“Did you know, Remy, when the light hits your eyes a certain way, they change color?” Bijou observed. “You have the darkest blue eyes and they suddenly go green or sometimes, they glow, like a cat in the dark. I remember a couple of times when I was a little girl, I fixated on your eyes. I used to dream about them.”
Saria’s frown deepened. “Did his eyes scare you?”
“I suppose they should have, but no. I found the change sort of comforting.” Bijou gave Remy another tentative smile that sent another hot surge of blood rushing through his body, straight to his groin. “For all his bossy ways, your brother can be rather comfortin’.”
Remy eased the painful ache by stretching out his legs, taking a moment to breathe, rather pleased that she wasn’t afraid of his cat. She didn’t know the glowing eyes signaled his cat was close, but that didn’t matter. He didn’t want her afraid of him—well, maybe that wasn’t altogether true. One of them had to have good sense, and clearly his leopard was reaching for supremacy.
He gathered up the photographs and the two sealed statements. “Gage will be askin’ you questions later so expect him. Tell him I have the pictures you took and your written statements. He’s asked me to consult on this one so I might be back askin’ questions as well.” He stood up and pinned his sister with cool eyes. “Stay the hell out of the swamp until this nutcase is caught. He’s dangerous.” He waited. Still. His leopard coiled and ready.
Saria sighed. “I’m not quite the idiot you think I am, Remy. I have no intention of runnin’ around in the swamp while a vicious serial killer is out there.”
“I’ve never considered you to be an idiot, just very adventurous,” he corrected.
Now that he had his sister’s agreement he allowed himself to focus on Bijou. The moment he centered his attention on her, he knew it was a mistake. She looked up at him with her impossibly blue eyes and all those long lashes, the cloud of silky hair tumbling around her face and that mouth that needed to be outlawed and he knew he was lost. It wasn’t going to matter that she was his sister’s age. Hell, nothing was going to matter. Bijou Breaux was going to be seeing a lot of him.
“I want everythin’ you have on those death threats, Bijou. Bring them by my office tomorrow around noon. And don’ give me any trouble over it.”
She sent him a faint smile and gave a small salute. He didn’t wait for sass. He turned abruptly on his heel and got the hell out of there before he—or his leopard—did something disgraceful.
3
REMY stared down at the photographs Saria took of the crime scene. The forensic photographer’s photos were scattered across his desk along with those of his sister. He kept frowning at them, because they damn well didn’t add up. Saria was a pro. She didn’t make mistakes. She’d used her zoom lens to record each section of the crime scene. She’d been methodical, so much so that if he’d put the pictures together, they would form a very accurate and detailed replica of the crime scene. And that was the trouble.
He sighed and ran both hands through his hair for the tenth time. Evidence bags lay on top of each of the pictures of an object that had been on the altar. A bag corresponded with each of the forensic photographs, but not with Saria’s. The difference was put down to Saria being an amateur at a crime scene, but he knew better. Nothing rattled Saria for long, and she was surrounded by her brothers and Drake, who were all methodical when it came to solving crimes. Her work was impeccable—which meant someone had added an object between the time Saria took the pictures and the forensic photographer had taken them.
He studied the pictures of the altar as a whole. Rocks formed a rectangle on the ground. Not just any rocks. Each rock was somewhat flat, oval in shape, and had been placed precisely one inch from the next. He knew because he’d measured the distance several times. How could a killer be so absolutely precise? Did he carry a damned ruler along to the murder? Was he just that good that his measurements weren’t off at all, not by so much as a hair?