LITMIR.BIZ

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in her skirt and sweater, she dropped his jeans beside him. He looked up. “If you’re feeling up to it, can you hold this towel in place for a few seconds?”

      Nodding, she curled her legs beneath her and sat next to Ty.

      Sean placed her hands around the towel. “Squeeze as hard as you can.”

      He yanked on his jeans and tossed the bath towel aside. He squatted next to her and nudged her hands away from the makeshift bandage staunching the flow of Ty’s blood.

      She slumped back, her hands falling in her lap. “Why did this happen, Sean? This can’t be a coincidence.”

      “I don’t think it is.” She’d realize just how unlikely a coincidence if she found out about Katie Duncan’s finger.

      Sirens wailed down the street. “Can you go outside and meet them? I phoned it in, but tell them he lost a finger and a lot of blood.”

      Elise scrambled outside, and minutes later the EMTs bustled through the front door with a gurney. They peppered Sean with questions as they loaded up Ty.

      As they wheeled Ty to the ambulance, one of the EMTs called over his shoulder, “Do you know where the finger is?”

      “Nope. Like I said, it didn’t happen here.” But if Sean could guess, it might be arriving in a package for him soon.

      Officer Ashford, the cop who had been quietly talking to Elise, emerged onto the porch. “Can I ask you a few questions, Detective Brody?”

      “Of course. Here? Back inside?”

      “Here is fine.” He jerked his pencil over his shoulder. “Ms. Duran said the victim blamed you for his attack, said you hired someone to assault him.”

      “Yeah, he did say that. I don’t know why he believes that. He passed out before we could question him.”

      “What do you know about Ty Russell?”

      “He’s Elise’s former fiancé, and he’s here to convince her to go back to Montana with him. That’s about it.”

      “And you and Elise are...friendly.” Ashford’s eyes flicked across Sean’s bare chest.

      His jaw clenched. “Yes.”

      Ashford tapped his pencil and licked his lips. “Elise Duran is the first victim of the Alphabet Killer. The case you just got pulled from.”

      “Yep.” Sean folded his arms. If this pip-squeak patrolman thought he could intimidate him with his leading questions, he needed to go back to the academy.

      “You haven’t been too busy to know he struck again, have you?”

      Elise gasped behind him. “Sean?”

      “Captain Williams notified me just before Russell showed up on my doorstep.” Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Elise creeping closer to him until he could feel the warmth of her presence on his skin.

      The cop’s face fell a little. Then he puffed out his chest again. “The two victims have last names beginning with C.”

      “Well, then I guess he’s working backward through the alphabet, isn’t he?”

      “Those victims were also missing their fingers.”

      Elise sobbed behind him, and Sean lunged for the cop, grabbing the shirt of his uniform. He breathed heavily in Ashford’s startled face. “You need to go back to school, son. That’s privileged information about this case. We’re not revealing that to the public.”

      Ashford wriggled out of Sean’s grasp and stumbled backward off the porch. His face reddened and he blustered, “I’m reporting you, Brody. I may even have you arrested for assaulting a police officer. You detectives think you’re something special. You’re special, all right. You’re neck deep with the Alphabet Killer. Hell, you may even be him. A killer—just like your old man.”

      Sean’s eye twitched and his muscles coiled. He felt Elise’s warm hand pressed against the small of his back.

      He tilted his head back and forth to crack his neck, and then he said, “Whatever.”

      Turning his back on Ashford, his mouth still gaping, Sean took Elise’s arm and pulled her into the house.

      “Don’t listen to him, Sean.” She wrapped her arms around his waist, and his house never felt like such a home before.

      He squeezed her tight. “What he says doesn’t bother me. What bothers me is that the killer tracked down Ty, and we have two more dead bodies.”

      “It’s awful.” She hid her face against his chest. “Two people killed today on six, twelve. Wh-where were their bodies found?”

      “Not on the Golden Gate Bridge, so those coordinates were just a tease. The bodies were found in the Bayview area.”

      “You were right. He was just toying with us.” She leaned back to look into his face. “Who were they, Sean? Did Captain Williams tell you their names?”

      “A man and a woman this time.”

      She closed her eyes and her lashes fluttered on her cheeks. “Was that cop right? Were their fingers missing?”

      “Just like Katie Duncan’s.”

      “You never told me that.” Her nostrils flared as her eyes flew open.

      “That was supposed to be confidential information. How that moron found out and why he’s spreading it around, I don’t have a clue. I’m no longer on the case, as he pointed out.”

      “Then why did Captain Williams call you at this time of night to tell you about the bodies?”

      He left the circle of her arms and paced to the window to stare out at the dark street. “Because the killer left me another message.”

      “What was it this time?” She pressed her fingers against her lips.

      “Elise...”

      “Just tell me, Sean.”

      “He left me the same type of note that he left you at the school, but with slightly different numbers. They’re working on it, but the location was a joke last time so we can’t trust him.”

      Two vertical lines formed between her eyebrows. “Where did they find the note?”

      He clasped the back of his neck and chewed on his lip. Did Elise really need the visual of a note wrapped around a severed finger and shoved into one of the victim’s pockets? “He left a note on one of the bodies.”

      “What does he want with you?”

      “I already know that. The bigger question is what does he want from you?” He tapped on the window with his fingernail. “How did he know about Ty? How did he know about you and me, about our spending time together?”

      She knotted her fingers together. “I don’t know. He didn’t get all that from my purse, or from my house. He must’ve been the one who attacked Ty. He probably told Ty he was working for you. Where else would Ty get that crazy idea?”

      “When Ty regains consciousness, we can ask him. Maybe he can give us a description. How did the guy even approach Ty?”

      “It’s like he’s dancing around me, us. He’s playing some kind of game with us that started the night he attacked me.”

      “And that game has its roots in the past, twenty years in the past.” Sean blew out a breath, crossed the room and took Elise’s hand. “I’m sorry the night had to end this way. I’m sorry about Ty.”

      “Me, too,” she whispered, and tears welled in her eyes. “For a moment there we pushed it all away, didn’t we? For a moment it was just the two of us.”

      He kissed her trembling lips. “It can be that way again, Elise. This will all be over soon.”

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