Once Cold

Then she said, “I just got off the phone with Jake Crivaro.”

Meredith slowly lifted his head and looked at her. A smile formed on his lips.

“How is old Jake?” he asked.

Riley smiled too. She knew that Jake and Meredith had been close friends back during their early days at the BAU.

“He’s grouchy,” Riley said.

“He always was,” Meredith said. “You know, that old bastard could be downright intimidating.”

Riley suppressed a chuckle. The very idea that Meredith would find anybody intimidating was rather funny. Riley herself had never been intimidated by Jake at all.

She said, “Yesterday was the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Matchbook Killer’s last murder.”

Meredith swiveled toward her in his chair, starting to look interested.

“I remember that one,” he said. “Jake and I were both field agents back then. He never got over not being able to solve it. We talked about it over drinks a lot.”

Meredith folded his hands together and looked at Riley intently.

“So Jake gave you a call about it, eh? He wants to reopen the case, come out of retirement?”

Riley felt a fleeting impulse to lie. Meredith would surely be more open to the idea if he thought it came from Jake. But she just couldn’t do it.

“I called him, sir,” she said. “But it was already on his mind. It always is this time of year. And we talked through some possibilities.”

Meredith leaned back in his chair.

“Tell me what you’ve got,” he said.

She quickly collected her thoughts.

“Jake thinks the killer is still in the general area of the killings,” she said. “And I trust Jake’s hunches. We think he was consumed by guilt – probably still is. And I had this idea that he might regularly leave flowers on the grave of the last victim, Tilda Steen. So that’s something new to check out.”

Riley could tell by Meredith’s face that he was getting interested.

“That could be a really good lead,” he said. “What else have you got?”

“Not much,” she said. “Except Jake mentioned a glass that had been picked up as evidence.”

Meredith nodded.

“I remember. His idiot rookie partner ruined the fingerprints.”

Riley said, “It’s probably still in the evidence locker. Maybe we can get some DNA off of it. That wasn’t much of an option twenty-five years ago.”

“Good,” Meredith said. “What else?”

Riley thought for a moment.

“We’ve got an old composite sketch of the killer,” she said. “It’s not all that good. But maybe our tech guys could age the picture, come up with some ideas about what he might look like now. I could turn it over to Sam Flores.”

Meredith didn’t say anything right away.

Then he looked at Bill, who was still standing near the doorway.

“Have you got any cases going, Agent Jeffreys?”

“No.”

“Good. I want you to work this case with Paige.”

Without another word, Meredith turned his attention back to his reports.

Riley looked at Bill. Like her, he was gaping with surprise.

“When do we start?” Bill asked Meredith

“Five minutes ago,” Meredith said, waving them away. “What’s the matter with you two? Quite wasting time. Get to work.”

Riley and Bill hurried out of the office, excitedly talking about how to get things underway.

CHAPTER NINE

A little while later, Riley was relaxing as Bill drove the FBI car to the town of Greybull, where Tilda Steen had been killed. Riley felt good to be working on a new case, especially one of her own choosing.

It was a warm, sunny day. She felt as though her troubles and anxieties were fading behind her. Now that she had time to clear her head, Riley was beginning to feel quite differently about Ryan’s departure.

Why would she want him to stay, anyway?

She certainly didn’t want him sleeping over now that he was seeing somebody else.

And it was wrong to let the girls keep living with an illusion that he was truly part of their family.

Things could be worse, she thought.

Ryan might have hung around for a much longer time, only to eventually crush the girls’ hopes and expectations even more hurtfully.

Good riddance, she thought.

Just then, Riley’s phone buzzed. She saw that the call was from Blaine. It took her a second to remember that she’d left a message with him just last night, belatedly accepting his dinner offer. So much had happened this morning, it felt like much more time had passed since she’d made that call.

She answered the phone. Blaine sounded upbeat and cheerful.

“Hi, Riley. I got your message. Yeah, the offer still stands.”

“Thanks,” Riley said. “I’m glad.”