“In order for that to happen, the killer would’ve had to have known the identity of the New Castle Killer and hunted him down.” Hinges protested as Beckett Foster, the deputy US Marshal responsible for over half of the fugitive recoveries in the state of Oregon alone, leaned back in his chair. “From the evidence in these files, it looks like neither you nor anyone who worked the case back east was able to get a positive ID on the killer. There was even a theory the murders weren’t connected because the last two victims had never been recovered. Says here all you had was one body and three crime scenes with a lot of blood left behind. What makes you think Del Howe is the New Castle Killer?”
Dylan nodded to Remi, who hit the projector button to switch to the next slide. “All three victims lived in apartment buildings with elevators. All three elevators were inspected by Del Howe within a month of each victim disappearing.” A still frame of Del Howe filled the projector screen, the footage taken from a camera angled high above the suspect’s head. “I called in a favor and had this this footage pulled from the elevator camera in the second victim’s building last week. It’s dated eight days before Brett Smith went missing.”
Remi clicked to the next slide. “This is from Tony Rasmussen’s building three weeks before the first victim disappeared. And this one—” she landed on the last slide “—is from Tad Marrow’s building three days before his roommate called police. All show Del Howe in and around the locations where the New Castle Killer’s victims were killed and drained of blood.”
“Why do serials always go for the blade, huh?” Reed asked.
The chief set the remote on the conference table and weighed both palms against the glossy surface. A haunted exhaustion had thinned the skin and accentuated the dark circles under her eyes, and Dylan clenched his teeth to keep himself from reaching out for her. Remi wouldn’t appreciate it. Especially not in a room full of the men she supervised. “We believe someone made the same connection Deputy Cove did then followed Del Howe here to get their revenge.”
“You said only the first victim, Tony Rasmussen, was recovered. Police found little else but pools of blood at the other two.” Finn Reed domed one hand on the conference table surface. “His Delaware driver’s license puts him at five-nine and one hundred and seventy pounds, and this footage only shows Howe carrying a tool bag to do his inspections. How did he get two grown men out of the building on his own?”
“We don’t know.” Dylan twisted in his chair, facing the other three deputies at the opposite end of the table. “What we need to focus on is the fact that someone figured out who he was and killed him with what looks like the same MO as he murdered his victims—and they might not be finished.”
“His moniker is the New Castle Killer.” Jonah Watson raised his gaze to Remi’s. “He killed all three victims in Delaware. What the hell was he doing here, and why are we the ones looking into a homicide? Murder falls under police jurisdiction, even if you were the original investigator on the case.”
“You’re right. Marshals have no jurisdiction in a homicide, but it’s more complicated than me trying to solve the case that lost me my job as New Castle’s sheriff.” Remi pulled back her shoulders, and Dylan acknowledged the same tension flooding down his spine. She’d kept her past to herself, kept the truth from the marshals under her purview, but she couldn’t ignore it any longer. Neither of them could. “Gresham PD called me this morning once they recognized similarities of this scene to the New Castle murders and asked me to walk the scene. Not only had Del Howe been killed in the same manner as the three victims of the New Castle Killer, but there’s evidence that shows Del Howe had been surveilling me for quite some time.”
The tendons in Dylan’s neck corded tight. “Gresham PD thinks the fact their victim died with hundreds of photos of a US marshal taped to the inside of his closet, that she directly—or indirectly—has something to do with his death. We turned everything we had over to the captain there before we left the station, including the connection between Howe and his victims. His current theory is Remi has been investigating Del Howe on her own all this time, discovered he’d been following her and made sure it never happened again. He wants to pin Howe’s death on her, and they won’t stop until they do.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Becket Foster scrubbed a hand through his thick beard. The brand-new father and husband to a former fugitive crossed his arms over his muscled chest. “You were taken off the force and off the case before you came to work with the marshals, but I have to ask, have you been investigating this case since you left?”
“No, and I have an alibi for the timeframe the medical examiner reports Howe was murdered, thanks to the cameras in this office.” Remi took her seat at the head of the table. “As far as I was concerned, the New Castle Killer case was in the past. Until this morning.”
“I’ve been investigating it.” The attention of the three marshals weighed heavily on his chest, but he couldn’t hide behind Remi’s connection any longer. Not if he wanted this team’s help to find their latest killer. “Remi hired me as a private investigator in Delaware to work the case alongside New Castle Sheriff’s Department. When she was banned from investigating, I was officially taken off the
