Be Mine Forever (Detectives Kane and Alton)

“That’s my take on it and the men’s briefs pushed in her mouth is telling the world she’s easy.” Jo looked at Jenna. “Okay, so fast forward to the morning they dumped her at the mine, what would trigger an attack to the face and eyes?”

Jenna rubbed her temples. She felt like she was back at Quantico again. “It’s jealousy, she wanted to destroy her looks, and make her ugly.”

“Not just that.” Kane turned away from the board. “The dominant killer believed Laurie was still looking at them or looking at her subordinate. It was the trigger.”

“That’s what I believe too.” Jo sat down and reached for her coffee. “Classic dominant with psychopathic tendencies, subordinate follower with a White Knight complex.”

“I’d profile him with a dominating mother, or grandmother in his life, who runs him down all the time and he sees the killer as a hero, someone who cares enough to kill for him.” Kane dropped into his seat. “Now all we have to do is find them.”

“Remember the technique we discussed during interviews, Dave.” Jo frowned. “These types of criminals don’t respect the people they hurt. You have to get down to their level, no matter how dirty it makes you feel.” She sighed. “It’s sometimes the only way to get them to talk about what they’ve done. If they think you’re of the same opinion they’ll often open up and boast about what they’ve done.”

“It makes me feel like a pervert speaking that way.” Kane flicked her a glance. “But it’s a tried and true technique.”

Jenna squeezed his arm. “After listening to psychopaths boasting about their kills nothing you say in an interview will worry me, Dave. We use what works and like Jo said, it’s a recognized interviewing technique, and not indicative of your thoughts.”

The phone buzzed and Jenna reached for it. “Hi, Shane, what have you got for me?” She put the phone on speaker.

“We have a DNA match. The briefs belong to Wyatt Cooper. No match on the saliva as yet.” Wolfe cleared his throat. “This seems very suspicious to me, too darn obvious when every care was taken to leave the body clean.”

Jenna nodded. “Yeah, it does. Jo is here on vacation. We’re getting her take on the case now. Do you want to listen in?”

“Hi, Jo. I’ll call you later. I’m snowed under here at the moment.” Wolfe sighed. “Jenna, I’m finishing up my report and checking results. I’ll have them to you soon.”

“Okay, thanks, chat soon.” Jenna disconnected. She looked at Kane. “What do you think?”

“It seems too much of a coincidence the DNA is a match to Cooper.” Kane rubbed the back of his neck. “If he’d been involved, why would he make sure there’s no trace evidence and then leave a calling card behind? No one is that stupid.”

“I have to agree.” Jo nodded. “It’s as if they’re trying to shift the blame to someone else.”

Jenna tapped her bottom lip, thinking. “Cooper was jealous of Hughes, he admitted it but nothing else fits.”

“All this—” Jo waved a hand toward the whiteboard “—was triggered by jealousy. So, you have a few options. I believe this is a female dominant and a male subordinate but there is always a chance it could be one killer but from what I’m seeing here, it’s not likely for these reasons: If Cooper was pushed to a jealous rage when Laurie went to Hughes instead of him for help, in my experience, a killer of this type would use rape as a punishment, rather than stuffing his briefs down her throat.”

“And the killers have been so careful not to leave evidence.” Jenna shrugged. “It doesn’t fit.” She looked at Jo. “What do you suggest?”

“You’ll need to hunt down any guys Laurie was attracted to because one of them might be the subordinate and his girlfriend the killer. Alternatively, you need to discover if there was anything else to trigger an attack. Maybe something going on at school between the girls. Laurie was on the cheerleading squad, did she take another girl’s place for instance, was there a rivalry there?” She shook her head. “Failing all of the above, we could have an opportunistic thrill killer who likes to keep corpses overnight and then mutilate them. In this case, the murderer would be male for sure, but as there was no sexual contact, it would be unusual—but then unusual is usual in Black Rock Falls.”

Twenty

By the time, Jo and Carter had taken Jaime back to The Cattleman’s Hotel, it was getting late. Jenna and Kane went over the case files making notes until Rowley and Rio emerged from the communications room. Both looked tired after reviewing the CCTV footage. Jenna looked up at them. “How did you go?”

“We found a similar vehicle traveling through town at nine on Saturday night. The feed is too distorted to make out a plate number or who was driving.” Rowley sighed. “The camera lens is dirty or we have a wasp’s nest in there. It was that bad. Nothing visible from the bank cameras, Miller’s Garage, or the gun store.”

Jenna nodded. “Well, that’s a shame.” She glanced at her notes. “Did you get all the paperwork for the Law case over to the DA?”

“Yeah.” Rio nodded. “The escort arrived at three to collect Law. He’s safely locked away in the county jail until his bail hearing. I followed up on Mrs. Law and her baby. She has collected her things from the family home and has settled into one of the safe apartments run by the Her Broken Wings Foundation. She will remain there for as long as necessary but won’t be returning to Blackwater.”

Relieved, Jenna smiled. “That’s good to know.”

“How is your face?” Rowley frowned at her. “You’re going to have a shiner.”

Jenna touched her cheek. “I’m fine, thank you.” She cleared her throat and brought them up to date with their interviews and Wolfe’s results. “As you go past the Hughes’ house on the way home, I was wondering if you could try and persuade Mrs. Hughes to allow you to take a DNA sample from Verna?”

“I can try.” Rowley looked a little uncomfortable. “I’m convinced Mrs. Hughes is a conspiracy theorist. Sandy has had a few run-ins with her, she isn’t a pleasant woman and hates law enforcement. She may not allow me through the gate. Her place is posted but I can try.”

Concerned over Rowley’s safety, she shook her head. “Don’t worry. If she’s posted ‘no trespassing’ signs, she’s within her rights to defend her property. Going there at night without backup is out of the question. I doubt Verna is going anywhere, I’ll drop by with Kane in the morning.” She smiled at her deputies. “There’s overtime on offer, for the festival. I’m calling in some help from Blackwater but I’d like one of us to be on duty here until ten, ten-thirty tomorrow and Wednesday. Walters has volunteered to take the rest of the week. He’ll be taking over at six.”

“I’ll do tomorrow.” Rowley shrugged. “I’ll be in town anyway. Sandy wants to finish up at the house in town and make it nice for when Zac moves in.” He chuckled. “I can’t stop her. Her mom says she’s nesting—whatever that means. She’s not happy at the moment unless she’s cleaning or setting up rooms and she ran out of things to do at the ranch last weekend.”