by Cynthia Eden
“If you want to get the fuck away from me, hell, maybe it would be for the best.” He shook his head. “But I’m not even sure I could let you go. I feel like I’d spend the rest of my life—”
He broke off, but she knew what he’d been going to say.
Looking for you.
“I’m not going anywhere, Kyle.”
Her hand touched his.
He slanted her a fast glance.
“I’m right where I want to be,” she told him. Beside the man I want to be with.
“I’m going to let go of the past, Cadence,” he promised her. “I know it’s time. I want a present. I want a life, with you.”
That was what she wanted, too. Hope beat inside of her, warming her when she’d felt cold for so long. Kyle had always been the one to push them forward, to keep hoping for the victims. Cadence had been afraid to hope. She’d seen too much death. Been forced to tell too many grieving families that their loved ones would never come back.
But Kyle had taught her to see past the darkness. No, he’d taught her that even in that darkness, hope still lived.
“We’ll tie up the loose ends. Then we’ll put this town, this whole place, behind us.”
A new start. Together.
Cadence nodded. Her breath seemed to ease, and the shadows of the past that had weighed her down for so long suddenly didn’t seem quite as heavy.
They didn’t speak again during the drive.
The beeping of the smoke alarm reached Heather Crenshaw’s ears. She frowned, then glanced around the station.
She inhaled and caught the scent. Smoke. Fire.
She could hear the crackle of flames.
She raced down the hallway and threw open the door to the small room Dani had been using for her work at the station.
Fire raced around the room. The videos were melting—all of the tapes, the CDs, everything.
Breath heaving, Heather shouted for help. Two other cops ran inside. One had a fire extinguisher. They doused the flames.
But…
The evidence was ruined.
The tapes. The victims. Gone.
“What the hell happened here?” the captain demanded as he came up behind her.
She could only stare at the remains and wonder…what had happened?
Someone had just destroyed their evidence. But the killer should have already been dead.
And dead men didn’t start fires.
It looked as if no one had actually lived in the little cabin beside the county line. There were no pictures. No mementos. No little knickknacks inside.
A small, scarred wooden table.
Two chairs.
The den consisted of a brown couch. A TV.
No magazines. No books.
The bedroom was organized in the same spartan way. A double bed. Blue comforter. A chest of drawers to the right.
Susannah’s clothes were all hung up, nice and neat, in the closet. No, not Susannah. Shelly. Shelly Summers.
“She lived here for five years, and this is all that’s left behind?” Kyle shook his head. He’d never seen a woman live so sparingly. Never seen a man do that, either. This place, there was just—
Nothing.
Cadence glanced above them. “She liked the light.”
Frowning, Kyle glanced up and he realized those weren’t ordinary bulbs. They were too bright. Too strong.
He went back into the den. The small kitchen. The same bulbs with the powerful wattage were in those rooms, too.
He looked at her front door. Extra locks. He’d had to break those locks to get inside.
“There are just as many locks on the back door.”
“She was still afraid of him.” So afraid that she hadn’t ever gone to the cops. Until today. When she went in with a gun.
Cadence nodded, then she went back to Shelly’s bedroom. She started opening those drawers. Going through them, one by one.
“It doesn’t look like there is anything here.” Why wasn’t there anything personal in the whole place?
Susannah was dead, and the cabin already felt like a grave to him.
“Heather, come out back with me for a moment.”
The captain’s voice floated to her. Most of the others had already cleared out of the station because the smell of smoke was so strong. The firefighters had come in, making sure no flames remained.
There was no more fire. No more evidence, either.
“Sir.” She hurried away from her desk and followed him outside. The fresh air felt so good when it hit her. Heather inhaled greedily.
“I want to know the truth.” The captain’s voice was gruff. The hard note in it had her whirling toward him. “Did you start that fire?”
Shocked, Heather could only shake her head. “Of course not!” Why would he even question her?
“You were the first one in there. The others told me—”
“I heard the smoke alarm. I ran in there when I heard it!” She hadn’t been in there because she set the fire.
“You didn’t see anyone in there?” His eyes glinted in the setting sun. “Think, Heather. We lost all the evidence we had. The FBI agents are gone, and this is on us. On our watch. We already look bad enough to the public. I can’t have someone saying Marsh has an accomplice in my station, someone trying to cover up for the man even after he’s dead.”
He’s dead. The pain hit her again, stark and brutal, seeming to drive right into her heart.
“Sir, it wasn’t me.” She fought to keep her voice steady. “I didn’t see anyone. I’m sorry.”
If only she had.
“Maybe it was just an accident.” He paced a few feet away from her. “The fire department will be able to tell us. They’ll investigate. Maybe Danielle’s equipment got too hot.”
“Maybe,” Heather whispered. She wasn’t convinced.
Not convinced at all.
He slanted her a long, hard look, then rubbed his chest. Just above his heart, as if he hurt, too. “You need to go home, Heather. Get some rest.”
But home was empty. Silent.
Home made her think too much.
She frowned at the hand on his chest. “Captain, are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” But he sounded tired. “Hell, I’m heading home. Maybe tomorrow, we’ll wake up, and things will be different.”
She watched him walk away.
She opened the station’s back door. As she stepped inside, the scent of smoke seemed even stronger now.
Heather hurried past the damaged room. She should call the FBI agents. Tell them what happened. When they found out, they were going to be so pissed.
Small-town office screws up again.
Cadence’s fingers curled around the small business card that had been hidden in the bottom drawer. Her card.
She remembered giving it to Susannah, and hoping—hoping—the woman would call her with news.
Only Susannah had never called.
Right then, Cadence’s phone began to vibrate in her pocket.
Her left hand cradled the card as her right lifted the phone. “Hollow.”
“The tapes burned.”
She frowned. The connection was horrible. She could barely hear. “Heather? Is that you?”
“There was a fire at the station. All of the tapes burned.” Heather’s words tumbled out.
Cadence actually felt her heart stop at that news. No, no! If the tapes were burned, then that meant their evidence was gone. Her heart started to beat again, at a double-time rate. Cadence glanced down at the card in her hand. If only Susannah had called her…
“I think you should get back here,” Heather whispered. “If Jason was the killer, then how could a dead man start a fire?”
He couldn’t. But a live killer could.
Kyle led the way into the station, rushing down to the evidence room. The tapes were gone, but they still had the remains—the bones.
And Maria’s necklace.
He pounded his hand against the heav
y door that secured the evidence room. “Kyle…” There was a warning edge to Cadence’s voice.
He slanted her a fast look. “I have to see it.” Every instinct in his body was screaming at him right then.
The door opened with a groan of sound. Morty Adams, the evidence clerk, frowned at them. “Wh-what’s happening, agents?”
“You heard about the fire.” Not a question.
But Morty nodded. “I—I had to evacuate when the firefighters came in. We all had to leave…”
And that would have meant this room wasn’t secured.
If Maria was his first victim, she’d be special. The one he wanted to hold on to for the longest.
“Get the necklace that was recovered from the caves.”
Morty’s eyes widened and he stumbled back, hurrying to obey.
“You think it was a distraction,” Cadence said as her shoulder brushed against his.
“It could have been.” A fire to draw away the attention of everyone while the killer went after what he really wanted.
Killers and their keepsakes. Their tokens.
A token from the guy’s very first kill…
You’d want it back.
“It could just have been an accident,” Cadence said. “You heard what Dani said. Shelly was aiming at Jason.”
He wasn’t so sure.
Morty came back. Breath heaving. “I-it’s gone.”
Sonofabitch.
“It was here earlier, I swear it was!” Morty’s cheeks flushed dark red. “I showed it to James. We secured it. It was here.”
Why would James want to see that necklace?
“Someone had to take it while I was outside. During the fire…”
“And dead men don’t set fires,” Cadence whispered.
Footsteps sounded behind them. Kyle whirled around.
Heather paused on the stairs.
“Where’s the captain?” Cadence asked her.
Heather licked her lips. “He…ah…he went home. He hasn’t been feeling so good these past few months.”
Kyle forced his jaw to unclench. “Shelly—Susannah—she was holding a gun to your head.”
Heather flinched, but nodded.
“So you had the same view she did,” Cadence whispered.
Another rough nod. “Sh-she shot James.”
So they all knew, but what they didn’t know… “Was anyone else standing near Detective Marsh?”
“The agent. Dani.” Heather’s gaze lowered to the floor. Then she exhaled and straightened her shoulders. She glanced back at Kyle. Then Cadence. “And the captain.”
Sonofa—
“I saw him running up, right behind Jason. They were both there when Susannah Jane fired the shot.”
The captain. The captain. The man who’d been free when the fire was set. The man who’d come to see the necklace.
The man who’d huddled so closely over Susannah Jane in her last moments.
“That bullet wasn’t meant for Jason.” Cadence had turned toward Kyle.
His heartbeat drummed in his ears. “It was meant for Anniston.” The man who’d been there, from day one. The man who’d helped him search for Maria. The man who’d known every single step that their investigation had taken.
“Heather, are you sure he was going home?”
“Th-that’s what he said.”
Home.
Kyle glanced out of the narrow window. Saw the darkness spreading over the sky. “I want you to get some officers and go search his house.”
Heather’s face reflected her growing horror as she understand just what was being said—and what wasn’t.
Behind them, Morty swore.
“Do I have the authority for that?” Heather sounded terrified. “He’s the captain.”
“We have the authority for it,” Cadence told her flatly. “If I’m wrong, it’s on me. But you get a team out there. Kyle and I will go back to the caverns to see if he’s there, back to the site where we found the bodies.”
There hadn’t been any booby traps there. Nothing to destroy—his home? Cadence sure seemed to think that was what the guy had meant.
He took the necklace—was he going to try to return it home?
The hell he was.
“If you don’t find the captain at his house, you meet us there.” Cadence reached for Heather’s arm. “Don’t let your guard down for even a moment, understand, Heather? Don’t think you can trust him. If he’s there, you put him in handcuffs and lock him in a cell until we can get to you.”
Heather whirled and ran for the stairs.
“He helped me look for Maria.” Kyle’s voice was strained. “No one else back then…no one else…”
“Maybe he helped you,” Cadence said grimly, “or maybe he just made sure you never found her.”
He flinched.
“I think he’s going to the caverns. To him, that’s home.”
There was only one way to find out if she was right.
In the darkness. With the girls. Only they weren’t there anymore.
During the interrogation, he’d seemed so controlled. But maybe the facade of control had been just that—a facade. With the recovery of the remains, with Susannah walking right into the police station, his world could be unraveling.
When a killer’s world unraveled, no one was safe.
They rushed back up the stairs. Cadence was already calling for Ben. They’d get as much backup on this as they could get.
Two dead. Two fucking dead. Ben glared at the bodies. At least the killer was one of the dead.
His phone rang. He grabbed for it, even as he turned and his gaze searched for Dani.
He needed her close.
She could have died.
There was a reason Dani wasn’t in the field. It wasn’t just about her fear. It was about his. He hadn’t pushed her to go back, and he knew it was wrong but—I need her.
He glanced down at the number on his phone. “Cadence,” he said, “I’m with the bodies.”
“James Anniston could be our perp.”
Every muscle in his body locked down. He remembered Susannah’s face. Her voice. Her eyes.
Not on Dani. On the man behind her.
“The evidence at the station has been destroyed.”
Fuck! He’d only been gone an hour!
“The destruction happened after Jason was already dead. The tapes were burned and Maria McKenzie’s necklace was stolen.” His head was pounding. “And you’re sure it was the captain? You already had the guy in interrogation.”
“Yes, but I wasn’t asking the right questions.” Intensity hummed through her voice. “We need to bring him in, Ben.”
He nodded even though she couldn’t see the gesture. If Cadence wanted backup, he’d give it to her. Always. “Where are you?”
“Heading to the site where the SOB held me. I think that’s where he’s going. Either to destroy more evidence or—”
The line cut out on her. Crackled. Finally came back.
“…Kyle and I are almost there…”
The connection was shit. “I’m on my way.” He whirled for the door.
Almost ran right into Dani.
He realized she’d heard everything he’d said.
“We’re on our way,” she told him.
Ben shook his head. “You need to get back to the station.”
“I’m not hiding anymore.”
Dammit.
“I’m not asking you for permission,” Dani said.
“I’m the senior—”
“As the director, you should have ordered me back in the field long ago.” Her breath blew out. “As my lover, you let me hide. I’m not doing that anymore. I won’t.”
His jaw locked. As her director and her lover, he wanted her protected. Always.
“Now let’s get out there and give them backup.” She pulled in a shuddering breath. Straightened her shoulders. Hurt his heart. “I won’t let you down. I won’t let them down.”
“I
know you won’t.”
He’d make absolutely sure nothing happened to her.
James Anniston. James fucking Anniston.
Kyle could remember the first time he’d met the man. He’d raced into the station, fear like acid eating away at him.
“My sister! Please, I need someone to help me find my sister!”
The cops there had whirled in surprise, concern etched on their faces, but it had been James who hurried toward him.
“Mister, slow down.” James had been barely ten years older than him. “I’ll help you.”
Kyle slammed on the brakes. The headlights stayed on, cutting through the darkness. Shining right at the entrance to the caverns.
Two cops should have been there. Guards to make sure no reporters or anyone else wandered inside the gaping entrance.
They weren’t there.
“Where are the guards?” Cadence whispered, her thoughts obviously following his.
He pulled the flashlight from the glove box, then eased from the vehicle without answering her. His boots sank into the mud, thick mud still left from last night’s storms. The flashlight’s beam drifted around the area.
Two patrol cars were parked to the right. No sign of their drivers. His light swung back to the left. Yellow tape crisscrossed the entrance to the caverns, but nothing else was there.
“We need to check inside,” Cadence said as she exited the vehicle and came toward him.
She had a flashlight, too. A flashlight and a gun.
He stared down at her. She didn’t seem afraid. She was entering the place that had been her hell with the stoic determination that was just…Cadence.
I love you.
This wasn’t the place to tell her. Not the time.
So he just nodded. As he got closer, as the light swept over the tape and edge of the cave, Kyle saw the blood.
Cadence’s light joined his. Then he heard her saying into her phone, “We’ve got possible officers injured at the cavern entrance on the northern side of the mountains. No, no, Ben, we can’t wait. We need to head inside now.”
It was a lot of blood.
Too much.
Cadence shoved her phone back into her pocket. She lifted her weapon and her light.
They slid under the police tape. Went five feet in the darkness.
And found the first body.