Mindhunters 4 - Deadly Intent by Kylie Brant

her steps the entire way.

    “Macy Reid,” she said crisply to the one of the men blocking her entrance into the girl’s room. She held up her Raiker Forensics identification badge, which hung from a lanyard around her neck.
    The CBI agent, identified as Agent Dirk Pelton by the ID clipped to his lapel, looked past her to Kell. “Is that Burke?”
    She slipped by him into the room. “I have no idea who that is.”
    “I’m Burke. She’s kidding. Macy, tell them you’re kidding.”
    “Let’s see some ID,” she heard one of the agents say, and allowed herself a small smile as she moved to the center of the room. The space seemed decorated for a younger child. That was the first thought to strike her. As if it was held in suspended animation since the girl had been six or seven.
    And since Ellie had been seven when Art Cooper had snatched her, perhaps it had. Macy’s gaze traveled over the dolls and stuffed animals peering down from a shelf running the length of one wall. There were Barbies and other toys neatly stacked on a bookcase next to the bed alongside picture books much too young for an eleven-year-old. The bedspread and curtains featured scenes of horses. Girls loved horses, didn’t they? That, the computer, and aquarium were the only things that seemed to be even remotely of interest to a girl Ellie’s age.
    Tuning out the sounds of the argument behind her, she pulled on a pair of plastic gloves she’d brought with her and strolled through the room, steeping herself in impressions. Two bedside tables sat on either side of the denuded mattress. Which had held the scissors? Until they got updated reports of all the case details, she only knew answers to the questions she’d had a chance to ask. Or the information she discovered herself.
    Macy measured the distance between the bed and desk visually. Too far to get out of bed to go in search of paper if the child couldn’t sleep. She went to the drawer of one table and pulled it out. A tidy stack of construction paper sat inside. Something to calm the girl’s nerves if sleep proved elusive.
    Or a reason for her to keep a pair of sharp scissors at her bedside.
    “Thanks. You were very helpful.”
    Burke’s voice brought a small smile to her face for once. “Oh, were you behind me?” She turned, shot him an innocent look. “I didn’t notice.”
    “Right. Whatever else I could say about you, there’s not much that gets by you.” Shoving a hand in his jeans pocket, he withdrew a pair of gloves and drew them on. “So what are you thinking?”
    Her gaze went past him to the light switch. Although off, the room was still suffused with a soft glow. “It’s never really dark in here. Even at night.” She pointed from the computer to the aquarium. “Better than a night light, especially if you don’t want anyone to realize you’re still scared of the dark.” That observation arrowed a little too deep, so she hurried past it. “He left himself a narrow window for getting in the house and back out with the girl, but he’d need a place to duck into, wouldn’t he? Just to be sure everything was quiet in this wing and that the parents were in their beds?”
    “The room next door is another bedroom, although it’s been empty since the family moved here.” She turned at Pelton’s voice. The man switched on the light and moved just inside the doorway. “We searched it as thoroughly as we did this one.”
    Macy went to the closet and opened the door then, flicking on the light. Rows and rows of clothes hung neatly from the endless racks. The space, like the bedroom, was eerily neat. Did the help pick up daily? Where was the jumble of clothes, worn for an hour or so and then discarded?
    Shoes and boots were lined up on shelves that lined one end of the space. Another set of shelves held folded jeans, khakis, shirts, and sweaters. The four of them could hide inside it and be undetectable from a cursory observer.
    “Plenty of room in here, but he