Текст книги "The Immortals"

Автор книги: J. T. Ellison

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Текущая страница: 17 (всего у книги 23 страниц)

Thirty-Seven

Northern Virginia

June 17, 2004

Charlotte

Charlotte watched Baldwin leave with the Fairfax County folks, then started her own walk through Harold Arlen^Js house. She was deeply unsettled by the whole incident. Arlen really had seemed sincere when he claimed he wasn’t responsible, that the photos on his computer were planted there. He admitted to looking at some porn now and again, but just looking. My God, he couldn’t have done anything, the shots took care of that. Where was the fun in that? He couldn’t explain how photos of the dead girls got on his computer-was in tears by the time they carted him off.

She could hear the storm getting closer, the thunder booming. There was a sense of urgency to everyone’s movements; dragging evidence through the wind and rain was the last thing they wanted. She could hear the muffled shouts of people trying to set up some sort of shelter between the crime-scene vans and the front door. Arlen was being transported-for the time being, she felt like she was practically alone with the man’s thoughts.

She went through his bedroom carefully. He was organized? methodical. Shirts in the closet were arranged according to color, and he only had white and blue long-sleeved button-downs. There were five pairs of chinos plus one empty hanger, three pairs of brown loafers. His bathrobe had been securely hung on the back of the bathroom door. His medicine cabinet had inconsequential items-shaving cream, aspirin, all the same brand, Kirkland, He did his shopping at Costco. The shower was clean, not a surprise. His house bespoke the worst about him-controlled, and controlling. Everything in its place. Another check mark on the profile.

Charlotte trailed through the house, looking at everything. The preternatural organization was evident in every room. Finding physical evidence was going to be tough– he was meticulous. And they needed the physical evidence to tie Arlen to the Clockwork Killer case. Somewhere in this house, there was a knife with a ten-inch blade, and ligatures, and some sort of bat or bar used to break the girls’ legs. The medical examiner had been relatively sure the girls had been lying down when their legs were broken, a rounded instrument used to crack their tibias and fibulas cleanly.

So where would he have done it? A bed? The floor? Some sort of table? Charlotte tried to get into Arlen’s mind. What would she do if she needed to restrain a young girl?

She shut her eyes and let the terror overwhelm her.

She would put her somewhere scary. In the dark. Away from any sort of light. With creepy, crawly things, rats and spiders and the cold, dark, dank air that signaled you were underground.

A memory rose unbidden to the surface. Her father, a tyrant on the best of days, locking her in the wine cellar below their house, punishment for some perceived transgression.

She shuddered at the thought, then went looking for Arlen’s basement.

Thirty-Eight

Nashville

12:30 p.m.

The conference room was set up just the way Taylor liked it-whiteboards overflowing with information, victims’ photographs at the top, so they could fill in any and all information on the victimology. A separate board was kept for information about the killer. Taylor went to that, unfurled the drawing Ariadne had given her and pinned it up.

“Who’s that?” Marcus asked.

“This is the drawing Ariadne did of the kids she followed Halloween night. Her view of the killers. With and without makeup. She didn’t recognize Thorn, but she did pick Susan Norwood out of a six-pack. I want that girl back here. She’s involved in the killings and the drugs.”

“I’ll get on it,” Marcus said, stepping from the room.

Lincoln was tapping away at his laptop. She heard him whistle, low and long, then he got up and stared hard at the drawing. He went back to the laptop, tapped a few times, then said, “Come here and look at this, LT. I’ve got something.”

Taylor joined him, looking over his broad shoulder at the laptop’s digital screen. He was on a video-sharing site.

“Please tell me this isn’t the movie again.” she said.

“Nope. This is from the address that was part of the ghost IP. Another upload from the same place.” He hit Play on the video. A horrendous racket launched from the speakers, clanging, industrial noises overlaid with some sort of melody. A deep screaming emanated, words hardly recognizable. The subtitle read, A Goth Makeup Tutorial, The screen went black for a second, then a girl’s face filled the space. She was pretty, high cheekbones, wide eyes that were very, very green. Taylor knew in an instant they were colored contacts-Baldwin had naturally clear-green eyes that were just as bright, but much more beautiful. The video accelerated, double time, the girl covering her face in pearly makeup, applying blush, penciling in eyebrows, then going to work on her eyes.

The black rings grew and grew, each swipe applied with a steady, practiced hand. She built a foundation around the eye, each stroke making it deeper, wider, layering on coal after coat of mascara until the green stood out like an emerald and the rest of her face disappeared. She moved to her lips, outlining them in black, then filling the pillows in. A small white line was drawn above the cupid’s bow. Then she went back to the eyes again, adding long, draping tendrils of black in perfect swirls down her cheeks.

Finished! The subtitle screamed, then the shot went back to the girl, a quick before-and-after. When she smiled, her teeth were white against their black background; the long fangs in place of her bicuspids made Taylor think about the gaping mouths in Barent Johnson’s bedroom. Then the video was over, the grating noise ended.

“What do you think about that?” Lincoln asked.

Taylor smiled at him, then went to the whiteboard and brought Ariadne’s drawings to him. ‘That’s her, isn’t it?” she asked. Lincoln nodded. “I think it is. It certainly looks like her.”

“Please tell me that video has a name attached.”

“It does. The credits say, ‘starring The High Priestess Fane, as herself.’”

“Fane. Fane. Why does that name sound familiar?” McKenzie said. Taylor went to the conference table and grabbed the file folder from Hillsboro High School, held it up triumphantly. “She’s in here. On the list of Goth kids at Hillsboro.” Taylor flipped it open, scanning through the names until she saw what she was looking for. She read aloud from the folder. “Here we are. Fane Atilio. She’s a sophomore. Hangs out with the Goth crowd, straight-A student, excels in English and history.”

“Does she have a boyfriend?”

“It doesn’t say. The information is sparse on her. It looks like she flies under the radar. She’s never been in trouble, never been disciplined.”

“Is there an address for her?” McKenzie asked. “Yes, there is. Feel like taking a ride? I’m going to bring a few extra patrols, just in case. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”

“You bet.”

Thirty-Nine

I wrote something for you, my love.”

Raven was laying on Fane’s bed, head hanging off the edge, watching her study a book on ancient runes. She looked up, set the book down and crawled across the room to him, tearing her stockings further as she scraped along. When she reached him, she slid her tongue into his mouth, sucked on his upper lip, then sat back.

“You did? What is it? A spell?”

“In a way. For you to have endless beauty, and my love, always. Say it thrice by the full moon, and your deepest desires will come true.”

“Don’t tease. Raven, You are my deepest desire, love. Only you. Let me see it?”

He handed the paper to her. She scooted up alongside him, and he watched her lips move slightly as she read his words,

‘“Ode to Antigone’

Black boils beneath thin pink flesh

Molten emotion devouring rational thought.

Carrion attacks the filial bonds of lust

Which lie exposed, faultless in

Oedipal wantonness, broken by greed,

Damned to an eternal external hell For another’s unknown sins.

The saving grace of a bleeding hand

Reaches through earthly bounds to

Experience the afterlife.

Hades, Creon, Zeus be damned,

Simple Antigone is drawn beyond

Where a silken sash has unforeseen power:

Haemon’s love cannot penetrate

The bridal tomb but for layer

Upon layer of pounded metal thrust

Through a rib as life ebbs onto

The musty gray floor.

Bound forever in the deathly marriage

Of two minds transgressing mortal thought,

Drawn to immortality in legend,

Farther and deeper that bloodless

Purity bound to bloody passion.”

Fane hugged him hard, wiping tears away from her cheeks. “Oh, Raven. It’s beautiful. You wrote that for me?”

“I did. I wanted you to have something special, just for you. Now that Ember and Thorn are.. .gone, I wanted to give you my soul.”

She slid back down to the floor at his feet, caressing the inside of his calf. “I’ll take your soul, and damn them. How dare they run off like this? No, I can’t believe they would betray us, Raven. It must be something else. Ember’s parents might have taken her phone away, and you know Thorn is going to be somewhere close to her.”

He slipped to the floor next to her, put his arm around her thin shoulders. He loved to feel the bones sliding under her skin, so close to the surface he could practically see their edges.

“I do know that, love. I have to believe that they are being kept away against their will. The spell we did last night was so strong, the only thing that could keep them away is if they were being held somewhere. I should go, actually-see if I can find out what’s happening. It’s been entirely too quiet out there.”

“Where will you go?”

“Back to rny house. I can look into the mirror, see if I can find them.” He stood, and she scrambled to her feet.

“I’ll come with you,” she said.

“No. I must do this alone. You know I need all my concentration to scry, and you’re too much of a distraction, my dear. A good distraction, but one nonetheless.”

He kissed her deeply, running his hands along her body. When she put her arms around his neck and drew her to him, he felt that incredible high that no drug could ever bring him close to. She slipped her hand into his pants and brought him to readiness in an instant, running her tongue along the edge of his collarbone as she wormed her way farther and farther down his body.

He stepped out of his pants and guided her mouth to his cock, let the warm ache begin inside his balls as she suckled. When he started getting close, he reached down and brought her to her feet, face-to-face, and took her mouth. He loved to taste himself on her lips. Kissing her, he slid up her skirt. She was wearing his favorite garters and panties, the blackand-silver striped ones. They were crotch less, and she was wet, ready for him. He lifted her off her feet and onto the bed, pushed into her body with a single thrust, his hands beneath her buttocks so he could get as deep as humanly possible. They writhed together, becoming one, building to a climax quickly. No spells, no potions, just their love, ex-plod ing between them.

He came back to himself, realized he must be crushing Fane, though she didn’t complain. He sat up, stroking the length of her, then smiled.

“I’ll be back in an hour,” he said.

Forty

Northern Virginia

June 17, 2004

Baldwin

Baldwin watched Harold Arlen through the two-way glass. Goldman was going at him hard. Arlen just sat shaking his head, repeating over and over, “It’s not me. I didn’t do this.”

Baldwin watched the nonverbal cues, looking for the lie. Looking for the trail Arlen had left for himself, the winding, narrow path back to reality. Back to the broken body of another little girl.

The cues were all there. It wasn’t the obvious things he usually saw when interviewing child killers: the leering face during the interviews, the preening, the giggles. The dead eyes that got lively only when the crime-scene photos appeared under his nose. No, Arlen was much more subtle than that. It was all but invisible, masterfully contained below the surface.

Arlen talked in rapid-fire denials, getting angrier and angrier the longer he was kept in the interrogation room. Baldwin was utterly shocked that he hadn’t asked for a lawyer. There was something wrong with that.

They still had a young girl missing. There were no signs of her whereabouts found at Aden’s house, no clues where she might be. If he’d stuck to the pattern, she was already dead, though they hadn’t told the parents that. Baldwin thought it was cruel to let them have hope when the whole team knew there was none, but that wasn’t his call, This wasn’t his investigation-he and his team were simply support.

In the meantime, Sparrow was scouring property rolls and tax records, looking for anything that could be tied to Arlen or anyone close to him. So far, she’d come up with nothing. Butler was in the same boat-he hadn’t found any matching cases within a three-hundred-mile radius. Geroux was still working the other potential suspects, but they were all checking out. Arlen was their last real hope of ending this.

Baldwin was trained to get into the mind of a killer, to anticipate based on the previous kills. Arlen was so squeaky clean that another thought started to form.

Could there be two of them?

A motion caught Baldwin’s eye, chasing the vision of a team away. He watched Aden’s hands. He was stroking his index finger with his thumb, over and over. Baldwin leaned closer to the speaker to hear better. Goldman was asking about Kay lie Fields. Aden’s body was completely still except for that repetitive caress. It was almost as if he was fondling.. .Baldwin realized Arlen was mentally masturbating, using the descriptions of the missing girl as fodder for his disgusting imagination. Since he wasn’t physically capable of having sexual reactions, he was using the hand gestures as a surrogate.

“We have exactly nothing, sir.” The voice made Baldwin jump.

He gave Butler a sheepish grin. “You startled me.”

“Sorry, boss. I’ll give you more warning next time.”

Butler was small, only about five foot seven, lithe and wiry. He had a very slight British accent, a leftover vestige of two years in England when he was a child. He didn’t have the usual look for the Bureau-sandy-blond hair a little long, covering a piercing in the upper left flange of his ear, jeans instead of a suit. Baldwin didn’t care what he looked like-the man was a genius with forensics.

“You were saying?”

“The Fairfax County crime-scene techs got nothing. Not a single hair, a minuscule fiber, a shred of mitochondria. Nothing. His house was completely clean. There is no evidence at all to support the theory that any of the girls were kept there. And now the power is out in his neighborhood, so they had to wrap it up. The storm is really bad. Over an inch of rain so far.”

Yes, he’d heard the wind whipping trees against the bricks, saw the torrential downpours. All he could think about was Kaylie, alone in the vicious rain. Baldwin turned back to the window. He’d missed the last exchange. Gold-man was flushed with anger, Arlen grinning slightly. Oh, no. What had just happened?

Goldman came bustling out the interrogation room door.

“Fucking squirrel lawyered up.”

“Now?” Baldwin asked. “It’s been hours. Why now? What did you ask him last?”

“I asked about Evie Kilmeade. He shut down like a freight train ran him over. Smiled that creepy-ass smile and said ‘lawyer.’”

Baldwin looked back through the glass. Arlen had resumed his finger sex, eyes closed, a small smile on his lips. Why now? After hours of being interviewed, after all the games, the denials, why did the name Evie Kilmeade make him put the lid down?

Because he was playing them. And he was doing a damn good job of it.

Forty-One

Nashville

2:30 p.m.

Taylor and McKenzie rolled up to Fane Atilio’s address. Bob Parks was behind them, and another patrol car was on its way. Taylor didn’t anticipate trouble from a fifteen-yearold girl, but if her boyfriend was around… She had to wonder, who was she relying on now? Ariadne’s impression of a couple of teenagers at a rave? Or her own gut, which told her there was more to come?

So far all the kids she’d talked to in this case fell along the clique lines-the good kids, the athletes and high achievers-were pleasant, easy to deal with, cooperative. Probably lying through their teeth to save their own asses, but at least they were respectful about it. The bad seeds were living up to their reputation as well-Juri and Susan were nasty, ill-tempered children.

The exception to all of them was Theo Ho well. The clean-cut kid, holding his friends’ drugs to keep them safe. He was due into their offices at noon today. McKenzie told her Theo’s parents were back in the country, would be accompanying their son. She wondered what he was hiding. Self-preservation taken into account, he’d been a little too forthcoming. Was he truly the good kid as he depicted himself, or was there a dark side, a silent specter of the truth waiting to come out?

She pushed it all away. The Atilio house looked deserted. A two-story, it was tan brick with powder-blue shutters, a terrible combination. Taylor stepped out of the car, stared up at the windows. Was this it, then? Would this girl be the key?

She went up the five stairs that led to the front door. She rang the bell, then stepped to the side. At her signal McKenzie and Parks took up positions to her right and left.

She could hear footsteps. She touched her Glock briefly, unlatching the snap so she could unsheathe it from its holster quickly if needed. The door swung open. A sultry voice rang out.

“Silly, why didn’t you use your key?”

Taylor stepped into line of sight to the door. A young girl stood there, mussed, hair askew, half-dressed in a bustier and skirt. Long black hair. Green eyes. Their girl.

“Who are you?” she asked with such a note of horror Taylor nearly laughed out loud. She bit her lip and said, “Fane Atilio?”

The girl straightened-she was eye to eye with Taylor.

“Who’s asking?”

“Lieutenant Jackson, Metro Homicide. I -“

She didn’t get to finish. The girl started to slam the door, face full of panic.

Taylor got the toe of her boot into the crack just in time, but paid the price. She’d have a bruise for a month on the arch of her foot after that.

“Ouch!” she shouted, shouldering the door open. “Stop right there, Fane.”

Not surprisingly, the girl didn’t listen. She bolted up the stairs, her long legs moving gracefully. Taylor took off after her, heard a door slam.

She made it to the top of the stairs just in time to see the wood still quivering. She tried the knob, it was locked.

“Come out of your room, Fane. Right now. Unlock this door,” Taylor yelled. There was no sound from within. Parks and McKenzie had caught up to her now. Parks whispered, “We’re clear.” Taylor nodded, then said, “Fane, Fll force it if you don’t open the door. You have three seconds. Three, two, one.’”

Nothing. Taylor stepped back, kicked the door open. It swung back and smashed into the wall, rebounding nearly closed again. Taylor pushed it open with her left hand, Glock pointing into the room.

Fane Atilio was trying to go out the window, one leg over the sill and an arm in a tree outside, calculating the drop. Taylor holstered her weapon, crossed the room in three strides and grabbed the girl by the wrist.

“Stop that. Get back in here right now.” She half dragged the girl away from the window. Though thin, she was still heavy. She collapsed onto the floor and refused to look up, a low, keening moan escaping her lips. Taylor nudged her with the toe of her boot.

“Get some clothes on. We need to talk.”

“I have nothing to say to you,” Fane said. She looked up at Taylor, eyes haughty behind their makeup.

“Oh, really? Well, just you wait and see, little girl. Because I think you have more to tell me than you can possibly imagine.”

Forty-Two

Taylor took the struggling girl to the Criminal Justice Center, read her Miranda warning, snapped a Polaroid of her and threw her into an interrogation room. Ariadne had identified Fane instantaneously when the six-pack was put together.

Taylor tried to look at the bright side of things. They had a positive ID on two women, a drug dealer with a chunk out of his leg and a missing teenage boy, possibly the mastermind behind the whole shebang. The Specialized Investigative Unit had confirmed that Barent Johnson was making methamphetamine and Ecstasy, so they had their drugs covered. How they all fit together-that was something she was still working on.

Ariadne insisted that Juri Edvin was not the boy she’d seen at Subversion. Her drawing of Fane Atil io was right on the money, both with and without the makeup. So maybe she was right about this mysterious fourth.

Regardless, Fane Atilio was not cooperating. It was getting close to dusk, the day bleeding away. Taylor was hungry and getting frustrated.

She took a deep breath, tried again.

“Fane. Where are your parents?”

Nothing.

“Fane, where were you on Halloween?”

Blank, soulless stares that never met Taylor’s eyes. Nothing.

“Fane, your boyfriend. What’s his name?”

They continued in this vein for a good thirty minutes before Taylor finally got huffy, stood and left the room.

McKenzie was in the video-feed room, watching.

“Stubborn brat,” Taylor said.

“She is at that. But a true believer. Want me to have a go at her?”

“Sure, Why not. I’m getting nothing. She’s giving me the creeps, really. How do these girls get so much attitude?”

“You didn’t have attitude when you were fifteen?”

“All in a good way-not like this,” she said, but blushed. He was right, she’d been just as sullen and noncooperative when she’d gotten picked up for underage drinking when she was thirteen. She wasn’t the one doing the drinking at the time, it was the friends she was with. The patrol officer who arrested her friends believed her. That cop had been Fitz, and he’d let her off with a warning. He’d treated her with respect, actually listened to her when she said she wasn’t involved. She’d been struck by the fairness of his actions, and it had started her thinking. The next thing she knew, she was obsessed with becoming a cop, with being fair and just. She’d not seen such actions before, and she liked it.

“You okay?” he asked.

She dragged herself back to the present, forcing the vision of Fitz’s eye sitting on a table in North Carolina out of her head.

“Yeah, fine.”

He looked at her sideways, but she busied herself with her ponytail until he said, “Lincoln got a warrant for Fane’s phone and laptop. He’s getting ready to delve into that. Ariadne ID’d her, right? That should be solid enough to start.”

“Yes. Though I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to going to the A.D.A. with this testimony.”

“LT, she’s credible, no matter what her beliefs. You won’t have any trouble there. I just saw Theo Howell and a couple who I assume are his parents. They’re waiting on you.”

“I’ll stick here for a few minutes, if that’s okay. I’d like to see you work your magic.” He smiled at her. “Your foot okay?”

“It’s a bit sore, I’ll live.”

“Good. Here goes nothing.” He went into the interrogation room.

When McKenzie walked into the room, Fane Atilio sat straight up in her chair, eyes wide. Taylor watched the tiniest bit of a smile curve her lips upward, and then she got it. Fane glanced at the door, saw no one else was coming through it and promptly began to cry. She looked like a wounded kitten, eyes moist and round, the long black lashes filling with salty dew. She cried prettily, demure and low, with glances up now and again to judge the effect.

Taylor turned the volume up on the tape. She’d seen women like this before. The ones who played men, who acted completely vulnerable just to get the attention. Taylor had watched many a strong man fall all over himself to help a girl like this, a true damsel in distress. A girl who needed.

Taylor wasn’t like that. She’d always been a hoist yourself by your bootstraps, put on your big girl pants and deal with life kind of person. She detested the very idea of a man rushing to her rescue. Hell, that’s what caused half the friction between her and Baldwin in the first place-his desire to protect her and her stubborn refusal to allow it.

But as she watched, she quickly realized that Fane was her complete opposite. Fifteen and already well-versed in the art of fragile seduction. She was peeking out from under her lashes to gauge the effect her crying had on McKenzie. My God, the girl was just like Taylor’s mother, Kitty. She was Kitty, to a T.

McKenzie, bless his soul, wasn’t falling for it for a second, but was using it to his advantage. Fane was being played by a player, and didn’t even know it.

“She’s quite a piece of work.” Taylor turned. Joan Huston stood at her elbow, gazing speculatively into the video monitor.

Taylor gave her a wry nod. “Yes, she is. But at least she’s starting to talk. I was in there for half an hour and she didn’t do anything more than grunt.”

“This is your suspect?” Huston asked.

“One of them. We can’t find her parents, and she’s not cooperating anyway, so we’re going to have to sit on her for a while until we clear it up. We’re missing one more, but I’m pretty sure they are all in league together. Our eyewitness drew a likeness of this girl and Susan Norwood, and they matched exactly.”

“What’s her agenda?”

“That’s a good question. I’m looking for it. She talks a good game, but who knows? We’ve tracked the drugs back to the dealer. I’m waiting to hear if the lab results from this morning’s bust match what we took from the Ho well boy last night. If it does, we have Keith Barent Johnson and Juri Edvin dead to rights for murder one, for Brittany Carson. What I’m trying to figure out is where these girls fit into the picture-Fane Atilio and Susan Norwood-and how the other seven victims are tied in.”

“The Norwood girl’s brother was a victim, correct?”

“Yes, ma’am. He was found with his girlfriend, Amanda Vanderwood. When I spoke to the parents at the crime scene, they said their daughter was at home with her nanny. They didn’t seem to know that she was out of the house. And Xander’s best friend is Theo Howell. He was the last person to talk to Xander. We’ve got a lot of loose ends, I’m afraid.”

“Speaking of the Norwoods, they’re here now, making quite a fuss. I’d suggest you go have a conversation with them, get them calmed down,”

“I’ll go in just a minute. I want McKenzie with me. He’s got insight into these kids. His impressions have been invaluable.”

“He’s a good detective, isn’t he?”

“Yes, he is.”

Huston flashed her a horsey grin. “Tell me, Lieutenant. Is it true that you have a soothsayer on board this case?”

Taylor turned away from the video feed. ‘A soothsayer? I don’t know about that. Her name is Ariadne, and she showed up yesterday and fingered these kids for the crime. I’m not sure how much I believe her, but she does claim to be a witch.”

“Hmra” Huston said. “Maybe I should go ask her to read my fortune.”

Taylor realized she was teasing, smiled back. “We’re close, ma’am. Very close.”

“Good. Keep me informed. Good work, Lieutenant.”

She strode off and Taylor looked back into the room. She turned the volume back up. McKenzie’s face was twisted in alarm-she had missed something. Fane was talking again.

Taylor felt her blood chill when she heard the girl’s words.

“You know nothing. He’s going to kill them. He’s going to kill them all.”

Forty-Three Quantico

June 17, 2004

Charlotte

Charlotte was fascinated by death. She felt at home, comfortable, at ease when staring into the abyss. Her job gave her the best of all possible worlds, an overwhelming supply of killings to analyze, hypotheses to form, and perpetrators to trace down. She knew empirically that they were monsters, but she was mesmerized by their actions, the sense of purpose that drove them to satiate their desires by exterminating their prey. Predators were her specialty. Knowing inside of them, their dirty little secrets, the twisted, rotted parts that made them tick-that’s what she was good at.

She hadn’t told Baldwin about the basement yet. Aden’s basement. The crime-scene techs had gone over it and found nothing. It was empty, with no real indication of use outside of a lack of spider webs and dust, not surprising considering how organized and clean the rest of the house had been. But she’d felt something down there in the cold, dank dark. Something evil and wrong. Something she hadn’t told Baldwin about, because it wasn’t visible to the naked eye. And she knew bringing her theory to Baldwin, trying to explain her thought process, would lead to an exploration of her own past that she wasn’t ready to divulge, not just yet.

She had the Clockwork Killer file open on her lap, a glass of Scotch with just a splash of water sitting next to her elbow. Baldwin’s couch was extremely comfortable. Heightening this feeling was the fact that Baldwin himself was at the other end, staring into space.

She wondered what he was thinking about. The case, sure, of course, but was there something else in his face? A sense of tenderness, perhaps? Could he possibly be thinking of her?

They’d been distracting each other terribly. Sparrow knew; Charlotte could tell in the way the woman shrank back when Charlotte tried to stroke her arm. She was surprised to learn Sparrow wasn’t inclined to share. That was fine. She had more going on here with Baldwin anyway. A future, A life.

Baldwin took a deep breath and turned to her. “Charlotte, we need to talk,”

“That sounds ominous,” she said lightly. She didn’t want to scare him off, not now. Not when things were going so well. She had everything planned to perfection-she didn’t need him growing a conscience and ruining it all.

“Not ominous. Just…necessary. This affair needs to stop.”

Charlotte closed the file in her lap and sat very still.

“I thought we were having fun,” she said.

“I know. We are. But Charlotte, I’m your boss. I’m responsible for you, for the team. I can’t be sleeping with you. It’s not right.”

“I could transfer.”

She felt him tense. “You’d do that? You worked so hard to get into the BAU, You’d be willing to leave for me?”