Page 54 of Tell Me Your Desires

Chapter Twenty-Eight

“Son of a bitch, Max was right.” Anya stood up and flipped through the cold case files, gathering the case notes from each one.

“I wish I had a murder board,” she muttered.

After leaving the FBI, Anya didn’t look back.

No case lingered in her mind, not even the last one.

Hell, Anya rarely watched crime dramas on television.

So, since she didn’t have a murder board, the refrigerator would have to do.

She hung the notes in order using magnets.

“You’re going to run out of room.”

“I know.” Anya glanced over her shoulder. “Could you clean the island, please? Just pack up the food so I can lay more notes out.”

“Sure.” Kate started closing up containers and moving them to another counter. “Are you sure Derek can’t get into these?”

“Oh, he can. But he learned his lesson the last time he decided to steal my sushi. He also got a bit of wasabi, which wasn’t good for either of us.” After Anya had nearly covered the fridge entirely, she moved to the island and began laying out the case notes in order.

“That doesn’t sound good at all.” Kate stepped closer to Anya and held out a hand. “Can I help?”

Anya shook her head. “I know what I’m looking for.” She went back to her task, then stopped again. “Actually, I need your computer.”

“My computer or the FBI database?”

Anya lifted a brow. “SAC Sullivan, that was a silly question, wasn’t it?” She pointed at her own laptop, which was in plain sight.

“Right.” Kate retrieved her computer from the table and brought it to the makeshift workstation on the kitchen island. “I’m sorry, Anya. I normally wouldn’t question your expertise, but…”

“But? You already started the skepticism, Kate, you may as well finish it.”

“No, no. Not skepticism, Anya. I’m merely stating that my profiler looked at these cases while I was on the flight here, and he determined them to be unrelated.”

Of course, he did. Anya didn’t feel jealous; she felt annoyed. “How old is your profiler?” Anya asked with genuine curiosity.

Kate frowned. “Um, twenty-eight, I think.”

Anya nodded. “And he decided in the time it took you to fly from New York to Nevada that these cases were not related?”

“With all due respect, Anya, you came to the conclusion they were in less time,” Kate pointed out. “Not to mention you’ve been out of the game for a while. And I don’t mean any disrespect to your…current occupation, but I don’t imagine there’s much talking going on.”

Anya snickered sardonically. “You’d be surprised. Do you think my education just ceases to exist because my job now requires me to use more than just my brain?”

“N-no, of course not, but…”

“But nothing, Kate.” Anya sighed. She was wasting precious time explaining this, but to convert Kate’s opinion, Anya needed to convince her that she still knew what she was doing. “What’s his name? Your profiler.”

“Cody Anderson.”

“Let me guess Agent Anderson’s profile of the UNSUB of my case, and then I’ll tell you why I disagree with his assessment of both the UNSUB and these cases. If you still doubt me,” Anya scoffed. “Well, you won’t.”

She opened the fridge, careful not to disturb the papers she’d hung up there, and retrieved two bottles of water, handing one to Kate as she returned to the island.

Twisting off the cap, Anya narrowed her eyes.

She imagined what a twenty-eight-year-old Cody Anderson would think about the five women who were murdered after sleeping with a dominatrix.

Obviously, she was oversimplifying the situation, but she wondered if Anderson would do the same thing if he could so quickly toss aside the cold cases without a second thought.

“UNSUB is a middle-aged male—an incel whose mommy didn’t love him enough. He punishes women for being the cause of his rejection by mutilating them and taking their power to scream, run, and fight back. How’d I do?”

Kate stared at Anya for a long moment. “That was…spot on.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “I’m confused. You essentially recite his report to me verbatim, yet insist he’s wrong. What am I missing? Or more to the point, what do you think my agent is missing?”

“Insight,” Anya answered simply. “Your agent’s assessment was my knee-jerk assessment.

” She frowned. “Except the mother part. Was that really in the report?” Kate nodded while Anya rolled her eyes and shook her head in disbelief.

“We don’t have enough information about the UNSUB to make that assumption. ”

“You’ve said yourself that profiles are educated guesses a lot of the time.”

“The keyword being educated,” Anya countered. “Making generalized hypotheticals like that is how people get killed, Kate. Beyond that, I’m quite alarmed by how quickly your agent dismissed the potential link between my case and these cold cases.”

“Well,” Kate cleared her throat, seemingly uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation.

“I’ll address the generalization with him.

About the connection, the, uh, modus operandi doesn’t really fit.

These women were all, um…” Kate pulled her long, brown hair up into a ponytail as her explanation trailed off.

“Young?” Anya finished for a very flustered Kate.

Kate always had a tell when they were together.

Whenever they had an argument and Kate couldn’t defend her position, or she needed to tell Anya something that made Kate uncomfortable, up went the hair.

“Not old like me?” She continued just to make Kate squirm a little longer.

“I… That’s… You’re…” Kate sighed. “I’m not suggesting that you are old, and neither is my agent. But you have to admit, you are more mature than the young ladies in these other cases.”

Anya chuckled softly. “I agree. I’m older than the previous victims. All of us are,” Anya said, pointing at the latest five victims. “Even Maisie fell a little above the previous threshold.”

“Right!” Kate exclaimed, sounding very much relieved. “Still, you’re convinced they’re connected,” she continued after studying Anya for a long moment. “So, connect the dots for me. Show me what you see and what Agent Anderson missed.”

“I’m not here to throw anyone under the bus, Kate.

I’m here to solve a case. What I said about insight is true.

I think I know who our UNSUB is, but-” Anya continued quickly when Kate immediately opened her mouth to ask questions.

“I have questions to answer before I disclose that. Especially since I don’t think he’s working alone. ”

Kate frowned. “An accomplice? Agent Anderson didn’t mention an accomplice.”

“No, he wouldn’t have because he dismissed the cold cases.” Anya waved away any further questions or excuses. “It would be easier to start from the beginning. All I have is a theory, and I’m still working it out. I want to be sure I’m right about who it is before I mention names.”

“Do you think I’m going to repeat past mistakes, Anya? You could tell me you did all of this, and I wouldn’t make a move until you showed me indisputable evidence.”

Anya’s eyebrow quirked. “I’ve already been a suspect. I’d appreciate it if people would stop thinking I’m capable of murder.”

Kate’s face clearly showed her surprise. “Is that how you and your detective met? She accused you?”

“She was investigating the case,” Anya answered vaguely.

“And now I’m investigating this one. Let’s start here.

” She walked to the fridge and pointed at the first cold case.

“Six young women missing from foster care. Three were found slain, and three are still missing.” She took the photos from the file and shared them with Kate.

“I didn’t want to hang these up, but they’re important.

You can see the wounds are hesitant, almost as though he didn’t want to hurt them. ”

“They were his first kill. Maybe he wasn’t sure how to go about it?” Kate suggested, closely examining the photos from various angles.

“Perhaps. Or he didn’t want to kill them but was doing what he was told.”

Kate looked up sharply. “The accomplice?”

Anya nodded.

“So, the second UNSUB has been with him from the beginning?”

“Mmm.” Anya’s mind was going a mile a minute, working through scenario after scenario. Each one brought her to the same conclusion, yet she needed to make it make sense to herself before she could even think about going to Jaime with any of this.

Kate leaned a hip on the counter and pursed her lips as she studied Anya. “I know that ‘mmm.’ It carries quite the punch. You’ve worked this out, haven’t you?”

“I’ve theorized,” Anya corrected. “But I need more information, such as the records of children who lived at this foster home during this time. That information wasn’t in the files.”

“No, it wouldn’t be because they were minors.”

Anya walked over to the island and brought Kate’s laptop closer, tapping the trackpad to wake up the screen.

When the password prompt popped up, Anya hesitated and typed in the password she remembered Kate using four years before.

It logged her in, and she side-eyed Kate.

“You should really change your password.”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t anticipate this scenario. What are you looking for?”

“Information on the children who were at the foster home, for starters,” Anya said as she typed.

“That’s a slippery slope, Anya. I realize they’re not minors anymore, but…”

“I’m not digging into their lives, Kate, not unless I have to. And if that’s the case, you’ll have plenty of probable cause for a court order.” Anya pulled up another database.

“What are you looking up now?” Kate peered over Anya’s shoulder.