“I’ve got it.” Erik turned down the street toward the sheriff’s office.
Emily’s brows turned down. “We’ll see, Erik. I don’t know.”
“Yeah, we’ll see,” Erik agreed. “In the meantime, I am going to take out who kidnapped you. Even though we couldn’t come up with a suspect earlier today, I want all the notes from your pack’s investigation.”
Emily winced. “I wasn’t much help when I tried to recall what had happened. I mean, they hit me over the head, and I honestly have no idea who did it.”
“We’ll find out,” Erik said grimly.
They reached the station, and Mia hopped out, noting how both wolf shifters instantly ran around the car to flank her. “You guys have to back off,” she insisted.
“Not a chance,” Erik muttered as Emily grinned.
They walked into the station, and both shifters followed her back to the conference room. Kurt instantly stood, his jaw dropping at the site of Emily. Mia barely held back a snort as she introduced them. Kurt managed to shake hands with the tall goddess, but he didn’t succeed in pressing his lips back together.
Erik rolled his eyes. “Come on, Em, let’s go cover the front.”
Mia gave Kurt several moments to regain his composure. Then she couldn’t wait any longer. “Get a grip, would you? She’s engaged.”
Kurt cut her a look. “I’m sorry. Are you jealous?”
“No,” Mia said honestly. “But we do have work to do.”
“We got an ID on the first victim.” He reached for a stack on the table to hand her a file. “Well, the first local victim—the one found at Lost Asylum.”
Mia accepted the thin manila file folder. “Was she a sex worker?”
“No,” Kurt said. “Her name was Lori Clang. She was actually an ad executive with the Millerton Ad Agency.”
Mia frowned and flipped over the file folder to see the woman’s smiling face. The picture had obviously been taken from the firm’s website. “She was an ad exec?”
“Yep. Clang was thirty years old and apparently married to her job. Didn’t have a lot of family or friends. She wasn’t even reported missing until this morning.” He shook his head. “Based on her body, she obviously did some drugs, but from what I can tell, she was never a sex worker.”
Mia pulled out a chair and sank into it. “Where are the files for the three murders that occurred between DC and here after I shot Delaney?” She reached for them and scanned the pages quickly. She’d already studied the kills in Kentucky and Nebraska, but she hadn’t read the most recent file of the victim in World, Wyoming. There was a direct line from DC to where she now lived. “This is the first chance I’ve had to read about the Wyoming victim,” she murmured. That killing had taken place when she’d stayed in the local hospital, and she hadn’t had time. She read through the file, noting that the timeline from kidnapping to death was shorter than Delaney had preferred. Yet the rest was the same…for those kills. “Okay, so these victims were all sex workers, yet the two most recent weren’t. That’s odd.”
“It’s possible the killer is just escalating.” Kurt retook his seat.
“Okay. Clang’s firm is in Seattle?” Mia asked.
“Yeah.”
She glanced at her watch. It was three in the afternoon. It would take them a couple of hours to drive to the city.
“I’ve already set up an appointment with her boss at work for tomorrow morning at seven,” Kurt said.
Mia nodded. “All right.” Her mind reeled. “After Delaney’s death, there were five murders that we know about. Three occurred between DC and Washington state, and those were sex workers. Then two more occurred here in the state, and both of those weren’t.” What did that mean? Was the copycat getting sloppy? She looked over the file on the Kentucky murder again, and it was almost textbook perfect to Delaney’s kills.
“The autopsy report on Clang is right here.” Kurt pushed a stack of paper toward her. “She was held and tortured for probably six hours, tops.”
“So even that’s different,” Mia mused. “Delaney had been meticulous and always stuck to a longer schedule, but a copycat might not have his patience. He also might not have Delaney’s hatred for sex workers. A copycat might take the kills in a different direction now that his mentor is dead.”
Kurt reached for a pen and scratched some notes on a worn-looking piece of paper. “I think he’s trying to get your attention with the western trajectory that ended up in Washington state.”
“That makes sense, but why are the two local victims so different than the others?” she asked.
“He’s escalating,” Kurt repeated. “He’s unraveling and is coming for you. If Delaney had a partner, and I’m not saying he did, then that partner would probably be pretty angry at you for killing Delaney.”
Mia put a hand to her stomach. “I’ve already thought of that.” She hadn’t been afraid of a copycat killer before, but things were different now. She wasn’t just protecting herself.
