by Desiree Holt
“If he really wants to kill me, why would he trash my house and tell me to leave? If I did go, I’d be out of his reach.”
“To scare you. Put you off your guard so he could get closer to you. The thing he didn’t expect was that I’d bring you here to stay with me.”
She frowned. “Do you think he knows?”
“I didn’t exactly broadcast it, but you know yourself this is a small community. Just in case, I’ll have the deputies come by regularly while they’re out covering the county.
“I should have insisted my parents let me talk to the police.” She was trembling again. “I could have done something.”
“Are you kidding? You were a child. Dana, listen to me.” He tightened his hold, his cheek pressed to her hair. “None of this was your fault. None of it.”
She leaned her head against his chest again, her tears soaking his shirt. “But I didn’t save Kylie. I was the big sister and I didn’t help her.”
Oh, god. How much guilt had eaten her up all these years? How had she even survived? No wonder she lived with a wall around herself, working every day not to fall apart, seeking salvation as she helped others in similar situations.
“You were seven years old, darlin’. You could barely save yourself.”
She shook her head against his chest. “No, I was the one who told her we could go. It’s my fault, Cole. My parents always knew it.”
“Wait.” He tipped her face up so he could see it. With his thumb, he wiped away the tears glistening on her cheeks. “Are you telling me your parents blamed you for what happened?”
“Not in so many words. But I was the older sister. I knew better than to go off with strangers.”
“Oh, Dana. What a mess people made of your life.” He kissed the top of her head. “I’m thinking your parents didn’t know how to handle their own grief so they dumped it on you. But never, ever blame yourself for what happened.”
“It’s been so hard,” she whispered.
“I know, but now it will get easier.”
“Maybe. I think telling you was the worst of it. Now…”
“Yes, darlin’. Now.” He sat up with her and pulled his cell phone from its clip on his belt. “Give me just a minute here. I need to check in with Gaylen.”
“Will you tell him? About me?”
“Not until I get back to the station. I don’t want to take a chance someone might overhear the conversation.”
“You know I never actually saw him. When I came to, I was blindfolded.” She swiped at her damp cheeks again. “But I remember the man had an odor about him. Something I can’t identify. Something really strong that made my eyes water.”
“Maybe from the clown grease-paint he was wearing?” Cole ventured.
“No.” She shook her head. “I’ve smelled grease-paint since then. This was more like cologne, but not one I’ve ever come in contact with since then. And he was singing.”
Cole stared at her. “Singing? Singing what?”
“That’s the problem,” she cried. “I can’t remember it. I pushed it so far out if my mind it won’t come back.”
“Do you remember anything about it?”
“No.” She shook her head vehemently. “I never wanted to hear it again. I guess I’ve done too good a job blanking it out.”
“Who could blame you? Okay, let me just check in and see if there’s any update. Let Gaylen know I’m on the way back.”
When he finished the call, he stood up, taking her with him and setting her on her feet. His mouth brushed against hers. “I don’t want to leave you, but I have to.”
“I know, I know. Gaby’s out there somewhere and you have to find her.” She leaned into him. “I wish I’d had the courage to tell you about this sooner.”
“Dana. Honey. It’s all right,” he assured her. “It took a lot of courage to tell me at all.”
“But if I’d told you earlier, maybe none of this would have happened,” she protested, misery tightening her voice.
“Your arrival may have stuck a pin in him, but we don’t think he’s been idle all this time, either. Don’t beat yourself up over it.”
“I just want to have this over with once and for all,” she sniffed, clutching at his shirt. She rubbed her cheek against the curls of dark chest hair peeking out over the vee of his shirt, somehow taking comfort from them. “To stop the killing and put him away, so I can try to be a normal woman. That’s all. Is that asking so much?”
“Of course not.” He tightened his arms around her.
Although he still heard a tremor in her voice, she sounded stronger than before, as if getting this all out was cathartic for her. And maybe it was.
She shivered in his arms. “Cole, what am I going to do?”
“Stay right in this house until we catch him. And that’s an order. I don’t intend to let anything happen to you.”
Suddenly, she smacked her forehead with her palm. “The news about Gaby drove everything else out of my mind. I called you to begin with because of the meeting this morning. Cole, every one of those women mentioned clowns being at the event where their children disappeared. Just like with Kylie and me. The same situation. When I checked back over the reports, all but two of them mentioned clowns. But I couldn’t find where anyone had ever checked on that.”
“You’re right.” Again he felt irritation at the sloppy police work. “I looked, but I couldn’t find anything, either. Pissed me off.”
“Shouldn’t that have been the first thing they jumped on?”
Cole snorted. “And let word get out that Salado County was letting a murdering pedophile run loose? Besides, the county commission and the chamber were the ones who hired the clowns. No one wanted to point fingers at them on this.”
“Two of the women this morning who used to volunteer at the chamber said they’d try to find the old records,” she told him. “See if there was any information, maybe get us some contacts.”
Cole’s pulse jumped. A lead? After all this time? “When are they supposed to get back to you? We’re running out of time here.”
“Let me see if I can reach either of them right now.” She found her cell phone and tried both numbers. “Busy,” she told him. “But I’ll keep trying.”
“Good.” He smoothed his hand over her silky dark blonde hair.
“Is your FBI guy checking for similar cases?” she asked.
“As we speak.”
She took in a deep breath and let it out. “Tell people whatever you have to in order to get this monster. Just get him. Now.” She swallowed hard. “Cole, thank you for being so understanding about…everything.”
“Understanding? God! I’m amazed at the courage it took for you to live your life. For you to tell me what happened. And I thank you for trusting me enough to do this.”
She wrapped her arms around herself, as if that was all that was holding her together. “Will you let me know what’s going on?”
“Whenever I get a minute, I’ll call you. That’s a promise. I’ll be checking on you anyway, just to make sure you’re okay.” He cupped her chin. “And do not let anyone in this house except me unless I call you first. I don’t care who it is. I think we both agree you could be high on his list, and I don’t want to take any chances with you. I wouldn’t leave you now if I didn’t have to. As soon as I get to the office and see what’s what, I’ll get someone over here. In the meantime, stay locked up tight.”
“Got it, Sheriff.” She gave him a weak smile.
At the door, he turned to her, needing to touch her once more before he left. Her face was pale, the skin taut over her cheekbones, and her hazel eyes showed the fear she was trying so hard to hide. He stood with his hands on her shoulders, urgency pulling at him, but he allowed himself one last kiss. A deep one. A hungry one. She welcomed his tongue gladly and molded her body to his, her soft breasts pushing into his chest.
His cock swelled and his balls tightened with need. He wished he could forget the ugliness he had to hu
rry back to, take her to his bedroom, strip her naked, and make luxurious love to her all night long.
With a tremendous effort of will, he broke the kiss. “I’ll be back sometime before the night is over.”
She touched her fingertips to her lips and pressed them against his. “I’ll be waiting.”
He leaped down the porch steps with one bound and jogged to his truck. In the midst of depravity and horror, his heart had tumbled right out of his chest and lost itself to that woman. Amazing, what life hits you with when you least expect it.
He was five minutes out from the station when Gaylen radioed him to change course.
“We found her.” His voice was heavy with sadness and anger. “Not too far from her house.” He gave Cole the address.
“Didn’t we search there first thing?”
“Right after we got the word. But it was still light out. Apparently he waited until it got dark and then dumped her.”
Cole wondered if he’d ever get rid of the sick feeling consuming him. “On my way. Listen, do we have anyone you can send to my house?” He paused. “Dana’s there, and I’m not sure it’s a good idea to leave her alone.”
“I’ll do my best to cut someone loose,” the chief deputy said. “But you know how thin we’re staffed and this new killing isn’t helping.”
“I know, I know. Okay. See you in a few.”
The area at the end of Gaby Marquez’s street was filled with cars and people. Scott, who was standing off to one side, motioned him over.
“I called the SAC and told him the shit has really hit the fan. He’s sending four more agents out here, two of them with a forensics van.”
“Good. Thanks. We can use all the scientific help you can give us. Mickey and Andi are good, but they’re only trained in the basics. Anything we can’t handle, we usually ship to Austin.” Cole took off his Stetson, raked his hands through his hair, and clapped the hat back on. “I hope to hell they get here soon.”
“Trust me. They’re probably driving like bats out of hell. I’ve ridden with them before.” The agent pulled a folded sheet of paper from his pocket. “We got a fax back from Quantico with their preliminary profile. Want the short version?”
“Please.” Cole was listening but he kept his eyes on the activity around him.
“White male, probably between sixty and seventy years old. The age is based on the twenty-five year span between crimes,” Scott explained. “He’s friendly. Maybe even very outgoing. He likes attention—the clown disguise fits his personality. Nice guy, kids love him, he’s well liked and well known in the community. He moves easily among the population without sending out any warning signals.”
“Jesus. That could be any one of hundreds of men in Salado County.”
“This one’s sexual needs give him a lot of repressed rage because he can’t satisfy them easily. He almost resents the victims for making him feel the way he does. That’s why he abuses their bodies so badly.”
“I wonder what started him off in the first place?’
“Good question. Usually people with these kinds of problems had a trigger in their early life. Something that still torments them and drives them. Could be a victim of abuse himself.” Scott shuffled some papers in front of him. “Listen, I hope you don’t mind, but I put one of your deputies going through the voter rolls pulling out the names of anyone we could remotely consider. He’d be more familiar with the people around here.”
“No, that’s fine. Whatever you want. I should just tell everyone you’re in charge anyway.”
Scott flapped his hand in the air. “No need. This is working just fine. Besides, your people seem to have a healthy respect for you. I don’t want them sticking pins in voodoo dolls because they think I’m discounting you. Anyway, Quantico says he’s ramping up his timeline and it won’t be long before he chooses his next victim.”
“Next victim.” Cole swallowed a sour taste in his mouth. “Fucking shit.”
“Double that. So. What did you learn from Miss Moretti?”
Cole motioned Scott to move away from the activity where they couldn’t be heard. In short, clipped sentences he gave him every detail of Dana’s story, leaving nothing out.
Clayton was stunned. “My God, she’s lived with that all these years. It had to take a lot of courage for her to come back here and try to face it head on.”
“Yeah, and I have to say, no one was too friendly about it at first. Me included. The word asshole comes to mind.”
Scott rubbed the back of his neck. “When people hide a secret that long, they’re ten times more resistant to someone pulling out their dirty laundry. Good for her for sticking with it.”
“She also told me a couple of things that weren’t in the reports since none of the other victims survived.” He filled Scott in about the singing and the odor. “She’s lived with this so long. Catching him is the only way she’ll have peace of mind.”
“Christ, a singing predator. Well, it wouldn’t be the first time. And I’ve certainly heard stranger things.” He frowned. “I wonder what kind of unusual smell she’s talking about. If it was something common I’d think she’d have been able to identify it.”
“I don’t know. Not grease-paint. I asked. She thought maybe some kind of cologne.”
Scott pulled out his cell. “Let me call my office back again and ask them to run a program on predators who sing. Sing, for Christ’s sake!”
“You can do that?”
He gave a half smile. “We like to think we can do anything.” When he finished the call, he said, “I think we’ve found the answer to what our perp has been doing all this time. It’s a stretch, but it’s a good possibility.”
Cole lifted an eyebrow. “More cases like the old one?”
“Maybe.” Scott rubbed his hand over his face, now bristly with end of day growth. “We’ve been trying to track down a human trafficking ring we got a tip on. They pick up girls in Mexico, ages ten to fifteen, and bring them over the border to the buyers. Then they’re resold all over the world. Nobody’s going to notice if a bunch of illegal immigrants disappear.”
Cole’s stomach pitched and rolled. Too much about this case was making him sick. In the military, he sometimes had to do extreme things to survive and to protect his country. Things that turned his stomach. But this? This was just pure evil.
“You think our unsub is involved in this?”
“Seems like a logical market for him,” Scott pointed out. “He’d have the pick out of each group for his own warped amusement. Not quite as tasty as the little ones but close enough.”
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. This animal needs to be taken out and shot.”
“If the law would let us, I’d pull the trigger.”
“The law.” Cole snorted. “At times, it’s hard to uphold something that protects animals like this.”
“My SAC says we’re still trying to pinpoint a specific location for the exchange of ‘merchandise.’ We get a lead on one place and they move to another. Or they change the days or the time. This organization is like an snake, slithering away just when we reach out to grab hold of it.”
Cole turned as he heard his name called and saw Gaylen coming toward him, his face grimmer than ever. Whatever he had to say, Cole knew it wouldn’t be good news.
Chapter Thirty-Two
“This will kill Grace.” Gaylen shook his head. “I can hardly get over this one myself. Gaby lives in the house she grew up in, right there at the end of River Street.” He pointed. “You can see it’s the last one on the block. There’s nothing past it except these fields and trees.”
“Perfect for our killer.”
“Whoever this bastard is,” Gaylen went on, “he somehow managed to drop her way out in those fields—in that copse of trees just like the other two—and sneak away without being seen. But here’s the worst part. He called Stacy pretending to be Gaby and whispered, ‘I’m home. Help me.’ Then he hung up.”
“Bastard.” Cole spat the w
ord out.
“Unfortunately, Stacy didn’t take time to call us, just hauled ass with her husband over there. When no one answered the door, she opened it with a key she has. But the house was empty so they started look around outside. Her husband’s the one who found the body.”
“Shit.” Cole was running out of appropriate words.
“Andi and Mickey have got the scene roped off, as you can see, and Nita’s working with the body. Just waiting for the feds to get here.”
Scott pulled out his cell. “Let me check how close my people are.”
“Here.” Cole scribbled directions on a piece of paper and handed it to the agent. “Tell them this is the easiest route to take.”
“He held her somewhere else before killing her,” Gaylen went on. “Probably some isolated building. We just need to find out where. I’ve got one of the deputies back at the office pulling up property lists and any other list they can find that would give us some kind of hint.”
“Maybe I should ask for the chopper,” Scott put in. “It’s dark now, but if you can give me any locations to start with, I can get the bird up at first light. If this guy’s got a hidey hole somewhere, who knows what else we’ll find there. Especially if it ties in with the other thing I told you about.”
“Do it,” Cole said.
As he moved slowly toward where the body lay, he heard Scott giving information to someone and putting in his request.
Chapter Thirty-Three
He managed to get home and into the house without any questions. He was careful about the excuses he used, and always meticulous about cleaning himself up before he left his cabin.
Tonight had been the trickiest, but luckily it was dark out and no one was looking out their windows. He laughed thinking of the irony of tonight’s delivery. For years, folks had complained about how dark it was on that street. Hell, he’d been one of the people to lobby the city council to put in a light at the end of the block. Now he was glad they’d dragged their heels.