Killer Exposure

by Jessica R. Patch

  Ben returned to the table. “He could have easily hopped from one carnival to another as a worker. After he murdered a victim, he could wait for a stretch of time—so not to rouse suspicion—then leave and find work at the next. The murders are spaced out. It’s not a stretch to consider his employment at each carnival where a victim had attended.”

  “But surely the police and even the FBI investigating these cases searched each and every carnival for the one person who had been employed by each one of them. Right?” Locke asked. “Even if some time elapsed. If it were me, I’d do a search using the time line from the date of the carnival through six months after. There’d have to be a pattern.”

  “You ever consider law enforcement?” Ben asked.

  “I’ve been around it a time or two.” He smirked.

  Greer groaned and rubbed her temples. “Not every carnival is reputable. We’ve been over this. They don’t require background checks. Some have the shoddiest of files. We know firsthand they keep secrets. If a carnival got wind that one of their own was a—a serial killer, they’d shred the records, keep their mouths shut. It might put them out of business. Surely it would ruin their reputation. They promote family-friendly entertainment!”

  They sat in silence. The truth permeated the room like an invisible pillow suffocating them as they soaked it all in.

  When this carnival ended it wouldn’t be over for Greer. The stakes were too high. The killer had too many secrets that could be exposed.

  He was going to come at Greer until he succeeded.

  She would not cry. Would not fall apart. She couldn’t. “Can I see that report again?”

  Locke handed it over and Greer carefully read through it all once more. “The wounds all match the same kind of knives that killed Flip and Tiny Tim and the one thrown at me.” She heaved a breath, feeling nauseated.

  “Is the FBI coming to Goldenville?” Locke asked.

  “Be a few days due to the storms, but before the carnival uproots, I suspect an agent will come in to assist.”

  They could use the help. Greer would welcome them. “Ben, will you keep me posted on the ballistics from the park yesterday?” Greer had called it in. Techs had come out and searched for evidence, bullets and casings. Maybe they could get a match to a gun. Track him that way.

  “Sure thing.”

  Good. Obviously, Sheriff Wright was fine with her being out of the loop and Adam, too. Speaking of... “Where is Adam today?” Greer asked.

  “Worked a double. He’s off.”

  She wanted to call and give him a piece of her mind, but she wouldn’t. Adam was only trying to protect her. Like she’d been trying to protect Lin by not revealing the truth to Locke. But had she been protecting her? That was the new nagging question.

  “I need to get back to the station but I’ll keep you in the know.” Ben pointed at the files. “Copies. You’re welcome.”

  Thankfully Ben was being super cooperative. She’d have to bake him a cake or something.

  “Where does Tiny Tim fit in? Why would a serial killer take out Tim or Flip? They don’t fit the victim profile.”

  “They must have seen or known something they shouldn’t. Marty Wise was right. I don’t think Tim was killed over drugs. Not now that we know a serial killer was probably his murderer.”

  “Did Marty know because of a good guess or because he’s the killer?”

  “That I don’t know,” Locke said. “I’d like us to give this new information to Jody. She can pass it along to Wheezer. He can dig deeper and blur some legal lines.” Locke grinned. “I’m not looking for admissible evidence, I’m looking for who might have worked all these carnivals in the last ten years.”

  “I want another crack at Flip’s camper. And to talk to Jenna. While I don’t believe Tim’s death was drug-related in light of the new information, we can’t rule it out for certain.”

  If they could find solid evidence, they might finally get the upper hand.

  If not...Greer feared what may come.

  TEN

  Cumulonimbus clouds stretched like fluffy walls along the dappled horizon. The sun had been held hostage behind them, mirroring the somberness Locke had been feeling since Deputy Garrison had swung by Greer’s almost two hours ago. The news that a serial killer who had stabbed at least seven people before—nine, if Flip and Tiny Tim counted—had set off a wave of nausea all through Locke.

  Jody and Evan assured them if a link could be found, Wheezer would find it and that this was to be given top priority at Covenant Crisis Management. He would cross-reference employees past and present who had worked the fun houses, were skilled at knife-throwing and had been maintenance workers, even though it was likely the killer wasn’t a legit maintenance employee presently. Surely with all that information, someone was bound to surface.

  But when? Time was slipping through their fingers.

  Locke hated having Greer back on the carnival grounds. Somewhere, a deranged killer who was skilled in murder and targeting prey was lurking. He glanced at Greer, touched his concealed Glock and draped his arm around her shoulders. As long as he was living, no one was going to hurt this woman. No. One.

  Music had already started up and as they approached the games and rides, a few workers were setting up for another day. Wind whipped plastic tent walls and picked up empty cotton candy tubes, popcorn boxes and cups, blowing them across the asphalt.

  The air smelled stale. Locke glanced up. Lighter streaks of gray slashed across the sky. Drops of rain scattered the pavement. Uh-oh. “Run!” Locke hollered and grabbed Greer’s arm as the sky dropped hail the size of marbles.

  Greer squealed and Locke jerked her a few feet to the carousel. With the covering, they’d be safe to wait it out. Hail could be dangerous. He had several scars from stitches to prove it.

  The ice crashing on the metal dome above them was deafening. They stood in a sea of horses and unicorns as pebbles of ice littered the concrete.

  A fair had come to town when they were in college and he’d taken her. It had been their third date. He’d known on their first date he wanted to spend all the time he could with her. Greer was special. Tough but tender. Strong but completely feminine. Brilliant but not lacking in common sense.

  Greer had jumped on a pony and Locke had stood beside her. Up and down. Up and down. About the fourth down, he’d kissed her, and when the horse soared back up, he’d hopped on back, not breaking the kiss. No, he’d fallen headlong into it until the ride ended, and even then, the carnival workers had to clap and whistle a few times to bring them back to reality. Because the kiss, the moment, the sensations had been every bit out of this world.

  But that was a long time ago. They’d been a little younger. And a lot in love.

  Greer must have noticed him gazing at her. She peered into his eyes, cheeks a shade pinker than they usually were. She gripped the pole connecting the white horse to the carousel. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been on one of these.”

  “I haven’t been on one since you.”

  “Same,” she murmured through the clanging of hail above.

  “I loved you, Greer. So much.”

  Her eyes filled with moisture. “I know. I loved you, too.”

  Locke cupped her cheek, stroking her soft skin with his thumb. He searched her eyes. Recognized the longing and the uncertainty. Too much uncertainty going on these past few days. Unhurriedly, he met her lips—with anticipation, as if he’d never once kissed her before. This felt brand-new but familiarity teased the edges of his senses.

  He didn’t press for more. Just a slow springtime dance. No reason to rush. Time, in this instant, was on their side, stretching out so they could savor the sweetness of one another. How was it in just a kiss Greer could dizzy his brain in such a wonderful way, make him feel heroic—like he could do anything, be anyone—and also convince him that he w
as hers alone? Special, completely acceptable, the way he was. In all his wildness. All his energy—right now he was deliberately putting all of it into this kiss.

  He would fight for her. With her.

  In this moment, he was safe and sound. He wasn’t angry or bitter. He’d missed her so much. Not just kissing her like this. But her. Greer. The woman who had taken him by surprise and rocked his world. The woman who had shown him unadulterated love.

  He pulled away and blew a slow but heavy, long breath and rested his forehead on hers. Hail turned into hard rain. “Now what?” he whispered. He couldn’t deny his feelings in that kiss. They’d surfaced and betrayed him. Or shone light on what he kept telling himself. He cared about Greer. More than he wanted to or should.

  All day long, Locke could say he was only in this for Lin. To keep her safe and to keep Greer safe for Lin. But that wasn’t the whole truth. That kiss was.

  She forced space between them, but he noticed her wobbly legs, spied the rosy glow on her face and glazed eyes. It had affected her, too.

  Thunder rumbled. A streak of lightning came as a reminder that storms were dangerous. What was brewing between Locke and Greer came with its own dangers as well.

  Greer pushed a stray hair from her face. “You asked me if I thought you were like my dad.”

  Usually it was Locke chasing squirrels, not Greer. But he’d asked, “Now what?” so he’d let her go around the mountain to tell him. Dread pooled in his gut.

  “I do. I know you are,” she said quietly. “He used to take us on picnics, skating, to the coast. We’d spend time playing ball, cards and riding bikes. My dad was fun. He was always on the go, always had exciting adventures awaiting us. I can remember my mama laughing and saying, ‘Jim, slow down. You’re going to wear me out right along with the kids.’ Dad would laugh with her, sweep her in a big circle and kiss her and say, ‘Maggie, we can rest when we’re dead.’”

  Locke would have liked Jim had he not walked out on his family, not convinced Greer that Locke was exactly like him in that way. “Okay. I admit, I may have said something along those lines, but how will that make me a bad father?”

  Greer leaned her head on the white metal pole poking out from the horse. “I loved my dad. He hung the moon. Could do no wrong. But when I got a little bit older, I noticed the arguing with Mama. The blowing out the door and being gone for hours. Sometimes the whole weekend. Until the night it got really bad. Hollister and me huddled in his room under the covers to muffle the yelling and sobbing but it did no good. I’ll always remember that fight. Those last words.”

  “What last words, Greer?” Locke needed to understand. To figure out how to convince Greer that he needed and wanted to be in Lin’s life.

  “Dad told Mama that she’d trapped him. She got pregnant with Hollister and they had a courthouse wedding. A year later, she got pregnant with me. Dad said she did it both times to trap him. He was sick of it and wanted to live his own life. He’d never even wanted to be a dad. It was his time to go where he chose and do what he wanted...and not be tied down and trapped to ‘this house, to you and the kids.’ It was a prison.”

  Greer wiped stray tears on the back of her hand. “I was a prison to my own father. By existing, Locke. He never intended on having me. Never really wanted me. I guess he thought he did at first because of the fun times...but he was only happy and laughing when we were playing. But there’s more to life than playtime. Being a responsible parent means sacrificing adventures to afford to pay bills and buy Christmas gifts. It means putting the children first and not because we have to, but because we want to. I’d go with one pair of jeans and a shirt the rest of my life if Lin has all she needs. Do you understand, Locklin?”

  He clenched his teeth. Bit back the frustration and tried to understand the deep place Greer was coming from. She wasn’t talking to him as a rational adult. The abandoned and rejected child was leading this charge, riding on a big stallion named Fear. “Greer, I admit I love fun. I love to have it, do it and search for it. But I know how to be a responsible adult. I have bills and I pay them. I’d have been caring for Lin financially had I known about her. I work with scientists for months and help with research. The only reason I don’t have my own place is I’m gone so much I can’t justify paying rent or a mortgage. I know how to meet deadlines. Yeah, I struggle with feeling antsy. I lose my train of thought and I should have stock in Post-it notes because I forget sometimes with so much going on in my brain. But I’d never forget to love my daughter.”

  “Locke, you were starting a new and grand adventure. You hate being boxed in. Tied down. You can’t even be still for thirty minutes. How can you buckle down for thirty years?”

  That was fair. And true. “I could.” Couldn’t he? “I won’t abandon Lin.”

  “I’m sure my father thought that same thing. Until he realized he couldn’t do it. Then he left us and I’ve had to live with those words and that guilt. I didn’t tell you about Lin because I couldn’t bear it if she had the same hurts. That I let those hurts into her life. Especially knowing you never planned for children.”

  Locke gaped and shook his head. “I wouldn’t have left you.” But it wouldn’t have been fair to her. To refuse her kids...didn’t matter now. There was no room for what-ifs.

  Thunder rumbled again and the wind knocked over a plastic trash can. “What do you want, Greer?” His own fear rose to the surface. Fear that Greer would ask him to walk away for good. That was something he could not, would not, do.

  “You and I, Locke, we’re like this carousel. We go round and round hoping we’ll make it somewhere, but we won’t. You would have married me and settled down and eventually resented us. You say you wouldn’t have but I know you would.” She held up her index finger and made circular motions. “Round and round. Getting nowhere. And I can’t have a dad swinging into Lin’s life on occasion, and less and less the older she gets. She needs a father who is here. Full-time. Never leaving. Can you do that?”

  His stomach bottomed out. He had two months to fulfill by contract. Greer was giving him an ultimatum. Live here in Goldenville. Be a full-time dad to Lin. Be nothing to Greer. Do what for a living?

  “You hesitated. That says it all.”

  Did it?

  She stepped out into the drizzle and headed for Flip’s camper. Locke followed. “You’re not being fair. Greer, this whole your-way-or-the-highway is what’s boxing me in. Not Lin.” He was going to have a panic attack.

  “But you admit you feel boxed in. You can’t do it, can you?” She nodded with resolve. “You can’t settle down, or settle in.” She sniffed and wiped a few more tears. “I’m okay with it, Locke. I’m over you. Been over you. But I needed you to see the truth and now you do, don’t you?”

  Did he? Locke was so confused he wasn’t sure he could tell her what direction was up or down. She was right but she also had to be wrong. Locke couldn’t ever abandon or leave Lin. But he wasn’t sure he could walk into a Monday-through-Friday business and sit at a desk for forty hours a week, either. The idea already choked him. But he also wanted to be a part of Lin’s life and dragging Greer to court to fight for weeks and months and shuffling Lin around—that didn’t seem right, either, though he knew scads of kids who had and they’d made it through okay. He raked a hand across his face. “I...” He swallowed. “I guess I do.”

  Disappointment drenched Greer’s face, lingering in her eyes. “Come on.”

  He trudged behind her to Flip’s camper, Locke’s heart squeezing with every step. Emotion clogging his throat. Was he losing his daughter? Had he...had he inadvertently agreed to that? Was he going to have to leave Goldenville in a few days knowing he had a baby girl that he couldn’t see because he’d hesitated to admit he could buckle into a desk job or something? He’d let Greer down and hadn’t even meant to. He’d let his daughter down, too.

  He shook it off as they approached Flip�
��s little house trailer. He’d try and sort things out when he had time to think clearly and focus.

  Greer pointed inside. “I’ll take the right side. You take the left.”

  “Okay.” She was calling all the shots, anyway.

  * * *

  Greer pulled at the linoleum floor tiles to see if any were loose. Flip might have hidden something underneath. It was hard to concentrate on the task. Less than forty minutes ago, Locke’s impulsive side had overridden his level head and he’d kissed her into oblivion. It had erupted thousands of feelings she’d weighted down with justification. But in that kiss, there was no possibility of Lock abandoning Lin—or Greer. That kiss had felt like a man who wanted to stay. Needed to stay. Like a man who needed Greer to survive. And leaning into him had erased all her stress, her fears, her anxiety, and filled her with a sense of calm. A sense of belonging. That wasn’t a man who kissed haphazardly. It was strategic. Deliberate. Intense.

  But then it all fell apart when he’d claimed she was hemming him in. She was trying to help him see what the future would be like if he came back and inserted himself into Lin’s life full-time. There was no revolving door. It was in and all the way in. The look on his face—the panic, fear...dread. It had undone every sweet and wonderful thing the kiss had birthed.

  Because Locke now knew what Greer already did. He. Could. Not. Give. Everything.

  And she needed everything.

  No. Lin did.

  A tear slipped through again and she hurried and swiped it before Locke noticed, but he was pretty preoccupied with digging through the drawers under the bed.

  Truth was Greer had emotional needs, too. But she couldn’t expect Locke to meet them. They weren’t a couple. The kiss didn’t change that. Didn’t change that her guard had to go back up in order to protect her. Briefly letting it falter couldn’t keep it down.

  “I can’t find diddly-squat, Greer,” Locke groused. “Either this guy is ridiculously good or he didn’t have anything to prove the accusations he slung at these people.”