Drained (Edgars Family #6) - Suzanne Ferrell Page 0,55

straight dark hair, eyes a slight almond shape, their dull, but familiar brown gaze fixed on the river beyond.

Brianna swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry. “Yes.”

Everyone around her grew silent. She could feel Aaron, Jaylon and Ramos all staring at her. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the body.

“Yes, what?” Jaylon asked, breaking the spell.

Brianna looked at the trio. “Yes, she was a violinist. Quite good when she was young. Considered a virtuoso. Her name is Mia Tanaka.”

“And you know this how?” Aaron asked quietly, almost gently.

Brianna inhaled, then exhaled, tears spilling over her cheeks. “Because she used to live in the women’s shelter. And she was my friend.”

16

“Let’s get you a seat.” Aaron grasped Brianna gently by her elbows and maneuvered her away from the body. She’d grown pale and he felt the shivers running through her. The last thing they needed was for her to faint. “When did you last see Mia?”

“About a year ago,” Brianna said, a little more than a whisper after she sat in the back of one of the cruisers, the door open and her feet flat on the broken asphalt beneath the car. “She’d been doing so well…” The words drifted off and she swallowed hard, tears brimming over to slide down her cheeks.

He wanted to pull her up into his arms and hold her close, comfort her, but not here, not now. This was a crime scene, his job. The tentative relationship he had with her was too fresh, too new and still very private.

“Here, drink this,” Jaylon said beside him, cracking the cap off a bottle of water—where he’d gotten it from, Aaron had no idea—and handed it to her.

Brianna took a few sips, blinked, dashing the tears away with her free hand, then picking Stanley up to sit in her lap. The dog sensed her unease and snuggled in tight as she stroked his fur, as much to comfort herself as she did the terrier.

“You okay to talk?” Aaron asked, laying one hand on her shoulder, squeezing it just a little.

She took another, longer drink of the water, then nodded that she’d be okay to continue.

“Detective Jeffers!” one of the uniforms called to Aaron before he could ask Brianna another question. He turned to tell the guy to wait, only to see a tall man with closely cut dark red hair, dressed in jeans and a dark blue windbreaker with big, bold, yellow FBI letters on the upper left chest area, standing just outside the police barrier tape. “This guy says he’s with you.”

Carson Smith. Had to be. He hadn’t talked to anyone else, except Jake, and he trusted Jake. How the hell did Carson get here? Didn’t matter, but since he was, might as well get his opinion on the scene before Ramos started grousing about needing to move the body to the morgue.

“It’s okay. Let him through,” he called, then also waved Ramos over.

“Carson?” he asked, reaching out to shake the other man’s hand. He looked much younger than he’d expected. Thirty-ish, maybe. “Didn’t expect you to make a trip here.”

“Your case intrigued me,” was all he said.

Guy travels all night on his own dime because a case intrigued him? Jake did say he was a very focused profiler. Aaron schooled his surprise and started the introductions. “This is my partner Jaylon Halloway, Investigator Anita Ramos of the Medical Examiner’s office, and this is Brianna Matthews, civilian, but assisting on the case.”

Jaylon lifted one brow his direction. He ignored it. That was the best description he could give at this time as to why she was here, why he was keeping her close. It was his case and so far, Brianna had been instrumentally involved since the beginning.

“Carson is a profiler and I ran through the situation with our first victim with him.” He stopped the explanation, to focus on the FBI agent again. “How did you know where to find us?”

The younger man gave a slight shrug. “I went straight from the airport to your homicide unit. You gave me the address yesterday. When I got there, your captain told me you’d found a second victim. I asked him if he minded me taking a look. He said no and sent me with one of your uniform squads.”

“Did he tell you anything about this new case?”

“I asked him not to. When I can, I prefer to look at a scene from my own perspective and especially if it hasn’t been disturbed, too much.” He leaned sideways, staring