As the minutes ticked by, he could feel the crowd growing more and more anxious. It was as if, by realizing that the LAPD had nothing to go on, the reality of a psychopathic killer on the loose was finally sinking in.
He noticed that a few civilians had stood and were already filtering off the grass, away from the press conference, and he wondered if it was disinterest, waning curiosity now that the department’s lack of leads had come to light, or if it was subconscious fear driving their feet in the other direction.
He gazed over the crowd, searching for the next hand. When his eyes scanned over to where the mayor’s entourage sat, his head snapped back. For one moment, he didn’t hear the chatter around him or the questions that were now being randomly hurled through the air. For one moment, he felt his heart still completely in his chest.
There, sitting off to the side, tucked between the mayor and DA Martha Petluski, was a woman that he would have picked out on any street corner of the world. Her cornflower-blue eyes gazed off into the crowd, as if she were in shock, her perfectly trimmed hair, cut to shoulder-length, framed an angular face that wore flawless makeup. Her powder-blue pantsuit accentuated eyes that he had stared into hundreds of times over the last two days.
Valkyrie.
For only a second, he couldn’t look away, but when the same eyes that had haunted him from the photograph that Zac had secured focused on him, their blue depths detached and glassy, he cleared his throat and spoke into the microphone. “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m afraid that’s all we have time for today.”
A sigh of discontentment traveled over the mass of people, and Doug frowned at him from the sidelines. Jacob knew that he had cut the press conference short, but he wasn’t entirely sure how else he was supposed to deal with the fact that his number one lead in a serial murder case sat between the mayor and the DA.
His mind reeled with possibilities, all of which he pushed aside until he could sort through his thoughts. What information he had been able to learn about Harvey Apollo Kent in the twelve hours since Sarah had figured it out, reeled through his mind.
Glancing over the crowd, he tried to find Lola, but not seeing her where she’d been only a moment before, he took a step back, away from the podium.
What the fuck.
Stepping down the concrete stairs, he became aware of Doug barreling towards him, his face creased in confusion. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Zac standing front and center, his hands jammed into the pockets of his dark blue jeans, his broad shoulders bunched, displaying his discomfort at the gathering of public officials and personnel.
They made eye-contact for a moment and when Zac frowned at him, he nodded his head subtly in the mayor’s direction. He watched his friend’s face closely, his back turned on Valkyrie, saw the moment that his perfectly composed features faltered. Zac tensed perceptibly, for only a second, but long enough that Jacob knew that he had recognized her too.
“What’s going on, Jake?” the captain asked, looking him up and down uncertainly.
“Who’s the women sitting between the Mayor and Martha?” he asked.
Doug turned, his frown diminishing slightly when his gaze landed on Valkyrie. “Oh, that’s City Attorney James Barrowman’s wife, Mary Jane.” He saw Jacob’s face, faltered for only a second before asking, “Why?”
“We have pictures of her at the anonymity group, Doug. She’s Valkyrie. HAK’s wife.” He bit off the words, aware of the fact that they were coming out in a forced whisper. “Didn’t you see the picture I sent?” He glanced around to make sure that nobody was standing near them.
“No.” Doug shook his head in a quick side-to-side motion as if he were trying to shake an old memory loose. “It only came through yesterday morning and I was already trying to bank this disaster,” he said, indicating the stage to their left. He glanced over to where Valkyrie sat.
James Barrowman was not with his wife, although the empty seat between her and the DA sent a shiver of dread down Jacob’s spine.
“No,” Doug repeated.
Without hesitating, Jacob pulled his phone out of his pocket and brought the image of Valkyrie standing with Veronica Tally to the front of his screen.
Doug took the phone out of his hands, his own shaking noticeably. “I don’t…I don’t understand,” he whispered. “How is this possible?”
Because it was obvious that Doug had recognized Veronica Tally next to Mary Jane Barrowman, he said, “We need to bring her in for questioning, Doug.”
Doug shook his head instantly, his wide face pale, drawn. When he glanced up again, Jacob saw the complete defeat in his eyes. “Leave it for now. We need to meet at the station. Contact Burns and Williams right away. Tell them they need to be at the station in thirty minutes.”
“What aren’t you telling me?”
Doug glanced uncertainly behind Jacob to where the group had been sitting. “If you’re right…you’re assuming that HAK is…”
“James Barrowman.”
“Jake, I am telling you that it’s not possible. I’ve…I’ve known James for twenty years,” he whispered.
Jacob could see the panic in the captain’s eyes, he could see the slight tremor that had set in his hands. “But?” he prompted, sensing something, some shred of doubt in the captain’s voice.
Doug was silent for a moment before he said, “When I first called him…to tell him that we had a potential serial killer.” He sighed and rubbed his fingers over tired eyes. “He asked me, ‘How many women?’”
“So?”
“He asked me before I’d said anything. Before I’d even mentioned who the victims were. I thought he’d just made a reasonable assumption…but it struck me at the time because there was no hesitation in his voice.”
“Fuck.” Jacob clenched his fists at his side and consciously tried to cool the hot blood rushing through his head. If they were right, and if Barrowman had killed the girls, then he was also the one that had been trying to hurt Lola. The thought made every cell in his body scream with anger. The fucker had been in her bedroom, had touched her.
Suddenly anxious, he glanced back to see if Lola had rejoined Sarah and McConnell on the grass.
She wasn’t there.
“Where’s Lola?”
“What?” Doug turned back so that he could follow Jake’s gaze. When he saw McConnell on the grass with Sarah, Lola nowhere in sight, he shook his head. “I’m sure she’s fine, Jake.”
His heart pounded in his chest, his blood burned beneath his skin as his adrenaline spiked. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew that he was petrified by what he was about to say next. “Then where the fuck is James Barrowman?”
Chapter 22
Lola sighed when she saw the line for the restroom snaking out of the Ladies. There must have been at least six or seven girls standing outside in the hallway and that was without counting however many were queuing inside.
“There’s another one on the third floor.”
She jumped a little at the voice right by her ear, turned around quickly to find a huge, handsome man standing immediately behind her, his broad grin wide and friendly. There was something about him that was vaguely familiar, something that she couldn’t quite place.