Midnight Fear Read Online Free PDF

best to sound calm and nonchalant. “I appreciate your concern—”
    “I also want you to be on alert.”
    She blinked. “Why?”
    “A charm was found at the crime scene. Most likely, it fell off a bracelet the victim was wearing. It had a Tiffany logo, so the Bureau’s checking the store registry to see if they can trace it to the owner in order to ID the victim.” When he saw her puzzled expression, he added, “The charm was a horseshoe.”
    She understood where he was headed. “Virginia is horse country. That doesn’t mean anything.”
    “Maybe not. At least that’s what I kept telling myself until I came up here and found out about your mutilated horse. What if it isn’t coincidental?”
    An image of Aggie’s bloated corpse filled her mind. “What are you suggesting? That I knew the woman? Or that I’m a possible target?”
    He sighed tiredly, rubbing his forehead with two fingers of his right hand. “I don’t know what I’m saying. I just felt the need to come up here and see you, that’s all.”
    They stared at one another for several seconds, a meaningful silence filling the space between them.Then she asked, “Did you mention any of this to Chief Malcolm?”
    “He didn’t see any connection between the D.C. murder and your horse, either. ‘Barking up the wrong tree, son,’ is how he put it. I hope he’s right.”
    Looking into those flint-gray eyes, Caitlyn wondered how one man could conjure up such feelings of physical desire and pain in her simultaneously. She thought of the spark they seemed to have shared even as Reid had urged her to search for evidence that could prove Joshua’s guilt. Afterward, she wondered if she’d only imagined the magnetic pull between them, or if Reid had simply charmed her in order to close his case, to get what he’d wanted.
    “I brought a Polaroid snapshot from the crime scene.” Reid sounded hesitant. “I know it’s a long shot, but would you be willing to take a look at it? Make sure you don’t know the victim?”
    She took a small breath, preparing herself. Reid withdrew the photo from his jeans pocket and handed it to her. Caitlyn felt her stomach clench. The victim’s skin was blue-tinged and waxy, her eyes sunken and corneas clouded. She didn’t look real.
    “No,” she said in a soft voice, shaking her head. “I can’t be sure, but…no.”
    He retrieved the photo. “Thank you for looking.”
    She nodded without speaking.
    “I am sorry for what you went through. For what happened to your life.” Reid’s voice was a low rasp. “I should have told you that sooner.”
    He appeared as if he wanted to say something more, but instead he broke their gaze and walked to her desk. Picking up a pen, he wrote on a small notepad she kept there.
    “That’s my cell number. If anything unusual happens, don’t hesitate to call me.”
    “I still have your card from before—”
    “This is my personal number. I’m currently on leave from the VCU.”
    The announcement surprised her. She didn’t see Reid as someone who took time off for an extended vacation. “But you said you were at the crime scene—”
    “As a consult only, due to the similarities to the previous murders.” He offered no further explanation. Reid retrieved his leather jacket, which had been folded over the back of his chair, and put it on. She noticed its soft, distressed leather and realized that until now she had seen him only in the dress suit and tie that his job with the FBI required. The casual clothes on him—the faded jeans and hiking boots, the long-sleeved T-shirt—made him somehow more appealing.
    “Take care, Caitlyn.”
    She watched from the window of her office as Reid went back to his vehicle. Several moments later, the Explorer kicked up a cloud of dust as it traveled down the dirt-and-gravel road and disappeared from view.

4
    C aitlyn rinsed her dinner plate under the stream of water in the kitchen sink as she talked to Sophie Treadwell on the phone.