Serial Games (Virginia Justice Book One) Read Free

Disbelief laced his voice.
    “Trust me, Marshal, I know everything about this man.” Maggie stood and walked toward the opposite office wall and the safe where she kept her case files. The archive division stored old files but the desire to have Burrows’s on hand never left Maggie, even after his trial had ended. She heard Brandon rise to his feet and walk in her direction. She glanced over her shoulder to see him staring after her. “There was a real lack of a paper trail in the original case. We have very little writing samples from Burrows. It was easy to memorize the strokes of his hand.” She reached the cabinets and worked the combination lock on the safe.
    “I’m impressed.”
    Maggie didn’t allow the praise time to settle. “The real question is who is it for,” Maggie called over her shoulder.
    “It’s my instinct to believe it is for someone, but we also need to assume he dropped it by accident.”
    Maggie stopped working the lock. She turned to Brandon, her voice direct. “Everything Burrows does is deliberate. If this note was left behind as you say, he wanted someone to find it.” Maggie shrugged. “Now, whether it was for another inmate or law enforcement is an answer I’m afraid I don’t have. Yet.”
    “What is your gut telling you?”
    Maggie smiled. Gut instinct . Profiling was a scientific discipline, but it couldn’t replace the age-old investigative tool. As she pondered his question, her smile waned. “Honestly, I don’t know.”
    “Really, Maggie? You said you knew this man.”
    She looked over at him. His teasing half-smile created a handsome angle to his jawline. Heat rose to her cheeks and she tried not to think about how her name rolled deliciously off his tongue.
    But it did.
    And she thought about it.
    The sound of her name…not the tongue.
    “I’d like to take a look at the bus he was on, and talk to those present at the time of his escape to get a better handle on his intentions.” Maggie returned to try the combination lock again. Old safes were tricky.
    Brandon nodded. “We can do that. I’ve already conducted preliminary interviews myself. You can take a look at the notes and see if maybe I missed something.”
    “Oh, I’m sure your interviews were thorough,” she rushed to say over her shoulder but stopped when he gave her a full grin. Her heart thumped. Too attractive for his own good and a confident flirt.
    Get a grip .
    He put his cell to his ear and she heard him give someone an update. “I’m at her office now. Give me a call when you have that report. Thanks.”
    “How much of a head start does he have on us?” she asked when she heard him finish. She heaved a big sigh when the safe drawer opened with a metallic thud. She needed to get to that bus. If Burrows left behind this clue, she could identify others less subtle. Hopefully, they would have him in custody by tonight. Maggie’s insides churned as she remembered the newspaper headline she’d read earlier. Soon, the same headline would show up again if Burrows continued to roam free.
    “Significant. He’s been on the run for at least twelve hours.”
    “ Twelve! ” She whirled around.
    Brandon winced at her reaction, and then grimaced. Maggie tried to steady her nerves. She didn’t want to offend the US Marshals. She pulled at one of the lower drawers where she kept her old case files and swiftly skimmed through the dividers. Twelve hours was a significant amount of time in the law enforcement world, especially when chasing down a murderer.
    “I’ll admit it took us a minute to figure out what was going on, which is why I’m convinced he had help from someone on the inside.” His footsteps sounded nearer. “The driver was only pistol-whipped to unconsciousness, thank God, and all methods of communications were confiscated.”
    Maggie found the gray folder, where she kept the most important specifics of the Burrows case. She turned around. Brandon ran a hand through his wavy hair. It