Free Beautiful Maids All in a Row by Jennifer Harlow

crow’s-feet. The man flinched at the sight of me. We had never gotten along since I showed him up on an investigation six years before, when he was my supervisor at Violent Crimes out of Falls Church. I never did play well with others.
    “Nice to see you, Agent Lamb,” I said as I stepped in.
    “Sit down,” he commanded as he put the Mylanta on his desk.
    “Ulcers still acting up?” I asked.
    His eyes narrowed with contempt. “So, Hudson, tell me why
this,
” I assumed he meant me, “is a good idea again?”
    Luke cleared his throat. “As I said over the phone this morning, she knows the case, knew one of the victims, and has presented avenues we never explored before.”
    “Such as?”
    “The fact that the UNSUB is most likely a doctor or someone in the medical field, and also that he is unconsciously killing his mother.”
    “You believe these are avenues to investigate further?”
    “Yes, I do,” Luke said. “I wouldn’t have brought her here if I didn’t think we could use her expertise, which, as you know, is extensive with this type of crime.”
    “All right, more important question: is she up for it?”
    I scoffed. “Excuse me,” I interrupted, “I
am
in the room.”
    “Yes, sir,” Luke answered, ignoring me. “I have no doubt of Dr. Ballard’s professionalism.”
    Reggie leaned back in his chair. “I trust your judgment, Hudson. That’s why I brought you on.”
    “Thank you, sir.”
    “Am I allowed to acknowledge my own presence yet?” I asked.
    Reggie swiveled in his chair to face me. “Did you sign the nondisclosure agreement? The other contracts?”
    “On the plane. Don’t worry, I know the drill,” I said. “I also know I’m getting paid next to nothing for my hard work and expertise, so I’d appreciate it if you dropped the condescending tone. You need my help a lot more than I need yours.”
    “Still think you’re God’s gift to law enforcement, I see.”
    “No, just better than
some.
” I glared at him for a moment, and he glared back.
    Luke took this as his cue. “Sir, if we’re done here…” He rose from the chair, as did I.
    I followed Luke back to his cubicle, which had files five deep and a dozen boxes of files underneath and around his desk. An agent with a paisley tie walked over carrying two more boxes, setting them on top of the others as Luke sifted through more messages. The agent looked me up and down. Apparently, I’d been approved, because he smiled broadly at me. I did not smile back. “More of the files you requested,” the agent said, keeping his eyes on me.
    Luke set down the messages before eyeing the boxes. “Is that all of them?”
    “No, we should get the rest by five.”
    “Excellent. Why don’t you move these into the conference room with the others. I want at least three more agents sifting through them.”
    “Yes, sir.” The agent walked away to set things up.
    I looked down at the mountain of boxes. “What are these?”
    “Files. All the murders, attempted murders, attempted rapes, and apparent suicides caused by strangulation, manual or otherwise, from New York. We’re expecting ten more boxes.”
    “Goody gumdrops.” I paused to glance down at the boxes. “We need more agents. Three poring through these won’t be enough.”
    “We’ve requested more, but they can’t be spared. We have close to fifteen people working on this already.”
    “Not enough.”
    “There are other things going on in this country besides the Woodsman, in case you forgot.”
    “But the Woodsman is getting most of the press attention,” I pointed out.
    “We’ll just have to make do with what we have.”
    “Well, you’ve got one more now. Put me to work. What do you need me to do? I was thinking we could start with the geographical profile. Do you think…” I stopped talking. Luke hadn’t heard a word I’d said. His eyes were focused behind me, on something he wasn’t happy to see judging from his downturned mouth. I turned to see