No Escape From War (Trouble for Hire #1) - Cynthia Eden Page 0,69
Briggs?” Rose asked. She reached into the filing cabinet.
Briggs.
There was a file there for her, too.
Rose pulled it out. Studied the photos. “He was tailing her.” She thumbed through them. Found a note. “Her fiancé hired him. He thought Barbara was hiding something from him.” Rose shook her head. “But she’s not with anyone else in these pictures. She’s just going to work. Shopping. She’s not cheating or doing anything wrong at all.”
No, she wasn’t. Those pictures… “They’re like the ones that Dylan had in his drawer of you.”
She put down the file. “Give me the file that Gary has on me.”
Ah, about that… “So, Rose—”
She snagged the file labeled Shadow. Rose yanked it open. “Oh. My. God.”
He winced.
“That’s me.”
“Not exactly.”
She yanked one of the photos up high and peered at it. “That is an excellent photoshopping job.”
“Barely mediocre.”
Her fingers balled up the photo. Only there were plenty more waiting. “You’ve seen these.”
A roll of one shoulder. He’d mentioned the photos back at his place. Told her they were BS.
“That’s what led to the whole incident with your fist hitting the filing cabinet? You saw these photos?” She eyed the dent in the side of the filing cabinet.
“I knew they were fake.”
“They are exceedingly good fakes. Who knew Gary had those skills?”
“Personally, I thought the man had zero skills. I’m also still not impressed.”
Rose exhaled on a rough sigh. “How did you know they weren’t real?”
“Because you told me that you hadn’t been with anyone since me.” She’d told him. He believed her. “Gary wanted me to think those had been taken since we broke up.” A shrug. “He was lying.”
“Yes. He was.”
“I told you before, baby, it’s you. I believe you. I choose you. I will always stand with you.” Another roll of his shoulder. “He started being a dick after that point.” Started? Ha. The man was always a dick. “If you want the truth, I called him on his bullshit, and in response, he pulled a gun on me.”
She flinched.
“It wasn’t loaded.” He’d told her this before. “Said he just used it to protect himself. That he didn’t like guns.”
She shoved the Shadow file back into the drawer.
“Was easy enough to get the gun away. His mistake was pulling it when I was so close to him.”
She bit her lower lip. “If he faked those pictures of me…” Her gaze darted to the filing cabinet. “Then maybe he’s faked a ton more. Maybe he’s ruined lives and never looked back.” She started thumbing through the files. “War.”
He jerked to attention at the alarm in her voice.
She looked at him. “Every single victim is here. He has a file on every victim that I know about.”
War moved closer to get a better look. A few moments later, he realized—yes, Rose was right. Gary had been hired to do surveillance work on the women who’d later been strangled. He’d been watching them, and they’d been found dead. “That is no coincidence.”
Rose backed up a step. “It’s a massive filing cabinet. I bet every drawer is full of cases.” Her voice thickened. “What if there are more victims?” Fear and horror had her paling. “War, what if there were more?”
Swearing, War pulled out his phone. The cops needed to be brought in, now. The phone rang, then, “Lynn? You need to bring in Gary Strom for questioning.”
“Ugh. Him. Why?”
Staring straight at Rose, War said, “Because an anonymous source just told you that Gary was hired to tail all of the murder victims on the case you’re working…”
***
“The cops are going to find him.” War killed the headlights and propped his arm on the steering wheel as he angled toward Rose. “This is the intel we needed, baby. They are going to get Gary, and the nightmare will be over.”
Freaking Gary Strom. Now that War looked back, it made sense. Gary had watched his victims, stalked them, and then killed them.
He’d kept the case files and all the photos like some kind of sick trophies.
The significant others who had hired Gary hadn’t told the police about him because they hadn’t wanted to air the dirty laundry about their dead. Or maybe they’d felt guilty for being suspicious in the first place. Whatever their reasons had been, their silence had allowed Gary to slip past detection.
He wasn’t slipping away any longer.
The cops were on their way to Gary’s house. War had wanted to be there, too, but Lynn had ordered him to stand down. She’d pulled the official police business card on