Explosive Attraction - By Lena Diaz Page 0,25
a family. I just don’t...” She awkwardly cleared her throat. “You said you were going to tell me about the investigation.”
He studied her, looking thoughtful.
She tried to sit still without squirming under his scrutiny. Her family situation was complicated, and not something she wanted to discuss, especially with Rafe Morgan.
“Actually,” he said, “I want your help on another part of the investigation, aside from the sketch.”
Darby let out a relieved breath.
Rafe pulled his chair around the side of the desk next to hers and rested his forearms on his knees. “The fingerprints from the hospital confirm that Daniels and Buresh were both attacked by the same perp.”
She frowned. “Did you think there was more than one?”
“We can’t make assumptions. That’s when mistakes happen. Unfortunately, the fingerprints didn’t come up in our local database or in the FBI database. That means our perpetrator hasn’t been in the system before. So, we’re no closer to knowing who he is. But if we can get a list of suspects together, we’ll be able to exclude based on those prints.” He shrugged. “It’s a start.”
“You said you thought I could help. How?”
“You’re the common link. The bomber sent the first envelope to you. And then he left an envelope at the scene with your picture in it, when he abducted you.”
She blinked at the reminder and tightened her hands on the arms of the chair. “Go on.”
He studied her for a moment, as if to decide whether she was going to fall apart or not. “Since he doesn’t know where you are,” he continued, “we believe he’ll move on to another victim soon. When he does, I’d like to be ahead of the game, with a list of potential suspects. That’s where you come in. There has to be a connection between you and the bomber. Is there anyone you’ve had an argument with recently, someone who might think of you as their enemy?”
“Honestly, there are probably a lot of people who think of me as their enemy.”
His brows rose.
“Don’t look so surprised,” she said. “I told you I get a few threats every year. I’m a psychologist, and an expert witness. Both of those roles pit me against plenty of people, from clients’ families who don’t think I did enough to help their loved ones, to families of victims in court cases where I testified on behalf of the accused. It’s a long list. The best thing to do is to get my laptop from my office. All of my active cases are on there. And my backup external drive has older cases. I need my computer anyway, so I can review the appointments that have to be canceled, and arrange referrals for my clients until I can return to work.”
Some of his earlier enthusiasm waned. “Just how long a list are we talking about?”
“I’ve been a practicing psychologist for six years, worked with hundreds of clients.”
“Our bomber is angry,” Rafe said. “Something happened recently to set him off. I’m assuming the bomber and your kidnapper are the same person for now, so let’s limit our search to males only. And let’s focus on the past six months. How many cases then?”
“I disagree with your timeline assumption. People can hold grudges for a long time. Sometimes, the anger builds over time rather than diminishes. Especially if someone is mentally unbalanced.”
He gave a short, humorless laugh. “I’d say our bomber is definitely unbalanced, or he wouldn’t be running around trying to kill people.” His jaw tightened. “But of course, that doesn’t mean he’s legally insane and can get off without doing time for murder once we do catch him.”
She sighed and chose to ignore his unsubtle barb, his implication that she might jump on his statement and use it to get the bomber a lighter sentence. “I’m just saying that if you focus on the past six months, you might rule out someone who feels he was wronged much longer ago than that, maybe years. But until now he either didn’t have a plan or the means to execute his plan, or something happened recently to trigger his behavior.”
He cocked his head, looking thoughtful. “Let’s assume we go back twelve months. How many clients are we talking about then?”
She shrugged. “I’ve personally treated dozens of clients in the past year. Add in the court cases where I’ve consulted and testified, both here and in neighboring cities like Jacksonville, maybe a hundred. And of course you’d have to consider the family members as potential suspects,