since he always seemed to be on the job. Or working on behalf of the role he’d sworn to uphold to the best of his abilities, even if that best had his delicious brown eyes bloodshot more often than not lately from lack of sleep.
Trey Colton was a man working off the very edge of his reserves and she was damned if she’d let him come up short. It was why she’d finished up a challenging afternoon session with one of her patients and raced over here. Back to the gruesome files and the endless clues that didn’t seem to go anywhere.
“Aw, jeez, Aish, don’t look at those.”
She turned at the rich, husky tones, unsurprised to see Trey standing just inside the conference room at the Bradford County Sheriff’s Office. She hadn’t let him know she was coming but had figured the scent of pizza would eventually give him an inkling that she was there. The fact she’d had three other pies delivered along with hers, for distribution around the office, would only smooth her way if anyone was bothered by her taking up space in one of their conference rooms.
“How am I supposed to help you catch a killer if I don’t look at the bastard’s handiwork?”
“Still.” Trey had already dived into the pizza, dragging out the half that was his—pepperoni and sausage with extra cheese. “Looking at that’ll make you lose your appetite. Not to mention any belief in humanity and basic decency.”
He took a large bite of pizza, momentary relief closing his eyelids to half-mast. “You ordered from Bruno’s.”
“Of course I did.” She reached for another slice of cheese, pleased to turn this time into a shared dinner. “Would I deign to order anywhere else?”
He grinned at that. “No. Of course not. That New York education was good for more than just a psychology degree.”
“Damn straight it was.”
She’d not only learned the ins and outs of the human psyche, as well as the proper ratio of toppings to sauce, while gathering an education in the Big Apple, but she’d learned a tremendous amount about her own heart, too. Despite what she’d always assumed about herself, it was shockingly fragile.
Breakable, even.
And she’d been unwilling to do much to risk it since. Pining over her best friend was about as far as she was going to go, that lingering hurt keeping her from making any moves to change the status quo between them.
“So what have we got here?” He polished off the end of his first slice and reached for another. “We’ve all been staring at the same photos for weeks now and nothing’s turned up. Other than time of death from the medical examiner and estimated ages and builds on all six women, there are very few lines to tug.”
“Sabrina appears to be the only local,” Aisha pointed out. “That’s a place to start.”
“Daria homed in on that, too. It would go a long way toward explaining why we haven’t focused on any missing persons in the search for these women at the point they were murdered. But they’re also unidentified, so that may be a false assumption.”
“But the few missing persons you ran don’t match the victims?” Aisha pressed him, well aware his trusty deputy would have been all over those runs in a New York minute.
“No.” Trey polished off the last of his crust. “But let’s play out your theory. The killer has been stalking victims elsewhere, then dragging them back to Roaring Springs like trophies. Why change patterns with Sabrina?”
“Serial killers do change pattern. It’s infrequent but it does happen. Maybe Sabrina was a replacement for the killer’s intended victim? Or maybe it’s a point of escalation.”
“There haven’t been any reports anywhere in the state of a young woman escaping a killer’s clutches. Isn’t it usually an incident like that when a killer scrambles to replace the victim, even if elements aren’t perfect?”
She and Trey had been over this already and Aisha knew she was grasping a bit. But everything in the details they’d found so far suggested things were escalating with this killer, who was growing even more dangerous than they had previously envisioned.
“Besides,” Trey spoke again, his attention on the photos spread across the table. “If you’re doing your dirty work somewhere else, why come back to the scene of your crimes?”
Trey’s insight matched hers, but Aisha hadn’t had a good answer for it. Was her theory about the killer escalating off track? The time between the fifth and sixth victims suggested her hunch was indeed correct, but it was far too big a leap to assume this was the killer’s only grave site, too. Colorado was a big, wide-open state and the vast, undeveloped expanses of mountain and forest would offer any number of places to hide bodies.
But... Selecting a local victim was still a break in pattern.
“The killer could be growing bolder. Hunting prey closer to home because the need is so great.” Aisha sighed and set down her pizza to pull the photo of Sabrina Gilford closer. “Which is the last thing you need the press to get a hold of. They’ll have everyone within a five-hundred-mile radius scared out of their minds.”
“One more thing Evigan can toss at me for all the ways my county is a public danger.”
“Barton Evigan is an idiot who doesn’t deserve to have gotten this far.”
“But he has.” Trey’s dark gaze met hers over the scarred office table and the sinister deeds it held. “He’s a true opponent for my reelection and I can’t afford to dismiss him.”
Barton Evigan had seemingly rose up out of the woodwork, a recent entrant into the race for county sheriff. With Trey’s stellar reputation and the endorsement of all the local businesses and local law enforcement agencies, it was a surprise—a disheartening one—to see how fast Evigan had amassed support against Trey.
At the heart of it all seemed to be the insistence that, as a Colton, Trey was in the pocket of his wealthy extended family. And on a singular occasion, Evigan had added in a subtly racist slur suggesting Trey didn’t have the smarts for the job.
Aisha had tried a few times to point out the man’s remark but Trey would have none of it, his only response that he was a Colton and they did have several unsolved crimes in his county. End of story.
Only it wasn’t.
She might be hopelessly infatuated with Trey Colton, but that hadn’t blinded her to his talents or his true nature. He was a good and honorable man and Bradford County was lucky to have him as sheriff. Trey ran a tight ship and, until the Avalanche Killer and all the ensuing madness surrounding the missing women, had actually reduced crime in the area. A fact the local tourism industry depended upon.
The Colton family wasn’t the only one to run a major resort in the area. The Colton Empire might be home to the largest, but it wasn’t the only place to ski or vacation. All local businesses that depended on the patronage of outside visitors had benefited from Trey’s steady hand and outstanding leadership.
Her gaze drifted over those horrible photos once more, the truth of the situation stamped in each one of them. No matter how much good Trey had done for the county, if they didn’t get a handle on this Avalanche Killer soon, his career was in jeopardy.
She’d be damned if she was going to let that happen.
* * *
Trey Colton rubbed a hand over the back of his head, the close-cropped hair against his fingers already too long. He’d needed a haircut for three days and hell if he’d had five minutes to breathe to even go get one.
“I wasn’t suggesting you dismiss Evigan,” Aisha said, her dark gaze serious. “But I think the people who know you and who’ve admired your work are going to continue to give you the leeway to do that work. If there is a serial killer on the loose, this isn’t something that gets solved in a matter of days.”
“We live in an on-demand