Already Trapped (Laura Frost FBI)

Laura only glanced at Nate to see that he was nodding and following her as she got up. They walked over to Kevin, greeting him in low voices.

“We’re terribly sorry for your loss,” Laura said. “As I’m sure these officers have explained to you, we need to do anything we can to catch the man who killed your brother. We have reason to believe he’ll kill again, and we need to find him before that happens.”

Kevin nodded, sniffing as he did so. “I know,” he said. His face was pale, his clothes crumpled and unwashed. Laura couldn’t imagine the kind of night he’d had, in an unfamiliar place after being told his twin brother was dead. They’d been through twenty-four years of life at each other’s side. Laura didn’t have that kind of close and long-lasting relationship with anyone. Even her parents—leaving home at eighteen to study had put them out of her sphere, and she’d never gone back. She couldn’t imagine how hard it would be to now know you had to go through the world alone.

“Let’s head upstairs,” Nate said, turning from addressing one of the officers in an aside, obviously figuring out where they could talk to Kevin. They were all led up in the elevator to the next floor, where they located a comfortable enough room with a sofa and several chairs. Not an interrogation room, like the one they used for criminals. This one was clearly for victims and their families, to soothe them while they answered the questions that needed to be asked.

“All right, Kevin,” Laura said, keeping her voice as gentle as she could. She always tried to think how she would want someone to talk to her if she’d lost someone special, and went from there. “We need to start by talking to you about someone you may or may not have heard of. I just want you to let me know if you recognize the name. Does that make sense?”

Kevin nodded slowly.

“Have you heard of either Ruby or Jade Patrickson?” Laura asked, watching him closely.

Kevin hesitated. “No,” he said. “No, sorry.”

In a way, it was good that these killings were happening so close together. After being taken in last night, Kevin wouldn’t have seen the media coverage that broke this morning, naming the twin women who had been reported as killed the day before. It was a genuine reaction. He’d had no chance for his memory to be tarnished by reading it in the news.

“They were twins, like you and Kenneth,” Laura prompted, just to be sure. “You haven’t met them through the charity you work with, for example?”

“No,” Kevin insisted, then his unsteady gaze focused on her. “Were?”

Laura took a breath. There was no point in hiding it from him. “Yes,” she said. “I’m afraid that both of them were killed, much in the same way as Kenneth.”

“By the same person?”

“We believe so,” Laura said.

Kevin’s face screwed up, a mask of pain and bitterness. A sob escaped his throat before he shook his head stubbornly, wiping a hand across his eyes. He looked as though he’d been up for half the night crying already. “Do you know who?” he asked.

Laura wished she had an answer for him, but she didn’t.

“We were hoping that you might help us with that,” Nate said, taking over. “Any kind of lead that you can think of might come in handy. Even if you didn’t know the girls, there’s a chance your brother did, and we don’t know what the link is between you just yet. So, ignoring the other deaths for now—is there anyone you can think of that might have wanted to hurt your brother?”

“I’ve been thinking about it all night,” Kevin said. “Kenneth was… well. It’s not like when you read in the news about how someone was loved by all and they never had any enemies. He wasn’t like that.”

“What was he like?” Laura asked softly.

Kevin shrugged, as if he didn’t want to say it—but he did. “He was an asshole sometimes. He got into trouble a lot. But he wasn’t a bad person. He was…” He broke off, covering his eyes as another sob racked through him. Laura looked at him with new eyes. He was clearly broken up, devastated by the loss. If he was willing to go so far as to use the word “asshole” even in these circumstances, then he was probably playing it down.

Kenneth was probably a lot worse than just an asshole.

“Can you tell us who came to your mind, when you were thinking about who could have done this?” Nate prompted quietly, his voice soft. An invitation to help Kevin move on, rather than berating him for pausing.

Kevin gathered himself, nodding. “There was the guy who had Kenneth brought up on charges last year. He was a real prick about it. So angry.”

“What exactly happened?” Laura asked.

Kevin shook his head ruefully. “It was so dumb,” he said. “He was just showing off, trying to be the big man. He smashed up this hotel room when some friends were in from out of town. He got arrested for it right away, and the police had to haul the owner of the hotel away from him. He didn’t just want him arrested, he wanted to kick his head in. He tried to argue that he should be owed all these damages, above and beyond what it would actually cost. We thought he was going to sue us, but I guess he couldn’t afford the legal fees anyway.”

“Was this an independent hotel, or a chain?” Laura asked. She saw out of the corner of her eye that Nate was scribbling down notes, so she didn’t have to. She could check what he’d written later on for her own records.

“Independent,” Kevin said. “It’s a local place—the Milwaukee Rest. I think the manager was called… I don’t know… Wales, or something like that? Anyway, he’s the one that filed the charges, so it should all be in the records. He was really angry. Said we’d cost him a few nights of business and they were barely hanging on.”

Laura nodded thoughtfully. It was kind of a lead. She wasn’t sure it was the kind of thing that would prompt murder. At least it was a solid thing they could look into. “Anyone else?” she asked.

Kevin nodded. “Like I said, I was up all night,” he replied. “Kenneth was really popular, and people didn’t like that. He had a couple of friends that always rubbed me the wrong way. I didn’t hang out with them myself much. I could see they didn’t really like him as much as they said they did.”

“What do you mean?” Laura asked.