He Kills Me, He Kills Me Not

all along the killer was in control. He was the one with the power. He’d destroyed her life, made her cower in fear, and forced her to give up everything and everyone that mattered. Somehow, she had to make a change. She couldn’t let him win anymore.
    She stopped pacing and hurried back into the kitchen where she’d left her purse. The yellow sticky note with her user ID and password beckoned her like a beacon of hope. She grabbed the Post-it and hurried back to her computer.
    No more lies, no more excuses. It was time to take her life back. It was time to catch a killer.

 
     
    Chapter Six
     
    “T hey have temps for this, you know.” Pierce flicked a ball of dust and hair from his suit jacket in disgust. “I still don’t see why we have to search through this nasty warehouse ourselves, especially before breakfast.” He shed his jacket and laid it over a partially shredded leather chair that used to decorate the city hall lobby.
    Logan decided not to tell him the chair wasn’t shredded from age. It had been shredded by rats. He exchanged a grin with Riley and tossed another box marked “Miscellaneous” onto the growing stack in the middle of the concrete floor. Both men were enjoying seeing the city-slicker Fed acclimate himself to a rural town and all its charms.
    “Just be glad we didn’t stumble across any gator nests this close to the swamp.” Logan tossed another box, enjoying the alarmed look that flashed across Pierce’s face. “Besides, every cent of my budget is going to this case right now. I’m not going to waste precious resources hiring a temp for something that will only take a couple of hours. And I sure as hell am not pulling your team or mine from the investigation for this.”
    Riley grunted as he tried to move one of the heavier boxes marked “City Hall.” Pierce helped him, and together they heaved the box back several feet.
    “Chief.” Riley motioned toward the stack of smaller boxes that were now revealed. “I think we’re in the right spot. These boxes are labeled “Police Archives.”
    Logan straightened and wiped sweat from his forehead. “Do they have any categories? Dates?”
    “Nope.”
    “We’ll have to look through all of them then. How many boxes total?”
    “Four here.” Riley braced a hand against the concrete wall and leaned around the boxes to see the others stacked behind them. “At least ten more over here with the same label.”
    Pierce threw up his hands. “Haven’t you people ever heard of computers? Or Sharpies to write meaningful labels on the boxes? Your filing system sucks.”
    Logan laughed as he helped Riley lift the desired boxes and start a new stack next to one of the old, discarded conference tables they’d set up when they arrived. “I agree. But we’re still going to look through all of these boxes.”
    In spite of his complaining, Pierce dove in, helping stack all the boxes by the table. Then he pulled up a rusty metal chair and, after dusting it off, sat down to start sorting through the contents of each box. He squinted in the dim light from the grimy windows as he tried to read the label on a thick file. “Remind me again exactly what we’re looking for?”
    Logan sobered, his grin fading. “Any missing person, abduction or murder case file within the past decade. Shadow Falls is the only place our perp has struck twice that we know of. I’m hoping to find some earlier case that will lead us to a suspect. Maybe he grew up here and that’s why he returned. I’m particularly interested in the Northwood case.”
    Riley dropped a thick file on the table. “Northwood? When was that?”
    “Ten years ago, almost to the day.”
    “Ten years . . . ten years,” Riley mumbled as he tore into another box.
    “What’s so special about the Northwood case?” Pierce asked. He added another folder to the small stack.
    “Anna Northwood was murdered in a motel room a couple of miles from here. I was involved in that case.”
    Riley paused and looked up at him. “Was she abducted first?”
    “No.”
    “Did the killer leave a rose at the scene?”
    “No.”
    The room grew silent and Logan sighed beneath the weight of Riley and Pierce’s stares. “I know that case is most likely not related to our current case, but while we’re here I’d like to get that folder to look through it and see if anything was missed the first time around. I was a rookie back then, made a stupid mistake, and because of me the suspect got