She stood and grabbed her jacket from the back of her chair. When she slipped it on, she made sure the collar was down. Then she checked her hair. Her auburn curls were pulled back in a bun, but as usual, several strands had escaped. She wondered if she should stop by the restroom and fix that, but when Solomon called you to his office, you went immediately. She doubted he actually counted the minutes it took people to show up, but if he did, she wouldn’t be surprised.
When she reached his reception area, his administrative assistant, Grace, smiled. “He’s waiting for you,” she said, gesturing toward a closed door. Kaely nodded and approached his office, trying to squelch an odd sense of apprehension. She quickly smoothed her slacks, then knocked before she heard Solomon call out. “Come in, Kaely.”
When she stepped inside, she was surprised to see Noah there, sitting in a chair positioned in front of Solomon’s massive desk. Another man sat next to him. Although she didn’t recognize him, he seemed familiar, and she was almost overwhelmed by a sudden sense of foreboding. Why would she react that way to a stranger? It didn’t make sense. She raised her eyebrows as she looked at Noah. A slight hitch in his shoulders told her he had no idea why they were there.
Solomon nodded toward a chair in the corner of the room. She pulled it up next to Noah, and quickly sat down, curious to discover the reason for their summons. She took a deep breath in an attempt to calm her jangled nerves.
“This is Police Chief Everett Sawyer from Des Moines,” Solomon said.
Kaely’s body stiffened. “I remember you now.” Her voice sounded strange to her.
“I wondered if you would,” Sawyer said. “It’s been a long time. You were . . . what? Fourteen? Fifteen?”
“Fourteen,” she said, trying to keep her emotions in check. She turned to look at Solomon. “Chief Sawyer was the lead detective working the case that involved . . . my father.”
Solomon’s bushy eyebrows shot up, and he turned to his guest. “You have a lot of experience with the Ed Oliphant case, then?”
“Yes. Probably more than anyone else.”
“The FBI was called in to assist you,” Kaely said.
Sawyer nodded. “And we were grateful. One of your profilers—sorry, one of your behavioral analysts—came up with a profile so accurate it helped us nab him. I believe a lot more women would have died if it hadn’t been for his help.” He smiled at Kaely. “When I heard you’d joined the FBI, I was relieved. You didn’t allow what happened to destroy you. Instead, you decided to fight back. It was a brave decision. Good for you.”
Kaely felt her cheeks flush. Everett Sawyer had been there when she was questioned about her father, and she’d lumped him in with the people who’d frightened her after her father was arrested. She was confused and unsure about what was going on back then. It didn’t feel real. More like a nightmare she kept waiting to wake up from.
“Thank you,” she managed to say. She turned to look at Solomon. His weathered face gave the impression he was always a little worried about something, but today his lips were a thin line, and his crow’s feet were deeper than normal.
Kaely waited for her boss to say something, but he was unusually quiet. Chief Sawyer refused to meet her gaze, sitting with his arms crossed. He was definitely defensive. The men’s silence filled the room like some kind of noxious gas slowly poisoning the very air Kaely breathed.
“What’s going on?” Noah finally asked, obviously as confused as Kaely was.
Solomon frowned at Sawyer as if he wanted him to answer Noah’s question, but Sawyer didn’t respond. Finally, Solomon took a deep breath and directed his attention to Kaely. “Have you heard about the bodies found in Des Moines?”
Kaely nodded.
Solomon clasped his hands together, his knuckles white with pressure. “The . . . the MO is . . . Well, the MO is the same as your father’s. Strangled. The hands and feet tied with red ribbon.”
Kaely frowned at him. “It’s a copycat killer. Those facts were available to the public.” She studied him for a moment. The tension she saw in his body and his expression hadn’t lessened at all. There was something else. Something he wasn’t telling her.
“Just say it,” she said, feeling annoyed at his reticence.
He glanced at Sawyer and then took another breath. “They found a piece of