Chapter Seventeen

Nothing. It was the day after the murder and John still had no leads. The CSI team hadn't found any fibers, prints or DNA in the hotel room besides Ginger's, and had also been unsuccessful when examining the cottage. This lead John to believe this guy wasn't just dangerous, but also a professional.

John had spent the morning going through the crime scene reports and faxing everything pertaining to the case over to Daniel Griggs, an old friend at the FBI who was a profiler. John was just about to start looking into who still had keys to the cottage when his phone rang.

"McBain," he barked into the phone, angry at the interruption.

"John, its Rob Smythe, Natalie's friend from Atlantic City."

"Sorry. Hi Rob, what can I do for you?" John asked, puzzled why Natalie's friend was calling.

"Something happened early yesterday morning that I thought you should be aware of. Someone broke into my house. Nothing of value was taken, and everything was mostly untouched, except for some personal stuff."

This got John's attention. "Personal stuff?" he asked, leaning back in his chair.

"Yes." Rob confirmed. "There are a few boxes in the basement which are full of old photos and home videos from my childhood. The police had asked me to go through the house and take an inventory of what had been taken. All of these boxes had been opened, and, every single picture of Natalie has been taken, along with the tapes."

John quickly pulled up the report from the coroner. "What time did this happen?" he asked, a sinking feeling coming over him.

"I left around 9:00pm and got back shortly after 1:00am."

John glanced back down at the report, his suspicions confirmed. After getting the name and number of the officer who had responded to the break in, John hung up. Once again he read the report.

"Based on the body temperature, time of death occurred between 11:00-11:45pm."

Natalie knocked softly on John's office door before opening it. "Sorry it took me so long, the roads are a mess." Natalie pulled off her coat and shook the snow out of it before taking a seat. "What happened?" she asked easily picking up on his frustration.

"I got a call from Rob."

"Rob?" Natalie repeated. "My Rob?"

"Early yesterday morning someone broke into his house." John said, pushing aside the pang of jealously he felt. "The only things taken were old pictures and videos of you."

"But you said Ginger was killed late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning. The drive from A.C to Llanview is at least three hours."

John opened the M.E's report. "Time of death was roughly between 11:00 and 11:45."

"So someone is working with him?" Natalie asked, trying to mask her fear.

Putting the file down, John rubbed at his eyes. "It looks that way. I just don't get this. Why would they break in to Rob's just to get old pictures? That's a hell of a long way to drive."

"Because those are probably the only pictures of me around," Natalie answered her voice soft and laced with pain. "Roxy never owned a camera, not that there were any events for her to capture. Rob's mom on the other hand was crazy about documenting his childhood and was always taking pictures of birthday parties and class performances." Sighing, Natalie shook her head. "Those pictures are the only evidence that show Natalie Balsom ever existed."

John wished he could go over to her and pull her into his arms. Natalie hardly opened up about her past, but on the rare occasions that she did, John couldn't help but be amazed at the woman she had become. "We're going to catch this guy Natalie. I faxed over the file to a buddy of mine at the FBI. Hopefully he should be able to form a profile and get it back to me."

"I just don't get it, why would he take those pictures?" Natalie flashed back one of her criminology courses she had taken at L.U. "If this guy is stalking me why would he go after pictures of me as a kid? I have a whole box full of recent pictures like my wedding, my welcome home party, and other various family events. Isn't that what stalkers typically take?"

John nodded. "Yeah, plus stalkers typically work alone. Plus, this is getting really personal, first the rings, now the photos. I know I have already asked you this, but think – is there anyone at all that would want to do this? Someone you have had a run in with?"

Closing her eyes, Natalie thought about it. "Honestly John, the only people that come to mind are Evangeline and Layla."

"I already checked into that."

"Are you serious?" Natalie asked unable to believe the thought had crossed his mind.

John nodded. "Evangeline was always jealous of you because it was obvious that I cared more about you than her, especially after I saved you first. She may have seemed all fine with us getting together, but she wasn't. She kept showing up at the station with excuses of a case we had in common and even after you left town pretty much threw herself at me."

Natalie bit back a smile, secretly loving the humiliation Evangeline must have felt. "Did you find anything?"

"No. Evangeline and Antonio are still living in New York and she was just hired at some big shot law firm, plus her alibis check out. Same with Layla who's back in L.A and working at some strip club."

This time Natalie couldn't help but grin, happy to have her mind taken off the case for a few minutes. But her smile soon disappeared as she thought more about the case. "Other then that John, there's no one else. As I said before, everyone else is dead."

"Now that we know there are two of them you need to be extra careful. That means no going anywhere alone and avoiding deserted places like Angel Square."

"All right." Standing up, Natalie began to put her coat on. "I have to get home, Mom's going to worry." Natalie began to head out the door. "Thanks for filling me in John," she said sincerely before exiting the office.

In the warmth and comfort of his rental car he watched as she left the police station and walked through the snow toward her car. He had known she would come here. He grinned as he thought about his plan, so far everything was working out well.

It was pitiful how predictable Natalie and John were. He knew once he got John's attention with those photos, John would stop at nothing to protect Natalie. And then the body! Oh, how he wished he could have seen the look on the Lieutenant's face when he had first walked in and seen her red hair sprawled out around her.

Oh how he hated John McBain, but he took comfort in knowing it wouldn't take much more before he could move into the next phase of his plan.

It was quite simple. All he had to do was send her a few more notes and she would be back in John's arms. Then once all was forgotten between John and Natalie, he would make sure John found out about Natalie's little secret.

And John, John was so predicable he would blame himself and push himself far away from Natalie. John never dealt well with the whole self-hatred thing and always turned to Whiskey. This would give him his opportunity to reclaim what was rightfully his – Natalie.

And, it also left John alone to deal with even more guilt – enough to finally destroy him.

'Oh yes,' he smiled as he backed out of the parking lot and back toward the house he was renting. 'Everything was working out perfectly.'