Sure, what had broken them up was very different than what had led to the destruction of Tom and Hannah’s first marriage, but in the end, they’d both been ripped apart by trauma, and if her partner could fix his broken relationship, then why couldn’t she?
“Chlo-ee.” She blinked. “Oh, Tom.”
“I've been calling your name for a solid minute, what are you so deep in thought about?”
Chloe didn't want to get into that right now. “Nothing important, just daydreaming.” Fin had filled her dreams all night; if she really had been daydreaming, then she guessed he’d fill those too.
Tom arched a brow. From the look in his eyes, he clearly knew what she’d been thinking about, but he didn't push the topic. “You’re wearing the reindeer beanie.”
She was. She had a serious addiction to all things tacky, ugly, Christmassy clothing. She had more sweaters, pajamas, socks, scarves, onesies than was normal, and her favorite was the reindeer beanie that had been a gift from her grandmother when she was twelve—the last Christmas her grandmother had been alive. She wore it all winter long, from October first to the end of April, every single day, without fail, whether the weather was warm or freezing cold.
But this year had been different.
She’d lost her son and the man she loved, and she just hadn’t been able to summon her usual joy around the holidays. What good were reindeer beanies and snowmen onesies and sweaters with Santas when she was grieving and sad and alone? Christmas was supposed to be a time to cherish the ones you loved—if you didn't have those people anymore, then Christmas lost its joy.
It wasn't until last night when she’d seen Fin that she’d felt a little flicker of hope ignite inside her.
Maybe it wasn't too late to save her relationship. She and Fin could talk. They could sort things out. She could apologize for walking away, and she could explain why she’d had to leave. Then they could get back together and everything would be okay again.
It felt like time to wear the beanie again. “It’s only a week untilChristmas,” she told her partner in preference to explaining about her and Fin and her reconciliation hopes.
Again, it was clearly written on her partner’s face that he already knew what thoughts were running through her head. Tom had really mellowed a lot since he remarried Hannah. He was still the meticulous agent who paid attention to every minute detail, but he was more easygoing now, more relaxed than when she had first met him.
Chloe was ready to put away thoughts of Fin for the time being though. They had a case to work and it was the biggest of her career so far.
“It was him. But how did she get away from him?” she wondered aloud. From what they knew about the killer, she couldn’t imagine how Taylor Sallow had managed to escape.
“Hopefully Taylor can tell us that when we speak to her later today. She’s had a night to get some sleep, so hopefully, we’ll get more out of her than we did last night.”
“Do we know how many breaks?” she asked.
“Not yet. He had her for nearly nineteen months—plenty of time to do several breaks.”
She shuddered.
This killer was particularly vicious.
He’d been nicknamed The Breaker because he destroyed the homes of his victims when he abducted them. He broke every mirror, every vase, every figurine, every window in the house. Then he grabbed the woman and disappeared.
Without a trace.
There was no physical evidence left behind. There were no witnesses. There was nothing that told them who he was or where he took the women. They were just there one day and gone the next.
“Kelly Mitchell was gone for almost four years,” Tom said. “There were no leads. The case went cold quickly because thecops didn't know which direction to look. There was no husband or boyfriend. There were no exes. There were no problems with friends or colleagues or neighbors. Everyone loved her, and no one had any ideas who would have taken her. The cops went through every sexual predator in the area. They searched through Kelly's life with a fine-tooth comb looking for some secret that might have gotten her killed, and they came up empty. Eventually, there was nowhere else to look, and the case was put on the back burner.”
“Until her body was found at a bus stop four years later.” Chloe didn't like to think about those four years and what Kelly Mitchell had suffered. She couldn’t imagine what the woman’s life had been like. She didn'twantto imagine what the woman’s life had been like.
“With thirty bones broken, all in various stages of healing,” Tom added.
“According to the ME’s report, some of the breaks looked like they’d been done four years prior to her death. Most likely, he did them one at a time. He wanted her to suffer. He enjoyed it. If he didn't, he would have just killed her and been done with it. But he didn't. He broke each bone individually and then let them heal before moving on to the next one.”
What kind of sick monster did that to another human being?
Chloe had known since she was ten that monsters existed, and she had always known when she’d chosen this job that she would encounter them. But knowing that and actually working a case where she was hunting one made it so much more real.
“Within days of Kelly Mitchell's body being discovered, he’d taken another woman, Christie Neil. The cases were linked because of the women’s houses. Both had been trashed in identical fashion.”
“He had her for almost seven years; she had over ninety bones that had been broken by the time he killed her and dumped her,”Chloe said.