Whisper in the Night (Detectives Kane and Alton)

“It hasn’t been moved.” Wolfe crouched and peered under the bench. “It’s been here for a long time.”

Kane stared at the old bench. “It would be logical to place the bench under the tree.”

“Apparently, apart from the barn there was a one-room school building. I read about it on the internet, it’s over a hundred years old.” She turned to look at him. “Now it will go down in history as the place we found Lindy’s body.”

“That’s the least of our worries; we need to know where he had her holed up before he moved her here.” Wolfe frowned. “Are you sure he didn’t use the actual schoolhouse?”

“Rowley said they searched it early this morning.” Jenna stared at the old building. “If your time of death is correct, the killer probably moved her her

e before he sent the video.” She shrugged. “We’ll take another look. Do you need help to finish up here?”

“Kane, if you help me lift her into the body bag on the gurney, we’ll take her back to the lab.” Wolfe frowned. “I’d like to get her on ice as soon as possible.”

“Sure.” Kane pushed down his anger at seeing someone so young discarded like last night’s pizza box, pulled on latex gloves and went to work.

They loaded the body into the van and Kane walked back to Jenna and Emily. Wolfe’s daughter had a determined expression on her face. “Did you know Lindy?”

“No, but I sure want to discover what happened to her.” Emily indicated with her chin toward the old schoolhouse. “Do you figure it’s possible the killer held her in there for any length of time?”

“No, that’s not the place. It’s part of a stupid game this killer is playing with us.” Jenna shook her head in disgust. “Rowley searched it with Webber this morning. If there’d been one speck of dust out of place, he’d have reported it.”

“You’ll look again, won’t you, Jenna?” Emily straightened. “We could search it again now.”

“I’ll go take a look with Kane and if I find anything, I’ll call Wolfe.” Jenna squeezed the girl’s arm in a comforting gesture. “You can leave this bit to us, Emily. Go help your dad.”

“Okay.” Emily trudged off toward the van.

“I guess we’d better take a look at the old schoolhouse.” Jenna let out a weary sigh. “Not that I figure this SOB has left a single clue for us to find.” She looked up at him. “Let’s get it over with, and then we can hunt down suspects.”

“Wait a bit.” An ice-cold finger stroked Kane’s spine as if in warning. “Duke’s acting strange. He smells something.”

“He’s been hunting down Lindy’s scent all day. Maybe he’s telling you he found her and now he wants to go home.” Jenna jogged away from him through the long grass toward the building. “You coming?”

Kane hustled after her, scanning the area. Without warning, Duke howled, turned tail and ran back to the truck then crawled beneath it. Confused, he stared after him then back at Jenna. To his horror, not three yards out front of the open door to the building, a shaft of afternoon sunlight glistened on a tripwire. Heart racing, Kane took off at a run toward her; she was less than ten yards from death. “Stop, it’s a trap!”

Nine

So they haven’t found her yet. Excitement sent beads of sweat running between his shoulder blades. On a buzz, he found it hard to sit still and watch his dream of recognition playing out on TV. At first, his brain refused to accept the newsreader’s tense story, and when he realized the man was speaking about him, his heart raced so fast, he’d gasped in deep breaths. The media already had a name for him – he grinned into the darkness – they’d named him Shadow Man. He sounded like a comic book character. Hell, maybe they’d create a comic strip about him. The dramatic way the newsreader had described the fruitless effort by the hordes of people searching the forest made him laugh aloud. Did the sheriff in her blah, blah, blah, speech believe he’d obey her command? She had to be delusional if she believed him to be the same type of killer usually roaming Black Rock Falls.

He was unique, one of a kind, and when he’d finished killing in this town, he’d move on and start again – but then he’d adopt a different persona again. He prided himself on being versatile; not having a predictable MO was a gift he had in spades. Most profilers were on an ego trip, believing they’d come close to a fit but, in fact, the BS these so-called experts spewed about him was baloney.

The game with Sheriff Alton had taken his adventure to a new height. She’d be his first female sheriff to dance with and if she was as smart as people seemed to believe, she should have given him a decent challenge. Sadly, she wasn’t fast enough to beat his generous timeframe. Now he’d see if she could figure her way out of his latest maze. If she escaped this time, he’d need to be patient to gain the ultimate prize. The wait would make killing her so much sweeter. Soon his win would be all over the news and he’d already planned the next round of entertainment.

The thrill of watching young teenage girls strolling along the sidewalk in town, chatting together or walking alone, heads bowed, staring at their cellphones, stirred him into action. The recent murders in Black Rock Falls hadn’t instilled one ounce of caution in them and they continued to stroll around without a care in the world. He rubbed his hands together, itching to pluck one off the street or from their family’s oh-so-safe home. He’d formed so many ideas to confuse the cops and there were so many girls in town – he could take his time and choose just the right one. They were such easy prey but first he would bask in his newfound fame on the news. Then it will be game on, Sheriff Alton.

Ten

Running headlong into danger was what Kane had trained to do. It was second nature to put his body on the line, but his usual fearless calm abandoned him. Jenna was in mortal danger. She turned to look at him with a confused expression and time went into slow motion. Lungs bursting, he flung himself toward her and as her foot brushed the tripwire, he scooped her up and dived headlong down a small embankment. His feet hadn’t touched the ground when a fire-bolt of white light lit up the pasture and the concussive force from an earsplitting explosion picked them up in a whoosh of hot air and tossed them across the grassland like autumn leaves.

Kane wrapped his arms around Jenna as they flew on the cloud of heat, through the branches of a tree, then fell crashing to the ground. On impact, pain shot through his left shoulder and he slid across the rough ground on his back. He lost hold of her as they bounced and tumbled through the long grass. The fall had forced the air from his lungs and he gasped for a breath. Missiles of twisted metal, bricks and wood rained down on him. Disorientated and blinded by the clouds of dust, he reached out like a blind man searching the ground as debris peppered his back like hail. “Jenna, Jenna!”

A massive block of broken bricks crashed down inches from his head and a wave of panic for her safety hit him as he caught sight of her boot in the grass. Ears ringing, he dragged himself toward her. She lay sprawled out, face down and pale as a ghost. He crawled over her inert body and covered her, protecting her from the projectiles dropping all around them. She wasn’t moving – not even a slight flutter of eyelids. Dear God, no. He spat dirt from his mouth and bent close to her ear. “Jenna, can you hear me?”

Nothing.

Another explosion shook the ground, turning the sky red again, and a wave of heat lashed out at them in a dragon’s roar. His nostrils filled with the smell of burning hair. Massive chunks of cement and wood rained down on them, cutting into the ground like a hot knife through butter. He covered his head as a huge block of cement with the remnants of letters carved into it landed a few inches from his face. Pieces of splintered wood stabbed the dirt all around him, piercing his jeans, then a blanket of dark gray smoke poured over them and seemed to crawl away across the meadow, undulating like a serpent. An eerie silence descended and, apart from the loud ringing in his ears, it was as if the world had stopped.

Sure that the debris was no longer falling from the sky, he coughed and pushed to his knees and then used his sleeve to wipe his streaming eyes. He stared down at Jenna. She lay face down in the grass, motionless, head on one side. Scratches and bruises covered her face. Please God, let her be alive. Easing two fingers under her collar, he felt for a pulse and, finding a strong beat, gasped back a flood of emotion. He used his shirt to wipe her face, then pulled twigs and grass from her singed hair. Her eyelids twitched and she tried to push him away. Worried she might have spinal injuries, he bent down close to her ear. “There was an explosion, lie still and let me check you out.”