The Watched (CSI Reilly Steel #4)

by Hill, Casey

  Nevera good combination.

  The following morning at the beach house, Reilly swung her legs over the edge of the bed, rubbing her temples. The jet lag was still affecting her as it was hours later than she usually woke in Dublin, and still way too early in Clearwater, but since she was up she might as well get something out of it and go for a run.

  A shower and food could wait for the moment. There was something about sunnier climes that made her crave physical exercise and outdoor activity, and it had been years since she’d run on the beach. At least the temperature should be cooler first thing in the morning than it had been yesterday.

  She thought about what time it was in Ireland now and what they were getting up to back there. It reminded her of her last conversation with Chris before she’d left. He’d been taken aback by her decision to head to the States, albeit with clearance from Inspector O’Brien.

  ‘A little sudden, isn’t it? How long will you be gone?’ he’d asked, frowning.

  Reilly didn’t want to admit to him that she’d been feeling homesick for months. ‘A couple of weeks at the most. I’m long overdue a vacation as it is, and it beats sitting around here waiting for O’Brien to give the nod for me to come back. The chief says six weeks is typical but you and I both know it could be more than that depending on how InternalAffairs want to play it.’

  ‘A couple of weeks at a beach house sounds like heaven – any room in your suitcase for me? Though I’m not sure Agent Forrest would be too thrilled,’ he joked wryly. He’d met Daniel that time the American had travelled to Dublin and the two men hadn’t exactly bonded.

  She and Chris had become quite close throughout that particular investigation – their first – and Reilly wondered if he’d viewed Daniel as some kind of rival. It was always so hard to tell with Chris. Open and straightforward in so many ways, he was like a closed book when it came to emotions.

  As was she, of course, Reilly admitted. Which was possibly the main reason the two of them had been dancing around their attraction to one another for the last three years. Or was she seeing something that wasn’t actually there? Reilly had no idea. All she knew was that she’d miss being around Chris Delaney when she was gone.

  ‘You’re as bad as I am; I know you couldn’t survive more than a few days away from the job,’ she’d teased him.

  ‘Don’t be so sure. This murder investigation is a complete mess. Until we find out what that powder was, we’ve got little else to go on.’

  ‘What about the victim, did she die from this stuff then?’

  ‘No, ME listed cause of death as respiratory failure.’

  ‘Seems strange.’ Then Reilly shook the thoughts away, reminding herself that through her own actions, she was out of this particular investigation and any other GFU-related cases for the next month at least.

  She was of course anxious to find out what the powder had been, but for different reasons, although she guessed that if the substance had been dangerously toxic, she wouldn’t have been back on her feet so quickly. Still, she asked Chris to let her know when the lab results came back.

  Now, running along the beach, she could barely breathe in the muggy air as her feet sought out the harder packed sand, but she forced herself to keep going. She was stopped in her tracks a little way down the beach by the sight of a small pod of dolphins frolicking in the glassy gulf waters only a few feet away. Surprised at the unexpected but delightful sight, it put a spring in her step and gave her the impetus to keep going a little longer. And despite the insane temperature and humidity, as well as her lack of fitness, she managed to take in five miles.

  By the time Reilly ran back down the beach toward the house, she was drenched with sweat but her mind was finally empty. Stripping off her running gear and down to her underwear, she launched herself into the small pool, relishing the immediate refreshment, though in truth the water wasn’t much cooler than the outside temperature. She remained in the water for a few more minutes, watching the pelicans and egrets gliding across the gulf waters, occasionally swooping down for breakfast as the sun gradually rose higher in the sky. Man, there was so much to be said for a warmer climate.

  But speaking of breakfast . . .

  Getting out of the pool, Reilly tiptoed back upstairs to her room, hoping not to wake Daniel at this early hour. No doubt the horrible events of yesterday evening would have given him a troubled sleep and she hoped he’d managed to grab a few hours’ rest.

  A little while later, her still-wet hair was twisted up behind her head and the perfume of mango shower wash – newly bought from the local CVS on the way home last night – lingered on her skin.

  There was also a lot to be said for the therapeutic value of sweet-scented cosmetics, and Reilly’s sensitive nose appreciated them more than most.

  To her surprise, Daniel was already in the kitchen making coffee when she entered. He poured her a cup and she took a sip of the dark, aromatic liquid and sighed, wrapping her hands around the mug. Boy, had she missed American coffee.

  ‘How are you feeling today?’ she asked.

  ‘Better, now that I know I can officially do something.’ When she looked enquiringly at him, he elaborated. ‘Alice called this morning. She wants me to investigate Holly’s case.’

  ‘Are you sure that’s a good idea?’

  But she knew it was a stupid question. Daniel was already knee-deep in his god-daughter’s investigation, her mother’s request notwithstanding. And she had to admit that if she were in his shoes, she would do the very same.

  ‘So I was wondering . . . did you have any plans for today?’ he asked, in a tone Reilly knew only too well.

  She eyed him suspiciously, playing along. ‘Well, I was actually thinking about working on my tan. I’ve got so pale it’s embarrassing. Why?’

  He handed her a bagel slathered in fat-free cream cheese. ‘I thought you might like to come and see the office – my office.’

  ‘Nice try, but it won’t work, you know.’

  ‘What?’ He was all innocence.

  ‘The not so subtle recruitment drive. I’m on vacation, remember?’

  ‘Exactly. And last I checked, sight-seeing was a major part of that.’ He grinned. ‘So let me give you the grand tour . . .’

  CHAPTER 9

  Todd had heard his phone buzzing, the annoying ringtone he’d set for his boss repeating for the fourth time, dragging him from sleep. Swearing, he’d fumbled with the phone. Bradley wasn’t the type to call in the early hours and especially after such a late night, unless there was an emergency. That didn’t really make Todd feel any less annoyed. He swore again as he saw the time.

  ‘Sorry to wake you but we’ve got something.’ Bradley’s voice sounded just as weary as Todd felt, though his partner’s words were enough to drive the last of the sleep from his mind. He swung his legs over the side of his bed and switched his phone to speaker.

  ‘Go ahead.’ Todd crossed to his bathroom. He splashed cold water on his face. His sleep had been restless enough that he wasn’t sure that being woken was a bad thing. Images of bloody Russian dolls and little girls with pigtails had danced behind his eyelids and haunted his dreams.

  ‘A call came in about a couple of dead bodies found a few miles up at a quiet non-residential area along Belleair Beach, not far from Clearwater,’ Bradley told him. ‘And a cop by the side of a road. The officer was halfway between Belleair and yesterday’s crime scene. Apparently, he called in a traffic stop, not too long before that 911 call reporting a man beating his girlfriend.’

  That was the call that had tipped them off about Holly’s murder and ostensibly from the killer, seeing as there had been nothing of the sort.

  Bradley and Todd decided to split up, with the senior investigator taking the murdered police officer. A dead cop was always difficult and required diplomacy and delicacy, and Todd wasn’t sure if he could provide that after an almost all-nighter at work and the couple of hours’ sleep he’d grabbed.

  He was also
still smarting from his father’s behavior at the lab yesterday evening, insinuating that the department wasn’t good enough, that they needed help.

  His father had always been meddlesome. He just couldn’t leave things alone, couldn’t let Todd be an adult. Pretty much everyone assumed that Daniel was the reason Todd had made it this far. Sometimes he suspected his dad believed that too. He just wanted to prove that he could do this on his own; it was one of the reasons he’d taken the job in Tampa, far enough away from Daniel’s stomping ground, but familiar to Todd, who’d spent so many childhood summers here. But then, of course, Daniel had to up and retire to Clearwater, where once again his shadow loomed large.

  Todd didn’t need his dad’s help to be a good investigator; he’d proved himself capable of that all by himself.

  Then again, reason countered, Daniel Forrest was the best criminalist in the business. Or had been. It couldn’t hurt to get his take on things, Todd reasoned, not if they wanted to catch Holly’s killer as soon as possible.

  Still, his father had had no business trying to get information from Alice Young before the detectives could get a handle on it. And it didn’t matter if someone close to him had been one of the victims. To insinuate that Todd and the department didn’t know how to do their job was just insulting. He’d cared about Holly too.

  Now, he forced himself to think about this new crime scene and if it was indeed connected.

  The couple didn’t look like Holly and Aaron, Todd decided as he carefully circled the bodies. Also mid-twenties but the similarities stopped there. The man was huge. Six-foot-two, easily 240 pounds. It was impossible to say what color his hair was, what with all the caked blood from the head wound.

  The woman was much smaller. Barely over five feet and if she’d been a hundred pounds soaking wet, Todd would’ve been shocked. Her body showed no visible signs of trauma.

  He set aside his camera and picked up his kitbag. The first thing to go to was the bloody rock next to the man’s body. It wasn’t going to take the medical examiners long to confirm it as the murder weapon. Aside from the blood and brain matter on the rock, its edge was the same size and shape as the concave wound in the side of the man’s skull.

  Todd leaned closer to the female victim. Her mouth was slightly open and he could see something caught between her front teeth. Taking out his tweezers, he carefully extracted the fiber.

  ‘What is that?’ Detective Mark Reed spoke up from behind him.

  ‘Looks like a fiber.’ Todd slipped it into the bag.

  ‘A fiber?’ Reed echoed as he crouched down next to Todd. His eyes narrowed as he studied it.

  ‘I’m willing to bet that it came from a towel soaked in chloroform.’ Todd’s knees popped as he stood.

  ‘Why’s that?’

  ‘Towel fibers soaked with chloroform were found in the mouths of the other couple from before.’ Todd crossed to the male victim and bent over him. A moment later, he held up another fiber.

  The detective turned, studying the scene, a thoughtful expression on his face.

  ‘What are you thinking?’ Todd asked.

  ‘The path,’ Mark said, motioning to it, ‘leads down to a public beach. Maybe the couple comes up here to get a little alone time, and the killer jumps them.’

  Todd nodded slowly, seeing where the detective was headed. ‘He kills these two; the woman with chloroform, the man with a rock. Drags the bodies out of sight and then waits for the other two. But why kill them? Case of mistaken identity, maybe?’

  ‘Which begs the question,’ Mark mused, ‘did he know the other two victims from yesterday and waited here specifically for them, or was it random?’

  Daniel’s office suite was located in downtown Clearwater, and looked like the private doctors’ offices Reilly had seen up north: small, brick and more or less nondescript. Letters on a plaque out front spelled out ‘Forrest Consultations’ in plain white block print.

  Inside, the lobby was tastefully decorated in various shades of beige and brown. A couch sat along one wall, two chairs against the other, and a table between them. A few of the usual fake-but-looks-real plants sat in the corners. A receptionist’s desk faced the door, its style simple but elegant. The whole thing was clean and professional, nothing less than what Reilly expected. The friendly woman at the front desk also met her expectations.

  ‘Daniel speaks very highly of you.’ The Cuban accent was faint, but there. ‘It is nice to finally put a face to the name.’

  Reilly gave an embarrassed smile. She hated compliments; never knew quite how to take them.

  Daniel stepped in to save her. ‘Teresa’s little brother Tomas works as a part-time investigator for me,’ he said. ‘He’s finishing up a Fine Arts degree and I’m hoping I’ll be able to hire him full-time after he graduates.’

  ‘Our mother would like that as well.’ Teresa gave Reilly a warm smile. ‘Tomas is the baby in the family and Mama doesn’t want him going anywhere.’

  Reilly’s smile faltered as a familiar ghost waved from the shadows of her mind. She pushed it away and forced a return smile. It felt weak, but was enough. Then the phone rang and Daniel motioned for Reilly to follow him. Giving Teresa a half-wave goodbye, Reilly followed her friend down the hallway.

  ‘That’s my office.’ He motioned to a door nearby, but kept walking past it toward a set of double doors at the end of the corridor. ‘And this is the lab.’

  Reilly let out a low whistle as she stepped into the room. It wasn’t as large as the CSI lab in Tampa had been, but the toys were definitely nicer. Expensive comparison microscopes, six different computers, a centrifuge near a stainless steel refrigerator, and . . .

  ‘Is that an EDD?’ Reilly couldn’t help but sound impressed. She’d wanted an electrostatic detection device back in Dublin but it had been deemed an unnecessary extravagance.

  ‘Daniel does like pretty things,’ said a voice from the far corner of the room, pulling Reilly’s attention from the equipment.

  ‘Reilly, meet Shawn Meyers, my forensics expert,’ Daniel said. ‘Shawn, this is Reilly Steel.’

  ‘Hey there.’ The slight widening of Shawn’s hazel eyes as Reilly nodded a greeting told her that he too had recognized her name. Did Daniel really talk about her that much?

  ‘At any given time, we can have up to five cases that we’re working on,’ Daniel explained, gesturing around the room. ‘Generally we’re called in by the local PD or, occasionally, the nearest FBI field office when there’s a backlog. Sometimes they bring me in for behavioral expertise if one of their profiling people is out.’

  ‘But why the lab?’ Reilly asked.

  ‘Most of our work is on behalf of private companies – for insurance fraud, mostly. We’re also used when a lawyer requests that an outside source runs tests or looks over results. Most of the time, if we’re called into court, we’re expert witnesses for the prosecution, but we can also testify for the defense. And one of the reasons we have a good reputation is because I’ve testified for both sides. I stand by my findings, no matter which side likes them.’ Daniel’s cellphone rang then, interrupting. As he reached for it, he gestured for Reilly to take a look around.

  He didn’t have to tell her twice. She walked the perimeter, pausing to admire each piece of equipment, lingering near the EDD.

  She’d love to see it in action.

  ‘Christ . . .’ Daniel slammed his hand against the wall nearby, and Reilly jumped, spinning around.

  One look at Daniel’s face and she knew. Holly’s murderer had already struck again.

  CHAPTER 10

  ‘About five-thirty this morning, a building super called 911 after responding to an anonymous tip that one of his tenants had drugs on the premises,’ Bradley informed Todd, who was on his way back from the beach. They were both making their way to the newest crime scene. ‘When no one responded to the super’s knocks, he let himself in, which is when he saw water from the bathroom soaking into the carpet. Tenant was DOA.’

&nb
sp; ‘Drowned?’ Todd asked, into the phone.

  ‘From what I was told, looks like drowning may be a secondary cause of death.’ Bradley paused a moment before continuing. ‘The water was apparently hot.’

  ‘How hot?’ Bile rose in Todd’s throat.

  ‘Detective Sampson said it looked like it had been boiling.’

  The police had already blocked off the scene by the time Todd arrived, their yellow and black caution tape fluttering in the wind.

  As he flashed his badge at the rookie holding the line, Bradley’s SUV parked nearby, Todd waited for the senior investigator, scanning the crowd that had inevitably gathered.

  Some criminals liked to see the results of their handiwork. He might not have been a profiler like his dad, but Todd knew a trick or two. Unfortunately, it looked like just the usual reporters, unemployed lurkers and morbid teenagers.

  Bradley pinched the bridge of his nose, a sure sign of fatigue.

  Todd had come to recognize his friend’s gestures over the years, particularly that one. He took a small bottle from his pocket as they stepped onto the elevator. ‘I think I may need to pick up some more energy drinks.’ He took a swig, grimaced, and said, ‘Maybe we should invest in the company that makes this. Shoot for early retirement?’

  ‘Give me coffee any day.’ Bradley raised his Styrofoam cup. ‘That stuff tastes like goat piss.’

  Todd quirked an eyebrow. ‘I’ve always wondered why people say that. How do you know what goat piss tastes like?’

  Bradley gave him a grin, a tired one, but a grin nonetheless. ‘You weren’t you in a fraternity then?’

  ‘That’s just wrong.’ Todd shook his head. ‘Seriously, where do you come up with this stuff?’

  Bradley shrugged. ‘A gift, I guess.’

  When the elevator doors opened on the third floor, Detective Sampson was waiting, her expression more grim than usual. Any good humor they’d managed to muster up immediately disappeared.