CHAPTER TEN

“Bingo!” Roff said.

Riley was thrilled by his triumphant tone. As his typing continued, she waited impatiently to find out more.

She knew exactly what Roff was up to. He’d been looking for other recent crimes of a similar nature. Possibly—just possibly—Andrew Farrell’s murder was part of an ongoing pattern. And it sure sounded as though Van Roff had found something interesting.

Riley finally interrupted him. “Tell me what you’ve got,” she said.

“There was a knife murder in Birmingham just last Friday—another rich guy, although not as high-profile as Andrew Farrell. This one was Julian Morse, an heir to a family that made its fortune back in Birmingham’s big steel days. He wound up in banking.”

“So he was also stabbed to death?” Riley asked.

“More than to death, just like Farrell. Multiple wounds. Copious blood. The cops there are treating it as a local matter. But it sounds like kind of a coincidence, don’t you think? Two rich dudes getting offed in exactly the same way a hundred fifty miles apart and within just a few days?”

Riley was thoroughly intrigued.

No, it doesn’t sound like a coincidence at all, she thought.

She asked Van Roff to send her the details, thanked him for his help, and ended the call. Then she sat at the table wondering what to do next. Was it time to call her team chief, Brent Meredith, and see if he’d make this an official FBI case?

No, not yet, she thought. She needed to find out more about this second case.

Meredith was a sympathetic ally at the BAU, but he was also rigorous. What little she knew at the moment was still too flimsy to persuade him. All she’d accomplish would be getting herself called back to Quantico for a sharp scolding.

As she sat trying to decide what else to do, her cell phone rang. She saw that the call was from the Quantico switchboard. When she took the call, the operator said …

“Agent Paige, we’ve got a call for you from Officer Jared Ruhl of the Atlanta police. I believe we’ve connected him with you before. Will you take his call this time?”

Riley suppressed a sigh. She remembered looking around the police station a little while ago and wondering whether Officer Ruhl was anywhere nearby. She hadn’t wanted him to know that she was here in Atlanta—and she still didn’t. But she thought she’d better find out why he was calling now.

“I’ll talk to him,” she said to the operator.

A moment later she heard Ruhl’s voice. He didn’t sound the least bit happy.

“Agent Paige, where are you right now?”

“Um … in a fast food place,” Riley said.

“No, I mean what city.”

Riley gulped hard and said, “Atlanta.”

She heard Ruhl let out a snort of dismay.

“That’s what I thought,” he said. “A buddy of mine told me that he’d seen a BAU agent at the station talking to the chief. He said he recognized Riley Paige from pictures in the media. You’re kind of famous among cops, you know. He was wondering what you’re doing here. So am I. Would you mind telling me just what’s going on?”

“It’s nothing that need concern you,” Riley said.

“Like hell. This is about the Farrell murder, isn’t it? It’s about what I told you—that I didn’t think his wife killed him. You told me it wasn’t an FBI case, and anyway you weren’t interested, it was none of your business. I really don’t appreciate getting lied to.”

“I didn’t lie to you, Officer Ruhl,” Riley said.

And of course it was true that she hadn’t lied. Farrell’s murder hadn’t been an FBI case at the time, and it still wasn’t one now.

Ruhl continued, “I called in the tip to you. You ought to have kept me in the loop.”

Riley couldn’t help admiring the chutzpah of this young local cop for chewing out a respected FBI agent. Still, she felt completely unprepared for this.

What can I tell him now? she wondered.

She asked, “Have you talked to anyone else about what you told me? I mean, your idea that Morgan Farrell isn’t the killer?”

She heard him let out a discouraged sigh.

“Yeah, I’ve mentioned it to some of my buddies. They just laugh at me. Everybody thinks it’s an open-and-shut case, and they say I’m an idiot for thinking otherwise.”

Now Riley was starting to understand why Ruhl sounded so angry. Nobody liked being ridiculed by their peers. Still, for his own sake, she didn’t want to get him mixed up in this.

She said, “Officer Ruhl, I’m afraid I’m not at liberty to discuss this matter.”

“I don’t buy that,” Ruhl snapped. “And if you won’t tell me, I know someone who will. I’ll go talk to Chief Stiles. Since you met with him, he must know what’s going on. Whatever it is, I’m going to ask him to put me on the case.”

Riley felt a tingle of alarm.

The last thing she needed right now was for Ruhl to alert Stiles as to what she was really doing. And although Ruhl didn’t seem to know it, it would be bad for him too. Stiles wasn’t going to be pleased with the rookie for having gone behind his back to contact her in the first place.

Maybe a little honesty is in order, Riley thought. She paused to consider her words carefully.

Then she said, “Officer Ruhl, you seem to know quite a bit about me. Like you said, I’m kind of famous in the law enforcement world. What exactly do you know about me?”

Ruhl spoke slowly, “Well … they say you’re brilliant, and you’ve got great intuition, and you can really get into a killer’s head, and …”

“And?”

“And you’ve got your own way of doing things. You like to bend the rules. Sometimes you even break them.”

Riley breathed a little easier.

He seems to be catching on, she thought.

Now she could hear a sort of unspoken “a-ha” in his voice.

“Oh. So right now you’re—”

Riley interrupted, “Officer Ruhl, the less I tell you about any of this, the better for both of us.”

A silence fell.

Riley waited, wondering what she could say to turn the young cop off from this … this situation that wasn’t actually a case.

Finally he said, “Agent Paige, I’m sorry about the way I talked to you before. It was rude and I should have shown more respect. And now I’m just asking you, please …”

He fell silent. Riley knew what he was going to ask, and she didn’t much like it.

He continued, “I’m not working any other cases right now. I can get away for the rest of today at least. I want to work on this with you.”

Riley fought down an impulse to just say no.

But it really didn’t seem fair.

After all, he had called in to alert her to his suspicions. And she was sure that his instincts had been right about Morgan not being the killer.

And so far, the only thanks he’d gotten for it was the ridicule of his colleagues.

She said, “Look, I’m going to be honest with you. This is liable to end badly for me. As I guess you already know, I’m kind of used to dealing with the consequences of being a loose cannon. But I’d hate to get you into trouble. And that’s likely to happen, believe me.”

“That’s OK,” Ruhl said. “Count me in. What do we do next?”

Riley thought for a moment, then said, “I’m driving to Birmingham right now to check out a lead. Where can I pick you up?”

She could hear excitement in Ruhl’s voice.

“Right outside the station. I’ll be there waiting.”

He ended the call without another word.

Riley sat staring at the phone for a moment.

I guess I’ve got a new partner, she thought as she headed out to her car.

But was that going to be a good thing or a bad thing?

She didn’t know. The truth was, she didn’t have any idea what she might be getting herself and Ruhl into.

As she climbed into her car she thought with a sigh …

It’s business as usual, I guess.