Harper had found the spare bedroom to be cluttered and the bed unmade, but at least there was a bed. She’d found sheets and a blanket, and Dani had helped as they got the bed ready. There’d been no discussion as to who would sleep where. She knew Dani assumed they would share and she did too, even though she would offer to take the sofa once they did call it a night.

They’d both showered and changed clothes, but she was restless as Dani tried to find something on TV to occupy their time until Reid got home. Dani had left it on a cooking show as she’d settled into the corner of the sofa. It wasn’t ten minutes later that she’d fallen asleep.

The similarities between this case and Tucson were eerily familiar, but Harper had no illusions that it was the same guy. In Tucson, the guy left a Raggedy Ann doll at each scene—the Raggedy Ann Killer, as the paper called him. As far as she knew, he’d never stalked anyone, although they assumed he watched his intended victims for several weeks, if not longer. For two years they’d hunted him, to no avail. They’d found a partial print one time, but that had gone nowhere. They’d called in expert after expert, even resorting to a mathematician whiz who wrote an algorithm hoping to find a pattern. Unfortunately, the pattern was—there was no pattern. Eight women—over the course of two years—raped and murdered. And the bastard slithered away into the night each time. Even that last time. No, the clown couldn’t possibly be the same guy. Could he?

A jiggle of the doorknob brought her attention back to the present, and she got up, pulling her gun from its holster.

A quick tap. “Harper…it’s me.”

She holstered her weapon and unlocked the door quietly, bringing a finger to her lips indicating to Reid he should be quiet. She pointed to the sofa where Dani remained asleep.

“She claims she can sleep through anything, but if we’re going to talk, I’d rather it be in private.”

Reid’s gaze landed on her sleeping form. “God, she’s adorable,” he whispered back.

Harper motioned to the back. “Let’s go into your bedroom.”

Reid grinned. “If only it was Danielle Stevens saying that instead of you.”

If you only knew, she thought with a shake of her head. She left his bedroom door ajar, peeking out once to make sure Dani hadn’t woken up.

“You’re a slob, by the way,” she said.

“Oh, yeah. I forgot the spare room is kinda messy.”

“I found sheets.” She walked farther into the room. “What’s going on? I thought you were going to call.”

He shook his head. “After we left the hospital, we went back to the scene. Then had to meet with Mize,” he said.

“This late?”