Chapter 23

Aaron and Frazer cleared away the plates into the dishwasher while Hope made decaf coffee.

"Are you ready to see the video I took of the crime scene?" Frazer asked finally.

Her stomach rolled. "Video?"

Aaron glanced at her. "Is that a good idea?"

She swallowed. "Frazer thinks I might see something that I recognize as a message or something, don't you?"

The profiler nodded. "But I also understand if you don't want to watch it. It's not pleasant."

Hope's mouth went dry. She'd seen a thousand crime scene photos. Sometimes she felt numb. Sometimes they dropped her to her knees. But Sylvie had been a friendly acquaintance with whom she'd worked on many occasions. How could seeing the scene of her murder be anything except horrific?

"I want to catch this bastard. If he left me a message, I want to know."

Frazer set up his laptop and phone on the dining room table, and they all sat back down to watch, Frazer and Aaron on either side of her, bolstering her courage.

"To set the scene, when I arrived the snow was undisturbed, and there were no vehicles in sight. No sign of activity in the house. I hoped Sylvie and her husband had gone away for a few days. I called Sylvie's cell and heard it ringing inside. The door to the utility was locked, but the inner door into the house was not."

"Did he take a vehicle?" asked Hope.

"Nothing that was registered to Sylvie or her husband."

"So, he has to have a car or SUV."

"Or someone is helping him," Aaron suggested.

"State police have been compiling records of stolen vehicles since the prison minibus went missing. They are being followed up, but nothing has flagged in the system near Sylvie's home yet."

They watched the video through once in silence.

Hope shivered. To see a woman she knew and liked, lying on her bedroom carpet touching her husband's hand in such a familiar way made her heart shatter. It also made rage build. She didn't dare let it show.

"Play it again."

Frazer started it over, and she felt Aaron's gaze on her rather than the screen. She ignored his concern.

They got to the bathroom scene and those words scrawled in red across the mirror.

"Stop it there." Aaron pointed. "Can we get a comparison on the handwriting between the mirror and the back of the photo planted on the grave? We must have Leech's handwriting on file somewhere."

"We do. Let me check the files." Frazer pulled his laptop toward him.

"Don't bother. I have some letters here." She climbed to her feet and walked over to her large walk-in cupboard near the front door.

"I thought you said you had them all shredded?" Aaron didn't sound pleased.

She smiled with amusement. "That was after he was incarcerated for what was supposed to be life."

The HRT operator came up behind her and reached over her to help remove a banker's box that was high up on the top shelf behind a basket of winter gear. He didn't touch her, but his nearness made heat rise in her cheeks. That flash of awareness earlier had ignited something inside her.

"This one?" His voice was soft. Eyes wary.

"Yes."

He carried the box back to the dining table.

She stood where she was, near the cupboard door. "I should warn you that that box contains copies of all the evidence and court documents from Leech's last trial, including autopsy photographs." She swallowed tightly. "I haven't looked at them and would appreciate care when searching through to retrieve the letters he sent me during the trial itself." Acid churned in her stomach. "I have no desire to see those images. Ever."

She wasn't strong enough for that. Everything else, but not that.

"Why do you have them here?" Aaron's brows bunched in disapproval.

"They are part of the case against him. I needed it to be complete even if I never looked at it again." She shrugged. "Maybe it's my training, or maybe I kept it in that box and locked away as a way of dealing with it." Put it in a box and pretend not to think about it. Sounded about right.

Frazer drew off the lid.

She couldn't move. "Letters are in their own manilla folder."

Frazer found them easily and pulled them out.

"Did you read them?" Aaron asked.

"I read those ones. In case he incriminated himself."

"Did he?" Aaron asked.

She shook her head. "Kept going on about how he was innocent and how he'd never hurt a child—as if that meant it had never happened." She couldn't believe Leech was free to once again destroy lives.

Her hands clasped together, but she couldn't let go.

Aaron put the lid on the box and placed it on a chair out of sight. The box was a reminder as to what had happened, but as trauma filled every space in her body, she couldn't understand why seeing it again, thinking about it again, affected her so much.

Perhaps she had been recovering from what had happened seven years ago. And now Leech was out again.

She walked over to the table as Frazer removed a handwritten letter and spread it out.

They all stared hard at the screen and letter.

"The ‘f' in ‘feelings' is the same as the one here in ‘defend.' And the overuse of punctuation, plus the giant ‘I' fits with Leech's sociopathy, right?" said Aaron.

Frazer nodded. "The writing on the mirror definitely sounds like Leech. Whining about himself after the rape and murder of two innocent people in the next room."

She pressed her lips together as emotions wanted to rush her.

"The way the words on the back of the photo from the grave have the first letter capitalized like in the title of a book is different. Plus, we have the word ‘next' here and here." Aaron pointed out two examples. "I know it's not an exact science, but the way the letters are joined looks different."

"They are written seven years apart and under wildly different circumstances, but I'm leaning toward the letter on the headstone being written by someone other than Leech," Frazer mused. "I'm waiting on the analysis of the photo to see if we have the printer identification serial number, and then we can hopefully trace that to a location."

"What's the delay?" asked Aaron.

"Too many crimes, not enough crime techs. I already called and updated the director on the latest murders. She said she'd send a memo to the head of the lab tonight. Now that we suspect Leech is alive, they should start work on this tomorrow at the latest."

"Would Leech have had time to kill Sylvie early last night then drive to the cemetery to vandalize the grave?" Aaron asked.

Frazer pinched his chin. "It's only thirty minutes away by car. But I can't see him doing it. I can't see him going from a rape and double homicide to smearing pig's blood over a headstone. Or risking his freedom for something so mundane and beneath him."

"Substitution because he couldn't get to Hope?"

Frazer cocked his head. "He'd gotten to someone on his list which would have made him buzz like a cattle prod. I would have expected him to crawl back into his hole and savor the experience while he prepared for the next one."

"Who else is on that list do you think?"

"I'm honestly not sure. The judge, the jury, Beasley and his team, the lab tech who found Danny's blood on Leech's shirt and testified in court. Presumably Brendan for beating the shit out of him."

Hope's mouth went dry.

Frazer forestalled her panic. "I've arranged for everyone to be contacted again and reminded of the danger Leech poses. That included your brother-in-law and his mother. BPD will have a car parked outside her house until they catch Leech."

Relief swelled through her. The thought of Leech hurting Danny's mom was unbearable.

"Is the business with the headstone an accomplice or sympathizer?" asked Aaron.

Frazer shook his head. "I'm not sure yet, but as soon as we identify and locate that printer, we'll be paying someone a visit."

Hope picked up one of the letters Leech had sent. "He definitely has help from someone and somewhere to stay. Or he has killed someone and is living in their house and using their vehicle. But he had to get there from the scene of the accident…" She looked up. "The FBI need to interview Blake Delaware because if anyone knows where he is, it'll be that sleazeball. The guy manages Leech's whole life, although he wasn't the sole signatory on the business accounts back in the day. I guess Julius wasn't quite as naive as he pretended some days."

Frazer looked irritated, though not with her. "Now we have this new murder investigation I can push for more surveillance—but both Leech and Delaware would know it's likely Delaware will be watched. I don't think they'd communicate using any known means."

"Leech could have contacted Delaware from someone else's phone before we even knew he was free," Aaron said. "You should see who called Delaware in that time frame. We might find a lead."

Frazer glanced at him sharply. Hope had a feeling Aaron had suggested something he hadn't thought of, which probably didn't happen very often.

"Smart," Hope commented.

His gaze flashed to hers. "Not really."

She found herself smiling. He really didn't like being called out on his intellect. His former fiancée had done a real number on him.

"I have asked for records of all his visitors going back two years," said Frazer. "One of them might be helping him."

Hope shuddered. "Why would anyone help that monster?"

"Not everyone believed he was guilty." Frazer smoothed his hand over the paper. "Some people believed someone else murdered Danny and Paige and set Leech up."

She looked away. She'd played a part in that too. In exposing the police corruption, she'd undermined the second case against Leech.

"Could this Delaware guy have ordered a hit on Monroe? Staged the suicide with the note to get the evidence dismissed and his boss released?" asked Aaron.

Hope jolted. "The prosecutor made those same noises after I made my motion to dismiss, but they had zero evidence. No witnesses. No evidence of a struggle. Leech and Delaware both looked equally stunned by the turn of events that day."

"Who was the prosecutor on that case again?"

"Steven Foggerty. He left the DA's office and moved to Florida after the trial. Private practice. He was no fan of mine, so I'm glad we don't have to work together. I assume someone notified him about Leech getting out?"

Frazer nodded.

"I'd like to take a look at that police report on Monroe's death. Can you get it for me?" Aaron asked Frazer.

Her fingers strangled one another as disquiet filled her.

"The more I know about everything that happened back then the better prepared I am for any curve balls. That's why I'd like your permission to read your files from the second trial." Aaron's dark eyes bored into her.

He didn't need permission, not really. How could she say no, even though she desperately wanted to? "Just keep the photographs out of my sight. Maybe keep the box in the bedroom."

"I can do that," Aaron said quietly. "Let's watch the rest of the video and see if you notice anything else."

Frazer pressed the play button, and this time she saw Sylvie's office, trashed, and the monitor with a photograph of her standing in the sleet last night.

Had her bitter words provoked Leech into killing again?

Frazer read her mind. "He would have done it anyway. You know that."

"What about Janelli?" Aaron sipped his coffee.

Frazer frowned. "His cell phone was at his house last night."

"You tracked his cell? How did you get a warrant?" asked Hope.

Frazer gave her a pithy look. "I don't know what you're talking about, counselor."

"I won't be involved in illegal surveillance."

"Oh, please. It's not Watergate," Frazer scoffed.

"You said yourself you thought he could have vandalized the headstone, but Brendan wouldn't even consider it, let alone raise it with his boss. The only way we could get an expedient answer is by doing a quick check on his whereabouts," Aaron said firmly. "Anyway, I wasn't talking about Janelli being the vandal. I meant about him being a possible Leech target. You said he never wavered from the story that he saw Monroe pick the tissue up at the crime scene."

Frazer moved one shoulder. "Monroe could have easily planted it without Janelli seeing. Then deliberately put it in an evidence bag in front of the rookie. Janelli was probably telling the truth as he saw it."

"According to the court records," Aaron insisted, "Leech called Janelli a liar when he was on the stand."

"That's right." Hope rubbed her brow. The decaf wasn't enough to hold up her eyelids. "Judge warned Leech, said one more word and he'd be held in contempt." She shuddered then. She'd touched Leech's arm. Told him to calm down, that she'd deal with it. And she had. "Should I call Brendan and tell him to warn the guy?"

She didn't like the detective, but she wished him no actual harm.

Frazer shook his head and checked his watch. "I'll call his captain to tell him Janelli should take the threat seriously and see if they have anything to share while I'm at it." He put the handwritten letters back into the file folder and slid them across the table toward Aaron, who placed them carefully inside the box and replaced the lid.

Hope stared at Frazer and remembered something else. "Hey. You forgot someone on your list."

"Who?"

"You. Who's watching your back?"