Page 28 of Royal

My dad had told me I was worthless. Looking back at my life—at all the mistakes I’d made with Royal, all my failed relationships since then, and my shortcomings with the current investigation that had led to a second victim, due to my failure to stop the killer in time—I was beginning to believe dear old Dad had been right.

“Have trouble sleeping last night?” Ruby asked. She’d poked fun at me earlier, but she seemed genuinely concerned now. “You’re zoning a lot this morning.”

“This case is hard. That’s all.” I placed the cup on my desk. “I hate feeling powerless. That bastard is out there right now, probably stalking his next victim, or hell, maybe he’s already moved on to another town. It’s hard to sleep when that shit’s on my mind.”

“I know the feeling.” Ruby stared at her hand, slowly twisting her wedding ring. “I haven’t been sleeping well, either. I don’t see how big-city detectives do it all the time.”

As something finally clicked in my head, I plopped down in my desk chair and rolled to the computer.

“Can’t believe I didn’t realize it sooner.” I shook my head at my ignorance. So much for my keen perception and analysis skills.

“What is it?” Ruby asked, leaning down to look at my screen.

I typed a few words into the search engine and hit enter. Pictures and names of former victims appeared in the search results.

About a year ago, murders began popping up in Washington State. They didn’t get much attention in the world news, but as the killings spread from Washington to Oregon and across other states, the news had begun talking about them more. Public figures were being targeted, abducted, and eventually found dead.

“Christ. I remember hearing about this.” Ruby had her eyes focused on the screen, and her face paled.

“The killings started in April and ended in June last year,” I said. “With no leads and no more murders, the trail ran cold. The news eventually moved on, and the story died.”

“Did they ever release details about the killings?” she asked.

“No specifics, only that the nine victims were stabbed to death.”

“Nothing about flowers?”

“Doesn’t look like it,” I answered. “Though, it does mention all of the bodies were found by water. Lakes, ponds, rivers, pools.”

“So, this guy kills for months and then stops out of the blue. And now he’s in Addersfield?”

“Looks like it.” I exited the browser and stood from the chair, finding it hard to keep still after learning the severity of the situation. “We have a fucking serial killer on the loose.”

***

When the agents arrived, I crossed my arms and glared.

Ruby slapped my arm. “Stop. They’re only here to help.”

Suppressing an eye roll, I moved my arms to my sides, but the glare remained.

“There are only six of them?” I asked, as they entered the station.

“Six of the best, I reckon,” Ruby responded. “From the BAU.”

“LikeCriminal Minds?” I scoffed. “Give me a fucking break.”

“It’s a real unit,” she said, giving me an incredulous look. “Maybe not as the show portrays, but they’re damn good at what they do.”

Lieutenant Anderson stepped forward to greet them. They were too far away for me to hear what was said, but they shook hands and talked. Then the lieutenant motioned to me, and the tallest of the agents—a real hard-ass by the look of it—nodded and walked toward me.

“Detective Riley?” the agent said, holding out his hand. “I’m Supervisory Special Agent Phoenix Stone, chief of the BAU. You’re lead detective on this case, correct?”

Wow. The dude just had to throw in his long title like he was a bigshot, stroking his ego, probably.

“Yeah,” I answered, shaking his hand. “That’s me.”

Agent Stone matched me in height, which not many other men I’d met had. In fact, he was maybe an inch taller, putting him at six-foot-four or five at least. Dark hair, blue eyes, and a fair complexion, he was hot, too. Which I was sure only piled his arrogance even higher.