Look Behind You (Kendra Michaels #5)

“Good luck to her,” Jessie said. “Someone should castrate that bastard … scaring a helpless woman like that. She might be scarred for a long time.”

Jessie’s protective instincts were obviously flying high and Kendra was remembering she’d had the same response to her former employer Delilah Winter. “I hope castration is the least of what we manage to do to him. But he’s very dangerous, Jessie. Keep that in mind.”

“You keep it in mind,” Jessie said. “You’re the one who seems to be in his crosshairs. Does Lynch know?”

She should have known that was coming, she thought in exasperation. “No.” She changed the subject. “But I’ll have more help than I need or want with Griffin’s posse coming to town.”

“In Afghanistan I always found that posses tended to get in the way.” She shrugged. “But that’s only my experience. Anyway, it may be a while before I manage to find out the info you hired me to unearth. Anything else I can do to help?”

Kendra started to shake her head and then went still. Maybe …

It was risky on several levels, but it might work.

Go for it.

“Actually, there may be something.”

“Name it.”

“Oh, I will,” she said and then quickly began to speak.

And to circle the wagons …

*

“GOOD TO SEE YOU, KENDRA,” Metcalf said quietly. “We were taking bets on whether you’d really show up today.” He held her visitor badge out to her as she walked across the lobby of the FBI field office.

“Why?” Kendra took the badge and clipped it on. “Just because a psychopathic mass murderer broke into the apartment of my best friend? Okay, you saw how shaken I was yesterday. But after that, nothing could keep me away.”

“I just thought when the shock faded, it would sink home that our killer is obviously fixated on you. You were already reluctant to join the case. There was some thought that you might want to distance yourself.”

Yes, distance herself and everyone she cared about, but she couldn’t do it. Not possible. Kendra walked with him to the elevator. “Is that what the FBI wants?”

“No way. Like Griffin keeps telling us, it’s all hands on deck.”

She’d thought she’d read Griffin right when she’d talked to him on the phone last night. Opportunity, he’d said. He might be regarding her as a weapon to be wielded. “Speaking of which, is your ‘dream team’ here?”

“Yep. The last of them arrived late last night. They’re up in the war room right now getting briefed on our case here in San Diego. After that, each of them will give presentations on their cases.” Metcalf shook his head as he and Kendra entered the elevator and the doors closed. “They’re an interesting bunch. I’ve been reading up on them and they’re brilliant guys. You can’t take that away from them.”

“But…?”

Metcalf paused to choose his words with care. “I met them all this morning. Law enforcement is a collaborative profession. We work with each other, we sometimes team up with police detectives, and on big cases like this one, we join together on task forces. Teamwork, you know? But these guys, the one thing they have in common is that they all seem to be loners. I thought there was even a bit of tension when they were introduced to each other.”

“But aren’t they good at what they do?”

“The best. Maybe that’s why they’re so good. They look at things differently than everyone else.”

Kendra shrugged. “I don’t have any right to criticize. I don’t always work and play well with others.”

“That occurred to me. In any case, they’ve each spent years wanting to catch this guy. Some of them have been in almost constant touch with the victims’ families, promising that the case hasn’t dropped off their radar. It’s personal to them.”

“Good. It should be.”

“Oh, and there’s another thing they have in common.”

“What’s that?”

“They’re extremely interested in meeting you.”

The elevator doors opened on the fourth floor.

She frowned. “Me?”

Metcalf followed her into the corridor. “Of course. You’ve become a key part of this case. The minute Griffin told them about Zachary’s message to Olivia, you could see their eyes light up and their heads lift as if sniffing prey. Something about you attracted the attention of this killer. Those investigators want to know everything about you.” Metcalf pointed to a freestanding bulletin board near the entrance of the war room where two assistants were working.

To her horror Kendra realized that the assistants were in the process of putting up photos of her and her previous cases.

Metcalf nodded. “Griffin gave you your own bulletin board. If that doesn’t make you feel important, nothing will.”

“It doesn’t make me feel important,” she said tightly. “It makes me feel like a piece of meat at the butcher shop. Or maybe one of the victims in their case histories.”

“Oops.” Metcalf added soothingly, “It’s just a way to efficiently display a potential asset, Kendra. If it wasn’t you he’d targeted, you know you’d want to have the most thorough information available.”

She realized he was right, but it didn’t make her feel any better about Griffin using her more as a piece of evidence than an investigator.

Shake it off. Today was going to be difficult enough and she didn’t need to start out with a chip on her shoulder.

Kendra stopped as she spotted Griffin across the room, waving a remote in his hand as he delivered projected PowerPoint slides to a small group. “That’s the dream team?”

“Yep.”

“Tell me about them.”

“Now?”

“Yes. I’d like to know something about them before we meet. Fill me in.”

“Well, Griffin already told you about Richard Gale. That’s the tall guy with the bushy eyebrows. He’s with the Bureau in New York City. Griffin wasn’t kidding when he said Gale wasn’t a people person. He’s managed to insult just about everyone here already.”

“Including you?”

Metcalf ran his hands through his thick, somewhat unruly hair. “Oh, yeah. He thought my hair style showed a flaw in my character, a lack of precision.”

“Hmm. He may have a point there.”

“Nice. The guy standing next to him, the thin one with the curly hair? That’s Edward Roscoe, he’s a homicide detective with the LAPD. He’s laid-back and kind of quiet. He cracked the Echo Park murders in LA a few years back.”

Kendra nodded. “I remember that … Wasn’t there a movie?”

“Yeah, a really crappy one. Roscoe was played by Matthew McConaughey.”

“Interesting.”

“Not to McConaughey. He still trash-talks the movie on talk shows.”

“Yeah? And who’s the older man with the buzz cut?”

“That’s Arnold Huston, Washington, D.C., homicide. Old school all the way. I offered him a desk with an Ethernet port, and he told me he hates computers. But he’s great at witness interviews. Huston can pull more out of a witness than just about anyone. People like and trust him.”