“Taller?” Ruby raised an eyebrow, giving him an easy out. Her reputation must have preceded her, but she didn’t want to know exactly what the rumor mill was circulating.

“Taller,” Gabe agreed.

“So, what's your deal?” Ruby asked.

Gabe cracked a cocky smile.

“Oh, you haven't profiled me already?” he asked.

She resisted the urge to scoff. In a minute of knowing him, she’d inferred plenty.

“Military?” Ruby asked innocently.

“A tour or two, yeah,” Gabe nodded amiably.

Ruby turned that over in her mind. At least she could trust that he could take a shot if he needed to.

“Into hiking?”

“Are you just saying that because I came from Oregon?”

Ruby held back a smile. She just wanted to know that the Bureau hadn't saddled her with another wet behind the ears agent who wasn't ready for thirteen stab wounds on two victims.

“Is that a yes?” Ruby asked. She didn’t need to grill him. There was a case to work. They may have just met, but cursory introductions were all they had time for.

“It’s a maybe,” he replied.

That wasn’t all she figured out. He must have been religious, or at least he came from a religious family. Probably played sports in high school. However, Ruby was more interested in profiling a killer than her partner.

“Local PD are going to meet us at the crime scene,” she said. “We shouldn’t keep them waiting.”

“Oh, I don't get to ask you any questions?” Gabe pressed. “What about you? What's your deal?”

Ruby stilled. She wasn't sure she knew anymore. Who needed an identity when there were killers to catch?

“You don't know?”

Surely if Gabe transferred to Quantico, he already knew some version of events. Ruby didn’t care to waste time rehashing it.

“I know you took down Lucky 13.”

Clearly Gabe had done the minimum amount of homework on her. It wasn’t only Ruby who got to be surprised by this partnership.

“Vallejo,” she corrected, “I don't know what you do out west, but here, we like to call perpetrators by their names, not kitschy media monikers.”

Ruby could think of a few things she would rather call Vallejo, but now wasn't the time to devolve into expletives.

“Sure. You took down Vincent Vallejo,” Gabe conceded.

Ruby fixed him with her steady gaze, not quite the stare she saved for interrogations, but a look closer to what she wore when searching for clues in the bits and pieces of evidence.

“What else do you need to know?” she asked. “Can we go?”

Gabe’s face shifted into a more serious look, turning off his congeniality. Ruby should have revealed herself, instead of letting him try to piece her together.

“Fine, but I’m driving,” Gabe said.

Ruby rolled her eyes.

*