The Killer You Know. Kimberly Van Meter
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Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Epilogue
Special Agent Silas Kelly opened the door to the Chicago Bureau office, the biting cold in the air nipping at his freshly shaven jaw. He’d been in Chicago for five years but he still hadn’t gotten used to the wind chill of his new city.
A summons to the director’s office never boded well. He was still dealing with the aftermath of his latest case—one that he hadn’t been able to solve in time, and a kid had died.
As a member of the Child Abduction Unit, it was his job to save kids.
They’d managed to catch the perp but not before the man had slit the boy’s throat.
Thomas Fielding, age six, snatched from the park when the babysitter wasn’t looking.
Now Thomas’s parents were making funeral arrangements.
Maybe that was what the director wanted to talk about, to go over where they’d failed young Thomas so that, hopefully, next time, the news they brought to frightened parents was good.
Silas walked into Director Beatrice Oppenshaw’s office and closed the door for privacy. She gestured for him to take a seat.
“I’ll get straight to the point,” she said, clasping her hands together. “There’s been a homicide in Port Orion, Washington, that might catch your attention. I want you to ignore the urge to follow up.”
Port Orion, his hometown. Usually the location of his nightmares.
“The body of a sixteen-year-old girl was dumped in Seminole Creek. Based on the marks on her neck, the preliminary cause of death is strangulation, pending the autopsy results.”
A shock wave rippled across his body. Seminole Creek.
Flashes of his childhood followed an echo of his little brother’s voice.
“There’s no reason for the FBI to get involved. Local jurisdiction will handle the case,” Oppenshaw said when she saw Silas gearing up to object. “Trust me, I’m doing you a favor.”
Silas knew why she was warning him to keep his distance. This new case hit too many triggers. Oppenshaw knew how Silas’s little brother Spencer had died.
How his body had been found in that same creek.
And how Spencer’s killer had never been found.
“What if there are similarities to my brother’s cold case?” he asked, using reason to win his boss over. “This could be a break in a twenty-year-old case.”
“A case that just happens to be your youngest brother’s,” Oppenshaw replied, shaking her head. “It’s a conflict of interest. Out of deference to you, if you think there might be some leads, I will send another agent up there to check things out but I don’t want you near that case.”
“Port Orion is a small town. They won’t talk to a stranger. I have an advantage—”
“And a handicap,” Oppenshaw countered firmly. “You know you’re too emotionally invested to be unbiased. The answer is no.”
But Silas’s mind was already moving. Oppenshaw could forbid him to go on federal time but she couldn’t control his vacation choices.
The Bureau shrink had suggested some R&R—which he’d previously declined—but he suddenly saw the merit.
“I’d like to take Dr. Lyons’s suggestion for a little time off.”
Oppenshaw’s jaw tensed. “Fortuitous timing,” she commented drily. “You previously declined therapeutic time off.”
“I’ve changed my mind.”
“Bullshit. You want to go chase down this case.”
He remained silent, knowing his boss’s hands were tied.
The last case had left everyone on the team shaken. And if the Bureau doc had suggested some leave, it was her duty to sign off on it.
It was the kinder, gentler Bureau.
And Silas was going to take full advantage.
Because there was nothing that would keep Silas from investigating that case in Port Orion.
Oppenshaw swore under her breath, conceding the inevitable but she had some stipulations of her own. “You go to Port Orion, you go without your badge. You’re not going to use your federal status to open doors. If you go for anything more than a visit home to walk down Memory Lane, then you’re doing it completely off-books.”
Silas leaned forward. “My brother’s killer went free. His death shattered my family. The strain of a failed investigation ruined my parents’ marriage. If there’s even a slim chance that this case is connected, I’ll do whatever I have to do to chase it down. You’re right—I’m biased. No one wants to solve my brother’s cold case more than me. I was supposed to be watching him. He died because of me. You think that doesn’t stick with me every single damn day?”
Oppenshaw held his stare for a long moment then exhaled in irritation. She wasn’t known for being a pushover but Silas was one of her best team members.
“All right. I’ll give you a few days to go up there, check things out. You can take your credentials but you’re not to step on the local investigation unless you find something that warrants federal jurisdiction. If you don’t find anything, you come home. Got it?”
Silas nodded, knowing that was the best offer he was going to get. “I’m taking the first flight out.”
“Keep me informed. I want to know every move you make. This has the potential to blow up in our faces. You know local authorities don’t take kindly to the FBI poking their nose where it’s not justified and I don’t need that kind of grief right now.”
Silas agreed, thanked Oppenshaw and left.
His mind was already moving, already preparing to face his childhood home. Unlike his brothers, he hadn’t been back. Although no one blamed him for Spencer’s death, Silas blamed himself.
And the guilt was a familiar weight on his shoulders.
If he could finally find justice for Spencer, nothing would stop him.
He owed Spencer that.
Solving his brother’s murder wasn’t going to bring Spencer back...but it might make it easier for Silas to look in the mirror every day.
At least he hoped.
Silas’s worst fear was that, win or lose, he would carry his little brother on his back until the day he died.
Because nothing could erase the shame of letting your family down in such a grievous way.
There was no “I’m sorry” deep enough to change the fact that Spencer was dead because Silas had ditched him that summer day twenty years ago.