she had the feeling that she was going a long way from home.

  CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

  As Riley neared Quantico, she hoped the trip was going to be worth it. It wasn’t a visit she wanted to make. In fact, she felt a lump of dread in the pit of her stomach.

  She checked in through the familiar front gate, but today she wasn’t taking her usual route. She was headed into the main Marine Corps Base that took up most of the big eighty-six-square-mile property.

  As she went by, she gazed at the statue that symbolized pride and honor. It was a smaller replica of the Iwo Jima Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery—the statue of six Marines raising an American flag.

  The sight did not make her feel warm and welcome.

  She had far too many unpleasant memories of military life from her childhood.

  She hadn’t been to this part of the base very often—which was odd, because she worked very close by. The FBI Academy and BAU were actually tenants on this property. But she never came here except when business demanded it.

  She passed through additional security and stated her business. Then she was directed to the office of Dudley Carter, an administrative support assistant. The sight of so many people in uniform as she walked down the hall stirred her sense of dread. She could remember when her dad had dressed like that.

  When she walked into Carter’s modest office, she was relieved to see that the young man was a civilian—or at least wasn’t wearing a uniform, and there wasn’t anything the least bit military about his manner. He was a skinny guy with thick-lensed glasses and a small jaw.

  She presented her badge and introduced herself and explained why she’d come.

  “I take it this has to do with an FBI case,” he said.

  Riley felt her throat tighten as she said, “Yes.”

  How many lies was she going to have to tell this man?


  She said, “I need information about men who served in Romeo Company under Captain Oliver Sweeney back in the late 1960s. It was a unit in the Eleventh Battalion, Thirtieth Marines.”

  Carter seemed a little skeptical.

  “That kind of information is easy to get online,” Carter said.

  “I know, but I need to winnow them down. I need to find out which men are still alive, and where they are now.”

  Carter looked at Riley for a moment.

  Riley felt nervous.

  Was he going to ask her about what kind of case she was working on?

  Was he going to ask for the name of her superior at the BAU?

  If so, what was she going to say?

  Steady, she told herself. It’s not like you’re asking for classified information.

  Finally Carter turned toward his computer and said, “Give me the years you’re looking for.”

  Riley told him the years that her father had commanded Romeo Company.

  Carter clacked away at the keyboard for a few moments.

  He said, “I’ve got two hundred forty-three living men and their addresses here—but those are only the ones we have current records about. I’m sure that there are some who are still alive, but who we’ve lost track of. And some of the ones I’ve got here might have died since our info was updated.”

  Riley felt a pang of despair.

  How could she possibly sort through that many names?

  It would be one thing if she had BAU resources at her disposal.

  But she was completely on her own.

  “How many of those men are living in Virginia?” she asked.

  Carter typed a bit more.

  “I see twenty-five,” he said.

  That will have to do, Riley thought.

  She asked Carter to print out the list of names and addresses. Then she made her way out of the building.

  She breathed a little easier out in the open air, away from all the people in uniform and the oppressive military rigidity of the place. But she was still anxious. She got into her car and sat behind the wheel looking at the list that Carter had printed out for her.

  She had twenty-five names and twenty-five addresses.

  Was this information of any use at all?

  How could she possibly know?