Chapter 32

"I'm so sorry. This isn't the man I saw." Hope whirled around clearly searching for the serial killer.

Aaron exchanged a look with Livingstone, and the guy shook his head. He didn't believe Hope had seen Leech at all. Aaron let Griffin deal with the innocent passerby, who'd probably pissed himself.

"Hope." He caught her shoulders. "Let's get back in the car."

She whirled on him then, her eyes wild. "I saw him. You have to believe me."

"I do believe you, but he's not here now, and we need to get into the car and find out how Jeff Beasley is doing."

That snapped her back into the present, and she nodded and hurried to the SUV.

Once they were all inside, they drove around the block in time to see an ambulance pull away, sirens blaring.

"Wait here." Aaron jumped out as he spotted Frazer and caught up with him. "Is he still alive?"

Frazer's mouth pinched. "Barely. They doubt he's going to make it."

"Parker or anyone else have any luck tracing the call?"

"Yes, but you're already here. It came from Beasley's cell, which was found near the body." He pulled an evidence bag out of his pocket. "I'm going to drive it to the nearest lab and get it analyzed for fingerprints and DNA overnight before I courier it to Parker and see if he can find anything on the phone that he can't get from the cell company or tower records."

"Hope saw Leech watching the scene. She's pretty strung out."

Frazer's gaze sharpened. "It wouldn't surprise me at all if Leech hung around to watch the show."

"We searched for him, but we didn't pursue immediately. The guy we grabbed wasn't Leech, but Leech could have gotten away or slipped into one of these buildings."

"She may or may not have seen him." Frazer's gaze scanned the shops along the street. "I wonder if any of them have security cameras that may have captured Beasley before the assault. Did he meet Leech willingly—he is his client, after all—or was he attacked by someone else?"

"Why would someone else call Hope?"

Frazer's gaze met his. "It's all connected, I have no doubt of that. But where are his bodyguards? Would Beasley really have met the guy alone?"

"Meeting with an escaped convicted killer would mean instant disbarment if anyone found out?"

"Yes, but I'm sure Beasley could spin it that he was trying to get the man to turn himself in. As lucrative as Leech is, I doubt Beasley would risk his license for one man."

Aaron spotted a jeweler's shop a few buildings down. "Some of these places will have security footage. But I can't help canvass. I have to get Hope home. She shouldn't be here at all."

Frazer nodded. "I'll call the Boston SAC. See that he puts agents on it immediately. This is an FBI case even if I have to pull strings." Frazer was a pro at pulling strings. "We need to go to Beasley's office and question his assistant. Seize his appointment book and monitor his email and texts, although the law firm will fight us every inch. Is Hope all right?"

Aaron thought of the despairing look in her eyes when she thought they didn't believe her. Shook his head. "I don't think so."

Frazer swore.

Aaron looked up at the windows that overlooked the street. People stared out at the activity. Plenty of possibilities that someone saw something.

"If Beasley survives, how will he live with the irony it was Hope who saved him? And how will she live with the irony she managed to save a man she loathes but not the people she loved?"

"It's a hell of a thing," Frazer agreed. "I'll call as soon as I hear about Beasley's condition and go to the hospital after I've dropped the cell with the crime lab."

"Leech is keeping a lot of people very busy."

"I'm pissed it's gone on this long."

Aaron nodded and walked away.

Inside the SUV, there was a tense silence. Hope was ghostly pale, and her jaw clamped tight. Arms crossed tight around herself as she stared out the window at the patrol cars.

He wished he could pull her into his arms to comfort her, but she was angry and aloof. "Frazer's going to call when he hears anything about Beasley's condition?—"

She twisted to face him. "We can't go to the hospital?"

He shook his head and watched her spine straighten as if preparing for a fight. "Look, we can go and hang out all night in the public waiting room if you like. Get in the way of the medical staff. Tire out the team. Put you in potential danger from either Leech or the likes of Minnie Ramon. Or we can be sensible and wait for news. Get some rest. It's not like you're family. They won't tell you anything."

She exhaled with a shudder. "I hate it when you throw logic and reason at me."

He suppressed a smile. That was the Hope he knew and…liked.

Yeah. Best not to think about it.

"Logic and reason. That's why we call him the Professor," Livingstone joked, but his eyes in the rearview were worried.

Aaron gritted his teeth. He wasn't feeling logical or reasonable when it came to Hope. Not anymore.

Hope's fingers gripped one another. "He has a wife, Fiona, and three kids who must be teenagers now. I can only imagine—" She cut herself off and ran her hands over her face.

She didn't have to imagine. She'd experienced this exact situation herself.

"Can you have someone pick them up and drive them to the hospital?"

He texted Frazer to ask agents from the Boston Field Office to do just that. Without a dedicated task force, Frazer was the de facto contact point and team leader—whether he liked it or not.

"Done." He reached out and touched her arm. She was trembling beneath the down. "You okay?"

She inhaled a juddering breath. Nodded. "Just a normal Thursday night. Let's head back like you suggested. I need to call the DA and update him."

Livingstone didn't wait for more permission than that. He pulled into traffic. Aaron checked the back window and saw the other SUV follow, Damien Crow driving.

Hope fished out her cell and called her boss. The conversation was long and heated. They were drawing up outside her home by the time she hung up. The shadows under her eyes looked like bruises under the harsh streetlights.

He was about to open his mouth and say not to worry, that they'd catch him, but her glittery gaze caught his.

"Don't," she warned.

He shut his mouth. Dammit.

Once inside, Hope went straight upstairs, and he stood and watched her go. Then he went in to brief the team and Novak about this latest development.

Could Leech have been watching them downtown? Where had he disappeared to? Who was hiding him? Had Eloisa Fairchild left her house tonight? Was Leech thumbing his nose at them, staying at his Beacon Street mansion with the Delawares providing cover?

Aaron had an idea. "Hey, Shane, JJ." He waved Livingstone and Hersh over to him. "Do we have the handheld radar with us?"

Livingstone nodded.

"I want you guys to go check something out for me. No one else needs to know."