My attention snapped back to the larger conversation at the letters, FBI. “What?” I asked.

Parker glanced in my direction. “I’ve got a consult with a profiler at the FBI. She’s looking over the files I sent. If there’s another serial murder, they may send a team. These cases are similar to the ones in New York, but there are differences, too. Printed copies of the paintings left behind to make sure we understood the connection. And the victims were both stabbed instead of strangled.”

I swallowed down the bile at his last words, trying to shove away the memories attempting to take hold. I knew all too well what these victims had gone through. God, I hoped Parker would find some clue that would lead him straight to the killer’s door and soon.

“Brody, she wants to talk to you,” Parker added.

Brody pulled me tighter against him as if sensing my thoughts. “I’ll do whatever I can to help. I’m going to have my tech people take down my website. I know it probably won’t help, but at least it’s something.”

Parker shook his head. “Don’t. Agent Anders said not to change anything about your behavior, publicly or privately. It might provoke the unsub.”

Brody’s jaw worked back and forth. “I feel like I’m being held hostage by this psycho.”

“In a lot of ways, you are,” Parker said.

“The whole island is,” Griffin muttered.

Caelyn turned her gentle gaze to Brody. “But none of that is your fault. Don’t take this on. It’s not yours to carry.”

Brody’s gaze drifted to the porch of The General Store. “Easier said than done.”

31

Brody

I scowled down at my phone as it rang on the counter. It was too early. I let it go right on ringing and took another sip of my coffee. I was in a foul mood, and I knew it. But waking up alone, the other side of the bed completely cold, did that to a man.

I’d gotten used to waking wrapped around Shay, starting my days by losing myself in her. And today I’d been robbed of that routine. She hadn’t been in the kitchen when I came down either. I’d poked my head out the door and heard the chickens’ happy squawks, which meant they’d been fed, but I didn’t see any sign of the woman who’d turned my life upside down.

I took another pull of coffee when my phone started ringing again. I flipped it over to see Carson’s name. I groaned and hit accept.

His face filled the screen. “What the hell, man? You ignoring my calls?”

“It’s seven a.m., cut me some slack.”

He grinned. “I know. Ask me how I know, Brody.”

“Because you can do the simple math required to figure out a time difference?”