Once Cold. Блейк Пирс

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СКАЧАТЬ danger than she’d bargained for, Lucy thought.

      But she didn’t say so aloud.

      “What can we all learn from what just happened?” Agent Paige asked the class.

      A male student raised his hand and said, “When you’re mentally reconstructing a crime, be sure to factor in every bit of information you’ve got. Don’t leave anything out.”

      Agent Paige looked pleased.

      “That’s right,” she said. “A detective has to have a vivid imagination, has to be able to get into a killer’s mind. But that’s a tricky business. Just overlooking a single detail can throw you way off. It can make the difference between solving the case and not solving it at all.”

      Agent Paige paused, then added, “And this case never did get solved. Whether it ever will … well, it’s doubtful. After twenty-five years, the trail’s gone pretty cold. A man killed three young women – and there’s a good chance he’s still out there.”

      Agent Paige let her words sink in for a moment.

      “That’s all for today,” she finally said. “You know what you’re supposed to read for the next class.”

      The students left the lecture hall. Lucy decided to stay for a few moments and chat with her mentor.

      Agent Paige smiled at her and said, “You did some pretty good detective work just now.”

      “Thanks,” Lucy said.

      She was very pleased. The slightest bit of praise from Riley Paige meant a great deal to her.

      Then Agent Paige said, “But now I want you to try something a little more advanced. Shut your eyes.”

      Lucy did so. In a low, steady voice, Agent Paige gave her more details.

      “After he killed Tilda Steen, the murderer buried her in a shallow grave. Can you describe for me how that happened?”

      As she’d been doing during the exercise, Lucy tried to slip into the murderer’s mind.

      “He left the body lying on the bed, then stepped out of the motel room door,” Lucy said aloud. “He looked carefully around. He didn’t see anybody. So he took her body out to his car and dumped it in the back seat. Then he drove to a wooded area. Some place that he knew pretty well, but not very close to the crime scene.”

      “Go on,” Agent Page said.

      Her eyes still closed, Lucy could feel the killer’s methodical coldness.

      “He stopped the car where it wouldn’t be easy to see. Then he got a shovel out of his trunk.”

      Lucy felt stumped for a moment.

      It was night, so how would the killer find his way into the woods?

      It wouldn’t be easy to carry a flashlight, a shovel, and a corpse.

      “Was it a moonlit night?” Lucy asked.

      “It was,” Agent Paige said.

      Lucy felt encouraged.

      “He picked up the shovel with one hand and slung the body over his shoulder with the other. He trudged off into the woods. He kept going until he found a faraway place where he was sure nobody ever went.”

      “A faraway place?” Agent Paige asked, interrupting Lucy’s reverie.

      “Definitely,” Lucy said.

      “Open your eyes.”

      Lucy did so. Agent Paige was packing up her briefcase to go.

      She said, “Actually, the killer took the body to the woods right across the highway from the motel. He only carried Tilda’s body a few yards into the thicket. He could easily have seen car lights from the highway, and he probably used the light from a street lamp to bury Tilda. And he buried her carelessly, covering her more with rocks than earth. A passing bicyclist noticed the smell a few days later and called the cops. The body was easy to find.”

      Lucy’s mouth dropped open with surprise.

      “Why didn’t he go to more trouble to hide the murder?” she asked. “I don’t understand.”

      Shutting her briefcase, Agent Paige frowned ruefully.

      “I don’t either,” she said. “Nobody does.”

      Agent Paige picked up her briefcase and left the lecture hall.

      As Lucy watched her leave, she detected an attitude of bitterness and disappointment in Agent Paige’s stride.

      Clearly, as detached as Agent Paige tried to seem, this cold case still was tormenting her.

      CHAPTER TWO

      Over dinner that evening, Riley Paige couldn’t get the “Matchbook Killer” out of her mind. She had used that cold case as an example for her class because she knew she’d be hearing about it again soon.

      Riley tried to concentrate on the delicious Guatemalan stew that Gabriela had prepared for them. Their live-in housekeeper and general helper was a wonderful cook. Riley hoped that Gabriela wouldn’t notice that she was having trouble enjoying dinner tonight. But of course, the girls did notice.

      “What’s the matter, Mom?” asked April, Riley’s fifteen-year-old daughter.

      “Is something wrong?” asked Jilly, the thirteen-year-old girl that Riley was hoping to adopt.

      From her seat on the other side of the table, Gabriela also gazed at Riley with concern.

      Riley didn’t know what to say. The truth was, she knew that she was going to get a fresh reminder of the Matchbook Killer tomorrow – a phone call that she got every year. There was no point in trying to put it out of her mind.

      But she didn’t like bringing her work home to the family. Sometimes, despite all her best efforts, she had even put her loved ones in terrible danger.

      “It’s nothing,” she said.

      The four of them ate quietly for a few moments.

      Finally April said, “It’s Dad, isn’t it? It bothers you that he’s not home again this evening.”

      The question took Riley a bit by surprise. Her husband’s recent absences from the household had been troubling her lately. She and Ryan had gone to a lot of effort to reconcile, even after a painful divorce. Now their progress seemed to be crumbling, and Ryan had been spending more and more time at his own house.

      But Ryan hadn’t been on her mind at all right now.

      What did that say about her?

      Was she getting numb to her failing relationship?

      Had she just given up?

      Her three dinner companions were still looking at her, waiting for her to say something.

      “It’s a case,” Riley said. “It always СКАЧАТЬ