“Spying on me, Scala?” She stopped at an old article from her kidnapping.
It showed a picture of Autumn after the FBI rescued her. She still remembered the scratchy blanket that wrapped around her shoulders. Her wet hair hung in tendrils over her shoulders, and her eyes were damp with tears of relief that the day of her rescue had finally come.
“You're safe now, okay? He’s gone.”
Braeden Walker, the FBI agent, a man who became closer to her than her own father, crouched down in front of her in the picture.
Autumn shut the file with a snap and put it back in the drawer. She slammed the drawer closed when she walked out of the room. She held the bridge of her nose as her rescue memories returned in a rush.
“He’s dead.”
Braeden nodded gently, keeping Autumn’s eyes on his. “He is, sweetheart, and nothing and no one can hurt you ever again.” He stopped, and Autumn wondered at the glassy shine in his eyes.
“I killed him.”
“It was self-defense. You were defending yourself against a psychopath.”
She looked around. Reporters were trying to get a glimpse of her even as police and others tried to keep them off Fox Winters’ property. Her eyes moved back to the FBI agent.
“They’re going to say I’m responsible for their injuries.” A shudder wound its way through her. “He made me do it.” Autumn’s voice became hoarse, “I couldn’t stop him—”
“Hey.” He rested a hand along her side and gently stroked her up and down. “You had no control over the situation. You were surviving.”
Another agent walked up to Braeden and whispered something in his ear. Braeden's shoulders stiffened, then he nodded to the other man.
After the agent left, Braeden cleared his throat. “It looks like your father has arrived…”
The vibration from her pocket surprised her out of the memory.
Hererra: Don’t forget about the email. And my IOU.
Autumn rolled her eyes as she left Scala’s office. She opened her laptop that was almost lost in the fire. Luckily, it was in an area of the apartment with minimal damage.
She opened her email and located Herrera’s message. Autumn furrowed her eyebrows, as she opened the email from Herrera. Attached, was a video file labeled Cat Tails and another document from a police unit in Boston.
She understood the video, but what happened in Boston that would be relevant to this case?
Without a thought, Autumn clicked on the Boston PD file. She read the assault and battery report on one Tracy DelMonico. The woman was walking home when someone attacked her from behind. The attacker hit her in the back of the head, similar to the victims of the Forget Me Not murders. When DelMonico woke up, someone had tied her hands over her head.
In the report, DelMonico was raped, and one eye was damaged beyond repair. A noise spooked her attacker, who fled the scene, and left the woman tied up. When DelMonico screamed, some kids found her and called the police. According to the report, there was no named suspect.
Autumn tapped her fingers on the side of the laptop, and her foot was drumming against one the chair rungs.
She opened the link in the email which was dated three years ago. The article detailed DelMonico’s gruesome attack from the police report.
There was also a brief history of the woman’s family. Tracy DelMonico came from a wealthy family. Her father was a Senator, her mother a nurse, and she had a twin sister with two brothers in the military.
“Sounds familiar,” Autumn spoke in a low tone.
She knew little about Anastasia Moretti’s family other than who her father was. Catarina Casale had a large family. Her father was powerful, though Casale’s wife didn’t work. The similarities were uncanny in the cases. It seemed as if the unsub chose victims who had powerful patriarchs.
The article detailed DelMonico’s floral shop, Forget Me Not, which was in Quincy, Boston.
“I’ll never forget him,” the article quoted DelMonico. “His wild eyes, red hair, and pale features…it’s why I call my flower shop Forget Me Not, just like the flower. It’s an incident I’ll never forget for the rest of my life.”
Is that why he used the flowers? Did he read this and decide on using it as his insignia at these crime scenes three years later?
It was time to look at the video.
