The Prey

John rested his hand on Adam’s shoulder. “It’s okay, Adam.” He glanced at Quinn. “Peterson, did you get that photo I asked about?”

“O’Brien? Yeah.” He reached across Rowan and handed John a thin folder.

Rowan’s head shot up and her eyes narrowed. “I told you Peter had nothing to do with this!”

“Collins cleared him, but I’m just double-checking.”

She turned her back to him, squeezed her eyes with her fingers until they hurt.

Peter had nothing to do with any of this. But if she didn’t know him as well as she did, wouldn’t she, too, think he was the logical suspect? “You’re right, John,” she whispered, her admission shredding her heart. Peter, please forgive me. “We have to rule him out.”

John took the folder to Adam and said, “Adam, do you recognize this man?”

He showed Adam a photo. Rowan couldn’t resist standing and looking at the picture herself.

Peter looked nothing like her, except maybe for the eyes. Peter had dark hair like Dani. The picture showed him out of his clerical collar, in a button-down shirt. Where had Quinn gotten it? It appeared recent.

She missed him. Seeing his photo reminded her that she’d intentionally separated her brother from her life. He had the Church, his adoptive family, his own life. She was a reminder of the past for him just as much as he was for her. But she still loved him.

“Adam?” John prompted.

Adam shook his head. “I’m sorry. I’m really, really, really sorry. That’s not him.”

Rowan relaxed. She knew it wasn’t Peter, but couldn’t help being relieved at Adam’s affirmation.

“What if he had sandy hair?” John asked. “Like he colored it. Remember, you saw him wearing sunglasses.”

Adam still shook his head. “It’s not him, I know. The man I saw at the flowers had a crooked nose.”

John glanced up at Quinn. “A crooked nose? Like maybe it had been broken? Like Agent Peterson here?”

Adam turned to inspect Quinn. He cocked his head to the side, seeming to see something no one else in the room did. Rowan tensed.

“Yeah, like his nose,” he said, almost in awe that he had recognized something. “It wasn’t straight like this,” he gestured to the picture. “And the man I saw had a pointier chin.”

“I’m proud of you, Adam. You remembered a lot.”

“But I didn’t see him.” He pointed to the picture of Peter.

“That’s okay. What else about this picture and the man you saw is different?”

Adam frowned as if not understanding. “I dunno.”

Damn, they’d come so far. If they had a picture of the suspect, Rowan didn’t doubt Adam would recognize him.

“John?” Tess said excitedly. “John, Quinn, I think I found something.”

The men rushed to her desk. “What?” John asked.

“I did the search on Robert MacIntosh in the medical database Quinn gave me access to. Look.”

They were silent. “Holy shit,” John said. “Rowan, come here.” It was a command, and Rowan obeyed. But her feet felt heavy, her whole body sluggish.

She peered over Tess’s shoulder at the screen. At first she didn’t see what John saw. Each line appeared to be a medical entry on Robert William MacIntosh. Her father. Each procedure was carried out in Boston at the Bellevue facility. Except one for surgery two weeks after the murders. Multiple gunshot wounds. Release date was four weeks later, federal custody.

“My father wasn’t shot.”

“But your brother-also named Robert MacIntosh-was when he tried to escape.”

She shook her head. “Bobby was killed trying to escape.”

“Not according to these records.”

Rowan started shaking uncontrollably. Bobby couldn’t be alive. He couldn’t be. How? Where had he been all this time? Wouldn’t Roger have told her? Had he been lying to her all these years?

John reached for her, but she pulled away.

Roger had to have known. All along, he had to have known that Bobby was alive. And if Bobby was alive, he was perfectly capable of killing all those people. Doreen Rodriguez. The little Harper girl with the pigtails.

Michael.

She grabbed the stack of photos from the table and flipped through them, discarding most, not caring when they drifted to the floor.

Bobby.

She took the one clear photo of Bobby from the stack. He was handcuffed and held by one cop while another opened the rear door of a black-and-white. Bobby had blood on his clothes, Mel and Rachel’s blood. No one could stab another human being and walk away unsoiled.

He had blond hair, a couple of shades darker than hers. His eyes stared at her. Cocky. Unremorseful.

She swallowed bile at the thought he was still alive. It just couldn’t be. That meant Roger had been lying to her since he met her.

She slapped the picture in front of Adam. “Is this the man you saw?” She couldn’t keep the fear and anger out of her voice.

“Rowan.” John was at her side, his hand on her arm. She tried to brush him off, but he squeezed her wrist. “We need a recent photo. It’s been twenty-three years.”

Twenty-three years. Yes, Bobby would have changed, she thought. What did he look like now? Had she seen him and not known? Not known that her evil brother was alive and walking the streets?

Adam was mumbling something and she turned to him. “Adam, I’m sorry. I-I, just, oh hell,” she concluded lamely.

“Maybe,” Adam whispered.

Rowan pulled out her cell phone and dialed Roger’s direct line.

“Collins.”

“Why didn’t you tell me Bobby was alive?” Her voice was cold, detached, as if someone else was using her mouth.

He said nothing for a long, long time. “Rowan, he threatened you. I sat across from that devil’s spawn and listened to him tell me how he was going to kill you. When he escaped, he killed two guards. We tried him on those deaths so you didn’t have to testify. Plenty of witnesses, and with two peace officers killed, he easily got life without parole. He wasn’t getting out, Ro. And you were having such awful nightmares, Gracie and I were worried. If you thought he was dead, what was the harm? I didn’t think-”

“He’s been in prison all this time and I didn’t know? How dare you! How dare you keep something so important from me. I’m not some weak-kneed child anymore. I could have handled it.”

“But-”

“Where is he? Right now, where is he?”

“Texas.”

“I want to see him.”

“I spoke with the warden after the first murder and-”

“You suspected him?” Her world spun around her. She felt John’s hands on her arms, grounding her, easing her into a chair. But she didn’t see anything; rage the color of dried blood blinded her. She pictured Roger, the man she had often wished were her real father, sitting at his desk, telling her he’d lied to her for twenty-three years.

“No, no, not really. I was just checking. Making sure there wasn’t a mistake. He’s in maximum security, no escapes.”

“I want to see him. Now.”

“Rowan-”

“With or without you.” She couldn’t talk to Roger. She thrust her phone in John’s direction and dropped it. He grabbed it.

“Collins?” he said into the receiver. “What prison?” He paused. “We’re leaving on the next available flight.” He hung up. “Rowan, if-”

“John.” Tess interrupted. “Look.”