Borderline by Chase T. A.

or talk about what they’d done the night before. He didn’t have to worry, because Tanner wasn’t going to say anything. Starting any kind of relationship in the middle of a case was difficult enough, but when one of the investigating officers was related to one of the victims, the difficulty level went even higher.
    “Good. Do you have the original photos of all the crime scenes on your computer?”
    Mac grunted, and Tanner heard typing in the background. “Yeah. Why?”
    “Can you e-mail them to me? I need to enlarge some of them.”
    “Sure. Do you have something?” Mac sounded cautiously optimistic.
    No cop worth his weight in experience would get excited about any clue, except the one leading to the capture of the killer.
    Tanner shrugged, even though he knew Mac couldn’t see him. “Maybe. There’s a symbol or something entwined in the swirls the bastard carves into their left breast. I can’t make it out with the pictures I have. I thought I’d enlarge them and see if that helps.”
    “You doing it yourself?” Mac asked.
    Tanner sat at his desk and brought up his e-mail. “Yeah. I learned how to do all that stuff when I realized usually the techs don’t work at three in the morning when I get a good idea and need to see something. It’s not that hard.”
    “Probably wouldn’t be for someone who can use a computer without breaking it,” the Texas Ranger mumbled.
    “Not very computer literate, huh?” Tanner typed quickly.
    Mac chuckled. “I do all right. As long as I can e-mail and type up my reports, I’m happy.”
    “Yeah, most people don’t need much more than that.”
    A new message appeared from Mac, and Tanner opened it to start downloading the file.
    “Thanks. I’ll let you get back to what you were doing.”
    “We’re retracing the days before each victim disappeared. I’m trying to see what connects them, because there has to be some reason why he chose those particular women.”
    Tanner snorted softly. “They always have a reason for picking them. Doesn’t mean we’ll ever know what it is.”
    “That’s the frustrating thing.”
    “We’ll just have to ask when we catch him.” Tanner’s computer dinged when the file was done. He opened it to make sure everything worked. “Thanks for sending the pictures, Mac. I’m going to start working on them. I’ll call you if I get anything. Oh, did you talk to Billingsley?”
    “Yeah. He wasn’t happy, but he told me he wanted his best detective on the case, so he agreed to let me stay on.” Mac paused for a few seconds before continuing. “Do you want to get together tonight and talk over what we’ve done for the day?”
    Tanner’s body tensed as he imagined what they could end up talking about, but he didn’t assume Mac would want more sex. He wasn’t going to make a big deal of it one way or another. They had a case to work, and getting involved wasn’t proper procedure. Yet he planned on pursuing the Texas Ranger once the case was solved.
    “Sure. You want to call me when you’re ready for dinner? I’ll be working on this case as much as possible all day, though I do have a couple of others to go over as well. I’ll meet you wherever you want to go.” Tanner stood and wandered over to the board, staring at the pictures. “But we should probably call a meeting of the task force so I can tell them what I figured out so far. You can compare my preliminary findings with what your profilers did.”
    “You still haven’t read their report?”
    “No. I don’t want to prejudice my thoughts. You and Billingsley wanted a second set of eyes looking at this. That’s what I’m giving you without being compromised by any other opinion. Once my report is done, we’ll go through both profiles and combine them to ensure we don’t miss something important by either of us.” Tanner tapped his fingers on his thigh.
    “Okay. I’ll call when I’ve got the meeting set up. We’re still on for dinner, though.” Mac hung