“It was lucky Webber was available.” Kane leaned back in his chair. “He usually goes fishing on Sundays.”
Colt Webber had interned for Wolfe at the ME’s office but had recently become his forensics assistant. He was still on the payroll as a deputy and stood in for them in times of need. Kane nodded. “Ah, the food is on its way.” He scanned her face. “Please eat something. I worry about you.”
The food arrived and they thanked the server and Kane caught Jenna giving him a puzzled look. “What?”
“Why are you coming over all protective again?” Jenna nibbled on one of her fries. “Part of me likes knowing you care but then I worry it will become a problem when we’re on the job—like when you first arrived.” She raised her gaze to him. “Or next thing, you’ll be calling me ma’am again.”
Trying hard not to react by grinning, Kane cut into the prime ribeye and sighed. “I’ll always have your back, Jenna. That won’t ever change.” He looked up at her. “Would I take a bullet for you? You betcha.” He chuckled. “That’s not being overprotective, that’s just doing my job.”
“Okay. You win.” Jenna sighed wearily. “Time is ticking by, let’s eat.”
After finishing their meal, Kane dropped a pile of bills on the table and then followed Jenna from the café. They would be at the gym early and it would give them time to get organized. They’d stopped by the office and collected a ton of business cards to hand out and had copies of Laurie’s image to show around. When they arrived at the school, the parking lot was surprisingly full and he parked outside the front of the gym. “It looks like we have a big turnout. I guess they watched the news.”
“Yeah.” Jenna gathered her things. “I hope someone has information or this is a complete waste of time.” She glanced around. “She could be out there somewhere alone and hurt.”
Kane turned to her. “You’ve had people searching for her from the moment we confirmed she was missing. There’s not much more we could have done. It would have helped if her father had notified us early this morning rather than waiting until three before calling. You know as well as I do, if someone has abducted her, the chances of finding her alive after so long are slim. It’s close to twenty-four hours now since anyone has seen her.”
“Yeah, every hour that goes by makes it less likely we’ll find her alive.” Jenna climbed out and collected a pile of notebooks from the back seat. “Although at sixteen, she could be holed up somewhere so there’s still hope.”
Kane slid out from behind the wheel and unclipped Duke’s harness. He made sure he always secured his dog in his vehicle. He often drove at speed and in an accident if a dog weighing one hundred pounds went flying through a windshield it could be lethal for both his loved pet and anyone unfortunate enough to collide with him. Clipping Duke’s harness into the seat restraint took no time at all. He hated seeing dogs standing unrestrained in the back of pickups, as if their owners had no care about their pets or others using the highways. He rubbed the dog’s ears. “I know it’s been a long day, but we’ll be heading home soon.”
“At least he can sleep when he wants to, we’re not so lucky.” Jenna handed him a pile of handouts. “We?
?ll need to get the names of everyone here tonight.”
“Sure.” Kane took the papers and they headed inside.
The brightly lit hall was filled with people all sitting on lines of plastic chairs as if waiting for a town meeting. The place had the usual school gym smell, slightly sour with a touch of eau de old socks, and books. He had expected a crowd milling around but to his surprise, Emily greeted him at the door and Shane Wolfe and his daughter Julie were close by. “Hi, Emily, did you organize all this?”
“Me?” Emily chuckled. “I helped but it was Dad’s idea. He even convinced them to open the kiosk for refreshments when you’ve finished talking to them. As soon as people started arriving, he had them pulling out chairs from the storeroom and setting them out in lines. Julie helped me take down the details of everyone coming through the door. We thought it would save time?” She handed Jenna two notebooks. “I’ll wait by the door in case anyone else comes by.”
“I can’t thank you enough.” Jenna gave her a hug. “The place is crowded, surely not everyone here is from the cheerleader practice?”
“I’m afraid not.” Emily indicated to a news crew. “They did a live broadcast from outside the hall and showed Laurie’s red pickup. After that tons of people arrived. We’ve divided the ones who were here to the right of the hall, the sightseers to the left.” She shrugged. “That was Julie’s idea, so you could ask questions directly to them.”
Kane looked at Jenna and raised one eyebrow. “So, if everyone’s here, who is out searching?”
“I have it under control. Search and rescue have over one hundred volunteers out looking for her.” Jenna straightened. “This is where we’ll find the answer to what happened to her and be able to focus the search in the right direction.” She glanced at him. “I hate standing up in front of a crowd, it’s worse than during my last election.” She headed toward the podium.
Kane fell into step beside her. “These are your people. They’re waiting for instructions— you’ll be fine.”
Seven
After wrapping Laurie Turner in plastic, they’d heaved her into the back seat, and covered her with a blanket. She’d been heavier than he’d expected and sweat beaded on his brow and trickled down his back from the exertion. His girl had fashioned aprons from the plastic sheets and they’d wrapped them around their bodies. He’d seen enough cop shows to know about leaving evidence behind. All set, they’d driven through town far away from the search parties and headed out to the old mines. As long shadows crept in around them, he drove slowly to the place they’d chosen to dump Laurie’s body. The excitement he’d had when his girl had strangled her had ebbed. This part of the plan wasn’t thrilling at all. “We have to make it fast. Did you see the news? The sheriff expects everyone who was at the cheerleading practice to be at the gym by six.”
“I know. You look bored.” She curled a strand of hair around her finger and one hand rested on his thigh. “You figure once they’re dead they’re no fun anymore?”
He pulled up beside an old mine entrance and as he turned his vehicle around, the headlights picked up the cloud of dust they’d left in their wake. “Kinda.” He shrugged.
“Help me drag her out.” She climbed out, looking strange in the blue surgical gloves with a plastic sheet wrapped around her jeans.
An awful smell seeped out of the bundle as they dragged Laurie to the mine entrance. Inside, the passageway to the shaft was dark and foreboding. A “keep out” sign blocked the way. They dropped her on the ground and pulled at the plastic to unwrap her, spilling her naked body onto the barren soil. He swallowed hard. Laurie looked up at him with a blank expression, deathly white. Blue had replaced her once pink lips and her healthy glow had turned into a mask. He needed to get away.
“Look at her. She’s still staring at me.” His girl aimed a kick at the body. “Stop looking at me, Laurie. You can’t have him, he’s mine.”
“Hey.” He tried to comfort her. “She’s dead. Let’s go.”
Without warning, his girl pulled a screwdriver from her boot and threw herself on the body. He turned away unable to look at her. Seeing her kill had been exciting, thrilling but this made him sick to his stomach. What is wrong with me?