Hunting (24 page)

“
Yeah. You’re the lucky
ones. I don’t think I’m going to be so fortunate. She’s determined.
And that’s the one thing about her that drives me more than crazy.
Stubborn, and her mind is made up. Nothing short of a miracle would
sway her.”

“
So don’t sway her.
Persuade her. That’s how I hear the husband did it. According to
the one who knows her best, Jules was extremely reluctant with him,
too.”

That had Malachi thinking,
and shifting his assumptions slightly. “So it might not be his
death at all. It might be something else entirely…”

“
Jules had it rough all
around—long before she met Bellows. Georgia hasn’t said much, but
from what I understand Jules’ family life pretty much didn’t exist.
So whatever’s keeping her so reticent—other than the natural
inclination we all have to avoid you, you arrogant bastard—it
probably goes deeper than her losing her husband.”

Something for him to think
about.

What did he really know
about her?

Her first full day off
after moving in with Malachi was better than she expected. He also
had the day off, though she strongly suspected
he’d
arranged
his schedule on purpose. He’d not come out and said it, but she
suspected her ‘detail’ would be one dark-haired, blue-eyed Galahad
with the initials MPB. And was he really
off
when hunting
this killer? Somehow she didn’t think so. He’d brought all his
files home with him, and they were spread out over the kitchen
table.

Ruthie had been given
strong instructions that the papers on the table were not to be
touched. The last thing she needed to see was the autopsy photos.
The little girl was too busy chasing Malachi’s dogs Lois and Clark
around the house to notice what Malachi was doing in the
kitchen.

Jules had nothing to do.
Had anything ever felt so awkward?

An hour after
breakfast—prepared by Al before she’d left to go somewhere with
Paige—Jules found herself sitting next to him at the table, his
files opened before her.

He looked up at her. “I
think you’re right. I think I
do
know him. Now I just have
to go through a list of people who it could be.”

A list of people who could
have potentially betrayed him. She understood how that would have
hurt him. “So…start listing. This guy first came to your attention,
when?”

“
Just after Thanksgiving,
five years ago.”

“
Where did you
live?”

“
New York.”

“
So he was in that general
area. Where else have you lived since then?” She’d thought he’d
been in St. Louis for quite a while.

“
I transferred here, six
months later. Worked CEPD until the CCU nine months
ago.”

“
And the guy’s been doing
what for the last five years?”

“
I don’t know. I’ve tried
tracking him, but his kills have been all over from New York to the
Mississippi River.”

“
So this guy probably
travels frequently. How does he get there?”

“
I’m thinking he
drives—I’ve even checked airport security videos. No one that I
recognized flew into those kill cities within a week of each
victim.” His frustration was in his voice. Jules scooted her chair
closer until they were shoulder to shoulder as they leaned over the
files. Even though the topic of their conversation was horrible, it
was
nice
to be sitting at the table with him, just together.
Had they ever had downtime together, other than the time they’d
spent in South Dakota recently? She didn’t think so. So why did it
feel so comfortable, so natural? Hell if she knew…

“
So was there a particular
day he killed on?” She knew she was reaching, but understanding
killers was so not her thing. She did better with dead bodies and
blood cells, than with thoughts and emotions.

He grabbed a file then his
phone for the calendar app. “Saturdays. Twenty-two were on
Saturdays. The remaining ten were on Fridays or
Sundays.”

“
So he at least works
Monday through Thursday. And you think he’s in a similar field as
you.”

“
More than that, I think he
probably feels that he
looks
like me, as well. Look at
this.” He spread out pictures of each of the male victims. She
could see what he saw. Even those of a different race somewhat
favored Malachi in build and dress. Shape of the facial features.
Short, clean cut hairstyles. Clean-shaven.

Dimples when they smiled.
They’d all had beautiful dimples just like his.

“
For some reason
you
are the standard he is trying to achieve. So what if he works
with
you? Or went to school
with
you, and somehow
felt you overshadowed him? You probably started out together in New
York, even if you didn’t know it, then
he
moved to St.
Louis. This is someone you know. And probably someone
I’ve
met. Because, let’s face it, no one knows about
us
but you
and I. So someone had to have pointed out the change in our
relationship to him—or he saw it himself. So…where have you and I
begin together since Thanksgiving? And look, he’s got double the
amount of kills around Thanksgiving each year.”

“
So something about the
holiday is significant. I’ve thought that before, but couldn’t
determine what it was.”

“
So…what were you doing at
Thanksgiving five years ago?” She was with Rick, burning a turkey
and making love. She’d been so thankful that year.

“
My parents and sister were
in town. Al had been sent to her first field office assignment and
I hadn’t seen her in months. Mick was somewhere overseas, but had
just flown in that night. And so we had a giant party in my
apartment, inviting friends we knew in the area. It actually
started our tradition of Thanksgiving parties instead of pitch-in
dinners. Usually we didn’t know where everyone would be, when, so I
just started a blanket invitation to a Thanksgiving party. I’d
invite people from the Bureau who I knew didn’t have any plans, a
few friends outside of work, and my family. And it just grew once
Al and I were both in St. Louis. And then Mom and Dad moved from
San Francisco, and the parties just grew.”

She stared at him a moment.
“He was at the party, wasn’t he?”

“
He probably watched us
dancing. Or saw us talking in the kitchen.”

“
But you danced with
several women that night, didn’t you?” She’d seen him with at least
two or three different women. Right in the center of the dance
floor.

“
Yes. I danced at least six
or seven times.”

“
So why me?”

He looked at her, his blue
eyes intense. “Because you
are
different.”

“
No, I’m not.”

***

Yes, she was. And had been
for a long time. And the bastard after them had most likely noticed
before
Malachi had. “My feelings for you are different,
Julia. And probably have been for a long time.”

“
So this guy knew,
before
you did, how you felt. I’m not buying it.” Her nerves
were right there for him to see and hear. She stood and paced
around the table. “He’d have to be as close to you as a brother, or
best friend.”

“
Maybe he is. Not Mick, of
course. But someone I’d consider close.”

“
So let’s go back to the
party. Gather photos. I know Al took tons, and Paige, and probably
half the people there. Let’s put it together, and then form a list
of everyone who could have been in New York, and Lexington, and
Huntsville, and all the other places this guy has been. You have
the answers; we just got to pull them out of your head.”

He appreciated her belief
in him. He wrapped his hands around her waist and pulled her onto
his lap. He kissed her before she had time to protest. She kissed
him back for a moment, shocking him.

Why was it that she’d
protest verbally any hint of a relationship between them, but the
instant
he
touched
her
she was as willing a
participant as he? The woman gave off some seriously conflicting
signals. But maybe it was because when
he
touched her, it
took the decision out of her hands? Made it easier for
her?

That was probably part of
what had him intrigued. He’d yet to figure out the enigma that was
Julia Bellows. He returned her to her chair, conscious of the
little girl laughing with the dogs in the next room. Of his brother
walking around upstairs as he finally woke after a late night
assignment. Conscious of Al’s snickers as she entered the kitchen
from the hallway stairs. He didn’t care if any of them saw him
kissing Julia, because as far as he was concerned they’d be seeing
more of it.

But it would bother Julia,
and he didn’t want her too uncomfortable. Not when she’d been
essentially forced to stay with him.

He told his sister their
theory and she went back upstairs to grab her camera. She returned
just as Mick entered the kitchen, bare-chested and sleepy eyed.
Malachi’s brother grabbed a cup of coffee and grunted at
them.

“
So what are we doing now?”
Al asked as she loaded the camera’s memory card into the laptop
she’d brought downstairs with her.

“
The…” He looked at the
little girl who’d entered the kitchen and climbed onto her mother’s
lap. “
Player
was probably at the party. And he works in a
job where he can be off most weekends; to…uh…do his particular
brand of business. He always increases that business around
Thanksgiving. And he most likely resembles me. Probably closely at
this point. He may have even altered his appearance. He also had to
work around the New York area five years ago. He most likely moved
to St. Louis from there. We all know him, and he’s relatively
close. How else could he know to focus on Julia?”

Julia rocked Ruthie for a
moment, kissing the little girl’s forehead. “Baby, can you go build
Lois and Clark a house out of your blocks? I need to have grown-up
words with Malachi and Aunt Al.”

They waited until Ruthie
had left the room, then Julia looked at Al. “He was at the party,
close enough to see Malachi and I dancing. To hear what it was we
talked about, even. This is one of your family’s friends. And
probably has been for a long, long time. We just have to find
him.”

“
And you think someone must
have taken a photo of him?” Mick asked, his own attention on the
laptop.

“
Yes. I think someone
probably did. And I think he’s probably been at previous
Thanksgiving parties,” Malachi said. “Al, do you have those
pictures?”

“
Somewhere. On disks at my
desk upstairs. It’ll take me a while to find them.”

“
What about the cameras?”
Julia asked, a report in her hands. “I’ve not talked to Cody or
Kelly Reynolds yet. What did they find?”

“
They called when you were
in the shower. Generic nanny-cams, that could be bought anywhere.
And we found one in your bath, bedroom, and dangling from the
ceiling fan cord in the living room. Quick placements that could
have happened at any time.”

“
So no real way to
trace?”

“
No.”

“
What about here?” The look
on Al’s face told Malachi she felt the same revulsion they all felt
knowing just how close the bastard had gotten to Julia. “Did anyone
think to check here?”

Malachi closed his eyes.
No, he hadn’t. Hadn’t even stopped to consider that the UNSUB had
been bold enough to invade
his
space. He’d been arrogant in
thinking that way. But if the UNSUB had been in
his
house
multiple times, why
wouldn’t
the guy have wired the place?
If he liked to watch people, it made sense he’d watch his main
target. “We probably should have.”

Al grabbed her phone. “I’ll
call Cody again. Have her and Kelly sweep this place. If
something’s here, they’ll find it.”

He had to smile, watching
the group of people surrounding Malachi’s table. Al looked
beautiful as always, though her hair was pulled back in a ponytail
and she wore those workout clothes of hers. Probably on her way to
that dancing thing she did with those friends of hers. Paige was
most likely headed there in an hour or so, too.

She had on a similar
outfit. He had spent a few moments this morning watching Paige, as
well.

He might enjoy watching
people, but because that watching rarely included observing their
sexual acts, he didn’t consider himself a true voyeur in need of
professional interference.

No,
sexual
arousal
while watching had only occurred once. And that had been when
watching the smaller woman currently sitting so close to
Malachi.

Julia wore jeans and a
sweatshirt, her own hair pulled back off her face. She looked so
much like a soccer mom he had to smile again.
That
was the
kind of image he wanted for his wife. A woman like Julia would look
wonderful in a political commercial, their children playing around
her knees.