01 A Cold Dark Place Read Online Free PDF Page A

regrets.
     
    ***
     
    Mallory headed back into the building and went straight to the briefing room. Two serious-looking guys in suits sat at the head of the table next to the Special Agent in Charge of the Charlotte division. He eyed her over his glasses and she gave him a weak smile. Damn that reporter.
    “Who’re they?” she whispered to Lucas as she sat next to him.
    “S upervisory Special Agents Hanrahan and Frazer from BAU.”
    These guys were legendary in the Bureau. Hanrahan was silver-haired with tanned craggy features. He’d interviewed serial offenders from every state in the Union and wrote the book on profiling the sick bastards. Mallory always wondered how much you could expose yourself to these people without some of your morality wearing off. Frazer was much younger, gleaming blond hair, arctic blue eyes, and Ryan Gosling handsome—if you liked that sort of thing. He was a rock star in law enforcement circles. In Afghanistan he’d tracked down a serial killer who used the war to hide his crimes. After that he nailed a black widow who’d been on husband number four—who just happened to be billionaire Robin Greenburg who owned media companies across the globe. Needless to say, Frazer never got bad press. Polished and perfect, just looking at him made her teeth ache.
    The image of Alex Parker flashed through her mind and she wished she hadn’t brushed him off. There was a rugged quality to his looks that appealed to her. But she hadn’t had time to date since she’d joined the academy and didn’t have time now. She drummed her fingers on the wooden conference table, irritated and frustrated with her lack of life outside work.
    SSA Danbridge strode in on her black heeled boots with a toss of her long blond hair. She shot Mallory a narrow-eyed glare that made her want to squirm in her seat. Mallory held still. Danbridge looked more tense than usual, though she’d taken the time to change into a fresh power suit. Mallory’s gaze shot to the two men as she finally got it. Duh . Danbridge had applied for an opening at Quantico and was hoping to impress these guys enough to make it happen. Mallory’s throat went dry because she had nothing to say that was going to make her boss shine.
    Danbridge started the meeting and outlined what had happened last night.
    “How did you narrow it down to Meacher?” SSA Hanrahan asked. He had a lovely voice. Level but warm.
    “We got the tip -off about Meacher yesterday afternoon at six-fifteen.”
    “You personally?” Hanrahan asked.
    Danbridge pointed to her.
    Mallory swallowed. “Erhm. It came into the office, and I picked up.” Gosh, really Mallory? You managed to answer a phone all by yourself?
    “You are?” Hanrahan asked.
    “Special Agent Rooney, sir.”
    “I saw you o n the news.”
    There was a huff of smothered laughter behind her. She held still when she wanted to turn around and glare. Hanrahan was watching her closely, knowledge alive in the depths of his blue eyes. Damn . She hated being the center of attention or an object of curiosity. That clear gaze told her he knew everything about her from her pedigree to her shoe size. She wanted to disappear into the floor. Unfortunately her powers of invisibility failed her.
    “On a normal day you’d probably have left the information to deal with the next day. Why didn’t you?”
    Because I have no life . “I started digging a little into Meacher’s background and realized he was a perfect fit to the profile your unit provided, sir. So I took the information to SSA Danbridge”—her boss’s eyes glowed with approval, because, yes , they both worked late almost every night and weekends and now everyone knew it—“and then we received a call from state police concerned that The Snatcher had claimed another victim.”
    Danbridge interrupted her. Thank God . “I took the information to the Special Agent in Charge and we moved immediately to act on the information we’d received.”
    Relief that