Her hands started shaking again in mine, but I held on.
“There was a mark on her hip bone.”
Hallie’s gray eyes flashed. “Her hip?”
I nodded. “It wasn’t a brand. It was made up of a series of tiny cuts, but it looked similar…”
“To what’s on me,” Hallie finished. “To what was on the rest of them.”
Them. The seven women who hadn’t made it out. Who’d been found one at a time over the course of several months, each in a different location somewhere in the woods, clad in those disturbing white nightgowns and covered in flowers. All their bodies were littered with scars and fresh cuts, and each had a ring of bruises around their neck.
“Yes. It looks similar. It’s likely a copycat. Someone who followed the case and is either using it to cover their tracks or has developed an obsession.” The only way we would know for sure was if another body showed up—or didn’t.
Hallie swallowed hard. “Why do you think it’s a copycat?”
I heard the unasked question in her words. “The original unsub kept women for much longer.”
Unshed tears welled in Hallie’s eyes. “Or it could be him, and he’s gotten impatient.”
I hadn’t let myself go there today. Hadn’t let myself consider that the man who had terrorized Hallie and seven other women and girls might be back.
When the case went cold five years ago, the FBI had believed the unsub had either committed suicide, ended up in prison on an unrelated charge, or changed his hunting grounds and MO. My friend, Anson, who’d been a profiler at the time, doubted it could’ve been the latter. He believed the unsub was too compulsive for that.
My fingers wove through Hallie’s. “Let’s not go there yet. This is only one case, but I think we need to take extra precautions. I’d like you to move into the main house. You can take one of the guest rooms. Even if this is a one-off, I’ll be working long hours. I want you to have a place to sleep while keeping an eye on the boys.”
My voice was even as I said it. The idea of Hallie in the cabin alone was like a blowtorch to bare skin. Too much for me to bear.
She instantly began shaking her head. “I can’t.”
I frowned. “Why not?”
Hallie swallowed hard, averting her gaze. “I have nightmares. I could scare the boys, wake you all up.”
Nightmares. Of course, she did. My mind flashed back to the first night she’d stayed here. The lights on in the cabin at five in the morning. I wondered how Hallie slept at all.
“I’ll explain it to the boys. They’ve all had bad dreams at one point or another. Charlie still ends up in my bed every other week with one. And I’ve got the bruises to prove it.”
Hallie’s brows rose. “Bruises?”
“That kid is tiny, but he’s a violent sleeper.”
Her lips twitched, a little lightness entering her expression. “I don’t want to disrupt things for you guys.”
My thumb swept back and forth across her hand. “You won’t. Things will hardly change at all.”
I’d just have a walking temptation living right across the hall.
19
HALLIE
The sky was stilldark as I pulled a sweater over my head, but a faint glow in the distance promised the sunrise. I crossed to the bed, pulling the covers up and tucking them neatly into place. Somehow, I caught a hint of Lawson when they moved, maybe in the sheets themselves—that scent of bergamot, sage, and something else.
I’d slept with the smell curling around me like a warm embrace and managed the miracle of only having one nightmare. Of a dark-eyed man hovering over me with a branding iron. But I’d caught myself before a scream left my lips.
As I pulled up the covers on the other side of the bed, I checked my watch—a few minutes before six. I couldn’t stay in this room a moment longer. I needed to move and escape the feeling of my skin being too tight for my body.
My book hadn’t been holding my interest, and the silence and stillness just made room for Lawson’s words from yesterday to fill my mind.Killed. Stabbed. Strangled.
