Already Taken (Laura Frost FBI)

CHAPTER FIVE

Laura stepped into Rondelle’s office instead of waiting. The door had been left open, and she could see him sitting behind his desk—and standing in front of it, a young woman she didn’t recognize.

It didn’t take being the best FBI agent in the whole Bureau to figure out who that had to be. Laura’s new so-called partner. She wondered how long this one was going to last.

“Ah, Agent Frost,” Rondelle said. There was a slight tinge of relief to his voice. That was odd.

“Oh, Agent Frost!” the young woman repeated, with considerably more enthusiasm. She spun around to look at Laura, her auburn hair whipping around in the air behind her in a ponytail not unlike Laura’s own. “It’s so nice to meet you!”

Laura looked at Rondelle for help as the new agent reached out to vigorously shake her hand. Aha. She was beginning to get an idea of why he looked like he also needed rescuing. “Who am I meeting?”

“Oh!” the agent exclaimed. She had blue eyes that had something about them Laura couldn’t quite define. Too wide and too narrow at the same time. If she’d met her on a case, Laura would probably have been wondering if she was a suspect. “I’m Bee Moore. Agent Moore, I mean!”

Too familiar. Laura needed to get this girl to turn the volume down a notch before they even started. She gritted her teeth at what felt like a joke instead of a name, too. Instead of facing Rondelle for the briefing, she squared off against her new partner. Bee was younger than her, clearly a new graduate in her early twenties. There was a light smattering of freckles across her nose and cheeks that made her look even younger. “What is Bee short for? Beatrice?” she asked. She wasn’t going to be calling her partner by any nickname.

“Bee is my full name.” Agent Moore beamed. “I was raised on a commune.”

“Okay,” Laura said, looking back over at Rondelle. Apparently, Moore was expecting something more, because she was still watching Laura with what she could see from the corner of her eye was an almost manic grin. “Great.”

Rondelle was trying unsuccessfully to hide a smile.

“I’ve heard so much about you,” Agent Moore gushed. “You’re, like, the best agent out there, right? I mean, the best woman agent, anyway. On our first day out of training, we got to see how many cases all of the agents have worked on, and you’ve done so many!”

“I’m about a decade older than you,” Laura said. She felt too tired for this conversation. Her head was beginning to pound harder again. “You’ll have time to catch up.”

“Right, of course,” Moore said. “And you must tell me—”

“Was there a briefing?” Laura asked, cutting Moore off before she could fry Laura’s head even further with her over-the-top eagerness. She felt a little guilty, though, and tried to soften it. “I just figure we should hear the briefing, then get going. We can get to know each other on the way.”

That was a lie—or so she hoped. If this perky little agent didn’t allow her to sleep on the plane to wherever they were going, there might be more than one body to deal with when they arrived.

“Yes,” Rondelle said, leaning forward with the case notes in a slim folder. Laura stepped closer to take them, as she always liked to. Whoever held the case notes could determine when they talked about the case, and she didn’t want to do a whole lot of that until they were already on the ground. “I’m sending you to a small town a little out of Dayton, Ohio.”

Laura’s heart sank. That was, what, an hour and a half flight? No time to rest. They’d have to hit the ground running as soon as they got there.

“Laura, I’m aware that you need to take it easy,” Rondelle said, a little gruffly. “Agent Moore, one of your jobs will be to enforce that. Starting with this directive: once you land, I want you to go straight to your hotel. There’s only one in the town—I’m afraid it’s a little old inn, but I’m sure you’ll find it comfortable. I’ve asked them to stay open to allow you late entrance since you’ll be there after midnight, and they were happy to oblige. Check in, sleep, and report to the local sheriff in the morning, not before. Got that?”

Laura’s shoulders slumped—not because she was disagreeing with the order, but out of relief. “Got it.”

“That’ll get you fresh on the case when you head in,” Rondelle said. He tipped his head to the side slightly as if considering. “Also, the tickets are cheaper late at night than early in the morning.”

“Glad to know you have our best interests at heart,” Laura said, with a small smile. Then she regretted it; to the side, she noticed Agent Moore staring at her with an open-mouthed admiration. No doubt, she was in awe of how Laura could get away with being irreverent in front of the boss.

It didn’t hurt that they’d been through a lot. When Laura had tried again and again to save Amy Fallow from her abusive father’s clutches, it had been Rondelle who had to stand up for her in front of the head of their whole organization.

He hadn’t asked her about the thing with Nate. Laura had a feeling he was done with all the drama, and wanted her to get out of the state quickly so that everything had time to cool down. It wasn’t as though they needed much of a new witness statement—Nate’s word and the surveillance footage from the overpass would cover much of it.

“This case is not a laughing matter,” Rondelle said, sobering the mood in the room instantly. “We’ve just had a second body found earlier today. Within such a small town, one murder is quite uncommon and I gather this is the first such death that the Sheriff’s team has dealt with in over fifteen years. The second murder officially puts this out of their depth. It’s a grisly one, too. I recommend you take a look at the photographs.”

Laura obediently opened up the file and took the first printout—a series of reproduced crime scene photographs on normal printer paper. Not what they would be working with when they landed, but enough to give them an idea for now.

And what an idea.

There were two different bodies, but the injuries on them were similar. One of them was lying in what looked like a cornfield, with a gaping wound across the throat which had spilled blood in a wide swathe around it. The other was easier to see and study: this one was lying on its back, and it was possible to make out the devastation that had been wrought across the torso.

It was ripped to pieces, slashed over and over again with some kind of blade. There was a lot of fury and violence in those slashes. It was clearly far from the average murder.

There was something going on here, and it was not at all pretty.

“Oh, gosh,” Agent Moore gasped, shaking her head and covering her mouth with one hand. She looked like she was about to start crying.

Laura was glad Rondelle had suggested they look at the pictures now. Having that reaction when they were in front of the local sheriffs in Ohio would have been embarrassing. It was just about as much of a cliché as the rookie throwing up at their first body.

“Both local residents?” Laura asked, flipping away from the gruesome photographs and over to the rest of the file, which contained the basic information on the case as it was known so far.

“Yes, they have both been identified,” Rondelle said. “I think you can see where this is going. With two bodies showing up in as many days, this has the makings of a spree killer—or even a serial killer. You need to get down there and catch him before it goes that far.”

Laura was studying a little further down the first page. “Left in broad daylight, too,” she mused. “This could get interesting. He’s not shy at all, is he?”

“No, he is not,” Rondelle agreed. Moore was still looking between them with a tragic expression on her face, as if she thought that they were being too blasé in the face of all of these terrible details.

“You’ll get used to it, kid,” Laura said. She pushed the file into Moore’s hands, changing her mind about holding onto it. With any luck, it would horrify the rookie so much she wouldn’t want to discuss anything at all. “We’d better get going. How long until the flight?”

“Half an hour,” Rondelle said, checking his watch.

Moore made a squeaking noise. “I don’t have anything packed yet,” she said, clutching the file against her chest as if it was going to save her.

“Oh dear,” Laura said dryly. Maybe she would have had more sympathy if she wasn’t tired, aching, still supposed to be on leave but being emotionally blackmailed by her direct superior, and desperate for a drink she wasn’t allowed to have. “I suppose you’d better rush, then.”

“But I live outside of the city,” Moore said, her voice rising almost to a wail.

“Maybe you two should get on different flights,” Rondelle suggested with a heavy sigh. “I can push yours back a little, Agent Moore. Next time, I expect you to be prepared. Always carry a bug-out bag in your car so you’re ready to go if I need to send you directly from the briefing.”

“Yes, sir,” Moore said, her voice faint as if she was completely disappointed in herself.

Laura started walking out of the office, inwardly thanking whatever gods were looking out for her for the chance to really get some rest without an annoying newbie partner at her side. She was going to get an hour’s sleep on the flight, get to this inn or whatever it was, and sleep for the rest of the night—and nothing was going to interrupt her until dawn.

Then, this killer had better watch his back—because she wasn’t in a mood to be taking any prisoners.