The Harbinger Collection: Hard-boiled Mysteries Not for the Faint of Heart (A McCray Crime Collection) by McCray Carolyn

Author:McCray, Carolyn [McCray, Carolyn]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: hard boiled mystery, police procedural
Publisher: Off Our Meds MultiMedia
Published: 2013-11-08T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 10

Nicole had to suppress none too happy memories as she entered the university’s library. She wasn’t all that good at school. She got good grades, but that was more by brute force than by any kind of actual smarts.

She’d worked for each and every “A” she’d ever gotten. The number of hours she’d spent in the library was by no means voluntary, and the amount of caffeine she’d ingested? Let’s just say she wouldn’t be surprised if one day she had kidney failure.

Glancing around at the various students with their heads down and noses in their books, she found it hard to believe that anyone did this by choice. She glanced over to the profiler, who looked as if a library was a foreign land. Of course, Kent had sailed through college. He didn’t even go to class, let alone the library. Just one more reason for people to hate him. No one liked it when something came easily to someone else, especially when they flaunted it.

And if she were being honest, there were times it pissed her off how seemingly effortlessly everything came to him. Of course, there was a cost to that gift. She knew how hard it was for her to barely skim the surface of a serial killer’s twisted thoughts. Kent was usually neck deep in them. Like now, she could tell he was hunting already. He’d dropped her hand. His pace slowed, and his gaze lingered on those they passed. The profiler was weighing each and every one of them as a possible victim.

Nicole tried to do the same. Who would she pick? Which once of these students would arouse the killer’s interest?

They all looked so similar, though. There were so many college sweatshirts in here that it looked like a sales kiosk. Just about every girl wore a neat ponytail and had a huge jug of coffee beside her.

The only ones that Nicole could immediately eliminate were the one with a dragon’s tail tattoo along her neck and another with pink highlights in her hair. Other than that, the women seemed interchangeable. Some had glasses, some didn’t. But the killer didn’t seem attracted to or repulsed by eyewear.

Kent, however, guided them through the maze of tables to the back left corner, where he sat down. “Grab a book.”

“Right,” Nicole said, snatching a large volume off the re-shelving stack. It was bad enough that they were far outside the age range of the rest of the students, they didn’t need to be looking like they were loitering, as well.

Sitting down, Nicole opened the book and thumbed through it.

“Well?” Kent asked.

“Well, what?”

“Have you picked your favorite?”

Nicole had barely surveyed the students, let alone settled on one. Why, oh why was Kent always so far ahead? Honesty was the only way through this. “No.”

The profiler pushed up his sleeves. “Okay, let’s work it through.”

Nicole both loved and hated these times. She hated having to be walked through situations like a child—however, it was an opportunity for her to see inside of Kent’s mind.

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