Page 42 of Scorched

“You kinda like her, don’t you?”

Paul jerked his thumb toward the door. “Get the hell out of here, will ya?” As soon as Mel closed the door behind her, Paul stared down at his desk.

A neat stack of papers sat in the middle with a note on top from Agent Cain.Assignment complete. Next?

He rose to check Trevor’s desk. The man wasn’t there, the desk was clean and the pencils neatly standing in a coffee mug. What did he expect that every agent in the office should work overtime every night like him?

“He’s been gone most of the day.” Alvarez walked up behind Paul.

“Working the fraud case?” Paul held out his hand to Agent Alvarez.

Alvarez shook his hand and nodded toward Cain’s empty desk. “That’s what I thought, but I called one of the witnesses he was supposed to talk to today and he hadn’t seen him. I called some of the others Cain was supposed to have checked with and they all said the same thing. Did you give him an alternate mission?”

“No.” He’d have to talk with Cain first thing in the morning. Paul sighed. He really needed to spend more time with the man and either mentor or transfer him. Cain obviously had an issue with his new boss and assignments.

The cell phone clipped to his belt buzzed. “Fletcher.”

“We found Mary Alice.” Sheriff Engel’s voice came across the line old and tired.

Paul scrubbed a hand over his face, his chest constricting, making it hard for him to breathe. “Where?”

“Same river, different bridge. And the body’s fresh.” The sheriff called out orders, his voice muffled by a hand over the receiver. “He’s getting sloppy.”

“How’s that?”

“It’s not dark yet and we have a witness who may have seen the vehicle drive away.”

“Yeah? Did they get a make and model?”

“Not a make and model, but he said a dark SUV,either black or navy blue, entered the highway from the access road beside the river bridge around five-thirty this afternoon.”

“Did they get a license plate?”

“No.” The sheriff paused. “Does the FBI have anything they want to share about this case? What about the idea you suggested about this being a copycat of the Dakota Strangler? Anything new in that department?”

“As a matter of fact, I was just about to call you. I need a favor.”

After the sheriff agreed to keep Elise’s identity secret, Paul filled him in on the notes and the writing on the wall.

“Agent Fletcher, you know I’ll have to see it,” Sheriff Engel said.

“I know. I have Agent Bradley on her way out to collect the evidence. I’ll have her let you in.”

“If it helps, I’ll swing by my house, change into plain clothes and then head over to Ms. Johnson’s.”

“Thanks, Sheriff.” Paul agreed to meet with him the following day to compare notes and clues. In the meantime, he had duties as the head of the regional office to complete before he returned to Breuer.

He hung up and called his buddy, Agent Nick Tarver.

“I was about to call you.” Nick didn’t bother with pleasantries. It wasn’t his style.

Paul grinned. “Good to hear from you, too.”

“I didn’t find anything. No John Does, Smiths or Jones checked into any hospitals downstream of theflooding with burn wounds or smoke inhalation during the six weeks following the flood two years ago.”

“What about the hospitals within a 200-mile radius?”

“Checked them. No one fitting his description. No unidentified patients, no one in a coma with burns or smoke inhalation there either.”

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