Page 23

CHAPTER 23

Frankie

The woman who discovered the disembodied head this morning was staring down at the ground, hardly blinking. She had the same brown hair as all three victims too which worried me.

I grabbed one of the water bottles they’d brought for the cops and headed over.

She still seemed to be in shock, but I’ve done this enough times to know how to handle people in this state.

Everyone was different, but there were only so many variations.

Depending on the way she reacted to me, I’d know what steps I needed to take to bring her out of that shock and trust me enough to give me information and opportunities she might not have given the police.

I took a knee in front of her and looked up into her face, instantly getting her attention. “How are you doing?”

The woman didn’t respond, but I hadn’t expected her to.

I handed her the bottle of water and gave her a small smile. “I know you’ve been here a long time and you’ve answered the same questions over and over, but I’m the last person you need to speak with. I’ll make it quick and painless, I promise.”

She hesitated before taking the water bottle from me, staring at it like she didn’t quite understand what was happening.

Rummaging around in my pockets, I pulled out the various items and selected the small, round candy I always carried around for these types of situations. “Here, you have to be hungry, but this is all I have. Sorry about that.”

She took the hard, pink candy and stared at the shiny wrapper around it before looking at me like I was an alien species. “Thank you.”

“No problem.” I flashed her my best smile and rested my forearm on my knee.

I didn’t want to make her look up at me and intimidate her.

She was a beta per the notes from the previous officers and pretty shy, or maybe she was just out of it. I couldn’t be sure yet, but I was an alpha and looming over a beta or an omega never went over well unless I wanted them to be afraid of me.

“I’m not going to ask you all the same questions they asked you,” I assured her. “I mostly wanted to make sure you’re doing okay and apologize for making you wait so long.”

“It’s fine,” she whispered as she rolled the candy between her fingers.

Pushing to my feet, I sat beside her on the bench and leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees to look smaller. “Are you missing work because of all this?”

She nodded and I took my phone out to text Garcia. “Okay, I’ll get them to write an official note for you to send to your boss so it doesn’t cause any problems. You should definitely take the rest of the day off. I have a few people you can call if you need to talk to someone about what happened. This isn’t exactly an easy thing to deal with.”

Her gaze slid to my phone before she wrapped the blanket around her tighter.

When she leaned back against the bench, I did the same but turned my body to face her, propping my arm up on the top of the bench.

My body language was open and casual which should help her relax a little more.

Most people didn’t understand what I was doing when I matched their body language, but they always responded to it whether they realized it or not.

She glanced at me again and color started to seep back into her face. “Are you a police officer?”

“I’m not.” I shook my head and gave her a reassuring smile. “These guys just call me in when they can’t figure something out on their own. I really don’t know what they’d do without me.”

She watched the police officers for a moment before refocusing on me. “Why do the police need you?”

She was already shaking off the shock. That was lucky.

“I’m a behavior analyst,” I explained. “They call me for the really messed up ones.”

Now she was giving me her full attention.

“I’m Frankie James.” I held out my hand. “What’s your name?”

“Leslie Omer,” she murmured as she carefully took my hand.

“It’s nice to meet you, Leslie.” I gave her another warm smile and this time, she almost smiled back. “Your hand is freezing. Here, you can wear this.”

I went to take off my jacket but she shook her head. “I’m fine, really. But I appreciate it.”

“Okay, then let’s finish this up quick so you can get out of here. I’ll have one of the officers drive you back home, okay? They’ll take your car and make sure you get there safely. Is that alright?”

Leslie nodded again and opened the candy I gave her. “I really don’t know what else I can tell you about what happened. I’m sorry. I should have been paying more attention.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it.” I carefully placed my hand on her shoulder to reassure her. “I don’t expect you to know anything. I actually only have one question for you and then you can go home and rest.”

I dropped my hand, glad she didn’t seem opposed to my advances. I didn’t need her to fall for me even if that would make things easier, but I did want her to see me as someone she liked – someone she could easily trust.

“You told the cops the route you took, right?”

“I did.” Leslie carefully placed the candy in her mouth and then pulled her phone out of her pocket. “I come here every morning around dawn to hike before work and track my routes on this app.”

She showed me the app and my adrenaline surged but I didn’t dare let my excitement show on my face.

“Is it okay if I take a look at it?”

Leslie nodded and offered me her phone. “Like I told the police, I parked in the lot just over there and walked the coastal trail before heading back.”

The app was one for hikers to log their miles and steps. It also had GPS tracking with time stamps. This would be perfect for narrowing down a window of time.

“You came back down the same trail, right?” I zoomed in to check all the time stamps.

“I did.” She leaned in and pointed to one of the spots on the trail. “This helps hikers stay safe so there are regular check-ins. I didn’t notice anything on my way up the coast since it was still pretty dark out. It was on the way back that I found…that.”

“Do you mind if I send myself screenshots of this?”

“Go ahead.”

Perfect.

I propped my head up with my fist and went to the app store and selected one of Lucy’s backdoor apps before swiping back to the hiking one. I screenshotted everything I needed and then texted them to myself.

“I’m going to save my number in your phone,” I told her. “If there’s anything you need you can text me. Dealing with this kind of thing can be really overwhelming.”

Before I handed her back the phone, I hid the app I’d downloaded in a folder within a folder and deleted the download history.

“There are pictures in the hiking app too,” she told me. “I can send you the ones I took this morning.”

“Really? You’d do that for me?” I looked up and saw her pretty brown eyes were fixated on me.

I held her gaze and smiled slightly, pleased when she didn’t look down or away from me.

Leslie blushed and then looked down at the water bottle in her hands. “Yeah, I don’t mind,” she murmured. “I want to help in any way I can.”

Studying her, I tried to go through all the scenarios as objectively as possible. I didn’t think she was the murderer, but there was a chance.

Anyone was capable of doing the most horrible things imaginable. That was something I was forced to learn growing up in a world full of legacies and alphas who thought they were entitled to anything and everything simply because of their designation.

The odds of this beta woman being the murderer was pretty low, but it definitely wasn’t zero.

Another possibility that worried me was she had the same brown hair as all three of the victims.

There currently wasn’t anything else tying the victims together and if the head wasn’t already planted on the trail when she started hiking, there was a good chance the killer saw her. If they did, they might want to eliminate any possibility she’d get them caught, or…

Or she fit their victim type and end up next.

I haven’t had the time to study this killer’s patterns yet but they might not have a particular time frame between killings. We also didn’t have a specific time for these deaths. All I knew so far was they weren’t fresh.

“It’s my job to find whoever it is,” I told her. “And I’m actually pretty good at it so you don’t have to worry.”

“I’ve heard about you,” Leslie admitted. “You solved the Valor case.”

With Lucy’s help, but yeah.

I grinned and handed her back her phone. “I can’t believe you know who I am. That’s a little embarrassing.”

Pretending I was flustered wasn’t difficult and Leslie smiled again, giving me another indicator that she seemed to like me, if nothing else, so I decided to go for it.

“Would you happen to have a dash cam in your car?” I pulled my lip balm out of my pocket and slicked it on as I waited for her answer.

Leslie’s eyes widened. “I do actually.”

“If you don’t mind, could you send me the footage from that too? Here, I’ll send you my email address. Sometimes phones compress the files and it makes the footage too grainy to really see anything.”

I tucked my lip balm back into my pocket and pulled out my phone. “That should be everything though. I don’t really have any other questions, but if you think of something I might have missed, feel free to text me.”

Her phone chimed when I sent over my email and I placed my hand on her knee, shocking her enough she looked up and her eyes met mine once more.

“Do me a favor?” I lowered my voice and used a soothing cadence so she wouldn’t freak out. “Don’t go hiking for a little while. I want you to rest and take care of yourself until you feel ready. Maybe even get a buddy for the first few times you go back on a trail. This kind of thing doesn’t just go away and I don’t want you to be alone while you deal with it.”

Leslie gave me the tiniest smile, like she wanted to reassure me. “Thank you, Detective James. I will.”

I patted her knee, hoping she would stay away from this park for a while.

The last thing I wanted was for her to end up being one of the victims.

“I’ll get one of the officers to drive you home.” I stood and slipped my hands in my pockets, giving her a big smile. “You have no idea how much I appreciate all your help. It’s going to make my life a lot easier, so thank you Leslie.”

Turning on my heel to head over to Garcia, I found myself looking for Soren first.

My rookie was leaning against one of the trees with his arms crossed over his chest, watching me from under the visor of his cap.

I couldn’t tell what he was thinking with that neutral expression of his, but for some reason it felt like his gaze was sharper than normal.

“How did it go?” Garcia asked, redirecting my attention back to him.

“She’s going to share the pictures she took as well as the information from her hiking app,” I told him. “I didn’t learn anything new but it seems like the head was placed in that location after she first walked past, but she did say it was dark when she started hiking.”

Telling him she’d already let me have the screenshots wasn’t necessary. I’d just send the information over once I downloaded it off her phone through the app.

Protecting my sources and methods were always my priority on cases like this.

“I also promised her an officer would take her home. I don’t want her driving in that state and they can get her dash cam footage from her before heading back.”

“I’ll have a patrol car follow them,” Garcia agreed.

“And keep one on her until this case is closed,” I advised. “We don’t have a distinct victim type yet, but she has the same hair color.”

He made a note of that and then flicked his fingers at one of the officers in uniform. “Anything else?”

“No, that’s it for now. I’m gonna head to the state park’s office and then go through the materials you sent over.”

“I’ll call once we wrap all this up,” Garcia assured me.

“Good luck.” I waved as I headed over to Soren, already considering the next step.

Leslie was still watching me and I waved goodbye, smiling when she blushed again. She was pretty cute and extremely eager to be helpful.

I could relate to that.

My smile dropped when I turned back to Soren and I stopped when I saw that strange look in his eye again.

I raised an eyebrow at him. “What’s your deal?”

“How did you do that?”

“Do what?”

I headed toward the state park’s office and he fell into step beside me.

“You got her to forget how scared she was.”

Studying him out of the corner of my eye, I was surprised he’d noticed something that subtle.

“Well…I’m not as intimidating as other alphas.”

“I don’t think that’s it.” Soren carefully inspected our surroundings as we walked. “You can be pretty scary.”

I almost tripped over my feet.

Me? Scary? I studied him out of the corner of my eye, wondering if he had a few screws loose. “What makes you think that?”

“You don’t use your pheromones to dominate others,” Soren explained as he pulled the visor on his cap down even farther. “But everyone still follows your lead. It’s pretty unusual for alphas to do that.”

He was far more observant than I’d given him credit for. Not only that, but he seemed to understand the nuances of what he was seeing more than most.

I found that very worrying.

“Throwing your pheromones around to bend others to your will doesn’t prove anything,” I muttered as I studied the trees. “Having strength and power doesn’t inherently mean you’re good at leading or taking care of others.”

“Exactly.” Soren smiled down at me and I almost stumbled over my feet all over again.

I’ve never really seen him smile and it changed his whole face. That neutral expression faded away and his eyes sparkled every time the sunlight caught them.

Did he really have to be this beautiful? It just wasn’t fair.

“You have this way of intimidating alphas even without using your pheromones,” Soren explained. “It triggers our instincts when you get that look on your face and makes anyone who was misbehaving in any way feel defensive. It seems like that feeling puts everyone else at ease. Their instincts must be telling them you’ll take care of whatever it is they’re worried about when it comes to alphas. That’s really impressive.”

The impressive one here was actually Soren.

I was pretty sure no one else other than my father had ever made that observation before and I’d been sure he was lying to try to make me feel better. Now some random rookie who’s barely spent any time with me said the same thing?

Maybe they were right, but that didn’t change anything.

I would never really be good enough. All I could do was try my best and hope that my pack wouldn’t deteriorate under my rule.

My father was still trying to protect me from all the madness going on, but he couldn’t do that forever.

The Lopez pack was testing me. They were trying to see if I had what it took to be their alpha and I couldn’t let a single drop of weakness show or they’d tear me apart.

If I couldn’t gain their trust the same way I’d gained Leslie’s, I’d deserve it.

The world of legacies was different from the rest of the world. It still held on to archaic ideologies and expectations. If I failed to meet those expectations, nothing could save me. Not even the law.

I shook my head and picked up the pace.

Letting my father keep me out of pack business wasn’t going to help me. I had to find a way to convince him to let me help find out who was behind my uncle’s death.

I had to prove I was capable even without my father’s support and the only person who could help me do that was Leo.

At least solving this case without Lucy would prove my competence if nothing else.

This I could do with my eyes closed, but dealing with Leo?

Leo was a problem for a different day.