Chill Factor

“Found it?”

“Yesterday.”

“Where?”

He raised his chin in the direction of Cleary Peak’s crest.

“Just lying on the ground in the forest? A length of blue ribbon?”

“It was caught in some brush,” he said. “Fluttering in the wind. That’s how it caught my attention.”

Her distrust must have been apparent.

“Look, I know why you freaked out when you saw it,” he said. “I know what it implies.”

“How do you know?”

“Everyone knows about the ribbon, Lilly.”

She shook her head. “Only the police and the culprit.”

“No,” Tierney said evenly, “everyone. Dutch’s police force isn’t an airtight organization. Somebody let it leak that a blue velvet ribbon had been left at the presumed spot of each abduction.”

That was what Dutch had told her, but in confidence. “They intentionally withheld that information.”

“Not very well. I’ve overheard it being discussed in the drugstore,” he said. “Once while I was picking up my dry cleaning, the owner told the lady customer in front of me to beware of Blue, and she knew what he was talking about. Everyone knows.”

He nodded down at the strand of ribbon. “I don’t know if that’s the kind of ribbon Blue is leaving behind, but it’s a damned odd thing to come across in the wilderness. So I removed it from the brush, tucked it into my backpack, and was taking it back to town with me to turn over to the authorities.”

“You didn’t mention this last night.”

“It wasn’t relevant.”

“Those missing women have been the talk of Cleary for more than two years. If I had found something that was possibly an important piece of evidence, I think I would have mentioned it.”

“It slipped my mind.”

“I asked if there was anything useful in your backpack. You said no. Why didn’t you mention the ribbon then? Why didn’t you say, ‘No I don’t have anything useful, but take a look at what I found fluttering from a bush today’?”

“And if I had? Think about it, Lilly. If I had shown you the ribbon last night, would that have precluded me from being Blue?”

She didn’t have an answer for that. She didn’t have answers for a lot of things. She wanted desperately to believe that he was exactly what he appeared to be: a charming, talented, intelligent, fun, sensitive man. None of those qualities, however, disqualified him from committing crimes against women. Indeed, those personality traits would work to his advantage.

He still hadn’t explained the handcuffs. Outside of S & M sex and law enforcement, what purpose did they serve? It made her ill to speculate. “Millicent Gunn was reported missing a week ago.”

“I’ve been following the story.”

“Is she still alive, Tierney?”

“I don’t know. How would I?”

“If you took her—”

“I didn’t.”

“I believe you did. I believe that’s why you had a length of blue ribbon and a pair of handcuffs in your backpack.”

“Incidentally, why were you searching through my backpack?”