The Pinkerton by Maureen McKade

Author:Maureen McKade
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Parker Hayden Media

Jared finished writing his notes about the latest murder, and set aside the last piece of paper. He’d filled three sheets as Mac had studied all the information on the previous victims. His gaze strayed to her as it had often done during the past hour. Her puckered brow and the firm set of her full lips revealed her intense concentration as she perused the pages. It appeared that she threw herself wholeheartedly into whatever situation she was in, whether it was making love or doing her job.

She fascinated him. It had been a long time since anyone—man or woman—had confounded him like this. In fact, he couldn’t think of a single person who had managed to surprise him as much as she did. It wasn’t simply her energetic participation in making love, but her odd views on subjects he’d always taken for granted. Would his niece be happier as a doctor or a lawyer than a wife and mother? He hadn’t even considered such a thing.

All he knew was that Mac kept him on his toes and he enjoyed their verbal sparring. Admitting that to her, however, was not an option.

“I see the previous December victims were killed between Christmas and New Year’s. The first—” Mac paused and Jared caught her hesitant glance. He steeled himself for her next words.

“Your fiancée was murdered on the thirtieth, then the second woman was killed on the twenty-eighth.”

Jared came to his feet to pace. “And the third on Christmas Eve. I was under the assumption that the killer would wait until after Christmas again, but I was wrong.”

Mac shook her head. “There’s no pattern, Jared, so you couldn’t have known.”

He stopped in front of her and leaned close. “Maybe not, but I suspected. If I had gone with my hunch, maybe that girl would be alive today.”

“And maybe not,” Mac said softly. Her gaze turned inward. “Even if you had guessed correctly, there’s no guarantee you would’ve been in the right place at the right time.”

He studied her pensive face, wary of her reflective tone. “What aren’t you telling me, Mac?”

She blinked, startled out of her thoughts. At first he thought he’d pushed too hard as she retreated behind a stone mask. Then she spoke and though her tone was flat, her eyes were haunted with anguish. “I had my chance at saving a life, too. I blew it. I knew when, but not where.” She stood and crossed her arms, then rubbed her chin. “The murders in June in my time were the twenty-ninth the first year and the twenty-fifth the second.”

“Your ‘time?’”

“My time in San Francisco,” she said quickly, as her cheeks flushed.

Jared’s instincts told him she was lying, but why? She’d already confessed that she was a reporter working on the story. What else would she be hiding?

Unless she suspected who the killer was.

He squelched the thought. If she did, she would have told him. Wouldn’t she? Another thought struck him and he leaned over to pick up the papers scattered across the bed and searched through them.

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