Veronica turned away and pulled a slab from one of the nearby lockers. Cold air brushed against Katherine"s skin. Mac and Dane edged closer to the slab, but Katherine didn"t move.
Veronica unzipped the bag, and her gloved fingers pointed toward Savannah"s neck. "Take a look here." She shone a light on Savannah"s neck and pushed a magnifying gla.s.s toward Savannah"s throat.
Dane leaned forward.
Katherine edged back. Her eyes weren"t on Savannah"s neck; they were on her face. So still and pale. All the color bleached away. All of the life-just gone.
"I see the bruise," Dane said.
"Not just a bruise. An injection site."
Katherine"s gaze snapped to Veronica.
"I didn"t even realize what it was at first because it"s so small, but once I got the tox screen back on her, I knew what to look for." Her voice rose with excitement. "The killer injected her with fentanyl, a high enough dose to knock her out for a good long while."
"Fentanyl?" Katherine repeated, lost. "What"s that?"
"It"s like morphine, but much stronger. With the dose that Savannah Slater was given, she would have been unconscious within moments." She licked her lips. "Helpless."
"I"ve heard of fentanyl, and that"s not exactly an easy drug to get your hands on," Dane muttered as he eased closer to Katherine.
"No." Ronnie pushed her gla.s.ses higher on her nose. "You need a prescription. Doctors would have access. Nurses."
"Hot d.a.m.n." Now excitement had entered Dane"s voice, too. "We might be able to track the b.a.s.t.a.r.d through the drug."
Veronica nodded.
"We"ll start a check, trace down the distribution-"
Katherine grabbed his arm. "Valentine never drugged his victims. They all came with him willingly." Her eyes were on Savannah"s body. "He seduced," she whispered. "He didn"t drug." That wasn"t the way he"d worked in Boston.
"This killer is drugging his victims." Ronnie pulled out another body from a second locker. Unzipped the bag. Katherine took a sharp breath when she saw the woman"s dark hair. Was that Amy Evans? Yes.
Ronnie was still talking. She used her magnifying gla.s.s and said, "Same injection spot. Same drug. Same high dose." Ronnie"s gaze turned to Dane. "Both victims were unconscious when the killer took them."
"What about Lancaster?" Dane demanded. "Did he have the same injection mark?"
Ronnie shook her head and moved away from the slabs. She walked toward a sheet-covered body that waited on a table in the middle of the room. "I"ve got his tox screen running now, a rush order, but I checked thoroughly, and I haven"t found any sign of an injection on his body."
Katherine turned and walked toward that table. She stared at Trent"s covered body. A tremble shook her.
"I did notice something different, though." Ronnie"s voice was contemplative. "The angle of the attack is different with him. The knife plunged into him deeper, harder. There was a h.e.l.l of a lot more force used in this kill."
"Because he was angry," Dane said, coming to stand by that table, too.
Trent"s face was covered by the sheet. Katherine didn"t want to see his face.
Not again.
I"m sorry, Trent.
"Valentine was angry," Dane said again. "That"s why the wounds were harder. He was p.i.s.sed off."
At Trent.
At me.
Ronnie cleared her throat. "There are the exact same number of slashes on the arms of all the victims, the pattern is perfect."
"Because it"s the same pattern that Valentine has on his arms," Katherine added. She"d seen those scars, touched them, so many times and not even realized..."He suffered, so he wanted his victims to feel the same pain he felt."
She had no doubt that Trent had felt plenty of pain before he died.
"We need to talk to the profiler," Mac said. "If our perp is drugging his victims, then his MO has changed."
Katherine turned away from Trent"s body. The scent in that place was making her sick. No, just being there, so close to the victims...
They"d all suffered too much. And for what? Because Valentine had marked them for death.
But why them...and why not me?
"Katherine!" Dane called her name as she rushed for the door.
But Katherine just shook her head. She needed air. She was suffocating in there. She pushed past the doors, didn"t wait for the elevator but rushed up the stairs.
Then she was outside. The back lot was all but deserted, and she sucked in deep gulps of air.
A hand wrapped around her shoulder. She knew the touch instantly. Dane.
She didn"t turn toward him. "I want this to stop." What did they have to do?
"The drug is the biggest break we"ve had. We can track its distribution and run the b.a.s.t.a.r.d down."
"He didn"t drug his victims-"
Dane caught her chin and forced her to look at him. "That was three years ago. Maybe something happened to him. Maybe he has to drug them in order to get them under his power. Whatever the reason, this is the break we need. We can find him."
She couldn"t get those dead bodies out of her head. She would never be able to get them out. "He"s always watching," she said. Her gaze darted around the parking lot. "He knew about me and Trent, so he killed Trent. He knows about us, Dane." Dammit, she"d been so selfish last night. Wanting to be with him because he made her feel alive.
Even though just being with her could make him dead.
Katherine shook her head. "He said I should stay away from you."
"And that"s exactly why you"re staying close to me. That b.a.s.t.a.r.d doesn"t get to dictate to you. We"re not playing his game."
Yes, they were. Didn"t Dane realize it? With each body they discovered, they were just running blindly behind Valentine.
"I don"t want you to be the next victim in the morgue," she said, and suddenly Katherine was the one holding on to him. Her nails sank into his arms. "I don"t want that, do you understand?"
Not when she"d just started to care for him. He"d broken through her wall, and she didn"t want him to die because of her.
"He"s not going to catch me unaware. I"m the one who"s going to catch him."
So confident. So determined.
She wanted to believe him, but she was afraid.
What if...
Dane kissed her. Hard. Deep. "You"re not losing me, and I"m not going to let you go."
"I want you to stay at the station," Dane said as he checked his weapon. He was going to head back to Trent Lancaster"s place and make sure the techs hadn"t missed any detail. The more he learned about his victims, the more he could potentially learn about Valentine.
"No." Katherine"s voice was quiet and determined and d.a.m.n well not saying what he wanted to hear.
She was seated in his desk chair. He leaned over, caging her with his hands. "I have to know that you"re safe."
"I can"t keep hiding." Her chin lifted. s.e.xy. Strong. But driving him crazy when he just wanted to protect her. "He"s never tried to hurt me, don"t you get that? If Valentine wanted me dead, he could have just stabbed me in the heart at the gallery."
That wasn"t the visual that Dane wanted in his head. But he knew she was right-he"d thought the same thing.
He had the opportunity. Plenty of time. Valentine could have easily killed Katherine before Dane arrived.
"I"m not going back to the safe house. I"m not going to hide at the station all day." Her gaze was clear. "Hiding won"t draw him out. My being out there, walking around where he can see me-"
Where the b.a.s.t.a.r.d could watch.
"-that"s when he"ll be more likely to slip up." Her breath whispered out. "Just put cops on me."
The uniforms hadn"t done her a d.a.m.n bit of good before. This time, he"d tell them to stick shadow close.
"But I"m not going to cower in the shadows."
He could admire that. He did. He actually admired a h.e.l.l of a lot about her.
If they hadn"t been surrounded by a roomful of avid cops, he would have kissed her.
Again.
"I need to see Joe and Ben," she told him.
His brows climbed. "The guys from the diner?"
"After what happened yesterday, I just...I need to talk to them." She glanced down at her trembling hands. "They"re the closest thing to friends that I have in this town. I feel like I owe them an explanation."
She didn"t owe anything to anyone.
"So I"m going to the diner, then I"ll go home." Her lips twisted. "Because I"m guessing my gallery is off-limits."
"It"s an active crime scene."
"And the showing won"t be happening. Not that anyone would want to come now, knowing who I am." Her lips twisted. "Or maybe they would. There"s always the freak show aspect."
"You"re not a freak." Just hearing her say that had rage pulsing through him. Katherine had worked hard to build her new life, but that life had been ripped apart by a few minutes of prime-time TV.
"Hendricks! Johnson!" Dane barked for the uniforms.
They rushed toward them.
He glared at the two men. "You"re her shadow today, got it? Where she goes, you go."
The men quickly nodded.
"If anything happens, anything that makes her nervous or makes you nervous, then you get her to a secure location and you call me. Got it?"
More quick nods.
His gaze turned back to Katherine. "I don"t like this." Just so they were clear.
"I don"t either, but it"s what I have to do."
Not be afraid. Take charge of her life.
f.u.c.k. It would be so easy to love a woman like her. With a spirit that couldn"t be broken.
So easy.
Screw the cops watching. He took her lips again. Then growled, "I"ll come to you as soon as I finish my check at Lancaster"s." And as soon as he started running down those drug orders.
She nodded. Her gaze showed no fear, but he knew Katherine was good at hiding her emotions.
Good at not screaming from nightmares.
Good at not breaking when death came.
What would she be like, he wondered, if she didn"t have to be so careful? So good at staying on guard? He"d like to see her that way. The real Katherine.
One day, he vowed, he would see her like that.
The door jingled as Katherine entered the cafe. The morning rush was in full effect, and the place was packed with hungry customers.
The cops were behind her. They were staying about five steps away from her for every step that she took.
The cafe was still a sea of red with the tablecloths that Joe had put out before, but now, Katherine saw that Joe had added vases of roses to the tabletops. The sickeningly sweet scent of the roses. .h.i.t her the instant she stepped inside.
So many d.a.m.n roses. With Valentine"s Day right around the corner, the roses were everywhere. And she hated them.
Katherine exhaled slowly and squared her shoulders. She"d come there for a reason, dammit, and she wasn"t going to let some flowers stop her. When she approached the counter, Joe"s head lifted. His eyes widened when he saw her.