Night Fall (The Quantico Files #1) - Nancy Mehl Page 0,4

KCPD and our agents in that area will be really helpful.”

Alex’s body tensed. Lead the team? She knew she was respected for her work with NCAVC, but she’d only been here six months. What did Logan and Monty think of this? She quickly glanced at them. Monty’s expression hadn’t changed. Logan looked a little surprised, but he covered it well. A few extra blinks, but she didn’t see any other physical actions that betrayed his true emotions.

“Yes, sir,” she said. She had no reason to say anything else. This wasn’t a voluntary assignment. When you were told to go, you went. And you did what you were told to do. Period.

Jeff started to say something else, but then the phone rang. He pressed the button for the speakerphone.

“We’re here, Stephen,” he said.

Stephen Barstow was a well-known figure in the Kansas City law enforcement community. A decorated detective, he’d earned Alex’s respect as they worked several cases together during her time in Kansas City.

“Good,” Stephen said. “I hear you’ve assigned Supervisory Special Agent Donovan to help us, is that right?”

“Yes. She’s sitting right here.”

“Hello, Alex.” The smoothness she remembered in his voice came through the phone.

“Hi, Stephen. Glad to be working with you again.”

“Same here.”

“I also have Supervisory Special Agents Logan Hart and Monty Wong with us.”

“Good to have you all on board. So as you know, Jeff, we have a problem. Four murders. Only a week or two between each one, and they all look random. Nothing about the victims is similar—as if our UNSUB is selecting whoever is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Three men, one woman. Two Caucasian, one Black, and one Hispanic. Three of them younger, one in his seventies. All the bodies were discovered on trains and were stabbed multiple times.”

They could hear him take a deep breath before going on. “Unusual tags on the outside of the boxcars. Something like Bible verses, but we’ve searched several Bible apps to find them, and they’re not in any version we could locate. We’re not sure what the UNSUB is trying to tell us. He signed his work, but we have no idea what the initials TM mean. His name? Or something else?”

There was a slight pause. “I’m sending you some photos of the tags right now, along with everything else we’ve got, which isn’t much. We don’t have any real evidence. This guy is careful . . . and smart. At this point, we’re not in charge. He is. Have your team look over this information before they get here, okay? I’ll expect them at the command post in the morning. We’re setting it up now. Does that work for you?”

“They’ll be there, Stephen. Talk to you soon.”

The call done, Jeff turned on his laptop and pulled up the information Barstow had just emailed. He sent the file to a large screen on the wall and began slowly clicking through the photos.

In mere seconds, Alex felt like all the blood in her body had frozen, as if time itself had come to a halt. Her mind couldn’t seem to process what she was seeing.

How could this be happening?

2

Logan had listened closely to the detective from Kansas City, but he’d had to fight to stay focused. What was that scent Alex Donovan wore? It was a mixture of lilacs and . . . something else. His mind kept trying to figure it out, which was infuriating. He wasn’t interested in Alex. He was a Christian, and he had no plans to get involved with a woman who didn’t share his faith.

So why did his eyes drift her way whenever she was in the room? And why did he keep wondering what she would look like if she released her thick, wavy black hair from the band that held it in a ponytail? Alex wasn’t classically beautiful. Her bangs were no doubt an attempt to hide a high forehead. Her nose was a little long, and her mouth was too wide. But those slight imperfections faded when you looked into her eyes—gray-blue irises framed by black lashes. The way she outlined them made them seem even larger than they were.

She was also crazy smart, and when she looked at him, he felt as if she knew what he was thinking.

He felt his face flush.

“Grab your gear and get ready to go,” Jeff said. “Any questions?”

Logan shook his head and glanced at Alex. Her face had gone white, and her eyes were wide. “Is something wrong?” he