Whisper in the Night: An absolutely heart-stopping serial killer thriller

by D. K. Hood

  “Ah-huh, so no coercion on your part? I’ll require copies of any statements they signed and I want to view the interview tapes.” Cross waved a hand absently toward the whiteboard. “You’re gonna have to come up with a better case than that load of baloney if you’re planning on keeping them here.” He glanced at Kane, and then moved his attention back to her. “Not having an alibi overnight if you live alone gives me reasonable doubt. And we’ve already established the truck seen in the vicinity of two of the three abductions belonged to Miller, so the fact all of these men drive pickups is irrelevant.” He shook his head. “See, Jenna, I’ve created reasonable doubt already. You don’t have a case on any of them.”

  Angry with him treating her like a student who hadn’t completed her assignment, Jenna cleared her throat. “Have you taken into account the girls at school are attracted to him? It wouldn’t take much to convince them to go with him willingly. He knows all the victims and has no alibi for the nights they went missing, then he conveniently has his car detailed the morning after – it’s a little more than circumstantial, Mr. Cross.”

  “Then let’s look at what you have on Charles Anderson.” Cross pointed at the whiteboard. “Sure, he’s gotten a knowledge of explosives from working in Colorado, but we’ve a mining industry right here in Black Rock Falls. Any one of a hundred men could’ve set the IED. Add up the facts – Anderson has no priors and he passed a substantial background check by Silent Alarms and the local council to work with kids in his art classes in town.” He raised both arms, and then dropped them to his waist in a display of frustration. “Why the hell is he here? You’ve nothing to hold him.”

  Jenna bristled. “Why don’t you go and look at the interview tapes? All of them had the opportunity to do the crimes. They’re here for questioning until we prove otherwise.”

  “I’ll see pigs fly first.” Cross straightened and glared at her. “The time to hold them for questioning is running out and unless you charge them, they’ll be walking out with me. The courts decide guilt or innocence, not POTUS or the sheriff of Black Rock Falls. The DA is arriving at nine to strike a deal with Mr. Miller. I’ll be speaking to my clients this morning and when I’m done, I’ll be asking the DA to take a long look at how you run this office. I can’t figure out why you found it necessary to detain my clients overnight.”

  “I’m not arguing with you, Mr. Cross, I’m just doing my job.” It was like dealing with a yapping dog. No explanation Jenna offered would be good enough. She lifted her gaze to Kane. “Would you take Mr. Cross down to interview room one and go get Miller? I’ll escort the DA down when he arrives.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Kane opened the door and waved Cross through. “Through the office, take a right at the passageway, first door on the left.” He looked back at her and rolled his eyes to the ceiling. “Then do you want me to go and examine Wolfe’s autopsy findings?”

  “Yeah.” Jenna leaned back in her seat. “I hope he finds one tiny shred of trace evidence to match a suspect. It would come in real useful right now.” She frowned. “Although with Cross as their lawyer, we’ll have no chance of collecting a DNA sample from them.”

  “Yeah, we do.” Kane smiled at her. “They had breakfast delivered from Aunt Betty’s earlier and the garbage hasn’t been collected from the cells yet. I’ll bag and tag them all and take them to Wolfe.”

  Jenna heaved a sigh of relief. “Trust you to have the answer.” She looked up at him. “Hurry back.”

  She had a thousand things to do and needed to prioritize. The last thing she wanted was Cross making life difficult. She took out her notebook and flipped through the pages. There had to be something she’d missed and she’d never convince the DA until she’d made a solid case against one of them. To do this she’d need to eliminate them one by one. She needed a prime suspect and the more she considered the facts, the more she worried about allowing Mason Lancaster to walk. His married girlfriend had signed a statement confirming his whereabouts, and his bank statement had checked out, giving her no reason to suspect him – and yet the niggling feeling in her gut told her otherwise. The teenage girls’ magnetic attraction toward him worried her. The nice-guy psychopathic classification fit him like a glove. He’s the person no one would expect. If he moved around with the football team before his injury, he could’ve been killing all over – but why would he want to hurt me?

  Her landline rang and Jenna lifted the receiver. “Sheriff Alton.”

  “Hi Jenna, it’s Josh Martin. I’ve had a hit on the evidence found at the crime scenes. The panties from the Sara Nelson case belonged to a police officer, Clare Dumas, out of Helena. She was raped and beaten to death three years ago visiting Yellowstone National Park.”

  Jenna stared at the whiteboard. “Any suspects?”

  “None found and there was a report of a white truck in the area at the time with interstate plates, but from what state remains a mystery.” Martin sighed. “There are similarities in the MO between the three older victims. The killer covers his tracks as none of the women lived in the same county, no trace evidence left on scene. It has to be the Shadow Man, Jenna. How else could he have gotten the trophies from the murdered women?”

  “Unless these freaks trade between themselves.” Jenna stabbed her pen into her notebook. “Problem is, our killer doesn’t appear to be collecting trophies.”

  “That’s because he doesn’t consider them worthy of remembering.” Agent Martin cleared his throat. “If I find anything else on this case or the others I’ll let you know.”

  “Thanks.” Jenna replaced the receiver in the cradle and leaned back in her chair, thinking through their conversation. If the Shadow Man didn’t consider Lindy and Amanda worthy enough to take a trophy but what about Sara?

  She made a call to Wolfe and gave him the information she’d received from Agent Martin. “Go through every item taken from Sara’s body. See if he’s taken a trophy – as she was raped, I figure she meant something to him.”

  Fifty-Four

  Kane swallowed two antibiotic capsules with a mouthful of coffee and tossed the empty bottle into the trash outside the ME’s building. He’d been too busy to make a follow-up appointment with his doctor for the splinters received in the explosion, but like magic, a prescription had appeared on his desk with a curt note from Wolfe insisting he take them until finished. With the murders and attempts on Jenna’s life over the last few days, the last thing on his mind was a few splinters. The responsibility for Jenna looking like she’d gone ten rounds with a heavyweight boxer weighed heavy on his shoulders – heck, if he’d allowed the same thing to happen to POTUS he’d have been fired.

  The moment he stepped into the cool, white outer office of the medical examiner’s office, the awful realization that he’d come to view the slaughtered remains of three young women pushed all other thoughts from his head. At the counter seeing the sunny smile of Julie, Wolfe’s middle daughter, surprised him. “What are you doing here? I figured you’d decided to join the sheriff’s department.”

  “Don’t be silly.” Julie giggled and her cheeks pinked. “I’ll be heading to med school after I graduate.”

  He smiled back. “A fine profession. And we need another doctor in town.”

  “Oh, if I do decide on med school, I’d be interested in pediatrics. I like kids.” Julie beamed at him. “Dad says I should follow my dreams.”

  “Yeah, never lose sight of that, will you?” Kane looked over her shoulder to see her sister Emily following a gurney pushed by Webber into a side room. “Busy day?”

  “Car wreck. Deputy Rowley came by before and spoke to Dad. Em and Webber went out to process the scene and pick up the victims.” Julie shrugged. “That’s all I know. Hey, now Em is back, can I get a ride back to the sheriff’s department?”

  “Sure.” The door to the morgue whooshed open and Wolfe strode out and beckoned him. Kane waited for Julie to buzz him through the door, and then walked down to meet him. “What have we got?” He took the sur
gical gloves and mask Wolfe handed him then put them on.

  “Jenna called before. She figures Sara may hold some value to the killer as she was the only rape victim.” Wolfe walked over to a body draped in a white sheet. “I called her mom and she confirmed Sara was wearing a pair of small blue sapphire and gold earrings the day she disappeared. She never took them off.” He pulled back the sheet and frowned down at the face of Sara Nelson. “She’s not wearing her earrings.”

  The air inside the room was like walking into a freezer and the young face was pale with a gray tinge, the lips had turned to lines of dark blue. Kane stopped the rush of emotional rage simmering beneath the surface and reached for his professional side. Viewing the bodies of murder victims had a purpose and if he wanted to arrest the person who killed them, he needed to listen to the story they’d tell him – and they all told a story. “They’re so small they could be concealed anywhere. When we searched the suspects’ homes and vehicles, our main priority was finding evidence of a missing girl or child porn.” Kane couldn’t take his eyes away from Sara’s face. He gently pushed the hair away from one ear and then the other. “He didn’t tear them from her ears.”

  “Exactly, which means he didn’t want us to notice they’re missing.” Wolfe lifted the sheet to uncover the arms, showing utmost respect for the victim. “No defensive wounds, not even a broken nail.” He uncovered her legs. “No bruising on her thighs but there’s evidence of rape. This wasn’t consensual sex by any means but the killer was meticulous – he left nothing behind, no trace evidence, not one hair, which is difficult unless he’s removed his body hair. We have seen that before in rapists.” He covered her again, and then went back to her head. “At first, I believed this contusion on her temple came from the fall when Blackhawk cut her down, but after speaking with him, he insists she fell on the opposite side, in the same position as in the crime scene photographs. She wasn’t moved post-mortem.”

  Kane pulled the light down and closely examined the mark. He glanced up at Wolfe. “That mark has to be bruising from his knuckles. He punched her in the temple and raped her. This one is up close and personal, not like the others.”

  “Yeah, a short sharp jab to knock her out then used the ether to keep her subdued.” Wolfe covered Sara and turned his attention back to Kane. “He raped her, and then set the scene. Before he left, he gave her enough ether to kill her but she didn’t die. I found a fragment of cotton in her hair. It could be from work gloves but I’ll need more time to narrow down what brand.”

  Kane grimaced. “Yeah, and if you do, no doubt all our suspects own work gloves and they’re the same as the darn boots – everyone wears the same cheap brand.”

  “No doubt.” Wolfe moved to the next gurney. “Lindy Rosen. See the ligature marks on her neck, how they grazed her chin?”

  “Yeah, I’ve seen that injury before; he hung her over his shoulder.” Kane shook his head. “She was disposable.”

  “This one will interest you.” Wolfe moved on to Amanda Braxton. “Killed from behind in a move to snap her neck. Clean and quick.”

  Kane nodded in agreement. “Yeah, again not as personal as when the killer uses his hands to strangle. In those cases they make the victim suffer; it takes some time to strangle a person.” He pulled off his gloves with a snap that sounded loud in the stark room. “He used the first two girls to get Jenna out on her own, but now he’s got a taste for killing teenagers. He craves watching their fear but dominates them by raping them.” He frowned. “This is an incredible turnaround. Not many killers change MO mid-stride. He’s getting the upper hand in his macabre game. If we can’t find him soon and his compulsion has changed, he could be miles away by now and we’ll never find him.”

  Fifty-Five

  By the time Kane arrived in Jenna’s office just after two with takeout from Aunt Betty’s Café, she wanted to scream. Sam Cross had found grounds to have all of the suspects released. He’d even accused her of provoking Kittredge to such an extent that he threw the chair out of frustration; then he’d raved on about the interviews until she wanted to pull her hair out by the roots. She leaned back in her chair and stared up at Kane. “Am I glad to see you. Shut the door.”

  “You look like you need this.” Kane placed a go cup of coffee in front of her, and then arranged the packages of food on the desk. “Bad morning?”

  Jenna sipped the coffee then sighed as the rich hot brew spilled over her tongue. “Oh yeah. The DA did a deal with Matt Miller and he’s walked – along with the other potential suspects. I was told to back off until I had something better than circumstantial evidence.” She threw one arm up in the air. “Now what?”

  “They’re still suspects.” Kane opened a bag and pulled out a large wedge of apple pie. “If we remove Miller from the equation, we have at least three men with ample opportunity and they were all in the vicinity where the girls went missing.”

  “Yeah, you’re preaching to the converted, Dave, but I didn’t win any brownie points from the DA. I figure if he had it his way, he’d have me fired.” Jenna opened a bag containing her usual bagel and cream cheese. Tucked inside was a bar of chocolate. She lifted her gaze to him. “You knew?”

  “Nope, but I guessed Cross would give you a hard time.” Kane smiled at her. “I figure chocolate fixes most things.” He attacked the pie with a plastic fork. “Cross might be a brilliant lawyer but you had the notion that Sara Nelson’s murder was special to the Shadow Man. Her earrings are missing, Jenna. He kept a trophy.”

  Excited and filled with a burst of energy, Jenna stared at him. “But none of you found anything unusual at the suspects’ homes. No secret hoard of trophies.”

  “One is married and they’ve all had recent involvement with women. It’s normal to see a few female items left in a single guy’s home.” Kane took a sip of his coffee. “Most serial killers have a shrine of one kind or another and keep the trophies together, then there’s the ones who give them to women they’re close to, so they can relive the kill just by seeing the other woman wearing the object.”

  A tingle of revulsion skittered up Jenna’s spine. “But they don’t kill their friends, do they? So how do they draw the line?”

  “I wish I knew.” Kane frowned. “One study says they don’t have empathy and yet they must have some feelings. There’re some who don’t make friends and then there’s the man with his wife and six kids who murders prostitutes on the way home from work, washes up and sits down to eat dinner with his family.” He shrugged. “Go figure. One thing’s for sure, they don’t think the way we do and trying to make logical sense of criminal psychopathic behavior is a waste of time.”

  Jenna considered his words and chewed her food. “You’re trained to kill and do it without a second thought. You’re not a psychopath and yet I’ve seen you turn off your emotions as if you have a switch.”

  “I never killed without a second thought, Jenna.” Kane narrowed his gaze at her. “I received my orders, knew the target was a threat to our country, but I never for one moment failed to recognize I was taking a life.” He took another drink. “Snipers for special missions are put through vigorous psych training. We get one chance, maybe a window of a few minutes, to hit the target then escape out the country. Imagine how history would’ve changed and how many millions of lives would’ve been saved if someone like me had taken out the key instigators of the world wars?” He shrugged. “I’ve no regrets, I was doing my job.” He met her gaze. “Emotions, fear, anxiety have no place in a sniper’s world, so we learn to turn them off and drop into a special place where it’s ultimate calm. I know you’ve received the same type of training. I just had to be able to drop into my peaceful zone and endure waterboarding at the same time.”

  Unable to control the burst of laughter, Jenna covered her mouth and took in his astonished expression. “They really did that to you?”

  “Ah-huh.” Kane’s mouth twitched at the corners. “It wasn’t funny at the time.”

  “I didn’t fig
ure it would be.” Jenna turned her attention to the whiteboard. “What if we look at the nightmare angle again?”

  “Sara was in the drama club.” Kane placed his go cup on the table and turned to look at the whiteboard. “We did extensive checks on all the teachers these girls shared and they all came up squeaky clean. It’s not a teacher. The only people they all met was Mason Lancaster and the three tradesmen who worked at their homes. We’ve already cleared Lancaster, so he’s out the equation.” He let out a long sigh. “Problem is, the killer’s changing his MO and escalating at an extraordinary rate. I figure I’ve seen this before and it’s disturbing.”

  Jenna turned to look at him. “How so?”

  “Remember Ted Bundy? Good-looking, smooth talker, hung around campuses with a sling on one arm and pretended to have trouble opening his car door to get a girl to help him. Or he’d pretend to be someone in authority to get their trust. He’d kidnap and murder his victims and do things that would make your skin crawl. He never touched his close female friend then one day he went berserk, broke into a sorority house and bludgeoned girls to death with a hunk of wood.” He sighed. “Like I said before, they’re not normal and we can’t outthink them because there’s no logical steps to take. In his mind, he’s involved in an elaborate game with you, so we’ll have to wait until he makes his next move – if he has another move. For all we know, he could be over playing games with you. He’s changed his MO and might’ve found a different thrill to satisfy his urges.”

  “You think? When the DA told me to release the suspects, I wanted to place a tracker on each of their vehicles but when I made the request, he told me I’d have as much chance of getting that approved as waking up as Tinker Bell in the morning.” Jenna pushed a hand through her hair, tucking it behind one ear. “Then he told me we can’t watch them around the clock because Cross made it quite clear he’s just waiting for a chance to make a complaint about police harassment.” She sighed. “The name Shadow Man fits this killer well – he’s like catching smoke and I’ve no idea what he’s going to do next.”