“Crews just left yesterday, and the furniture was returned this morning. Now I just have to figure out what to do with it all.”
“I can help.”
“I could use the extra muscle.”
“How’s the arm?”
“Still sore. But better.” She flexed her fingers. “It’s getting better each day. How was parents’ weekend?”
“Nate is doing really well. I also think he has a girlfriend.”
She removed two cold sodas and handed one to him. “Good for him.”
“As long as his grades don’t suffer.” He popped the top of the soda.
“Spoken like a dad.” Vaughan’s dedication to his son was one of his qualities she admired most.
“I’d like you to meet him.”
“That would be nice.”
“He’ll be home the week of Thanksgiving.”
She crossed her fingers. “Barring a case, so will I.”
“Nate’s used to holiday dinners being delayed for a case. If you can be flexible that week, we’ll make it work.”
She wanted to make it work. “Then we will.”
He kissed her lips softly. “Can I tempt you with those DNA results now?”
“You know how to charm a girl.”
He took another pull on the soda can. “I reached out to Andrea Jamison in the FBI’s ViCAP division. I kept going back to a point you and Dr. Baldwin made about Veronica and Galina’s killer.”
“We thought he was comfortable with killing.”
“Exactly.”
“What did you discover?”
“I provided Andrea—Andy, as she likes to be called—with Dalton’s approximate locations over the last couple of years and asked if there were blond women who had been stabbed in or near those areas. I asked her to key in on sex workers. Turns out Andy is good at tracking patterns.”
“And?”
“She found ten cases that fit the criteria.”
“Ten murders.” In all honesty, she was surprised the number was not higher, given the rate of this summer’s killing spree. “Was DNA collected on any of the cases?”
“Most of the bodies were too degraded, but there was DNA collected on two. They had been submitted for testing, but with the backlog in the local lab, they hadn’t been analyzed yet.”
“And now?”
“One was a match to Jason Dalton.”
“Really?” She felt no satisfaction knowing her theory had been proven.
“I suspect some of the other victims were his as well, but we may never know,” he said. “The consolation is that he won’t be killing any more women.”
“What about Skylar? Is she going to be charged with Hadley Foster’s murder?” Zoe asked.
“There is talk of filing manslaughter charges, but there’s little political will to prosecute Skylar.”
“The girl is a natural manipulator like Jason.” Zoe was not happy, but she also saw the logic. “The cops have a confession from Mark, which, true or not, carries a great deal of weight with the courts. Do you think he killed himself?”
“He might have. Mark loved Skylar, and he wanted to protect her. He knew she’d killed Hadley, and he figured the only way to help her was to take the blame himself.”
Foster had simply been trying to do right by his wife and daughter, as he always had. “That doesn’t explain how Hadley’s blood got on Skylar.”
“Skylar’s attorney said she had been trying to save her mother after the father’s attack.”
“Did you see the interview the girl gave with Nikki McDonald?” she asked.
“I did. Skylar has the face of an angel.” He flicked his finger against the can’s tab.
Zoe shook her head. “Do you think she’ll do it again?”
“It wouldn’t surprise me,” he said. “The girl is missing an emotional chip.”
The apple did not fall far from her biological father’s tree. “Mrs. Bradford and her son, Neil, are standing behind her.”
“Sleep with an open eye,” Vaughan cautioned.
“I feel like we lost this one.”
He took her soda can from her, set it beside his on the kitchen counter, and then pulled her into his arms. “Jason is dead. He’s not going to kill any more women. We take the victories where we can.” He kissed her on the mouth.
She leaned into the kiss, savoring the touch of his lips.
“And we can enjoy what we have together,” he said.
Her life as a dancer and then as a wife to Jeff had ended forever. There was no going back. But she was still an FBI agent, and not only was she good at what she did, but she liked it.
And there was Vaughan. With him, a new door had opened to new possibilities. For the first time in a long time, she wasn’t desperate to recapture what she’d had. She was ready to step through this new door and see what waited for her.
“I like that idea very much,” she said.