Free Killer Moves by Mary Eason Page A

said?”
    He drew a blank. “What? About the DC police finding Amanda’s body in an abandoned warehouse?”
    “No, you referred to the killer as the Angel. You believe this is his work as well. You don’t think Frankie Shepard had anything to do with these murders, do you?”
    “I don’t know. I guess maybe I don’t,” he admitted slowly. “God, Kara, where the hell has the killer been for six years?”
    Kara didn’t answer. She turned her attention back to the files, scanning through the information she could almost recite word for word before closing it.
    “Davis, I don’t know what else to look for here. Maybe you’d better read what you have. What’s the first victim’s name again?”
    “Amanda Shelly.” He saw her reaction and added, “Yes, I know. It’s like he’s duplicating them all over again and yet he’s not. Amanda wasn’t from a wealthy family. She worked for a high-tech company in Richmond. She’d been working late, catching up on some paperwork the night he took her.”
    “He took her from her office building? Was there video?”
    Davis shook his head. “The machine had been broken for weeks. Probably by the Angel. He would have been watching her for some time. One of the office staff reported her missing around five thirty the next morning when they arrived at work. No one remembered seeing anything out of the ordinary happening during the weeks before. No reported problems in her life as far as her parents knew. She had the perfect life. And now she’s dead.”
    “Boyfriends?”
    “Well, that’s where the similarities with Amy end. Amanda’s parents told us she’d decided to take some time off from dating to focus on her career.”
    “Were they the same age?”
    “No, Amy had just turned twenty-one. Amanda was thirty-eight. Different birthdays as well.”
    “What about friends…acquaintances. Did they know any of the same people? I realize they ran in different social circles and they weren’t the same age, but maybe there’s a connection somewhere in the people they knew.”
    He’d known this would come up eventually. It was the first rule of police work to try and find a connection between the victims. He knew he’d have to tell Kara everything soon, but he wasn’t ready to go there just yet. They weren’t at a place in their relationship where she was ready to hear about the others.
    “I thought of that. We’ve checked them all. They didn’t know any of the same people or even hang out at the same places.” He couldn’t tell her that the only connection they’d found between any of the recent victims had been himself.
    “What about Rachel?” Kara finally asked.
    “No. There’s no indication that Rachel knew any of the original Angel’s victims, or the latest ones for that matter.”
    “None of this makes any sense.” She put the folder down and rubbed her eyes.
    “I know… Why don’t we try looking at this from a different angle. Suppose for a minute Ava actually did see into the mind of the killer—for whatever reason,” he added when he saw her fear. She knew the only reason the Angel would choose Ava would be because of her connection to Kara. “And he planned on targeting Justine Yamez for his next victim.” Kara read his thoughts. She grabbed the file on the Angel’s fourth victim. Jan Yates.
    “It fits. Oh. My. God!” she whispered, and he glanced at the name of the next Angel victim.
    “Kara.” Davis dropped the folder he held and reached for her. For once, she went into his arms without hesitating. “Don’t get ahead of yourself.”
    “Davis, the next victim was Alicia Mathis. AM—Ava…Martin! Davis, he has to know Ava is your daughter otherwise he’d be targeting someone with the last name starting with B. How did he know? I haven’t told anyone but Gran. Oh my God, do you know what this means? He’s coming after our daughter!” He would have given just about anything to deny this truth but she needed to know. Just as she