the department photos of Parker, Tull, and Christiansen above her desk and studied them. She needed to cull all their personal details from the briefing reports and interviews to compile a victim grid on each. Know the victim, know the crime. It was one of Raiker’s most oft repeated mantras.
She powered up her laptop and opened the investigative file she’d started, adding that reminder and another to have Nate direct her to the first two crime scenes. Her grids wouldn’t be complete without a visit to the scenes. She had to place herself at the location of their deaths. See the things they’d last seen. Imagine what they’d felt. What they’d heard.
Knowing the victims meant walking through their last hours and placing herself in their shoes. So that’s just what she’d do.
And if immersing herself in the familiar details of the job helped keep the old doubts and insecurities at bay for hours at a time, then that was a very welcome bonus.
She scanned the documents from the file on her portable scanner to load them on her computer. All of Raiker’s investigators were cross-trained, and he made sure all of them were profiling experts. But the organizational methods they used differed. Her colleague Abbie Phillips preferred setting up a victim board where she pinned up tags of pertinent information and used colored string to delineate intersections between the victims’ lives.
Risa was more comfortable with computers. Cutting and pasting the pertinent information into one grid, using different colors for each victim was her method of choice. Intermittently she backed her work up on a flash drive, which would be left here when she took the laptop home each night. The need for backing up their files had been beaten into her by Gavin Pounds, Raiker’s cyber wizard, after her one and only computer crash two years ago.
The familiar task soothed her and left her mind free to turn over the information she and Nate had discovered today, as well as the details from the briefing she’d just left. As she worked she forgot to wonder what was keeping him. When she’d left, he was deep in conversation with one of the task force detectives.
When the door pushed open, she looked up, blinking distractedly. But instead of Nate, she found Eduardo in the doorway.
“Nate still in the conference room?”
“As far as I know.” She eyed the manila envelope he was holding. “What do you have?”
“IT sent this over while we were in the briefing.”
Adrenaline flared. “The stills from the video left at the last crime scene? Let’s see them.”
Although he came farther into the room, he didn’t make a move to open the envelope. Instead, his eyes searched her face. “How are things coming? McGuire keeping you in the loop on the investigation?”
Inwardly she squirmed at the question. She’d never worked under Eduardo’s command. Had left the force before he’d climbed to his current rank. And while she recognized the obligations of his job, she was uncomfortable juggling the friendship-brass aspects of it. “I’ve got no complaints.”
He smiled wryly. “Wouldn’t voice them if you did, you mean.”
“It’s been going all right, Eddie. McGuire’s a decent guy. Believe me, working for Raiker and hiring out to different law enforcement entities all the time, I’ve come in contact with far worse.”
“Hardly high praise, but I guess I’ll take it.” Nate’s voice sounded behind Morales and Risa’s face heated. No use wondering if he’d overheard their conversation. His carefully impassive expression said it all.
As did the level stare he exchanged with his captain.
Eduardo made no attempt to explain or apologize for checking up on him. And that, Risa thought, was another facet of his position. He merely held up the envelope. “Got these from IT. Haven’t looked at them yet.”
Nate walked into the office and began to shut the door.
“Hold that open for a sec, please?”
Darrell Cooper, the red-haired man who worked the front desk, stopped by the still open door with the wheeled cart he was pushing. “Just cleaning up the conference area. Will you guys use this coffee? Otherwise I’ll take it to the staff room.”
“Yeah, sure, we’ll take it.” Morales gestured for him to wheel it into the room. Then he looked at Nate. “I’m guessing you’re going to be here awhile.”
He nodded, tossed the younger man an easy grin. “Thanks, Darrell. Your coffee is becoming famous around here.”
“Don’t say that too loudly.” Cooper’s expression was mischievous. “Flo’s on duty.”
The words brought a slight frown to Morales’s face. “You should have