01 A Cold Dark Place by Toni Anderson

Author:Toni Anderson [Toni Anderson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Cold Justice
Publisher: Toni Anderson
Published: 2014-03-31T22:00:00+00:00

***

Mallory sat at the conference table surrounded by the same colleagues she’d met not so long ago. The only difference was they now eyed her like a witness rather than a fellow agent, and looked a damn sight happier about it.

“You really think the person killing these women is the same person who took Payton?” she asked again. This was a hell of a way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

“The MO has changed,” Barton conceded.

“He’s been inactive for eighteen years.”

“Not necessarily.” SSA Frazer raised a finger at her and she wanted to raise one back, a different one.

“There’s a gap in what we know about him, it doesn’t mean he wasn’t killing.”

A chill moved through her body but Mal refused to acknowledge it. She needed to be professional enough to discuss this.

Frazer continued. “For some reason about a year ago something happened to trigger a rash of murders in this area, all with the same signature. And now I think they are related to the Payton Rooney case.”

“Who’s probably been dead for eighteen years,” Henderson put in.

Most children who were abducted were killed in the first couple of hours.

Mallory crossed her arms over her chest, wanting to hide what she was thinking because it would sound so out there, but she couldn’t. “I think he kept her alive.”

Frazer stared hard. “Why do you think that?”

She pursed her lips but these guys already thought she was an idiot so who cared. “Because I could feel her.”

“Are you telling us you’re psychic now?” Henderson’s skeptical brows disappeared under her frumpy bangs.

“Not psychic. It’s a twin thing. I can’t really explain it,” Mallory surveyed the faces of her colleagues. Outside, snow had started to fall. Alex was in the car waiting for her. It gave her the impetus to go on. To get this over with. “Our whole childhood we shared a connection. I knew where she was in the house, I knew when she was hungry and even what she was hungry for. I knew when she was sad and when she was hiding a secret.” She dug her nails hard into the palms of her hands. “I can’t explain it, but it was like we were hungry and we had a secret. I didn’t even know that wasn’t normal until I was older.” She licked her lips. “When she disappeared I still felt her even years afterward though it wasn’t as strong. That connection ended sometime around last October. I woke up one morning and she was just...gone.”

Henderson leaned forward across the desk and jabbed her pen toward Frazer. “This is why she shouldn’t be here. She’s going to affect how we view the case.”

“She might be the reason we finally crack it,” Frazer argued. He stared at her for another long moment then looked away. “This is the first year you didn’t appear on TV talking about your sister’s abduction, correct?”

She nodded.

“I think the killer was pissed and wanted to get your attention.” Frazer spoke to his team but never took his eyes off hers.

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