“Seriously? What the hell?” Cedric demanded as he glowered at them. “You just took her out of here. This is an active crime scene. You can’t just waltz back up with her—”
“Can you shine a light on the nearby tombs?” Chloe asked quietly. “Then we’ll get out of your way.”
Cedric jerked his hand. Beams of light immediately hit the nearby vaults.
Chloe read the names. Memorized them.
Julia Wellington.
Shamus Gray.
Jeremiah Landry—
“Damn,” Joel breathed. “I…know that name.”
So did she. Jeremiah Landry had been his grandfather.
“We can leave now,” she whispered. She very much wanted to leave. Joel swung around, and they found Paul blocking their path.
“Didn’t answer my question,” he stated as he stood with his feet braced apart and a holster beneath his arm. “Do you happen to know anyone who drives a silver Porsche?”
She swallowed. “I do. My ex-fiancé, Morgan Fletcher, has always been partial to that vehicle. I was told that he was currently in Boston, but I suspect he has found his way down to New Orleans. He should be approached with extreme caution. I cannot stress to you enough just how very dangerous he is.”
Her stare darted to the vault—the vault she’d been sealed inside. A crime scene tech was leaning over it and snapping some photos.
She’d handed Cedric the dead man’s ring earlier. Been certain that it would help to identify the man who’d been in the vault with her, but there was something about the way Joel was trying to keep her away from the vault…He could be doing that because she’d just been buried in the thing but… “You know.”
His gaze dipped to her face. “Excuse me?”
“You know the identity of the man who was inside the vault with me. That’s why you rushed me out so quickly. That’s why you didn’t want me to come back inside.”
“Chloe, I wanted you out because you’re a victim—”
“I want to see him.”
“Active crime scene,” Joel said as his grip on her tightened. “Let’s go—”
“Joel.” Cedric had moved closer. “Can you ID that guy?”
Chloe saw him swallow.
Her gaze darted to the vault.
“Got a first name for him,” Joel muttered. “Stephen.”
Stephen. The client who’d been with Gordon Jennings. The man who’d been familiar to Chloe. The man who’d attacked her at the hospital?
“Stephen took a knife to the heart.” Cedric’s voice was grim. “So if you have more intel, I need to hear it.”
“I don’t,” Joel bit off. “But I’d suggest you talk with Dr. Gordon Jennings. Gordo is the shrink who was treating your dead man. And you probably should know, the dead man is most likely the person who stabbed Wendy Hyde.”
Before he’d been killed with his own knife?
A shiver slid over Chloe. “I think he was the man who attacked me at the hospital. The one who smothered Kelly Addams.”
Cedric swore. Very inventively. He’d always had a phenomenal vocabulary.
Paul had been watching the byplay between them, and he’d been uncharacteristically silent. He broke his silence to ask, “And who the hell killed him?” But his eyes widened, and she knew he’d just made the same jump that she had made.
“That dangerous ex you mentioned?” Paul answered his own question. “The one who was just outside of the cemetery, trying to run me down?”
Joel’s hold was so tight around her. She could feel his tension and worry. He was right to be worried. “I would say that is a very strong probability. If Morgan is here, his presence is no coincidence.” She’d always known that—sooner or later—she’d have to deal with Morgan. What she hadn’t anticipated? That he’d seal her in a tomb. “I’d like to go home now,” she said as she put her head against Joel’s chest. She needed to escape for a little while. To feel safe.
She needed to be with Joel.
He was her safe place.
***
Cedric watched the ambulance drive away. His hands were on his hips as he stared after the vehicle. He’d had to see for himself that Chloe was leaving. The woman needed care, not a crime scene.
“Are you familiar with Morgan Fletcher?”
He wasn’t surprised that Agent Richardson had sidled up beside him. Slanting the man a glance, Cedric noted, “Your right arm is bleeding. You probably want to get that checked out.” He swung back to the cemetery.
Surprise, surprise, Richardson had angled himself in Cedric’s path. “I’m not here to take over your turf.”
“No? Feels that way to me.” The last thing he wanted was for the FBI to be in his way. “But then again, we saw how that worked out for your last time, didn’t we?”
Paul’s lips thinned. “Morgan Fletcher. Tell me what you know about him. The bastard tried to run me down tonight, and I take that shit personally.”
“Oh, do you?” He moved to stand toe-to-toe with the other man. “I take lots of things personally. Like a friend being sealed in a vault and left to die. That’s pretty personal to me. I also take it personally when innocent people are caught in explosions. When women are murdered. When—” Cedric broke off. He had to get his control back. This whole scene was playing with his head.
Chloe would have said that was the perp’s intention. To throw him off his game. To throw them all off.
Cedric sure knew Joel had been anything but controlled when the man left the scene. Hell, Joel hadn’t even been able to let Chloe go. He’d carried her. Held her tightly.
What had been the point of Chloe’s abduction? If the perp had wanted her dead, he could have killed her while she was unconscious. No, Cedric didn’t believe that death had been the goal.
As far as putting her in a vault close to Joel’s grandfather, Cedric figured that had been a message for both Chloe and Joel…
If she stays with you, death is what she’ll get. That was what Cedric thought it meant, but he couldn’t be sure.
Just as he thought taking Chloe had been about breaking Joel.
About unsettling Cedric, himself.
About confusion.
“Morgan Fletcher,” Cedric said slowly. Talk about a man he’d prefer to avoid, forever. “He’s a criminal defense attorney from Boston. I’m sure you made the connection, though, seeing as how the guy has been hitting the news recently with his miraculous rise from the grave.”
Paul furrowed his brow. “That’s not what I meant.”
“What? You’re looking for a profile? Thought that was your department, not mine.” He shouldered around the agent.
“We both know you understand criminals far better than most of the behavioral analysts at the Bureau. Chloe clicked with you because she likes the way you think.”
“You know nothing about me and Chloe.”
“I am trying to make a difference here. Can’t you see that? I know I screwed up before. I’ve screwed up a lot,” he admitted bluntly. “And people have died. If you don’t think they haunt me, you’re wrong. If you don’t think I see the women who died on my watch, then you are wrong. They come into my nightmares, and they won’t let me sleep.”