* * *
Holden circled the entire inside perimeter of the house for the umpteenth time in an hour, waiting for Bella to be done with the pageant training session. He heard Selina’s voice ring out from the laptop speakers, counting as he imagined Bella doing the coordinated dance moves. Holden wasn’t a dancer or into performance art but he imagined it wasn’t much different from orchestrating a takedown operation. Everyone in their place at the right time, knowing exactly how and why they would execute their moves. Plus have a backup plan.
He didn’t look in on Bella because he didn’t trust himself. After the best sex of his life how could he?
It’s more than sex now.
Indeed. He looked through the living room window, saw the cruiser parked beyond a grove of cacti. Two MVPD officers patrolled the property, and he saw one or the other as he made his interior rounds, through windows. It couldn’t last very long, the response from MVPD. They were overworked as it was, with recent events in town now including looters who’d taken advantage of homes damaged in the recent earthquake, investigating the attempted murder of Payne Colton and keeping tabs on the Affirmation Alliance Group. He knew from his background checks on each contestant that Leigh, the woman going out of her way to speak to Bella during the pageant practice, was a part of the mysterious group.
He had to find who was sabotaging the pageant before MVPD called the protection off Bella. Before the killer got to her, or any other contestant.
“Bella, your posture is totally off.” Selina’s voice blared out from Bella’s office and he wanted to tell Selina just how incredible Bella’s posture had served them both earlier. Making sure she was safe inside the house, he went outside to do a perimeter check. He knew that MVPD was patrolling the outer edges of her property, but Holden needed to see the house entry and exit points, make sure they were secure.
In case you want to make love to Bella again?
“Keep it in your pants, St. Clair,” he muttered to himself as he again checked the bathroom’s window locks. It bugged him that there was a high clear window in Bella’s bathroom. He texted Spencer and asked him to bring either sticky opaque peel-on covering or curtains. He didn’t care which, but he wanted to know that no one could see inside the house.
Be there in five.
His reaction to Spencer’s immediate reply surprised him. Shouldn’t he be grateful for the break from his position of constant vigilance? He could talk to Spencer while Bella continued her modified pageant practice, knowing that there was an additional LEA on-site in case the killer came back.
Instead he had a serious case of guilt. He and Bella were adults, and his decision to break his professional protocol to be with her was solely his. And Bella’s decisions were her own, too. But—and it was a big but—Bella was his buddy’s sister. No escaping that. And if Spencer caught a hint of what had gone down this morning, he’d be up in Holden’s grill.
Which he totally deserved, but didn’t want to have to deal with.
His phone vibrated and he answered his supervisor’s call. “Holden.”
“We’ve got DNA confirmation that it was the same killer in both previous pageants.” His boss wasn’t one to waste time on preliminaries, which Holden usually appreciated but this case had more meaning to him.
Bella.
It was as if his boss had punched him in the gut. He sucked in a deep breath, fighting his nerves. Fighting the fear.
“Copy that. Any clues as to his identity?”
“We don’t know if it’s male or female, but the pattern seems to fit a mal
e killer as he’s always picking female victims who bear a resemblance to one another.”
“He’s making up for a lost love.”
“Or nurturing pain from a loss that was never processed. Like a mother, or former girlfriend or wife. Both victims had red hair and green eyes, so we’re looking at a mother figure with the same.”
“Did anyone else get hurt at those pageants, contestants who survived?” Holden had to ask, even though it showed a hole he’d missed in his own research and investigation.
“Yes. In each case, anyone who had a visible problem with the victim was either assaulted or had other criminal activity that appeared aimed at them. One had a car stolen, abandoning her at a diner in the middle of nowhere. Another incident involved the death of a contestant’s dog.”
“What had the contestant done to warrant their pet being killed?”
“They criticized the victim. Apparently our killer is very defensive of his targets.”
Holden breathed in and out in a steady rhythm as he’d learned to do to keep his anxiety at bay. The thought of Becky being shoved down the stairs on the same day she’d verbally sparred with Bella made him nauseous. “It sounds like positive confirmation that it’s the same guy, then.” He told him what had happened with Becky, how Becky had given Bella a hard time two days ago.
“We’re close, Holden. Don’t let up, and we’ll have the killer before the end of this pageant.”
“Yes, sir.” After they disconnected, Holden took a minute to look at the blue sky, the small yard that backed up to pure desert beauty. No wonder Bella enjoyed living a little farther out from town. This spot had a quiet peacefulness he missed while living in Phoenix.
A treasured quiet shattered by a monster.