Jane Doe's Return (24 page)

“Roxie wanted to sell it, but I figured Shauna would be back, just like when she was a kid and ran away. You never came back.” He downed a shot. “Just like a rat leaving a sinking ship.”

“Answer his question, Pop.”

“About two years later, your bigwig boyfriend came and picked everything up. Had official papers and everything.”

“What was his name?” Travis said behind clenched jaw.

“Why don’t you ask her?”

“What did he say he did for a living?” Shauna asked.

“Just came here with papers and a really expensive suit. Said if I didn’t give him all your stuff, he’d have to call the cops. Nothing of value. Just clothes and some old books. What does this have to do with me?”

“Nothing. Name, Pop. Give me a name.”

Her father stared at the ceiling. “I don’t remember.” He sat down at the table, pouring another shot.

“What did he look like?” Shauna couldn’t hide the agitation in her voice. They were getting closer.

“Like I said, expensive suit. Clean cut. Not the typical loser I would expect from you.” He tossed another shot back.

“No worries, Pop. He wasn’t my boyfriend.” Shauna nodded toward the door. She had to get out of the house, but more importantly, she had to check on something. The killer had her stuff for the last eight years. This guy wouldn’t just hold onto it. He’d try to bait her or leave Travis clues. Flaunting it in front of the cops always turned these guys on.

There was always the theory that psychos wanted to get caught, and maybe that was true in the end, but guys like her attacker liked to toy with the cops. He wanted to be able to say, “I was right under your nose. I left you every conceivable clue and you still didn’t know it was me. I had to tell you.”

Travis tossed his card on the table. “Call if you can remember anything else.”

She pulled him by the arm, rushing toward the truck. Her stomach twisted and turned. “Not again.” She moaned and dropped to her knees by a large tree in the front yard. Once again, he didn’t have the decency to let her puke in private.

Wiping her mouth, she got back up to her feet. “Will you ever let me do that in peace?”

“What the hell did you eat yesterday?” Travis opened the door for her.

“Whatever you fed me.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not sick.” He handed her a mint.

“Just wait.” She pulled out the files and started skimming the pictures.

“What are you doing?”

“Our friend took my stuff. I never thought about it before, but what if he left clues all along?”

“Damn. Hadn’t thought about that.”

She looked up to meet his warm eyes. He had a way of making her realize how much she had going for her. It was too bad that when this was over she would be leaving the FBI behind. That meant leaving the best thing that ever happened to her. The one man she could love.

And she did love him.

A fact she couldn’t deny anymore.

****

A mixture of excitement and fear pumped through Travis’s bloodstream as they pulled out all their files and laid them on his parents’ kitchen table. They were getting closer. It was just a matter of time, but they had to unlock the mystery before the killer came after Shauna.

Shauna had tagged every picture with things that could have been hers. He was amazed she even noticed a pair of earrings her brother had given her for her tenth birthday. Travis gave up and watched her. When she worked, unfortunately for him, it was a major turn-on.

She glanced over the paper she held in her hands. “What?” It looked like she held back a smile.

“You’re very special.”

She shook her head. “I’m hell-bent on revenge.”

“Justice.” He corrected her.

She rolled her eyes. “Same as you, right?”

“Yep.” Travis took some of her notes. “No way I could’ve done this.” He tossed the paper at her.

“That’s mostly personal knowledge. Not good work.”

“It’s both.” He wanted to take her by the shoulders and shake her. Her talents in the field were being wasted. She was smarter than any other agent he had ever met. Her instincts were keener than a bloodhound’s and he wanted the chance to prove it. “Our next case, I’ll prove it to you.”

“There won’t be a next case.” She turned from him. “After this case is over, if I’m not fired, I’m going to ask to be transferred.”

“Why?” He stood, pulling her with him.

Her eyes dug into him like an arrow. “You were right about me being obsessed with this case.”

“I think we both have been slightly obsessed.”

“To the point it’s not healthy for us. I need to put this part of my life behind me.”

“All of it?” He stared at her in disbelief.

“Yeah. All of it.” She glared back.

Well, then. He took a deep breath. “What’ll you do?” He asked with a sudden sharpness in his chest. Ducking his head into the refrigerator, he got himself a beer.

“There are a lot of violent crime units out there and I can still do my work on victimology.” She leaned up against the sliding glass door overlooking the lake. “But staying here will only be living in the past. It’s time for me to move forward.”

Travis guzzled his beer. This was it. She would walk out of his life, forever. It should’ve made him happy. He had given up on finding a good woman, an equal to share his life with. That had all died when Gina aborted their baby.

Then Shauna had to walk into his life and complicate things. Big time. She stirred things in him. She made him want to be a better man.

She made him want to love again, but obviously, she didn’t feel the same way.

“Fine then. Let’s catch this guy so you can have a life.”

A life without him.

Chapter Thirteen 

Travis stared at the steam seeping from the coffee machine as it filled the kitchen with gurgling noises. After pouring himself a cup, he stared into the hot, black liquid. He hadn’t slept well. Thoughts of Shauna filled his mind and squeezed his heart. Stepping outside, the humid air almost suffocated him. With no breeze, the lake looked like glass. The stillness did nothing to help the emptiness he felt.

Damn her for making me feel again.

And the timing couldn’t be more wrong. At the moment, all he wanted was to hop in his parents’ sailboat and float about the dead calm lake, getting good and drunk. The last thing he wanted to do was spend the day going over files. He balanced his mug on the dash of his truck before he turned the key. Twelve years was too long to be tormented by one man.

Travis headed toward Jake’s house. When Lana had first introduced Jake to Travis, he saw a hard military man who seemed to be a soldier lost without a cause. Later, Travis found out he hadn’t been too far off the mark. War had changed Jake. He’d seen things that haunted his soul, until he’d met Lana.

Travis pulled into the driveway and waved to Katie.

“Gumby!” Katie greeted him in the doorway with Lana.

“Hi.” Travis lifted her high in the air, then

pulled her in for a big hug.

“Daddy’s in his office. Where’s your girlfriend?” Katie pinched his lips together, giving him a pouty kiss.

The smell of baby shampoo filled his nostrils. “She’s still sleeping.” He sighed, not bothering to correct the little girl.

“Let’s go, sweetie.” Lana took Katie from Travis. “You have about two hours before the twins wake up.” She grabbed her purse and headed for the door.

Travis entered Jake’s office only to find him standing with his back turned, rubbing his neck. That usually meant bad news.

“I don’t like the look of this,” Travis said.

Jake turned. “I did some digging on Ramsey and Wilcox.”

Travis slumped himself into one of the brown leather chairs that faced Jake’s desk. “Bring it on.”

“Ramsey was brought up on sexual harassment charges in the Buffalo office.”

“I thought it was an unfounded accusation.” This wasn’t news to Travis.

“Charges were filed, and then the woman who complained withdrew them and resigned from the bureau shortly after. In the beginning, her lawyer reported that they had at least two other agents willing to come forward.” Jake sat down, resting his back against his chair and made eye contact with Travis. “He was transferred to your office. By request.”

Travis clasped his hands behind his neck and stared at the ceiling. “That doesn’t make for a rapist. He thinks women belong in the kitchen and makes no bones about it.”

“What do you know about Wilcox?” Jake asked with a certain edge to his voice.

The question made Travis’s stomach roll. “Very little. He’s been at the Albany office forever. I think since he started. Hell, I think he grew up there.”

Jake took out a file and handed it to Travis. “He’s done more than grow up there.”

Travis flipped through it. “Jesus,” he muttered. Travis stared at an article about Jeff and his prom date, who had ended up missing and murdered. “This is fifteen years old.” He lifted his gaze to stare at Jake. “Was he arrested?”

How the hell could he be an agent?

“He was never really a suspect. The victim’s stepmother and dad said they watched him drop her off right after the prom. The father was the first suspect, and then two other boys at her school. They ended up arresting some kid who shot himself shortly after he was released on bail.”

Travis stood and paced with the file still in his hands. “Shit.” He pulled out the picture of the crime scene. It was in a rundown old cabin on the Hudson. “She was found in her prom dress?”

“For whatever reason, this guy has been killing her over and over again.” Jake handed him a piece of paper. “Wilcox was very cooperative with the cops. His story was airtight. I dug up some of his early records and his psych eval states he’s an overachiever, highly intelligent, but with some tendency toward grandiose behavior. The shrink who did the eval hand wrote a note saying Wilcox was arrogant, but otherwise normal.”

“I once heard a profiler say that some of the most notorious killers were some of the smartest creatures out there.”

“My military record says I’m arrogant and not good at following orders.”

“Doesn’t make me feel any better.” Travis leaned up against the doorjamb. How could he have been so blind? He had been working side by side with him for the last four years. “Shauna thought for sure she would recognize his voice.”

“She was a teenager and frightened for her life. Her memory’s clouded. Wilcox was in the drama club in high school and had an uncanny ability to do impressions. Are you gonna tell Shauna?”

Travis craned his neck to the left, then the right. “I don’t know. One minute she’s focused, then the next moment, she’s puking her guts out. I can’t tell if she’s falling apart on me, or if she’s just sick. I’m a bit worried about her coming face-to-face with him at the office.” Even as the words left his mouth, he knew he’d have to tell her. Worse, they’d have to put her out there as bait.

“You have to arm her with this information.” Jake gave him a piercing look.

“What if she falls apart?”

“Stop looking at her as the woman you care about, but as the field agent who is better than you.”

“But this puking thing.”

“It was probably something she ate. I’m sure she’ll go after this guy both barrels loaded.”

“That could be a problem, too.”

Moments later, he walked into his family home to find Shauna sitting down at his parents’ computer, gripping the mouse so tight that he thought it might crumble. Hoping not to scare her, he cleared his throat right before he touched his hand to her shoulder.

She jumped, taking a swing at him and connecting right in his gut.

“Humph.”

“Jesus, Travis. Don’t sneak up on me like that. If I had my weapon, I would have shot you.”

Holding on to his aching gut, he coughed. “You should always have your gun.” Trying not to wince, he forced his body upright. “Damn, nice hit.”

“Nice abs. I think you bruised my hand.”

“What’s got you spooked?”

She tried to get to the computer before him, but he swatted her hand away. An old newspaper clipping of Jeff appeared on the screen. “Just wonderful.” He cursed under his breath.

“You knew?”

“Just found out. Jake did some digging for me. Found a whole bunch of shit.” In need of a drink, he led her into the kitchen. Instead of quenching his thirst, he leaned up against the counter and quenched his desire to touch her. “You okay?”

“Oh, yeah. Peachy.” Her body trembled as she took a step back from him. “I’ve been working with the man who raped me and didn’t even know it.”

“Come on, Shauna. You were just a kid, and we don’t know for sure.”

“What about the voice? God, that voice haunts me in my dreams all the time—oh shit.”

“What?”