Picture Perfect Murder. Rachel Dylan
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place, along with an APD squad car.
He walked into her house and immediately started checking her over. “Are you sure you’re all right? Do you need medical attention?”
“I’ll be fine. It’s really nothing too serious.” She held out her arms to show him. “The cuts aren’t that deep. Just a little blood.”
He frowned and walked over to the officers who were starting to work the scene in her living room. Now that the police were in the house, she took the opportunity to get Grace safely back inside and put her into her bedroom away from the glass. She walked back down the stairs and into the kitchen, where Rex was waiting for her.
“They’re gathering evidence,” he said.
“It happened so quickly. What’s the connection here? Why would the killer do this to me?”
“Because he’s determined to finish the job he started, and extend his sick game along the way. You’ve proved to be a special challenge for him, and it’s one that he seems to have fully embraced.”
A chill shot down her arm. “That’s disturbing.”
“And, unfortunately, I have some more bad news.”
“What?” She was almost afraid to ask.
“We’ve got a report of a missing graduate student.”
“Oh, no.”
“She fits the victim profile perfectly,” he said quietly.
“You think he’s already struck again? He’s escalating quickly.”
“I’m thinking the worst-case scenario. We have search teams looking for her. I think this guy wants us to find his victims because that’s all part of the fun for him.”
Her phone chirped, announcing a text. She glanced at the screen but didn’t recognize the sender. It was a blank text with an attachment. Something told her that this was wrong. Still, she had to look. She opened up the attachment.
“Lily, what is it?” He took a step toward her.
Her heart thumped loudly in her chest. She looked down at the phone and saw the photo that had been on the news. But now it was marked with a bright red X. “Rex, you should look at this.” She handed him her phone. “I think I have the location for your latest victim.”
Lily went with Rex to the crime scene at Westlake Park while Jackson and Guy were busy at the house boarding up her living room window. Minutes after she received the text, Rex had contacted APD to check out Westlake Park. And unfortunately, her suspicion about the next victim had been right. Rex wasn’t crazy about the idea of her going to the crime scene, but she’d insisted and Rex didn’t feel safe leaving her with anyone else, so he had obtained approval for her to visit the scene. She wanted to be able to help in any way she could.
In the field, she’d seen some pretty heinous things. But nothing could’ve really prepared her for this crime scene. This killer was truly a psychopath. And the damage he’d inflicted on this innocent woman now lying lifeless in front of her was unthinkable.
She tried to push away the emotions bubbling up below the surface and focus on how she could be of help in catching this guy. Thankfully, due to her CIA training, she was able to compartmentalize her emotions.
Rex walked over to her. “The crime scene techs don’t think she was murdered in the park. Just that this is where he dumped her body. But you need to come over here and take a look behind these bushes.”
Following Rex, Lily prepared herself for what she was going to see. The victim’s body had been found on the jogging trail so this had to be something else that lurked behind the bushes. She took a deep breath as he shone his flashlight. And that was when she saw it. Another photo. This time it was in color, and she recognized it as a picture she’d taken of a farmhouse about twenty minutes outside the city.
“I’m assuming this is your photograph?” Rex asked.
“Yes. But I don’t get this, Rex. Why would he lead us to the location through pictures? Now that we know what he’s doing, why wouldn’t we just get an FBI team to stake out the farmhouse and catch him when he goes there? I know exactly where it is.”
Rex shook his head. “Because that’s not how this guy is going to operate. He did this once—using the picture as a means to tell us where the victim was. But he isn’t stupid. He’ll come up with another game. I just don’t know what that is yet. What is clear to me is that he’s formed a very unhealthy connection to you through all of this. The killer doesn’t like missteps or failures. He can’t let it go.”
“Yes, I understand.”
He reached out and touched her arm. “This all comes back to you, Lily. He’s not going to let up, and unfortunately he’s got you front and center.”
“That’s a place I do not want to be.” She was used to being in the crosshairs but in a totally different type of deadly game. In this situation, she currently felt a severe lack of control, and that bothered her. She liked being in charge, not just sitting back and waiting for something bad to happen.
“I’m sorry you were put in this situation. But we need to talk about your personal security.”
That was the last thing she wanted to talk about. She didn’t want APD or the FBI providing her with protection. She could handle it herself. Especially since she knew she was a target. This wasn’t a covert operation. This was an in-your-face threat. He was killing women and using her as a pawn in his game. She wasn’t going to stand idly by and let him continue to use her.
“It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it now, but we will need to at some point,” he said. “We can’t presume to understand how the mind of a sociopath like this operates.”
She nodded. This man was trying to protect her. He was doing his job. It was just difficult for her to relinquish control. To trust someone. To provide full disclosure. After all, her life in the CIA had been all about withholding information. Her instincts told her that he was one of the good guys, but look how wrong she had been about James. How could she ever learn to trust again?
He gently took her arm and guided her away from the scene and back toward his SUV.
On the drive to her house, they rode in silence for a few minutes until he spoke. “You’re from Atlanta, right?” he asked.
“Yeah. It was just me and my mom growing up. Times were tough, as you can imagine. She worked two jobs just to put food on the table. The house that I live in was my grandmother’s. It was the only thing of value we had.”
“Where is your mom now?”
“She died my freshman year of college. She had a lot of issues and got mixed up with the wrong guys. It led to her making bad decisions. But enough of my family drama. What about you?”
“I was born and raised in Georgia. My parents are still together. Not to say there weren’t some really rough patches. But they’re both really solid in their faith and decided to stick it out through the good and the bad.”
Interesting, she thought. “And do you share their beliefs?”
“Yes. My faith is really important to me. Especially in my line of work. Sometimes God is all I have. He’s the only one I can talk to about the awful things I experience.”
Her heart hurt listening to him because there was a time when she’d felt the same way. Then everything had changed. God had taken everything away from her. And she still didn’t know why.
“What about you?” he asked.
“That’s a long story for another time.”
“I get it.” He pulled up in her driveway, and she was relieved that he