'You should stay with us tonight,' Royce said. 'We have room.' His jaw tightened. 'And I have a gun. I'd like to see that prick try terrorizing someone his own size.'

Lucy thought of Gwyn's often graphic descriptions of the nights she spent with Royce. She wasn't sure if she could listen to the two of them . . . together. Especially when the memory of that damn alley was never far from her mind.

'Thanks, but I think I'll stay with Thorne tonight.' She glanced over her shoulder. 'If that's okay with you.'

'You know it is,' Thorne said simply. 'As long as you need it.'

They turned when Drew came through the door, holding his cell. 'It's for you, Dr Trask.'

A little puzzled, she took the phone. 'This is Dr Trask.'

'It's JD. I wanted to tell you that I won't be able to get over there. Hyatt's got a meeting scheduled and . . . well, I'm sorry.'

Lucy was conscious of Gwyn's and Thorne's worried expressions. 'Nothing's wrong,' she told them, then stepped to the edge of the landing for privacy. 'Is there? I mean, anything new?'

'Probably not. We just finished talking to Ryan Agar. When we mentioned your brother's name, we got a reaction. We told him you'd found the bodies, hoping he'd tell us the connection, but he insisted he didn't know.'

'But you think he's lying.'

'Yeah, I do. I want you to be careful, keep your eyes open in case he approaches you. He's about six four with reddish hair and a tanned face.'

'If he does, I'll call for help.'

'Good. Then call me. Where will you be today?'

'At the morgue. We've got a backload of bodies. Craig went in to do Janet Gordon's ID.'

'Oh. We thought you'd do it. We sent Agar to find a hotel until you were ready.'

'Craig's probably waiting for your call. When he's done with the ID, he'll start on . . .' She bit her lip, watching Thorne and Gwyn watching her. 'The other autopsy,' she said, not wanting to say Kevin's name. Thorne had spent most of the night grieving with the Drummond family.

'I understand. Lucy, I need to talk to you. Later. Alone.'

She closed her eyes, a shiver racing across her skin at the thought of the last time they were alone. They hadn't done much talking. 'Not a good idea.'

'I have a lot of questions. I'd like some answers. Please.'

It was the please that moved her. Or maybe she just wanted to say yes. 'All right. I get off at five. I'm probably staying with Thorne tonight.'

'All right. I'll try to break for dinner. Lucy, one more thing. Hyatt wants the list of your regular customers at the club. He says he'll put a squad car out front until you hand it over.'

Lucy's jaw tightened. 'I really don't like that man. Do you think he will?'

'Honestly, no. But someone there knew you were staying with Gwyn last night.'

'Or the killer assumed it. He might have stopped by my place first and seen the crime-scene label on the door. My staying with Gwyn would be an obvious leap.'

'He had a key.'

That stopped her cold. 'And if Gwyn had been home . . .' That left her colder.

'Will you try to get the list?'

'I'll ask him. He'll say no. But I'll try.'

'We'll be talking to your employees, too. We hope you'll encourage them to cooperate.'

'I will. I need to go. Drew wants his phone.'

'I'll call you when I get a break. Be careful.'

Yeah, she thought, hanging up. Easier said than done when Fitzpatrick got too close. She handed Drew his phone. 'Thank you.'

'No problem. Look, we'll be here a while. We've got your statements, so you can go. Do you need an escort?'

'No, I'll catch a ride with my friends.' I need them. Especially now, she thought as she rejoined the others. 'He says we can go. Thorne, can you drive me to work?'

Thorne checked his watch. 'I'm almost late to court, but if we hurry-'

'You go to court,' Royce interrupted. 'I'll drive and walk them both in. Don't worry.'

But Thorne clearly was. 'You know how to use that gun, Royce?' he murmured.

'Yeah.' Royce looked back at the CSU team, still working in Gwyn's apartment. 'I hope Lucy's cop figures this out quickly. My trigger finger's feeling damn twitchy.'

Lucy's cheeks heated. 'He's not my cop. Let's just all go to work.'

Chapter Fifteen.

Tuesday, May 4, 9.10 A.M.

JD assumed that the man in Hyatt's guest chair was the shrink. He was about sixty and wore a tweed suit. Daphne had kicked convention to the curb and dragged a chair from someone else's desk into Hyatt's office. She sat on it like it was a throne. Hyatt glared at her from time to time.

It made JD want to buy her lunch.

'Is Agar gone?' Hyatt asked.

'He is,' Stevie said. 'He got a room at the Peabody. Tory Reading is driving him. She's his first shift tail, too.' She gestured to the man in the chair. 'Lennie, this is my new partner, JD Fitzpatrick. JD, meet Dr Lennie Berman.'

JD took the hand he offered. 'Dr Berman,' he said.

Berman nodded once. 'So who is Agar and why is he being tailed?'

JD and Stevie brought the group up to date. 'He knows something,' JD said firmly.

'I'd have to agree,' Berman said. 'But it sounds like Mr. Agar is more afraid of what he knows than he is of you. Is there another way to get to this information?'

'Yes,' Hyatt snapped. 'Make Agar more afraid of us.'

'Or,' JD said, 'we go back to Anderson Ferry and ask questions. Something ties these men together. I think Russell Bennett's father knows what it is.'

'Why kill Agar's mother, though?' Daphne asked. 'Why cut out her heart?'

'Maybe because he's a sick SOB?' Stevie said. 'We're pretty sure he used her death to draw the son back and quickly. He could have waited for us to make the ID and notify next of kin. But then Agar wouldn't have made it here until this evening.'

'He's in a hurry,' Berman mused.

'He lost two weeks,' JD said. 'He killed Bennett, but Dr Trask was out of town.'

'So he froze the victim,' Berman said. 'He went to a lot of trouble to put the bodies where Dr Trask would find them, then he left her their hearts. You can't get much more symbolic than that. She's definitely at the center. Her brother died after high school?'

'Yes,' JD said. 'Motorcycle accident. He was eighteen. Dr Trask was only fourteen.'

'And she has no clue what the connection could be?'

'Not that she's aware of,' Stevie said. 'We know Bennett hated her and kept a file on her adult life. We also know Bennett had dozens of extramarital affairs. So far, twelve have had ties to his hometown. What gives with that?'

'I'd guess he had a sexual event occur back in that town. Something that he'd been trying to either re-create or forget. Given the sheer number of women, I'd say the second one, although I'd imagine he'd claim it was the first. He was trying to prove something to himself, one way or the other. We definitely need to go to that town.'

'We?' JD asked. 'You're going?'

'Oh yes. If this killer is leaving no evidence, we have to find his motive. That is correct, isn't it? He's left no real evidence?'

JD nodded. 'So far. We're hoping the ME will get some skin scrapings from under the valet's nails, because it seems that's the only death he didn't execute off site.'

'What do we have on possible locations for his kills?' Hyatt asked.

'Somewhere near the water,' JD said. 'Bennett's first ex-wife remembers hearing seagulls when he called her. We think his killer had him by then.'

'We know he has access to a big-ass freezer, too,' Stevie said.

'Morton and Skinner made a list.' Hyatt gave them a copy. 'Morton said these are the facilities within fifty miles with a flash freezer big enough to handle a human body.'

Stevie skimmed the list. 'All of them run twenty-four-hour operations. It would have been hard for anyone to slip a body in there when nobody was looking.'

'But we know he did it,' Hyatt said. 'So keep looking. What else do we know?'

'He steals their money,' JD said. 'Edwards, Bennett and now Janet Gordon have had their bank accounts wiped. Gordon had close to two hundred grand taken.'

'We need IT to trace the transfers,' Stevie said. 'Hopefully the detectives working the Edwards case have some leads.'

Hyatt nodded. 'Find out. Who was the last person to see Janet Gordon alive?'

'Her manicurist saw her that afternoon,' JD said. 'Assuming she went out for a date, somebody would have seen her there.'

'What about the victims?' Berman asked. 'What kind of people were they?'

'Bennett was an asshole,' Stevie said. 'Womanizer, abusive. Real piece of work. From the two people we've talked to about Janet, she didn't seem too sweet either.'

'The Edwardses were socialites,' JD said, 'until recently when he became a philanthropist.'

'Why?' Berman asked.

'He got cancer,' JD said, 'became involved in a church, left them his estate.'

'Interesting,' Berman said thoughtfully. 'He was searching for absolution.'

'My money says Buck Trask has something to do with it,' Stevie said. 'The look on Agar's face when JD said his name was all fear and guilt.'

Berman's eyes gleamed. 'I think a field trip is definitely in order.'

'Okay,' Hyatt said. 'Stevie, you and Fitzpatrick take the doc to Anderson Ferry. Find out what the hell happened to connect these victims. Hell, take both docs. Maybe Dr Trask will remember something. I'll put Morton and Skinner back on finding that flash freezer.' He glanced at Daphne who'd been sitting quietly. 'Why are you here?'

Her lips twitched. 'You charmer. You asked for a warrant for Bennett's medical files.'

'Because Janet Gordon got her breast work done by Bennett,' JD said.

'That's disturbing,' Stevie countered with a shudder. 'She knew Bennett when he was a kid. Her son grew up with him.'

'Agar did say his mother wasn't the milk-and-cookies type,' JD said. 'The super's wife thought Bennett and Gordon had a thing. The super thought Bennett hated her.'

'Yet she trusted him to cut her open,' Berman said. 'I find that very interesting.'

'So what about Dr Bennett's office?' Daphne asked. 'Because if you want access to his records, getting a warrant's gonna take a long time and a lot of peach cobbler.'

'I want them,' Hyatt said. 'Financial and patient. Maybe he worked on other women from Anderson Ferry. Hell, maybe he worked on the hot doc who wears black leather.'

JD frowned at Hyatt's familiarity even as he bit back a denial. Lucy's breasts were definitely natural. That much he could guarantee. 'That doesn't explain the death of Edwards or the luring of Agar,' he said levelly and thought Hyatt looked amused.

'True. Still, we need to find out all the details. What about the doc's friend's apartment?'

'CSU's still there,' Stevie said. 'There doesn't appear to be anything missing and there's no evidence of forced entry.'

'Which means he has a key,' JD said. 'All the staff at Dr Trask's club saw Gwyn give her a key last night. So they all thought she'd be there. We need whereabouts of the staff.'

'I'll put Morton on it,' Hyatt said grouchily. 'Skinner can run down the freezer. What about cameras at the club? What did they pick up last night?'

'Nothing,' JD said. 'There was a camera in the rear alley, but all it caught was the blood splattering on the wall. The actual murder was out of camera range.'

'Damn.' Hyatt pointed at Daphne. 'I want a warrant to make that arrogant SOB Thorne give me his client list. Somebody there saw something.'