“You didn’t have time to unpack, right? Give me your room key.” He held her firmly, the knife pressed against her throat as she dragged out the keycard and handed it to him. “See that was easy, wasn’t it? Now I want you to call the Cattleman’s Hotel. Tell them you’re checking out and to bring your bags down to the foyer, you’re sending a cab for them.” He tightened his grip on her hair. “Say just that and put your phone on speaker. One wrong word and I’ll kill you. Understand?”
Keeping her voice as steady as possible, Poppy made the call. “Okay, now what?”
“Use your phone to send an email to the sheriff’s department. Don’t send it to anyone in particular, just send it to the general address. Say it was all a big mistake and you’re leaving. You’ve gotten a ride with a truck driver to Colorado. Say that you don’t want to be a cop anymore. Tell them you’re tossing your phone, so don’t bother contacting you. Your mind is made up and you don’t want to speak to anyone about it.” He chuckled. “That sounds like a woman scorned. After the public display in the park. You’ve sealed your boyfriend’s fate. Show me before you send it.”
She frowned not understanding his game. “What do you mean by that?”
“All this… meeting you on the flight. Watching you in the park and when you came over to talk to me. Wow! It was like the planets aligned or something.” He chuckled. “Man, I couldn’t have planned anything so perfect. It’s like I’m dreaming.” He tugged at her hair again. “When I’m done, I’ll be famous.” He laughed. “I wonder what name they’ll give me? I hope it’s spectacular. Write the email or you’ll spoil everything.”
If complying meant she stayed alive, she’d do anything. Poppy gripped the phone but her hands shook so hard, she kept making mistakes but finally he was satisfied and she pressed send. Not sure why all this meant something to him and how she’d become entangled in his delusions, she breathed in through her mouth to avoid his stink. “I’ve done everything you wanted. Now can I go?”
“Nope.” He moved her forward still holding her hair. “Lock your phone and drop it. Pick up your belt and then walk nice and slow that way.” He pointed with the knife.
She walked slowly moving through the damp-smelling woods. As the path widened, a gravel-coated clearing emerged with a road leading off between the trees. In the middle sat an old sedan. They walked toward it and the man stopped. “Open
the trunk.”
Poppy popped the trunk and the smell of oily rags and gasoline wafted over her. “What now?”
“Like I said, we’re going for a ride to Colorado.” He grinned at her. “You’ll love it there and I’ll bring you back real soon. You’ll find out my endgame soon enough.”
Unable to believe the man figured he’d just pranked Sheriff Alton, she rounded on him. “If you think for one second, I’m climbing in there, just for a joke, you’re mistaken. I’ll scream.”
He didn’t reply, but the next instant, her head snaped back as a punch smashed into her temple. Pain shot through her eyes, and the world closed in around her in a sea of black.
THIRTY-FIVE
Jenna waited for Kane to return to the office and then looked over at Carter, who sprawled in a chair opposite. “What did Kalo find on our suspects?”
“Duffy is the most interesting, apart from having no solid alibi, he admitted to living with a crazy grandma.” Carter pushed back his Stetson and stretched his long legs. “His attitude in the interview about her death made me curious, and Kalo discovered he’d been bounced from foster parent to foster parent until he was old enough to leave. From what information he could find, most of the people were in their sixties and had more than one foster child. He wasn’t a good student but had intelligence and once out of the system put himself through trade school. He is a plumber by trade, but continued his studies over many years.”
“I think Jo will agree with me that he is showing psychopathic tendencies.” Kane had removed his hat and sat curling the rim with his fingers. “It’s a reasonable assumption he pushed his grandmother down the well.”
“Maybe.” Jo stared at the screen of her tablet. “I did find the overconfidence and attitude a little unusual for someone being questioned about the death of three women. Most people exhibit some form of tension for just being in a room with law enforcement but he volunteered to come in, gave us a statement, refused a legal representative, and admitted to finding some of the old folks intimidating.” She shrugged. “We know confinement is an issue with the killer and he mentioned being concerned one of them might try to lock him in a cellar.”
Jenna nodded. “Yeah, I figure it’s unusual for a fit healthy man carrying a bag of tools to be worried about a frail old lady.”
“And we know how many kids suffer trauma being moved from one foster home to another.” Kane dropped his hat onto Jenna’s desk with a sigh. “Most end up there because of a traumatic incident. It’s not surprising they have an attitude against the system or fall into lives of crime when they get out or run away. How many of them end up on the streets? Kids need attention and they sure as hell don’t get any in the places I’ve seen of late. I figure the system needs an overhaul.”
Kane bristled with an undercurrent of anger and Jenna raised her eyebrows at him in question. “Well, I admit we have had our share of serial killers who suffered abuse as kids but I’m sure many get through the system just fine.” She looked back at Carter. “Okay, so the odds are stacking up against Duffy. Do we have anything but circumstantial evidence against him? We can’t arrest him on a hunch. We need physical evidence. Anyone else show up in Kalo’s searches?”
“Yeah.” Carter moved his toothpick to the corner of his mouth. “Hahn’s brother was killed in the line of duty, that would be a connection to the Ka-Bar knife. He lives at Bear Peak, has been working with all the murdered women. I’d keep him on the list as well.”
Jenna looked around the room. “Yeah, both these men could be suspects but it seems strange to, as they say, ‘cut off their noses to spite their faces.’ All these women employed them at one time and, it seems, are in constant need of their assistance.”
“Now you’re thinking logically.” Jo smiled at her. “Psychopaths don’t think like we do. If our killer is a contractor, then he sees a constant supply of people who feed his need to kill. He’s smart and organized with enough control not to leave clues behind. He planned the murders, from not leaving footprints and the disposal of incriminating clothes right down to setting up Rio for the killings. I figure, if we’d arrested Rio, the murders would stop. Maybe start up in another county or state. Think about it. With him to take the fall, they’d have outsmarted law enforcement, and you know as well as I do that’s the prize they seek.”
“So maybe you should pretend I’m under arrest.” Rio rubbed a hand down his face. “You brought me here in the back of a cruiser. If they’d been watching, they’d believe you’d arrested me.”
Jenna shook her head. “You mean make this killer someone else’s problem? Allow him to go on a murder spree in another town? No way. We have three people of interest, two are very possible suspects. We are that close.” She held her thumb and forefinger an inch apart. “Another thing, with the press hanging around, any hint of you being involved will ruin your career.” She looked at Rio. “You may want to leave after the way I treated you, but I did follow protocol. In the circumstances, I had no choice. You must admit, you haven’t been acting normal these last few days and then we find you in a pool of blood with a murder victim. In my shoes, would you have handled the situation any differently?”
“Nope. I would have hauled me in as well.” Rio gave her a tired smile. “I’m not planning on leaving, believe it or not. Being treated like a killer aside, I like it here.”
“That’s good, we like you being here too.” Jenna closed the folder on the desk. “That’s all we can do today. We’ll see what the autopsy shows tomorrow. You might as well all head off home. Jake, can you tell Maggie and Deputy Anderson we’ll lock up on the way out?”
“Sure.” Rowley headed for the door.
“We’re heading to Antlers and then Jo wants to video-call Jaime.” Carter looked at Rio. “That’s Jo’s daughter. I’ll keep in touch with Kalo but I’m hitting the sack early tonight.”