“What did Jack want you to tell me?” Derek asked.
“Oh, he said as my partner, he expects you to have my back.”
“Ah. And you told him that it works both ways. You’ve got my back, too.”
“Isn’t that the way a partnership works, each partner takes care of the other?”
“Yes, ma’am, I believe you’re right.”
“Should we call down and ask them to clear away our dinner dishes?” She glanced at the remains of their delicious meal still on the balcony.
“I’ll take care of it before I go to bed,” he told her.
“All right then, partner, let’s get to work.” Maleah pulled out the swivel chair from the desk and indicated for him to sit. When he did, she plopped down on the blue and white striped sofa directly across from the desk.
He turned to face her. “Barbara Jean called earlier this evening.”
“And?”
“Nothing really. She just gave me bits and pieces of information that she thought might help me work up a profile on the copycat.”
“Would you mind sharing the information with me?”
He quoted Barbara Jean almost word for word and waited for Maleah to respond. When she didn’t, he added, “You should know that, at least for the time being, Sanders is completely in charge of the copycat case. Griff is preoccupied with proving his theory that someone calling himself Malcolm York is behind the murders. Luke Sentell is in Austria, following a lead.”
“I hope Griff is wrong,” Maleah said. “Besides, don’t you think it would be a truly odd coincidence if it turns out that someone impersonating Malcolm York is behind the murders, considering the fact that we now know someone is impersonating Albert Durham?”
“Stranger things have happened.”
“Do you think the fake Albert Durham and the elusive risen-from-the-dead York could be the same person? ’
Derek got up, walked around the white coffee table and sat down beside Maleah. She turned sideways and faced him.
“It’s possible,” he said. “Anything is possible.”
“A lot of help you are.”
He shrugged.
“Do you think you can put together a profile with what little information we have?”
“I’m going to try. We have to start somewhere and as we learn more about our copycat killer, I can revise the profile if necessary.”
“Will it help to talk it out, to discuss—?”
“Absolutely. Some good back and forth discussion between the two of us could help,” he told her. “We’ll combine your thoughts and mine on the subject of our copycat killer.”
“You talk. I’ll listen and comment.”
“The Copycat Carver is an odd bird.” Derek leaned back against the thickly padded sofa cushions and spread out his arm, bringing his fingertips within touching distance of Maleah’s neck. “He’s gone to a great deal of trouble to copy Jerome Browning’s MO and yet he deliberately sent the pieces of flesh he removed from the victims’ bodies to you instead of hiding them away somewhere the way Browning did. Why?”
“Why did he send them to me or why did he alter Browning’s MO in respect to the pieces of flesh?”
“Either. Both.”
“The reason he didn’t stick strictly to Browning’s MO was because he wanted to send me a message and what better way of doing that than by giving me what would have been the Carver’s most prized possessions.”
“Very good reasoning.”
“Thanks.”
“We’ve agreed that for some reason, it’s important to the copycat for you to be personally involved in this case. That’s why he chose Browning to emulate.”
“Because Browning killed Noah Laborde, my former boyfriend.” Maleah looked at Derek, concern in her hazel brown eyes. “But the question is why me? If Nic or Griff is the real target, then . . .” She paused for a full minute. “Could it really be that simple? Is he making me jump through hoops simply because he can and he wants Nic to know he can control her best friend? And what better way to hurt Nic than through me, right?”
“It’s definitely what Griff thinks and it does make a crazy kind of sense. If tormenting Nic and Griff is his objective, then he’s punishing them for some reason. He’s going to strike again and again, possibly getting closer and closer to his ultimate target with each kill, eventually discarding the Carver’s MO.”
“If that’s the case, then what are the odds that he’ll try to kill me before he moves on to Nic and Griff?”
Chapter 19
“It’s not as if we didn’t already know that both of us or either of us could be targeted as one of the killer’s next victims,” Derek said. “My guess is that he’ll gradually deviate more and more from the original Carver’s MO, so having brown eyes eventually won’t protect us.”
“Your putting my thoughts into words makes it seem more real.” Maleah eased back into the comfort of the sofa.
He squeezed her shoulder. “I try not to think about it. Besides, my guess is that your being jerked around by Browning is what the copycat killer wants, not your death. At least not yet.”
“Maybe.” She looked into Derek’s black eyes. Her stomach tightened. “What about you? What’s your role in all this craziness?”
“I’m the profiler. He knows my background. I’d lay odds on it. And it’s just possible that he wants me to profile him.”
“Why would he—?”
“He’s giving me clues to who he is and it’s up to me to decide which clues are true and which are false.”
Absently, Derek massaged her shoulder, his touch seeming instinctive, as if he was barely aware of what he was doing. She knew she should pull away, tell him to stop. But she didn’t. She leaned back against the sofa cushion and closed her eyes.
From the moment she had met Derek, she had been aware of the tension between them. And spending so much time with him these past few months had increased that live wire, just-below-the-surface unease she felt when he was anywhere near her. But on the other hand, as they had become better acquainted, her initial opinion of him had altered, at least somewhat. She had a greater respect for him, for his intelligence and his wit. She’d even gotten use to the way he kidded her.
“We’re dealing with two, maybe three, separate people,” Derek told her. “The copycat is playing Browning, using him, and it’s possible that Browning isn’t aware that he’s been used. I’m not sure how much Browning knows, if anything.”
“That’s my job, isn’t it, to find out what Browning knows.” She opened her eyes and glanced at Derek.
“Yeah, that’s your job and we both know he’s not going to make it easy for you.”
The gentle, continuous touch of his hand on her shoulder changed from soothing to arousing. She didn’t know if that was his intention or just her reaction, but either way, she had to put a stop to it. Without making a big deal of it, she slowly pulled away from him.
“You said there were three separate people involved. There are Browning and the Copycat Carver. Who is the third person?”
“I said
“Okay, if you want to split hairs, who is the
“Two scenarios,” Derek explained. “First, the Copycat Carver is the man behind everything. He’s working alone targeting Powell agents and members of their families, probably as a direct act of revenge against Griff and / or Nicole.”
Maleah nodded. “And scenario number two is?”
