Page 81 of Shadows of You

“We need to figure out what the crime scenes tell us about the perpetrator. Can you call that profiler friend of yours?” Nash asked.

Lawson winced. “Ex-profiler. He doesn’t work for the bureau anymore.”

“So?” Nash pushed. “It’s not like he lost all his knowledge when he left. He might be able to provide some insight.”

“I can try, but Anson wanted to leave that life far behind.”

My brows pulled together. “Why?”

Lawson had mentioned how good Anson was at his job on more than one occasion in the past. Had said no one understood the criminal mind better. They used to discuss cases all the time.

Lawson squeezed the back of his neck. “He had a case go bad. Really bad. It marked him.”

Nash winced. “That’s rough.”

Lawson jerked his head in a nod. “I’ll make the call. If he refuses, I won’t push.”

“All you can do is ask,” Nash agreed.

“In the meantime, I’m going to ask Rob to increase the officer presence and see if he can make a request with the Forest Service, too,” I said. Maybe we could catch this prick in the act. But the state and national forests around Cedar Ridge were vast, and it would take a hell of a lot of officers.

Lawson tapped his thumb on the console. “It’s worth a try.”

“Somebody must have seen something,” Nash said. “Kills like these…the person would be covered in blood.”

I grunted. “Not everyone wants to get involved.”

Nash shook his head. “If you saw someone coming down the trail looking like Carrie after the prom, you wouldn’t call the cops?”

“Of course, I would. But not everyone thinks that way. Some people want to avoid contact with the police at all costs,” I pointed out.

Lawson continued his drum beat on the console. “We might need to consider a reward for information.”

Nash groaned. “Everyone and their brother will come out of the woodwork then. The last time we did a reward, I had to listen to a woman talk for almost an hour about how aliens had landed in Cedar Ridge and were body snatching people.”

My lips twitched. “The truth is out there.”

Nash glared at me. “Just keep the damn probes away from my butthole.”

I choked on a laugh.

Lawson just shook his head. “I’ll make sure you have phone duty when the reward goes up.”

“Rude,” Nash shot back.

I glanced at my watch. “Crap. I gotta go.”

“Where?” Nash asked.

“Gotta take Cady to dance and stare down some tiny bitches.”

The SUV went silent around me.

Nash blinked at me a few times. “What did you say?”

“Some girls are being mean to Cady. She’s a good kid and doesn’t deserve to be picked on.”

Lawson groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Please don’t do anything that means I get called to the ballet studio.”

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