“Why?” Dalton asked.
Bryson reached for Teagan’s hand beneath the table and she gratefully clung to it. “Because he looks completely differentin that picture. Hair color, hair style, glasses. There’s only one thing that’s the same.”
“What’s that?” Dalton pressed.
“His eyes.” Teagan’s hand tightened on Bryson’s. “Pure evil, dead inside. That’s him. It’s definitely him. I’ve probably seen him on real estate flyers in the neighborhood. But I never connected the dots. His name?” She paused to draw a choppy breath. “I need to hear his name.”
“Chris Larsen,” Brielle announced.
She shook her head. “So average. So...normal.”
Brielle started typing again. “I’ll get this information to Mason and the team in Jacksonville right away.”
“I’ll give him a call,” Dalton added. “I’ll answer any questions he has about our thought processes and how we arrived at this conclusion.” He smiled. “HowBrysonarrived at it. Good job, Profiler. And it’s good to have you back.”
Bryson seemed surprised by Dalton’s statement, but he nodded his thanks. “Call me with Mason’s update on the hunt for this guy?”
“You don’t want to hang around? If our team’s in on the takedown we might get a live feed.”
“I would, but my hip’s aching something awful.” He pushed to his feet, leaning heavily on his cane, and motioned to Teagan. “I know you’d rather hang around, but I don’t think I can drive right now. Do you mind?”
She was struggling to maintain her composure with all of this information crashing down on her. And here he was, pretending that he was the one who needed to leave. She gratefully went along with his ruse. “I can get the updates later. I don’t mind.”
Once they were in his truck, the stress and worry that had been eating at her seemed to magically fade away. He had that effect on her, made her feel safe, more in control. “I know your hip really does hurt. But I also know you’d never admit that infront of your team. You did that for me, because you saw how I was struggling to hold it together. Thank you.”
“It was nothing. But you’re welcome anyway. How are you holding up? I can drive if I have to.”
“I know, but I’m fine. It was all so...intense back there, finding out who he was, and realizing he’s just a person. You know? Not some mythical monster impossible to stop. Hearing he’s a Realtor kind of takes the drama down a notch. Makes it somehow bearable, especially knowing it’s only a matter of time now before this is over.”
When they pulled into the driveway, his phone buzzed in his pocket. She parked while he spoke to Dalton. When she got out, he frowned, obviously wishing she’d wait so he could open her door. He’d just put his phone in his suit jacket pocket and grabbed his cane when she opened his door and offered her hand.
“There’s no one here but us, Bry. You can suck up your pride for a minute and let me help you. Itisokay for a woman to help a man sometimes, you know.”
He avoided her hand and hopped out on his own.
She rolled her eyes and moved to his side. “What did Dalton have to say? Is JSO cooperating? Did they put out a new BOLO on the killer now that we know his identity?”
He smiled and unlocked the front door. As he pushed it open for her he said, “Yes, JSO iscooperating, although I’m sure they think it’s the other way around. A new BOLO was put out, but they already contacted the realty company to see if they had a lead on his whereabouts. That’s why Dalton called, to give us an update about the realty company.” He shut and locked the door, before giving her his full attention.
“They got him, Teagan. He’s on his way downtown right now in the back of a squad car. It’s over.”
She burst into tears.
BRYSONTOSSEDHIScane to the floor and lifted Teagan in his arms. He couldn’t make it very far, but he managed to stumble to the couch without dropping her. He settled back with his precious burden and held her while she cried out the hurt and the fear and the anxiety she’d been suffering for years.
It was a long time later before he settled Sleeping Beauty in his master bedroom that he’d given up while she was here. She’d readily invited him to stay with her in his bed that first night. But he knew the dangers. It didn’t matter how his head hurt, or the wounds on his back, or his hip, or where the bullet went through him, or, good grief, how sore his belly still was from the surgery. He was a mess, physically. But if he got horizontal next to her none of it would matter. There’d be no stopping either of them from taking full advantage of that situation. And then he’d probably end up in the hospital again. But oh how he wished it could be different.
He quietly shut the door. But he didn’t head to the guest room where he was staying. He had another destination tonight. And this one was too far for him to make using his cane. He’d used up the last of his stamina carrying Teagan. It was time to admit defeat, for now, and get the wheelchair.
A few minutes later he reached his office. As he opened files on the computer and began moving bits of information onto the various screens, he reflected on what Dalton had said at Camelot. He’d referred to his old moniker, Profiler. That one word, spoken by a fellow Seeker, had started an avalanche of thoughts in his mind.
Even though he’d been trying to work this case as best he could with a lingering concussion and his other injuries, he hadn’t tried to approach it as a profiler. He was too used to scorning his previous profession, thinking of his failures insteadof focusing on his successes. But he didn’t think of it the same way anymore. Teagan had done that for him, made him start to accept that maybe he wasn’t the big failure he once thought himself to be. And Dalton, of course, welcoming him back. That had been a surprise. If Dalton didn’t blame him for Hayley’s near miss, maybe he needed to rethink that whole episode.
But mostly it was Teagan’s faith in him that was giving him a new perspective. Like that maybe he should trust himself, listen to the warning bells going off in his head. They were telling him that something wasn’t right.
They’d caught the man who’d abducted Teagan. They’d caught the man who’d killed the Brodericks. So why did he feel like there was something left unfinished? The niggling feeling wouldn’t leave him alone. So he was going back to the beginning as he’d once told Teagan to do. He was reexamining everything. And once he did that, he’d do what he hadn’t done in years, and had never thought he’d do again.
He was going to build a profile.
