A First Love to Die For

Chapter Thirty-One- Convenient

(Josie's POV)
I eagerly excused myself from the table and stepped outside to call Lucy and get an idea of what was going on.

Fuck. I struggled not being a part of the action but even more, I was struggling with Lincoln. The last few days, it felt like he was within arms reach all the time.

I was starting to enjoy it a little too much. Just now, his presence had easily calmed my nerves. It was as if I was coming to crave him being near, and that just wouldn't do.

Lucy answered immediately. "Josie, we're being as thorough as possible. This house is clean."

I heard Sam laugh in the background and Lucy corrected herself. "I mean it is not in fact clean. It's the house of a middle-aged man that lives alone. It's completely filthy but we haven't happened upon any psychotic trophies or anything to indicate that Harold is our man."

I felt the disappointment wash over me. I had questioned it all along, but I also wanted to know that this town was safe, and it looked like this was another dead end. Apparently, he was grungy, but not a complete monster.

"How much more time do you need?"

"I'll let you know. We haven't gone into the garage yet. It's our last stop and then we're going to head out of here and we'll look into any other properties that he might have access to."

I walked back inside, observing the order of garlic bread in front of our man. It didn't look like Harold was going anywhere, anytime soon. I got to the table and noticed that my burger had been delivered. I sat down and munched on a sweet potato fry.

It took me forever to chew and swallow because it tasted like sawdust. It wasn't the food, it was me. When I was really stressed, food tended to lose its appeal. I caught Lincoln's eye and gave him a little shake of my head, catching the same disappointment flood his face. I had an idea of how he was feeling. The hope that this could be over was slowly deflating out with each area that they cleared.

Lee came over, distracting me from my thoughts. I watched him say something quietly to Declan and they both laughed, I considered the two of them.

What did we have here?

Their body language was screaming at me, both their heads angled towards each other, their arms almost touching. I had forgotten that I had put the bug in Declan's ear. Had he come in last night?

They seemed mighty cozy and for a moment I forgot to worry about monsters and just 'stanned the idea of the two of them.

My phone interrupted my romantic musings and I immediately hopped back up to take it. I knew that Lucy wouldn't be calling unless she had found something.

I stepped outside not wanting anyone to overhear anything, "Talk to me."

Her voice had a breathless quality that I knew meant she was overwhelmed. "We're in his garage. There are bloody clothes in his trunk."

"Do they match the description?"

We had taken an outfit description from the brewery cameras of the night she had died. We knew that based on when she left and the time of death, Chantelle wouldn't have had time to change.

"Absolutely."

Holy Hannah we had him.

"My luminol scanner only flags the clothes. The clothes didn't splatter blood anywhere which means that they had dried by the time he got them here. Maybe he's planning on dumping them or taking them to his hidey-hole. There was no other evidence."

Was it weird for someone who seemed so organized in the actual killing to just leave evidence right in his trunk? Sure. But considering they had described him as being messy as fuck, maybe he just didn't care enough to keep it somewhere more contained. Or maybe he was feeling confident that we were nowhere close to nailing his ass.

I could tell that Lucy was considering the same thing. All of this didn't necessarily fit with what we knew about our killer.

Her voice was quiet as she explained. "We haven't dealt with such a disorganized killer before Josie. I feel out of my element."

Usually serial's were regimented, organized and obsessively neat. From what she had described of his house, and we had observed of Harold. He didn't fit into the stereotypical box.

I took a breath. I felt it too. All of this was just too convenient. Was he just this stupid?

That feeling had me questioning the next move. I didn't want to risk blowing anyone's cover. Yes, we were going to follow this evidence, but I wanted to leave Lucy and Lee out of this for now.

"I don't want you to be the one in there. Let Sam and Duncan bring him in."

I didn't have to say anything else. Lucy would know why. "I'll organize it now, Boss."

She hung up and I walked back inside. Lee was back at our table, again quietly talking to Declan while Dad and Lincoln chatted. I gave him a nod, letting him know that they had found it. I watched his eyes look over to Harold. Knowing that we were going to be taking him in tonight.

When I went to share with Lincoln in a similar manner, his eyes were wide. Already catching on. We were about to have a suspect in custody, and it was a man who we had known since we were in diapers.

It was Lincoln who excused us. "Would you guys be okay if I snuck Josie away? We have to catch up on some work at the station."

My dad and Declan both smirked, obviously thinking it was a "going to work" situation. I shook my head, telling myself to not worry about that right now. It was more important that we got out of here before Harold was arrested. That we were waiting and ready at the station.