“Go where?”
“I worry she might lure him back to the mainland.”
Dee snorted. “You always make it sound like a cesspool, but I seem to remember someone had a very good time in Vegas at her bachelorette party, even if she couldn’t remember it when she got home.”
May laughed, allowing her worries about Rome to be pushed to the back of her mind. “Well, there are small parts I remember. There was that tattoo parlor Cynthia just had to go to.”
· · · · ·
Maria spent all afternoon going over her notes. She found eight of the women had some kind of contact with the law. Her eyes were starting to cross, so she set it aside and opened her laptop to work. Not her real work—her paying job—but while she was waiting for Rome, she figured she could get a few words in for the day. As she waited for the laptop to load, she thought about what her father would think about her writing hobby.
She laughed, but there was no joy in it. He would be embarrassed that his little girl saw herself as an aspiring romance writer. Maria would never think of herself as an author. She had no plans to even send the books out. True, it had turned into an obsession, but she figured a shrink would tell her that it was her way of coping. Writing had been the one thing she did that kept her sane while she’d been with her father those last few months. It had been her one outlet. Having to watch the once strong and powerful Big John Callahan wither away and die had been almost too much to bear. Writing had been the one thing she could do to keep herself going.
Since returning to DC after his death, she seemed fixated with getting the word count in for the day. And she was behind since she’d gotten to the island. It had been over a week since she’d had time to sit and write. When she heard the car outside, she frowned. Apparently she wasn’t going to get any words in for the day. Rome was already at the door by the time she started shutting down. The knock sounded just as her PC started to completely turn off. She rose and walked to the door, opening it for him.
She had known him for three days, and the impact was still the same. Heat hit her the moment she saw him, her body seemingly responding to the fact that he was there. He cupped her cheek and brushed it with his thumb. Without a word, he kissed her, soft, sweet and just enough to have her curling her toes into the carpet. By the time he pulled away, she was ready to beg for more.
“Hi,” he said, his voice soft.
“Hi, yourself.”
She stepped away then, because she needed to. Her body was still humming from the simple kiss. Rome had other ideas. He grabbed hold of her hand and walked with her back to the living room.
“How was lunch?”
The question reminded her of the last part of her conversation with Dee and May. She couldn’t think about that. That was personal, and the most important thing right now was making sure they caught this bastard.
“Good. One thing I’m checking is that two of the women had altercations with the police before they were killed.”
He stopped walking and frowned. “Really? Huh. I’m sort of surprised it wasn’t noted in their case file.”
“It was. I looked over it when I got back and it was. Different officers, different issues. One was speeding. The other made a complaint about a neighbor. It was noted, but nothing that big because both of the officers in the incidents were cleared.”
He pursed his lips. “Still, it’s a connection between the women.”
“Yeah, and I found six more women who had something in the six months prior to their deaths. Problem is, it doesn’t mean just city, but also state and federal, so it’s going to take me some time. But it could be the way he found his victims.”
“Where he goes hunting?”
She shivered. She couldn’t help it. Maria was used to the discussions. She had sat in on a lot of them growing up, but it still chilled her that there were people out there hunting humans. It still felt as if someone were walking over her grave when they said it. Especially in a normal tone of voice. Her father and the other officers always used the same voice to discuss their predators as they did to discuss what to have for dinner.
“Yes. It could be that he’s a police dispatcher of some sort.”
“I thought we could go out to my house tonight,” he said in a voice that sounded casual, but it was almost as if he was trying too hard.
She studied him for a few seconds. “Why?”
“I thought we could eat there, go over some of these cases.”
“I thought we’d go to the club tonight.”
He shook his head. “That would be suspicious. The idea I would take my new sub to the club right after meeting her...people would wonder.”