“More than okay! I can’t believe how amazing you guys are being. I won’t let you down, I promise.”
“In that case, we’ll see you later. You should come join me and Gunnar for dinner. I want him to make sliders tonight and if the two of us gang up on him, he won’t stand a chance.”
“If you’re sure you don’t want some, you know, alone time?”
Bryn’s face heated. “Oh, we’re not a couple. Work partners is all.”For now, leastways.
“Sorry! I thought… I don’t know. You guys seem so in tune with each other. My bad.”
“Don’t worry about it. We’ve not known each other very long but I guess we do fit well. Warden chose Gunnar for me… Seems he knew what he was doing, much as I hate to admit it.”
“Your boss sounds scary.”
“Your boss too now.” Bryn chuckled. “He’s not so bad. I’ve had worse.”So much worse.
Gunnar, box of pie in hand, was waiting. “Bell said he’d meet us outside the elevator one floor up.”
Bryn put his glasses back on before trailing Gunnar to the elevator. Once they were inside, he decided to poke the bear—or wolf, in this case.
“Talbot thought we were a couple,” he said, without preamble.
“Yeah? Cool.” Gunnar didn’t even flinch.
What the actual fuck?Bryn fidgeted. “You don’t mind?”
“Nope.”
“Oh.”That didn’t create the response I was expecting.“Why not?”
“You’re the one who can see the future. Look a bit harder.”
Bryn gaped.What? Why? When?His dick twitched. Gunnar’s expression hadn’t changed. He exuded absolute confidence as if he hadn’t declared his intentions out loud and without consultation. Bryn’s snark gene seemed to be taking a vacation because he had no idea what to say. The elevator door slid open and Agent Bell was waiting. Bryn had to switch his mind back to the case and he had no idea how he was going to get through the meeting.
“Hey, guys. All good?” Bell gestured at them to follow him. “I see you found the pie.”
“Yeah. It’s great pie and everything’s good.” Gunnar gave Bryn a knowing side-eye. “We’re all sorted with Talbot, so score one for the good guys.”
“I’ve got people setting up an operations room right now. We can meet in there.”
The room Bell led them to was a hive of activity but he called people to order and everyone found somewhere to sit, albeit on tables and cabinets as there weren’t enough chairs for everyone. Gunnar lounged against a wall while Bryn sat on a pile of equipment boxes.
“Everyone, meet Detective Gunnar Ericson of the GCR team and augur Bryn Ashton.” Bryn shrank down as all eyes turned to him. “Yeah, yeah, count yourselves lucky we have access to their skills. Other agencies will be invading this place to get to them, so I want you keeping your mouths shut about their involvement, got it?”
There was a murmur of agreement.
“Okay, we are now certain that we have a serial killer operating in the Boston area. We’ll be following the usual protocols for dealing with the case. For those of you who are new to this, or in need of a reminder, our taking over the case has been agreed with both local and state law enforcement. This team will be the basis of our task force.”
“Are we getting behavioral analysis support, boss?” one of the other agents piped up.
“Yes. The BAU will be putting together a profile based on the crime scene evidence and patterns.Wewill be studying the victims to understand why they were targeted. We’ll be bringing in all the information from the crime scene investigations that have already taken place.” Bell scanned the room. “Agent Chang will be leading on data management and analysis and squeezing anything interesting out of VICAP. That’s the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program, for those who may not be familiar.”
Chang raised his hand in acknowledgment. “I want tight control on public and media engagement. We need to manage the flow of information. I don’t want this sensationalized or causing public panic, so no discussing the case outside of this room.”
Bryn glanced around at the group. He saw serious faces—committed, determined people.
“Before we get into it, I want to summarize the four known cases we have so far. You want to talk about the first one chronologically, Hernandez?”
A female agent in a dark blue pants suit, her hair in an immaculate bun, went to the front of the room. “We believe victim one to be Eleanor Evans, known as Ellie, aged thirty-two. A homemaker with two preschoolers. No criminal record or dubious associates. Husband had a rock-solid alibi and was destroyed by his wife’s death. We’ve worked out that she disappeared between one and three in the afternoon on her way to kindergarten to pick up the kids. She was found three days later on the side of Silver Hill Road in Concord covered in petals. She was pretty cut up, but autopsy found cause of death to be drowning. Any questions?”
