Caging a Copycat - Chapter 4

He’d never forgive himself for the way he’d let Grant Harvey tear her down after the Daggett case concluded, but he’d be damned if he let a killer lay a finger on her. The body upstairs only proved he’d been right to get on the plane.

“You convinced the director to assign me to this case.” Olivia shook her head. All that long, dark hair fought a losing battle to stay in the low bun at the back of her neck. She shoved her hands inside her pockets, every inch the woman he remembered all those years ago. Defensive, defiant, cautious. It was those exact characteristics that made her a hell of an agent and an even better director of the BAU. “I should’ve known the instant you walked in the door. So, what is this? An attempt to ease your guilt about what happened? To make yourself feel better after all these—”

“I’m not here for me.” Silas drowned the urge to reach out for her, to make her listen. “You have every right to hate me right now. Because you’re right. You deserved better. I practically gave Harvey permission to minimize your involvement in the case by not standing up for you, and I will live with that weight the rest of my life, Liv. I can’t change the past, but I can damn well make sure Charles Daggett doesn’t get to you next.”

Seconds distorted into minutes, hours even, as they stood there in the middle of the street, each too prideful to say what had to be said. Too wounded.

“All of Daggett’s visitation and correspondence is monitored. He wouldn’t have been able to plan something like this without tipping off the guards.” She stared out over his shoulder. Evasive until ready to strike. “The bureau never made the number of stab wounds each victim sustained public. It’s possible Daggett had a partner. Someone he never told us about.”

“We ran every associate, acquaintance and relative multiple times. Daggett mostly kept to himself other than when he was in court.” Silas scanned the street. He wasn’t with the BAU, wasn’t anywhere near as good at reading people as Olivia was. But he’d studied enough homicide investigations before his transfer into linguistics to know some killers couldn’t help but return to the scene to watch their handiwork unfold. “What I want to know is why the change in scenery? All five previous murders were committed in DC. Harvey had to have been targeted for a reason. Someone was watching him. They knew he’d be here.”

Olivia unpocketed her keys and hit the fob for her SUV parked a few spots down the street. The lights flickered. “Then that’s where I’ll start.”