“Thanks, I’m very thirsty.” She removed the top and took a long drink. “It will be dark soon. Is there a trail out of the forest up this way?” She held the bottle out to him.
Bobby-Joe shook his head. “Nope, and you have the drink. I have more in my truck.”
“How am I going to get home?” She drank again then looked up at him. “I’ll get lost out here and I might run into the man with the knife.”
“You might.”
“Will you help me?” She moved closer and grabbed his arm. “Please?”
Excitement rushed through him. She had walked straight into his arms. He could not believe his luck. His truck was a few yards away. The drugs would kick in soon enough and she would be his. He smiled at her and held out his hand. “Don’t worry your pretty little head, darlin’. I’ll take care of you.”
“Thank you but what about your dog?” Her eyes had become wide and innocent.
He swallowed hard and forced his body to relax. Be nice, she is on the hook. “I’m sure he can look after himself. Getting you home is more important.”
“Maybe I can come back here tomorrow and help you look for him?”
Bobby-Joe bit back a grin of triumph. “I’d like that.” He waved a hand toward his vehicle. “My truck is over there. I’ll drive you home.”
When she took his hand and smiled at him, a rush of euphoria swept over him. This one he would keep forever.
51
Wednesday, week two
The following morning, Kane sat in his cubicle and stared at the case files, wondering if he had lost his edge. The killer had eluded him and the men involved in the pedophile ring seemed to move through life like ghosts. Every step into the investigation he took, he came up with dead ends. He agreed with Jenna and considered Lizzy Harper to be the prime suspect for the vigilante. Although a woman small in stature, she was in good shape from the heavy workload she endured as a cleaner. Lizzy Harper had murdered her father, so there could be no question of her having the guts to kill, and they had the tie-in with the fishing cabins. He ran through the transcript of her interview for the third time. Yes, she hated men, but she seemed to him to be angry with everyone. If she was the vigilante, what was her motive? She had already killed the man who molested her.
The only explanation he could contemplate was that her father exposed her to the men in the pedophile ring. Although, they found no signs of anything unusual in the old fishing cabins—no cellars or anything significant enough to believe a group of pedophiles had used them—but after so many years, anything was possible. He doubted Lizzy would identify the cabin where her father molested her now, because duri
ng the court case, she had had the opportunity to implicate other men but had remained silent. Yet he had proof another man was involved. Lizzy’s son was not the product of incest. Who is the kid’s father? He checked his email inbox again, hoping to see the DNA results on the vigilante’s two victims. If there was a match to Lizzy’s son, then they had motive to bring her in for questioning.
His fingers itched to call Wolfe but Jenna had sent him with Webber to the gravesites with the Helena forensics team. With a killer on the loose, she had insisted he and Rowley remain at the office following up leads. He scrolled through the contacts on his cellphone, found the number of the pathology laboratory Wolfe used, and called them. He gave the required information and waited, and waited. Ten or so minutes later, the laboratory technician came back on the line.
“I’ll send the results through to the Black Rock Falls ME’s office now.”
Annoyance rippled up Kane’s spine. “Include the Black Rock Falls Sheriff’s Department in that email. I need that information yesterday and the ME is somewhere on the top of the mountain.”
“Sure, sending it now.”
Kane stared at his computer screen and refreshed his inbox three times before the email came in with attachments. He opened the file and bit back a whoop of excitement. At last, the evidence they needed. Amos Price was the father of Lizzy Harper’s son. He pushed to his feet and grabbed Rowley by the shoulder. “With me.”
“We have a breakthrough in the vigilante case.”
When Jenna lifted her gaze to him, he grinned. “We have enough evidence for an arrest warrant for Lizzy Harper. The DNA results came in and Amos Price is the father of her son. This proves he was involved, so we have motive. She was in the area at the time of the murder and has a key to the house where Alison Saunders found his body.”
“Thank God. Now we can stop her before she kills again. Good work.” Jenna smiled at him. “Write it up and give the paperwork to Rowley to take over to the courthouse. I’ll call the DA to move things along faster then I’ll track down her current location.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Feeling jubilant, he strode out the door and headed for his cubicle.
The paperwork did not take long and he handed the document to Rowley and sent him on his way. After spending the next hour making calls and updating his case files, he glanced up as Maggie, obviously distressed, left the front desk and bolted into Jenna’s office. What has happened now?
Jenna came out and waved him into her office. He picked up his notepad and walked into the room, closing the door behind him. Jenna was on the phone to the media, giving details of a missing child for an Amber Alert. He had only caught the end of the conversation and waited expectantly for her to explain. After replacing the receiver, she dropped her head in her hands and stared at him with an expression of remorse but said nothing.
He frowned at her silence. “Who went missing?”
“A thirteen-year-old girl, Sandra Doig. I have notified the National Crime Information Center to enter her on the Missing Persons File and put out a BOLO. All local counties will be on the lookout for her and will issue an Amber Alert. I also made a call to the FBI Child Abduction Rapid Deployment Team, so help is on its way.” She gave a tired sigh. “I’ve just finished speaking to the media. They will release her details immediately, so let’s hope we find her quickly. She told her parents she was having a sleepover with her friend yesterday but didn’t show for school this morning.” Jenna pushed her fingers through her thick black hair. “Her mom wouldn’t have known only she went by the school to give her some lunch money. The friend said she didn’t go home with her.”
This town is becoming crime central. Kane pushed to his feet. “Did she call her other friends?”