SUNDAY. AEGIS GROUP Safe House, Seattle, Washington.

Jay turned down another road. He stared at people walking on the sidewalks, darkened windows, anything that might give him a clue about where his girls were.

This could not be happening.

It just couldn’t!

He’d planned it all perfectly, from beginning to end. I’d practiced each take down site. None of the girls had ever noticed him before.

It should have worked.

What had he missed?

This was supposed to be about achieving an all new high, something better than that first rush of power.

Maybe he needed to start at their house again. Perhaps they’d gone back there?

He’d carefully driven every road around their house for blocks and miles and more without seeing any hint of where they’d gone.

What the fuck was he going to do?

The phone rang.

He briefly closed his eyes.

Only one person called him and she had no regard for what time it was.

He could let it go, say he was sleeping. But what if she was confused? What then?

Guilt pushed him to hitting the answer button.

“Hi, Mom” he said.

“Jay? Jay, where are you?”

“I’m out of town, remember?”

“You are?”

“Yeah.”

“Where are you?”

“I’m in,” he scrambled to think of what he’d told her before, “Lubbock.”

“Lubbock? Dear God, why?”

“Work, Mom.” It was an indicator of how much stress he was under that he couldn’t recall his cover story at a moment’s notice.

“That place is dreadful. You should come home as soon as you can.”

“I’m working on it, Mom.” He tightened his grip on the steering wheel. He couldn’t go back to the two-bedroom apartment they shared until he’d had his fix. Without the fix, he couldn’t put up with her. He just couldn’t smile and take her nagging, the passive aggressiveness or the way she controlled everything in his life.

“Jay, you didn’t take your slippers,” she said.

“I have a pair in my suitcase, Mom,” he said. It was a lie. He didn’t want to wear the damn slippers, but she insisted on it. It was another of her million little rules he had to follow.

“Are you wearing sunscreen? Make sure to stay indoors. That Texas son is brutal and you have such fair skin.”

“I’m fine, mother.”

“There’s no reason to be short with me.”

“There’s no reason to treat me like a child. You’re the one that should be in bed.”

She gasped. “Don’t tell me what to do.”

The phone clanged in the cradle before she hung up the line.

Jay muttered under his breath and tossed the phone into the seat beside him.

She was his mother. It was a fact he couldn’t escape.

When he’d been younger, he’d thought he could get away from her. That once he was an adult, he’d be free. For a few years he’d had what he wanted, even with mother’s hovering. But then she’d taken the fall and since then she was wholly dependent on him. This, these trips, the plans, they were all he had. He needed this.

SUNDAY. AEGIS GROUP Safe House, Seattle, Washington.

Kyle took that first, deep breath between sleeping and consciousness. He knew he didn’t want to wake up yet, but something was demanding his attention.

The smell of something unfamiliar tickled his nose.

His mind switched on. Unfamiliar things like smells or sounds had to be investigated. In the field they could be precursors of danger.

Except the danger pressed up against his back wasn’t the kind he wanted to get away from.

Bethany’s arm curled around his waist. He could feel her breath against his shoulder.

He still wasn’t sure he could promise her he wasn’t at least in part like his father, but for the first time in a long time he wanted someone else in his life. Maybe they’d fizzle out after things with this job died down, or maybe they’d make it a few months. It wasn’t like he was asking forever and she specifically said she didn’t want a commitment right now.

Being left in limbo wasn’t his preference, but it was perhaps what was best for both of them.

“Kyle?” Shane called out, his footsteps coming closer until he was outside the door.

Kyle glanced at the clock. It was past eight, which was when he should have joined Shane.

“Kyle, you need to come out here, now.” He pounded on the bedroom door.

Shit.

What now?

“Hm?” Bethany’s arm around him tightened.

“Be there in a minute.” Kyle squeezed Bethany’s hand once and sat up.

He twisted to look at her blinking up at him. Lines marred her face from the rumpled sheets and her hair was a wild tangle of curls on the pillows.

“What’s going on?” She propped her chin up on her hand.

“I don’t know, but don’t worry about it, okay?” Kyle strode over to his bag and grabbed his clothes from yesterday. He needed a shower before he put anything else on, and with this many people in the house they had to be judicious about doing laundry.

By the time he’d dressed Bethany was sitting up in bed. She still looked exhausted.

“Go back to sleep.” He paused next to the bed and bent down, kissing her forehead.

Kyle let himself out of the bedroom.

Shane waited in the hall, his face grim.

“What?” Kyle kept his voice low.

“Come and see.” Shane nodded at the living room.

Kyle followed him through the main part of the house to the front door. Isaac stood in the office on one side of the window peering out.

Fuck.

What the hell happened?

“They showed up ten minutes ago,” Isaac said.

Kyle didn’t dare open the front door, but he did peer out through the peep hole. Three news vans sat at the curb with at least a dozen people, cameras and the works sitting on the sidewalk.

“How’d they get in?” Kyle ticked off the two biggest news channels in the area plus one cable network.

“I called the head of the HOA and complained, but she was barely awake,” Isaac replied.

“Where’s Felix?” Kyle glanced over his shoulder.

“He’s making a round of the back yard. Lock was gone off the side gate.”

“They cut the lock?” Kyle didn’t like the sound of that. They were already dug in to protect their charges. The last thing their team needed to be distracted by was the news hungry journalists. “Has anyone called Zain yet?”

“No, we were taking stock of the situation,” Shane said.

“Has anyone come to the door yet?” Kyle asked.

“Not yet.”

“Okay, they’re going to and until we talk to Zain, we aren’t opening this door.” Kyle straightened and patted his pocket for his phone, but it wasn’t there. “We need Megan here if she’s available.”

He turned toward the desk and picked up the phone. He wasn’t surprised by the appearance of journalists, but he’d hoped for more time. Today was supposed to be about putting puzzle pieces together and diving into the case with the FBI to try to shed new light on this decades old case. Instead they might very well be forced out of this safe haven.

“Ian’s just told me,” Zain said by way of a greeting.

“Do we know how they got in? Why they’re here?”

“Roger. I was checking when you called. You don’t want to know how I know.” Zain’s tone invited no questions.

“Understood.” Kyle could read between the lines.

Last year there was considerable shake up in the Seattle Police Department due to corruption that spread pretty far. Roger would have worked in the building with the same dirty cops and given the way he’d treated this case thus far they couldn’t leave anything to chance.

“As for how they got in, Ian watched them circle the subdivision then when someone left they drove in. He was trying to get a hold of the HOA security but there was no answer.”

“Shit. Okay. Is Megan in town, or is Lepta Team on assignment?”

“They just got back, but I can see if she’d be available. Good idea.”

“No one wants to see me or you in front of a camera.”

“Isn’t that right?” Zain sighed. “Okay, I’m making a coffee run for Andrea, then I’ll head your way. Need anything else?”

“He’s doing this to use them as bait, isn’t he?” Kyle grit his teeth.

“Probably, yeah. Look, the Hunts have been on me about a reunion with Megan. My guess is once your location gets blasted they’re going to show up. We’ll need to manage the situation and prepare the assets.”

“I’ll handle it.” Kyle wouldn’t enjoy it. They’d promised the women safety and couldn’t deliver on it.

“See you soon.” Zain hung up.

“What is going on out there?” Faith flanked by Bethany strode through the living room. Both women were in pajama pants and t-shirts. “There are news crews.”

“Yeah, they just got here.” Kyle grimaced. “Look, we knew this might happen given the Hunt’s high profile. Right now we’re going to carry on with our day.”

“But—they’re out there.” Faith glanced at the door.

“And they can stay out there. They can’t make us open the door and talk to them. This is also a private community. We’ve notified the HOA security and president and made our request to remove them. Hopefully they’ll be gone soon and we can make a plan for what happens next.”

“And that is?” Bethany asked.

“If we have to, we’ll move to another location. It’s not ideal, but if we have to we can. We’ve got this under control. I promise.” Kyle hoped those words didn’t come back to bite him in the ass.

“Okay.” Bethany blew out a breath.

“What happens next then?” Faith asked.

“Well, breakfast for one. Then when Zain gets here, we’ll call the FBI and talk to them.” Kyle could have done with coffee before all this. Hell, he could have done with a heads up. He’d gotten caught with his pants down and this scrambling would not help the team or the confidence of Bethany and the other women.

“I want to hear what the FBI has to say,” Bethany said.

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea.” It was a terrible idea.

“I want to know what’s going on.”

“Me, too,” Faith chimed in.

Shit.

Bethany stared back at him.

He knew that look. It was the same one she’d give dad when he got belligerent.

Shane turned to stand in the doorway. “Look, ladies—”

“Fine,” Kyle said over Shane. “But you do not get to talk or ask questions. Their time is valuable and they’re doing us a huge favor, understand?”

“Sure. Okay.” Bethany nodded.

“We’ll go get Megan.” Faith grabbed Bethany by the elbow and dragged her down the hall.

No one spoke until the master bedroom door thunked shut.

“What the hell?” Isaac wheeled around to look at Kyle.

“That was a fight we weren’t going to win,” he said.

“She does what you say.” Isaac threw his hands up. “You could have told her no. You know this is a bad idea.”

“I watched that woman manage my father for over a year, so I think I know when she’s dug in her heels and isn’t going to back down.” Kyle had admired the way Bethany managed Dad. It was a skill he’d never develop. He didn’t have the detachment she did.

“Is that really the reason?” Isaac crossed his arms over his chest.

Kyle glanced at Felix, who found something awfully interesting to look at on the floor, then at Shane who merely shrugged. They all knew he and Bethany had something. Over the last two years he’d watched each and every one of these guys get involved too deep with an asset and loose objectivity.

“Isaac, when you went to bat for Tanya in London and were the only one of us who thought she was innocent, did I order you to change your mind?” Kyle asked.

“No. No, you didn’t. Because I was right.” Isaac’s lips compressed into a tight line. That was a chapter he liked to ignore happened because of what it had done to Tanya.

“Felix, when you argued that we should risk Jackie’s life to save the rest of her people—”

“You supported the idea. You pulled together the people to make it happen. Without you...” Felix shrugged.

“Shane.” Kyle turned his head.

“I don’t want to hear it.” Shane shook his head. He didn’t like to be reminded he’d flipped that van in Atlanta.

“What’s your point?” Isaac asked.

“My point is I’ve caved to your knowledge of an asset. I’ve trusted your gut instincts because I know you. It would be nice if you’d extend me that same courtesy, because we’re wasting time hashing this out.” Besides, he’d known Bethany a hell of a lot longer than these guys had known their lady loves when they went off script for them.

“Understood,” Isaac said. He still didn’t seem thrilled about it, but that wasn’t Kyle’s concern.

“Let’s get some breakfast on the table and I’ll reach out to the BAU team to see if they can still talk to us.” Kyle patted his pockets. “My phone...”

Still in the bedroom.

“I’ll get breakfast,” Felix said.

“I’m on cameras.” Isaac walked past Kyle into the office.

“Whatever your problem is, fix it.” Kyle didn’t have time to field Isaac’s bad mood.

He strode across the house and down the hall to the bedroom where he’d slept last night. Sure enough, his phone was still on the night stand. He grabbed it and turned.

Bethany stood in the doorway wearing jeans and a t-shirt, her hair up in a messy bun as opposed to the neat, perfect one that had mystified him since day one.

“Is everything...okay?” she asked.

“All under control.” For now.

“That one guy—”

“Isaac.” Kyle made himself smile. “He’s in a bit of a bad mood. Ignore him.”

“Okay.”

In truth, Kyle valued Isaac’s vocal dissent. The other three were not as likely to disagree as openly or loudly as Isaac. There’d been plenty of times over the last year during Dad’s decline that Kyle had leaned on their support and judgment rather than his own.

“Everything okay with you?” he asked, echoing her question.

“Yeah. Just worried, is all.”

“We’ve got this under control.”

“Bethany?” Faith called out.

“Go,” Kyle said.

Bethany turned and hurried to the last room on the hall.

Kyle fired off a text to Supervisory Special Agent Ryan Brooks. With any luck his team had something for them to go off. Kyle wasn’t certain Roger would accept any outside help, which worried him. The detective wasn’t putting the right people first.

Kyle glanced at the door.

Was that what Isaac was concerned about? Did he think Kyle wasn’t prioritizing the right people because of his relationship with Bethany?

His phone vibrated with an incoming call from a number Kyle didn’t recognize, but it was a 757 area code.

Langley, Virginia.

“Hello?” Kyle pressed the phone to his ear.

“Kyle, this is SSA Perez and Mullins,” a man with a lilting accent said.

“Morning. Thanks for getting to us so quick,” Kyle said.

“The others had to handle another case, but Jade and I have prepared a profile of your man.”

“I also went through and organized some of the data into a timeline that shows his evolution points,” Jade’s familiar voice said.

“I am going into the living room with the rest of the team now. Putting you on speaker phone if that’s okay?” Kyle strode down the hall into the main room of the house.

Everyone was clustered in the kitchen or at the table.

Kyle grabbed a ceramic bowl off the bar and placed it in the middle of the dining table. He then flipped his phone to speaker and put it in the bowl. The acoustics wouldn’t be great, but it would amplify the volume enough for everyone to hear.

“Okay, go ahead. We’re all here.” Kyle slid into a seat next to Bethany and across from the other two. He reached over and grabbed Bethany’s hand under the table.

“Let’s start with what we know,” Mullins said. “Based on the victimology, where these attacks happened, we would have guessed this was the work of a white male which video has backed up. He’s smaller in stature, which accounts for why he had to keep his victims restrained. It also makes sense why he’d lay in wait for his targets to surprise them. A guy this small, if a woman had any kind of warning he was there, she could fight back and get away. He’s well organized. He plans.”

“He could also have been mistaken or charged with stalking, considering his amount of preparation,” Jade chimed in.

“We have a couple different theories about him that we cannot prove, so this next bit is speculation,” Mullins cautioned.

“The cycle, every one or two years, but no more than three, it could be based on some sort of traveling system. He may only visit the Seattle area to kill,” Jade said.

“Or, he could be local and it takes him that long to select victims and his dump sites. The sites are important to him.”

“We’ll touch on that later. Let’s talk about the victims.”

Kyle glanced at Faith then Megan. Their grim, pale faces were braced for bad news.

“The ladies are with us,” Kyle said before Jade went any farther.

“Oh... This might be a bit much for them to hear,” Mullins said. Unlike Jade’s matter-of-fact tone, his had warmth to it.

“We’re good,” Bethany said, her voice steady.

The other two nodded.

“Okay.” Jade cleared her throat. “Looking at the victims it’s hard to see any connection besides age—late twenties, a few early thirties—and that most of them were on their own without family.  He hasn’t stuck with one ethnicity, height or look. I’m not sure body type matters to his need to kill as much as it does his ability to manage the victim. The tip Megan gave us about the masks may be the clue that pieces these together. Previous autopsy reported a synthetic fiber, like from a wig, in some of the victim’s hair.”

“The wigs—they had hair.” Megan leaned forward. “It was a sort of strawberry blonde.”

“Which matches with what has been found on other bodies,” Mullins said.

“It would also account for the small amount of trace DNA some of the women shared. If he uses these same masks on each victim there is transfer from one to the other. It would also explain why there was next to no DNA on the bodies. The masks would keep that transfer from happening,” Jade said.

“I don’t understand,” Faith whispered.

“She means when I wore the mask and he hit me, some of the girl before me’s blood got on me,” Megan said.

“Oh, my God.” Faith pushed to her feet. “I can’t. I just can’t. I’m sorry.”

“Hey, here. Come over this way.” Felix guided Faith into the kitchen and thrust a cup of coffee into her hands.

“I’m sorry, this is going to be disturbing,” Mullins said.

“Keep going.” Kyle squeezed Bethany’s hand.

So much for not talking.

“The masks could play into his chosen dump sites,” Jade said.

“We’re thinking someone in his life was a performer. A singer, dancer, actress. It could account for the three kinds of locations he looks for. This is a guess on our part based on Megan’s account,” Mullins said.

“My guess is a female family member. A mother figure since Megan said he spoke to her as mom,” Jade said.

“Why? I don’t understand that connection.” Kyle couldn’t see how that fit into the puzzle.

“Again, this is disturbing,” Mullins cautioned.

“Because the only victim who’d had sex recently enough to still have DNA was the first one. Usually with men like this, they have a preferred way of showing their dominance to their victim. Now, typically with someone like this we see these attacks as a way of asserting sexual power. But none of this unsubs victims show evidence of rape. That leads us to the next option, which is that the original focus of his rage is someone he would not want to have sex with. A family member. Someone how exerted control over his life and possibly abused him. All the victims have defensive wounds on their forearms. It could be that part of the ritual is freeing their hands.”

“Hurting people hurt people,” Bethany whispered.

“The one thing we don’t know, and that your team might help us figure out, is what connects the victims?” Mullins asked. “If we can figure that out, we may be able to identify his trigger, what happened to set this all off.”

“I’ve made lists of keywords family and friends used to describe earlier victims. The ones from the last ten to fifteen years have digital footprints we can review,” Jade said.

“It’s also worth considering that the personal connection to Megan makes this instance different,” Mullins said.

“You mean how her father helped cover up the killer?” Kyle studied Megan’s face, looking for alarm.

“Yes,” Mullins replied. “There are a few statements he and the Chief of Police made over the years that the killer hadn’t resurfaced. That could have focused him on Megan now that she’s the right age.”

“It could also be a coincidence, but I find that highly unlikely,” Jade said.

“You said before the others, they weren’t close to their families?” Megan asked.

“Correct. One of the first theories floated back in the nineties was that the killer was attending group therapy sessions at community centers and churches to find his victims, but nothing ever came of that.”

Bethany and Megan shared a look, one of those that defied understanding and yet they knew exactly what the other was thinking.

“The three of us met on a Facebook group about cutting off ties with family,” Megan said.

“They did one of those, where does everyone live? posts and we all responded Seattle,” Bethany said. “But...that was—what? Two, three years ago?”

“He has clearly been watching you three for some time,” Mullins said.

“That’s all we can tell you without more to go off. I’m sorry it’s not more,” Jade said.

“It’s great. It’s more than we had.” Kyle squeezed Bethany’s hand again.

“We’ll send a copy of everything to Detective Blew. Hopefully it gives you some leads?” Mullins said.

They said their goodbyes and ended the call.

Kyle wasn’t sure what he’d hoped they would learn from all this. There wasn’t a magic key that unlocked the mystery. They had just as many questions as before if not more. And still no way to figure out how to keep Bethany and the others safe.