Page 87 of Seven Deadly Sins

He nodded. “The chief has help. Don’t worry. We’ll get them all. Once they’re all rounded up, you and me are to question the wives, then the husbands. The chief wants the husbands squirming a bit.”

It was all taking too long. “The others can handle this. Let’s move to the next house.” They’d been assigned this one, but she wanted to be involved in the rounding up of every man in each house. One of them could tell her where Robert hid. The man wasn’t a phantom.

“If you’re willing to risk the chief’s lecture, then I am, too.” He followed her to the car and stared at her over the hood.

“What?”

“Don’t let this consume you, Harper. Don’t become obsessed to the point of running yourself into the ground.”

She narrowed her eyes. “We have a psycho killing people. Have you forgotten?”

“Kind of hard to forget.” He opened the door and slid inside.

She got in the driver’s seat. “Then, there is no slowing down.”

“Once, I worked a serial killer case. One that involved the death of children.”

She pulled away from the curb and headed toward the next address. “I’m listening.”

“I became consumed. Got sick. I couldn’t do anything, then, and someone else had to step in.”

“Did they catch the guy?”

“Woman. And, yes, she was caught. She kidnapped children, thinking they could replace a child she lost. When they couldn’t, she killed them and took another.”

Harper could see shutting out everything else to stop a woman like that. “This is different. I want Robert caught before we get to the last sin. That’s when he comes after us.” She cut him a sharp glance. “The assassin is very good. We won’t see her coming.” A trickle of ice water coursed down her spine.

“Sure, we will.” He grinned. “When the time comes, I plan on drawing her into the open.”

“What’s your idea?”

“Still working on it. We’ve got some time.”

How did he do it? Instead of a sense of urgency, which Harper had, Liam coasted. He did the job, and did it well, but while Harper’s nerves twanged every waking minute of the day, Liam treated this exactly like it was…a job.

Maybe someday, she’d be able to compartmentalize her life, but not then. Way too many things occupied her mind. The case, Liam, the impending feeling of doom…

When they pulled up in front of the next house, the place looked deserted. She took a deep breath and exited the jeep. Two officers paused in the middle of the driveway.

“Thought we were doing this alone,” one of them said.

“We’re here to help.” Harper studied the house. “What do we have?”

“Looks like the residents skipped, but we haven’t checked the place. You want to take the house and we’ll take the backyard?”

“Sure.” Liam stepped to her side. “It looks deserted, but it doesn’t feel deserted. Know what I mean?”

She did. The hair on her arms stood at attention. Elephants stampeded through her stomach.

Rather than try the front door first, she peered through the garage window. “Car inside.” Was it running? “Liam!” Using the butt of her gun, she broke the glass. The stench of carbon monoxide hit her in the face.

She counted two heads in the front seat. She broke another pane of glass. “I can’t reach the handle.”

“Automatic door opener.” He sprinted for the front door. With a well-placed kick, it broke open.

Harper gave chase, catching up to him as he fumbled with a deadbolt. “Someone locked them in.”

“Looks that way.” He got the door unlocked. Pulling his shirt over his nose, he led the way into the garage, pressing a lever on the wall to open the garage door.