As if reading her thoughts, her killer shook his head and kicked the gun across the floor. “You’ll never reach it. Too bad.”

Her vision blurred.

“Windows, Deidre. You should always check your windows.”

As the blade sliced at her arms, she raised her hands. Grab the knife. Grab the knife. The blade cut across her palm.

The next strike hit her torso. Adrenaline faded, giving free rein to the pain, which pinched and burned every fiber and sinew in her body. The knife blade kept jabbing, cutting, slicing.

Finally, the cutting stopped. Liquid life drained as quickly as an open tap, while her blurred gaze focused on him picking up the burn phone. This morning she’d thought she’d tamed her past and would soon control it completely. She hadn’t. It had caught up to her.

He stood over her, his blood pumping in his veins as hers pooled around his feet. Weeks of planning, and in less than two minutes it was over. Adrenaline surged, but he dreaded the inevitable crash.

Kneeling, he touched her face, smoothing his gloved fingertips over pale parted lips. “You always underestimated me, babe. Always.”

He reached in her pocket and pulled out the crumpled note. With one final glance at Deidre, he rose and left through the back door. He made his way into the woods and, under the moonless sky, stripped off his blood-soaked suit and gloves and shoved them all in a trash bag he’d stashed earlier. The cops would be hard-pressed to find any clues linking him to this.

The cops would spend days chasing their tails looking for Deidre Jones’s killer, and by the time they were finished, he’d have finished his mission and killed Leah Carson.

Leah’s phone was ringing when she turned from the stove and the omelet she was cooking. Wiping her hands on a dishtowel, she lowered the heat on the burner and answered without glancing at the console. Remembering her conversation with Deidre fifteen minutes earlier, she just assumed it was her friend. “Hello?”

“Leah Carson?”

“That’s right.” Her voice snapped with impatience. “Who is this?”

“This is First National Bank Credit Card Services. We have some questions about your account.”

“Okay.”

After they asked for the appropriate identifying information, the operator asked, “We’re seeing expenses that show you’re in Madrid, Spain?”

She turned down the burner. “Excuse me?”

“We have charges that show you were in Madrid yesterday and London the day before that. Did you make those charges?”

“No, I didn’t.” Immediately, her thoughts tripped back to when and where she’d used her credit card. She fished her card out of her wallet. “What card number are you referring to?”

The operator rattled off the number that matched her card perfectly. “Is that the correct number?”

“Yes, it is.” She pressed the back of her hand to her head. “So what do we do now?”

“We’ve closed the card and issued you a new one. It should arrive at your home in five business days.”

She thought through the days. “That’s the week after next.”

“Yes, ma’am. We suggest you use any backup cards you have.”

She blew out a breath. She didn’t have a backup card. Damn. “Okay. I’ll deal. But I just swiped the card at the grocery store today. That’s a legit expense.” She spent the next five minutes going through the charges and confirming and disavowing them. “Thanks for calling.”

She hung up the phone and pressed her fingertips to her eyes. She checked her wallet and counted thirty-nine dollars in cash. If she brown-bagged it this week and watched her gas mileage, she might not have to go to the bank for cash until the end of the week.

Leah fumbled through her purse and pulled out her journal. She opened the well-worn book and smoothed the newest page flat before carefully documenting the call: the time and details of the incident. Pen poised over the page, she reread the entries of the day, fearing she’d find a pattern.

Keys. Man in the woods. And now the credit card.

Most people wouldn’t have paid much notice to any of these incidents. Keys went missing all the time. Men were allowed in public parks. And a hacked credit card was a terrible annoyance but, in the end, wouldn’t cost her a dime.

She stared at the list and absently raised her fingertips to the scar along her collarbone. These are just three very random events. Stuff happens to regular people. Don’t need to freak out. One. Two. Three. I don’t need to freak.

She moved toward the front door and clicked the lock back and forth until she was certain it was secure. She moved from window to window, checking the locks. Finally satisfied the place was safe, she released the breath she’d been holding and whispered, “I don’t need to freak.”

The mantra would have calmed any normal, rational woman.

Normal. Rational. Woman.

Philip’s knife blade had left scars, worries, and a stupid journal filled with nonsensical entries.

Chapter Six

Monday, January 16, 10:20 A.M.

The air cut and bit as Alex got out of his SUV and stared at the flashing blue lights of the cop cars ringed in the cul-de-sac of the town house community. He burrowed gloved hands in his coat pockets and moved across the yard, wondering why his brother had summoned him to another crime scene in less than forty-eight hours.

He nodded to a couple of uniformed officers who scowled and folded their arms over their chests. Irritated by the childish behavior, he didn’t ask for approval as he ducked under the yellow crime scene tape. Without thinking, he swapped the warm leather gloves for black plastic ones. Pausing at the threshold, he noticed that the front door lock had not been pried open, nor did there seem to be any other signs of forced entry.

As he stepped forward, a uniformed officer blocked his path. The tall man’s frame was well muscled like that of a much younger man, but it was his well-worn eyes and lined mouth that gave him away as a couple of decades older.

“Orders are not to let anyone inside,” the officer said.

Alex looked up, knowing his gaze reflected restrained annoyance. “Detective Deke Morgan sent for me. I’m Agent Alex Morgan.”

The officer shifted his stance and met Alex’s gaze. “I got orders to keep everyone out but essential personnel.”

“You telling me I’ve got to call Detective Morgan and have him come out here? He called me.” This bullshit was getting old.

The lines in the officer’s face deepened with defiance but he had the sense to step aside.

Alex brushed past him, tired and more annoyed than usual. He’d spent most of the night reading through Deidre Jones’s case files. So far, no red flags. She was one hell of a cop.

Instead of quizzing the officer about the victim’s identity, he opted to wait for Deke’s explanation. He paused in the entryway and noted that the victim had left a purse on a long slim table. Beside the purse sat a ring of keys. Above the table hung a mirror, clean and sparkling and perfectly aligned. Whatever had happened to her, it hadn’t been here.

Alex’s gaze settled on the picture of two young girls, who were clearly sisters. Smiling, arms wrapped around each other, the girls appeared to be separated in age by about ten years. The older sister had dark brown hair and wore hoop earrings and a peasant top and the younger one sported a Mickey Mouse T-shirt and a gap-toothed smile.

Beside the first picture was another one of a group of people. Six men and one woman clustered around the courthouse sign. All were grinning. He remembered the picture. The task force had caught a major cocaine dealer who’d later been sentenced to life in prison. He scanned the collection of blunt haircuts, practical shoes, and holstered guns until he settled on Deidre Jones. He allowed another look at the sensible black purse that couldn’t have cost more than twenty-five bucks. No gun.