Be Mine Forever (Detectives Kane and Alton)

“Yeah, me too.” She linked her arm through his. “It was fun last night. I want to do it again.”

They strolled together to the old barn and he pulled out a key for the padlock. “Me too.”

It had been a rush watching her strangle Laurie and bringing the girl here to their secret place. Sitting her up to watch them make out had stirred something feral inside him. It was like a hunger he couldn’t satisfy and he wanted more. “We’ll take her out and dump her, I know a ton of places to hide her.”

The smell of death greeted him as he opened the barn door wide. Propped up against the wall, Laurie’s expressionless eyes stared at them in the gloom. Her skin was blue and her legs stuck out from beneath her, the flesh bruised as if she’d been sitting in blood. Beside him he felt a tremble go through his girl. “She don’t look so pretty now, huh?”

“Seeing her here in our special place makes me mad.” His girlfriend scowled at him. “She’ll stink up the trunk.”

He shook his head. “No, she won’t. Remember last summer I painted the kitchen for Ma? I took a box of plastic sheets from outside the general store. I have tons more stashed in here. We’ll wrap her up and dump her.”

“Look what I have.” She grinned and opened her purse to reveal a pile of surgical gloves. “We’ll take everything, her clothes and shoes, and when we’re done dumping her, we’ll burn them and the plastic sheet. We don’t want anyone tracing her back to us because I’m not done yet.” She walked into the barn and stared at Laurie’s body. “I’m not done with her either. Look at the way she’s looking at me—she thinks she’s all that.” She turned and a determined look crossed her face. “I want to do a whole set of them. We’ll go down in history as the Cheerleader Killers.” She snorted with a sudden burst of laughter and then stopped and frowned. “We’ll need to be smart because I’m not planning on going to jail.”

“Don’t worry your pretty head about that.” He slid his arm around her shoulder and admired their first kill. “We’re way too smart for the cops to pin it on us. We’ll dump her backpack in the forest and they’ll never look for her out at the mines.” He squeezed her. “There’ll be nothing left of her here, I have the perfect place to burn everything.”

Five

Jenna and Kane drove slowly along Stanton from the high school to the alleyway, in the direction Laurie would have taken on foot. Jenna peered into the forest. She’d buzzed the windows wide open to pick up any smells. With Duke sitting in the back seat, any scent of death usually caused a reaction and the bloodhound had sat motionless the entire time. “We’ll need a search party for this to work.”

“If Laurie was the victim of a thrill kill, it’s unlikely the killer would have dragged her very deep into the forest.” Kane flicked her a glance. “He’d have attacked, made her walk into the forest, killed her, and then walked away. So, if she’s dead, I figure her body will be on the edge somewhere.”

Jenna pushed the hair from her eyes. “Yeah, unless she got a ride with someone.” She threw her hands into the air. “Why is it that as soon as we have a festival in town something happens?” She stared at the blacktop. “If someone’s harmed this girl, we have a thousand tourists to consider as well. It will be like searching for a needle in a haystack.”

“Let’s hope she’s just holed up at a friend’s house and we can go home and eat leftovers.” Kane flashed her a smile. “Or we’ll have to be forced to stop by Aunt Betty’s for supper before we head out to the meeting. As Rowley tended the horses and I have food in the truck for Duke, there’s no reason to go home before the meeting.”

Jenna snorted. “How come you always find an excuse to drop by Aunt Betty’s Café? No matter in the middle of a murder case or after an autopsy, it’s the same.”

“A man has to eat to keep up his strength.” Kane chuckled. “So, we can go out hunting and fishing to feed our families.”

“That’s what stores are for.” Jenna yawned. “I often wonder how you’d survive without Aunt Betty’s Café.”

“Oh, I’d survive.” Kane accelerated along Stanton. “Have you seen the size of the steaks at Antlers Tavern?”

As they drove to Wyatt Cooper’s house, Jenna called Rowley to bring him up to speed and followed it with a quick call to Wolfe. As a team, she liked to keep everyone in the loop. When the Beast stopped beside a small cabin-style home, she checked the address and shrugged. “This is the place. I hope Wyatt Cooper is at home. You take the lead and I’ll hang back.” She slipped from the seat and headed up the garden path. “He might talk to you man to man.” The rank smell of burning came in a cloud of smoke from the backyard.

“I doubt it.” Kane’s nostrils flared. “To him I’m still a cop.”

Jenna knocked on the door and a man in his fifties, wearing a plaid shirt and jeans, stared at them open-mouthed. “Sheriff? Anything wrong? Is it about the smoke?”

“Nah.” Kane tipped his hat. “Mr. Cooper? We’d like a word with Wyatt.”

“Sure, sure, come in.” Mr. Cooper turned and walked inside. “He’s out back burning trash. I’ll go get him.” He headed through the house. “Wait here.”

Jenna hung back as a lean muscular young man of about sixteen came walking into the hallway smelling of smoke. He ignored her completely and looked up at Kane.

“Where did you play football, man?” Wyatt grinned at Kane.

“College is all.” Kane smiled back and took a relaxed pose; being non-threatening gave him an advantage. “I figure you know why we’re here?”

Jenna bit back a smile. A typical ploy to make a person believe they knew he was involved in something. She waited expectantly for Wyatt to speak.

“Nope, I have no idea why you or the sheriff are here.” Wyatt looked at her. “Ma’am— and why do you want to speak to me on a Sunday a

fternoon?”

“I hear you broke up with Laurie?” Kane’s voice lowered as he leaned conspiratorially toward him. “Did you have a fight?”

“Ah, I know what this is all about.” Wyatt jerked his head back. “Her father called asking me if I’d seen her last night. I told him, yeah, I’d seen her break her phone but she’d hightailed it inside to speak to Cory before I could say anything. I told her dad just that and he hung up on me.”