The Reckoning - BLACKBIRD book 3

11. off you go

Gillian was so relieved when Cooper had introduced Brock as the new supervisor. It had been so easy, staying with the team, hardly out their office door, keeping a safe, healthy distance, no need to even meet his eyes. And then Cooper had come back from the fourth floor, glaring and huffing, to hiss through clenched teeth that they were leaving in thirty minutes. A case in Portland that Cassidy wanted them to take, she said. Brock and Russell were joining them.

Gillian felt a cold hole in her belly at Cooper's words. It had to be a joke. The worst prank ever. She couldn't be assigned to work a case with him on his first day in Boston. Guessing he wouldn't be happy either didn't help. In a flash, she went over all the possible excuses she'd come up a few days earlier, when she first knew about his coming. She looked down at her coffee. No way. All of them were drinking it, and they knew her stomach was bulletproof. There was no way the coffee could make her sick. And she couldn't argue it was something she'd eaten the night before, because they'd all seen her perfectly well—Cooper and Brock included. So she could only breathe deep and accept she'd just won the Worst Luck Ever Award. To share it with Brock.

She tried to get distracted with the file. Aldana pinned the pictures of two young women to the board, while Fred and Ron delivered a new round of coffee for everybody, when there was a soft knock and the door opened. Gillian felt like a cartoon cat, jumping to sink its claws to the ceiling with the jolt, and was grateful to hear Russell's voice even before she glanced over her shoulder. Her heart was ruthlessly hammering her chest and her ears felt like a damned foundry. She really needed to get a grip on herself and keep her cool before the stupid bitter man walked through that door.

Okay, it was Russell, everything was fine. So she knew the next time the door opened, it would be Brock, so she should get ready to face him again. Like the professional she was. Nothing but an agent working with her brand new senior officer.

"Alright, lads, what do we have?" she asked as usual, half-sitting on a desk—her back turned to the door.

Aldana pointed at one of the pictures. "Two weeks ago, one of the ground keepers of Evergreen Cemetery, in Portland, found the body of Christie Reynolds, twenty-seven, at one of the less visited parts of the grounds. She'd been beaten to death. Then this morning, another cemetery keeper found Rose Coleridge, twenty-eight. Also beaten to death. Both of them were reported missing one week before their bodies were found."

Gillian's hyper-vigilant ear registered the door behind her opening noiselessly, at the same time that Fred said, "So the subject keeps them for a week, with a one-week cooling-off period in between."

"And we know what he does to them during that week," said Hank, checking the file on his tablet. "Both of them have traces of repeated sexual abuse and severe beatings."

"So we know he's a sadist, right, profiler?" Ron smiled at Russell, then his eyes moved past him and Gillian saw his smile vanished.

All of them turned to look at the door. Brock nodded hi at them, hands in his pockets, without a word. It was an awkward heartbeat, as the team tried to decide if they needed to stand at attention before him.

Russell quickly picked up the baton, to drag the others along. "Both of the victims were low risk. The first one worked at a department store, and the second one was a secretary."

"When were they last seen?" asked Gillian, fighting the fight of her life to keep her cool and ignore as much as she could the quiet, observant figure three steps behind her.

"Leaving their jobs like every day," replied Tanya.

"So he's hijacking them on the street?" said Fred.

Aldana nodded. "Or using some kind of ruse to approach them."

"And he's already looking for his next victim, lads. So we better get going," said Gillian.

She stepped away from the desk, glancing at Brock to check if he agreed with the get-going part. He just nodded again and opened the door.

"I'll be at the parking lot," he said to Russell, and strode out.

Kurt had opened a locker at the furthest corner of the room and threw duffel bags at everybody, forcing Tanya to duck.

Ron gave Gillian her bag, smirking. "Good trip with Enjoy The Silence, Reg. 'Cause it's my first case without the cane, so I'm driving."

Before Gillian fell to her knees to beg for a corner in the trunk, Russell said, "Don't worry. We're taking three SUVs, so I'm going with Brock."

She grabbed his face and smashed a noisy kiss on his cheek. "I so love you, Scully."

He scoffed, heading out. "Say it again and you're taking my place."

Still chuckling, Gillian turned to Tanya. "T! You're in charge of your padawan!"

"Got it!"

Then she made a sign to Aldana and went to Cooper's office. She knocked, waited for the woman's answer from inside and stuck her head in.

"We're leaving, ma'am. I'll keep you up."

Cooper looked up at her, about to say something, but only nodded. Gillian nodded back and closed the door.