Bring Me Flowers (Detectives Kane and Alton)

Kane rolled his shoulders and looked down at him. “I’m afraid I can’t discuss ongoing investigations with members of the public.” He sighed. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to speak to Emily. She is needed back at the sheriff’s office.” He walked out of earshot and she followed him. “What is going on? Your father is frantic.”

“Not now, I think I’m onto something. One thing for sure, the teacher didn’t do it.”

“How could you possibly know that? He is our prime suspect.”

“Because, I

know.” She crooked one dainty finger and beckoned him to bend down, then lowered her voice to a whisper. “Dad told me the victims were raped, and I overheard Mrs. Fox speaking on the phone about Mrs. Rogers. She was saying she didn’t know why Mrs. Rogers believed her husband was seeing other women because he couldn’t get it up and hadn’t been able to for five years. He’d seen a specialist and tried everything. How could he have raped those girls if he was impotent?”

Swallowing the lump in his throat from Emily’s candidness, he rubbed his chin. “So, I’m guessing you have a suspect of your own?”

Emily gave him an ice-gray stare. “Aimee has been speaking about their online friends, and Lionel Provine is closer to the group than you realize. Apparently, he asks some of the girls to go upstairs to his room to show them ‘stuff.’” She wiggled her blonde eyebrows at him as if to exaggerate the word. “I’m in the inner sanctum now. Give me ten minutes and I’ll see what he is doing. Tell Dad if Lionel invites me upstairs, I’ll hit my security tag so he can listen in.”

Astounded, Kane shook his head. “No way, he’ll go ballistic if you act as bait. It’s a stupid idea. It takes seconds to kill and no one would get to you in time.”

“Oh, doh, I’m not stupid. I have a can of mace in my pocket and I’ll use it if I have to.” Emily’s gaze bore into him. “Not even a mass murderer would risk killing me with twenty kids in his shop, and Aimee will be there too. I’m the best bet to find out if he is the killer. I’m doing it and that’s final.”

Hackles rising, Kane glared down at her. “Not one hope in hell. You haven’t seen what this monster can do.”

When she nodded slowly and met his gaze, his stomach did flip-flops. He shook his head in denial. “Nah, I don’t believe Wolfe would show you his files. It would be unprofessional.”

“He didn’t show me anything. I examined the file this morning at the sheriff’s office. You really need better security on your filing system.” She tossed her fair head and her hair fell straight down her back like a silk scarf. “I looked because I’ve been studying forensic science for two years; not officially, but I have completed two online courses.” She glanced over one shoulder at her friends. “I have to go. Call my dad and tell him what’s going down.”

He watched her move into her circle of friends and they headed into the computer store. Grabbing his cellphone, he relayed the information to Wolfe, who went ballistic as predicted but moments later broke through the crowd and joined him. He shrugged, feeling useless. “Sorry, she refused to listen to me.”

“Yeah, I know. She has been a handful since she could speak. I think she has the fear gene missing, unlike me. Right now I want to march in there and slam the pervert into the next life.” Wolfe rubbed his blond whiskers and sighed. “We should get out of sight away from the computer store.” He led the way down an alley between the stores and leaned against the wall. “I did a sweep of the entire Rogers house and have reason to believe someone was struck on the head or had their throat cut in his family room. After spraying luminol, the amount of blood would indicate the victim would have little chance of survival. The carpet you mentioned was missing correlates with the evidence. I found drag marks consistent with a woven fabric, carpet fibers, and blood traces. The luminol highlighted a path leading from the family room to the backdoor through to the garage.”

“So he killed someone, but from what Emily said it’s doubtful he murdered Felicity or Kate. Although, we can’t rule out that killing might be a cure for his impotence. We’ll need a court order to obtain medical records to prove the extent of his impotency but his lawyer might persuade him if we threaten to charge him with murdering both girls.” Kane looked at his strained expression and caught a flash of apprehension in his eyes. “We can’t locate his wife and we know they argued, plus I found her purse and cellphone in the house.”

“That’s not good. In my opinion, Rogers murdered someone, wrapped them in the Chinese rug, and buried them in the woods.” Wolfe raised both eyebrows and his mouth thinned. “I have a team with cadaver dogs arriving at sunup to search Stanton Forest from where you saw his car parked, but right now my priority is keeping Emily safe.” He pulled out his cellphone, activated an app, and stared at the pulsing red dot on the screen. “I hope she knows what she is doing.”

Forty-Two

The cellphone made a noise like a siren, and with lightning speed, Wolfe’s long fingers moved over the buttons. He lifted a concerned gaze to Kane. “Here we go. It’s on speaker and I’m recording. They can’t hear us.”

Kane rested his hand on his Glock; one move in the wrong direction and he would be inside the computer store before Lionel Provine took his next breath.

A man’s voice came through loud and clear.

“Oh, come now, don’t be so shy. Ask anyone, you can trust me.”

“My daddy told me never to trust strangers, and I don’t know you, Mr. Provine. I think we should stay right here in the shop.” Emily was working like a pro, giving her location and the name of the person speaking to her.

“Come upstairs and see my collection of figurines, I’ll give you some gift cards.”

“I’ll kill the asshole.” Wolfe shook with anger. “The pervert is grooming her.”

Oh, Jesus. Concerned, Kane gripped his shoulder. “If anything happens, I’ll take him out. Remember my motto: one shot, one kill. For now, she is okay. Just listen. If he touches her you can go in and tear him a new asshole.”

When Wolfe pulled his weapon and moved closer to the edge of the building, a wave of foreboding hit Kane. He needed to contain the situation. Wolfe was not like him, cold and in control in a life-threatening situation, especially when his daughter was the target. “Stand down. That’s an order. Listen, Emily is more sensible than you believe.”

“Come on now.” Provine’s voice had dropped to a coaxing tone. “I don’t bite.”

“I don’t think so.” Emily’s voice quivered a little and Kane noticed Wolfe’s muscles tense under his shirt. “I’ll agree to go to the door of the storeroom but I’m not going anywhere else with you.”

“Okay, but remember not to tell anyone. It’s my secret club. Only a few people are involved, but as you are new in town and a friend of Aimee’s, you can join too. Here, this is for you.”

“What do I need that for?” Emily sounded confused. “Is it a thumb drive?”