Killer Insight. Virginia Vaughan
and she realized it was too much to ask. He had somewhere else to be, and she was imposing on his time. He had his daughter with him, and she suddenly realized he needed to see to her. She pulled her hand away and started to take back her request when he tightened his grip.
“I’ll stay for as long as you need.” He looked past Lucy to his daughter. “But you should wait outside.” He motioned one of the nurses, who stepped forward.
“I’ll take her. Come on, Meghan.”
The girl protested. “Do I have to? Can’t I please stay for a while longer?”
“No. This is police business.”
“Can I come back to see you?” Meghan asked, and Lucy was glad for it.
“Absolutely. Anytime.”
Once they’d left the room, Detective Ross turned to her. “I need you to tell me exactly what happened tonight.”
Lucy sat up in the bed, ignoring the pounding in her head and the pain snaking up her ankle. She needed to recall every detail as clearly as she could, knowing that the smallest thing could lead them to the killer. “I arrived in town about five this afternoon and decided to take a run before meeting Bryce. I realized it was getting late, so I turned around near an old gas station to head back to town. That’s when I noticed a car heading for me. It slowed down then stopped, and a man jumped out, grabbed me, then pinned me down and tried to inject something into my neck, but I managed to knock it from his hand so he hit me instead. I was barely conscious when he put me in the trunk of his car. I’m not sure how long I was in it, but I was eventually able to pop the trunk and run for help. That’s when I flagged down Bryce and Meghan.”
“Did you see the man’s face?”
She saw Bryce tense and stand at attention in response to the question. She strained to remember something notable about the man, but it had all happened so quickly. She shook her head. “I think there was something covering it. He was wearing a hat low, but something about his face was obscured.”
Bryce slouched again, and she felt his disappointment and remembered she was here because his brother was the main suspect in this case. He’d probably been hoping she could identify her attacker as someone else.
“Where did this occur?” Detective Ross asked.
“I—I don’t know. I’m not familiar with this town. If I can see a map, I might be able to pick out the area.”
Ross pulled up a map of town on his cell phone and handed it to her, pointing out where Mrs. Ferguson’s B&B, the starting point for her run, was located for her to reference. She outlined the route she’d run, then estimated the place where the man had abducted her. “Right there. I turned around at that old service station. I’d only run a few minutes when the car approached me.”
“I’ll send a team out there to look for evidence. What about the vehicle? Can you describe it?”
“It was a sedan. Four doors. Silver, I think. Other than that, I didn’t see much. It all happened so fast.” She saw the look he gave her as he jotted the information in a notebook, and her face burned with embarrassment. She was an agent from the FBI. She should have had better observational skills. Yes, it had been dark and happened quickly, but she was a trained professional and should have noticed more details. Then she remembered something important. “I scratched him.” Detective Ross glanced up at her, and Bryce stood at attention. “I scratched his arm. I felt my fingernails dig into it.” She raised her hand to look at her fingernails as excitement bubbled through her. “I have his DNA under my fingernails.”
Bryce’s eyes brightened, matching her own excitement. “This is it,” he said. “This is the proof we need to prove my brother’s innocence and finally track down the real killer.”
“I’ll go find a lab tech to collect the samples,” Ross said before walking out.
Bryce ran a hand over his face, beaming. She liked the way it looked. “You did it. When I asked you to come here and help me prove my brother’s innocence, this wasn’t what I had in mind, but you did it.”
“It’s not exactly what I had in mind either when I agreed to come.” But that didn’t matter anymore. While profiling had value and often helped identify suspects, physical evidence of her attacker could not be refuted.
Bryce pulled up a chair, careful not to touch her hands again until the lab technician could scrape beneath her nails. “I never told you how sorry I was about Danny’s death. I had no idea when I contacted you.”
His condolences caught her off guard, and she struggled to respond. She hadn’t handled his death well, and even now, the mention of his name filled her with grief and guilt. “I should have reached out to his friends. I just—I just couldn’t deal with telling people at the time.”
“How did it happen?”
She was always uncomfortable with knowing how much to share about what had happened. “It was a car accident. He hit another car—a van—with a family inside. No one survived.” She didn’t tell him the rest. He deserved to think better of his friend, and what would he think of her profiling skills if he knew Danny had been under the influence of drugs when he hit that van or that she’d had no idea about his addiction to painkillers? It didn’t say much about her profiling skills that he’d fooled her for months.
Ross reentered the room with a lab technician who got busy scraping beneath her nails and collecting the skin samples.
“Send these to the FBI crime lab,” Lucy told him. “I’ll call my boss and have them fast-tracked. But even then, it’ll be weeks before the results are back. In the meantime, I’d like to see the case files so I can work up a profile.”
Ross nodded. “I’ll have them copied and sent to you.”
“When he contacted me, Bryce said the task force is focusing on his brother as their main suspect. How solid is the case against him?”
“It’s mostly circumstantial. That’s why we haven’t been able to make an arrest yet. It’s also the reason I was able to convince my chief to allow you to consult on this case. He’s anxious for some solid leads. I told him you would be able to provide some. He wants to make an arrest before another woman dies.”
“This evidence will prove my brother is innocent,” Bryce insisted. “Your task force needs to turn its focus elsewhere.”
“Right now, we’re focusing on the leads we have. I’m heading out to the scene where you were attacked, Agent Sanderson.” He set his card on the tray in front of her. “Call me if you think of anything else.”
“I will.”
He nodded to them both then headed out. Moments later the lab technician finished collecting her samples and left.
Lucy glanced at Bryce, now so excited for this new development that could prove his brother’s innocence. She’d offered her services, but profiling wasn’t an exact science. She might not be able to completely rule out Clint Tippitt as a suspect. DNA might do that...or it might prove his guilt. She wondered if Bryce was ready for that outcome. Did he believe in Clint, or was he foolishly blind to the truth? She’d been that way with Danny—blinded by love to who he really was—and people had died because of it. She hoped Bryce Tippitt wouldn’t make the same mistake.
“I should go check on Meghan and make sure she gets home safely.”
“Of course. Go. She needs you.” She felt silly for her earlier exclamation asking him to stay. He had a responsibility to his daughter first and foremost. “I’ll be fine.”
“I would normally ask my friend Cassidy to take her. They spend a lot a time together. She’s like a mother to Meghan, but she’s working. I’ll take her to her friend’s house, then I’ll come back afterward and check on you.”
“You don’t have to. I’m fine, Bryce. Really.”
“I’ll