Taking

“I think the killer has struck again. Another woman has been murdered.”

Jake felt a jolt of surprise.

He asked, “You mean right there in Dyson Park?”

“No, this time it’s in Arizona. Lemme explain. You know how Jillian and I like to travel south during the winter? Well, we’re in Arizona right now, at a campground not far from Phoenix. This morning on the local news, they said that a young woman’s body had been found on a hiking trail somewhere north of here. I called the local cops, and they were willing to give me a few details.”

Harry cleared his throat. “Jake, the girl’s wrists were all cut up. She must have bled to death somewhere, but not where her body was found. It’s just like the victim in Dyson Park. I’ll bet anything it’s the same killer.”

Jake felt a twinge of skepticism.

“Harry, I don’t know,” he said. “A lot of time has passed since the Colorado killing. There’s a pretty good chance that any resemblance between the two murders is just a coincidence.”

Harry’s voice took on a more urgent tone.

“Yeah, but what if it’s not a coincidence? What if the guy who did the Colorado crime did this one too? What if it turns into some kind of spree?”

Jake suppressed a sigh. He could understand his friend’s reaction. Harry had told him how bitterly disappointed he’d been about not being able to help the Gladwin cops and the Colorado State Patrol catch the local killer. It wasn’t surprising that a new murder with some similar details pushed Harry’s buttons.

But people hiking in a wilderness alone did get killed sometimes. And some people persisted in going out there by themselves in spite of all warnings.

Jake didn’t want to tell Harry flat-out that he thought he was wrong.

But what can I tell him?

Jake didn’t know.

Harry continued, “Jake, I was wondering … do you think you could take this on as a BAU case? I mean, now that there have been two murders in two different states?”

Jake was feeling more and more uneasy.

He said, “Harry, that’s not how things usually work. It’s up to the police out there in Arizona to ask for the FBI’s help. And as far as I know, they haven’t done that. Until they do, it’s none of our business. Now maybe if you could get them to call the FBI …”

Harry interrupted. “I’ve already tried that. I can’t convince these cops that the murders are connected. And you know how local cops can be about the FBI stepping onto their turf. They’re not crazy about the idea.”

Jake thought, No, I don’t guess they are.

He found it easy to imagine how the police in Arizona might react to some retired cop trying to convince them they were missing something important. But Harry was actually right about one thing. If a killer committed murders in more than one state, the FBI didn’t need an invitation to get on the case. If Harry was right about it being the same killer, the FBI could open an investigation.

If Harry was right.

Jake took a long, slow breath. “Harry, I really don’t know if I can do anything about this on my end. It would be a hard sell, trying to get the people in charge here to make this an official FBI thing. For one thing, you know perfectly well the FBI won’t take a case if the local cops think it’s just a single murder. But …”

“But what?”

Jake hesitated, then said, “Let me think about it. I’ll get back to you.”

“Thanks, buddy,” Harry said.

They ended the call.

Jake winced a little, wondering why on earth he’d promised to get back to Harry.

He knew perfectly well that he could never convince Special Agent in Charge Erik Lehl that this ought to be an FBI case. Not on such a slim connection.

Hell, I don’t really believe it myself.

But he’d said what he’d said, Harry was out in Arizona waiting for Jake to call back at pretty much any minute. And the only thing Jake was going to be able to tell him was what he should have told him before they’d ended that call—that there was no way for him to get the FBI involved.

Jake stared at his cell phone for a moment, trying to get up the nerve to make that return phone call. But he couldn’t bring himself to do it—at least not yet.

Instead he hunkered down and began eating his breakfast in earnest. He figured maybe more coffee might help him think better about how to handle this situation.

Or maybe not.

Jake knew he hadn’t been especially sharp lately. In fact, he’d already been feeling low when Harry called him, and it wasn’t just because he’d blown off Riley Sweeney’s graduation.

That case he and Riley had solved some weeks ago—the nasty case of the barbed wire killer—had left him feeling exhausted and burnt out. That seemed to be happening more and more as he grew older. His energy just didn’t bounce back like it used to. And he suspected that his colleagues here at the BAU knew that. In fact, he guessed that was why Erik Lehl hadn’t assigned him to anything out in the field since that last one.

And maybe it was just as well.

Maybe he wasn’t up to it just yet.

Or maybe he wasn’t up to it at all anymore—ever again.

He sighed into his coffee cup as he thought …

Maybe it really is time to retire.

That thought had been bugging him a lot lately. It was one reason why he’d gone to the trouble of transferring Riley Sweeney to the BAU. It was why he’d made such a green agent his partner. In all his years as a profiler, he’d never met anyone else with a talent like his own—the ability to climb into a killer’s mind.

Whenever he did retire, he wanted to leave someone like that behind to continue his work—a bright young agent who could fill his own shoes. But he worried that getting Riley ready for all that might be no easy task. He often described her as “a diamond in the rough.”

And she was a rough diamond indeed. Even now that she had graduated from the Academy, Jake was sure it going to take a lot of work to get rid of those rough edges—her impetuosity, her tendency to bend and even break the rules and not follow orders, and her lack of discipline when it came to using her own gift.

She’s got a lot to learn, Jake thought.

And he had to wonder if he was actually up to the task of teaching her all that she had to know, especially now that he seemed to be past his own peak.

One thing seemed certain—he mustn’t go easy on her. Not that he’d exactly pampered her so far. In fact, he often found it hard to hold onto his temper when she did crazy, rookie things. But he liked her a lot, even though he tried not to show it too much. She reminded him of himself when he was much younger.

So he sometimes felt tempted to spoil her.

But he mustn’t do that.

He had to work her hard. He had to shape her up fast.

As Jake finished his breakfast, he found himself thinking again about Harry Carnes, who was probably waiting for his return call right now.