FOUR
It was late in the afternoon when Ty Carter dropped by the office with his Doberman, Zorro, at his heels. Kane smiled at him when he headed for his desk. “All settled in?”
“Yeah, thanks.” Carter dropped into the chair opposite and rested one snakeskin cowboy boot on his opposite knee. “You’re well organized. I was surprised when Wolfe gave me the keys to Jenna’s cruiser. I had planned on getting a rental, so that was very nice of her. Jo is back at the cottage. She wanted to give Jaime a tour of the ranch. Do you mind if we take the horses out for a ride over the weekend?”
Kane hadn’t seen much of Jaime, Jo’s little girl. “Sure, the paint pony is very gentle, it belongs to Wolfe’s youngest, Anna. My stallion is a handful, but Jenna’s mare is good.”
“Warrior likes me. He snickered when I went by before, so we’ll get along just fine. We’ll be sticking to the trails around the ranch.” Carter plucked a toothpick from his shirt pocket and tossed it into his mouth. “I see that life goes on as normal around here since the engagement. Any second thoughts?”
Wondering what Carter was implying, Kane leaned back in his chair and stared at him. “About marrying, Jenna? No, of course not, and why would anything change around here? She’s still sheriff and I’m her deputy. I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
“And if you have kids?” Carter’s gaze remained fixed on his face. “Then what?”
Kane rolled his eyes. “It will be Jenna’s choice, but if and when it happens, knowing her as I do, she’ll want the baby with her at the office—I figure I will too. We’ll build a nursery, hire a nanny…whatever’s necessary and maybe Rowley’s wife, Sandy, can come work here too and bring along the twins to socialize. It will work out just fine, we don’t chase serial killers seven days a week.”
“Ah-huh.” Carter smiled around his toothpick. “Seems to me you’ve given it a lot of thought.” He sighed. “You know, I’ve never wanted to settle down, mainly because I had a life that made romance difficult. Seeing you together and Rowley and Sandy, well, I guess a wife and a white picket fence are possible after all.”
Surprised the confirmed bachelor was considering marriage, Kane cleared his throat. “Yeah, it can work. Do you have someone in mind?”
“Not yet.” Carter chuckled. “I’m planning on seeing how you two go first.” He glanced at the images on Kane’s screen. “Is that the case from this morning? Kalo mentioned you needed him for research.”
Turning around his screen, Kane nodded. “I do, are you interested in lending a hand while we’re away?”
“Yeah, but Jo will be working by remote.” Carter peered at the images. “With Jaime here, she’ll be busy. Give me the rundown.”
After Kane explained, he noticed the shadow cross Carter’s eyes. “Are you seeing something I’m not?”
“Maybe.” Carter zoomed in on the mask. “Glued on?”
Interested, Kane scanned the images again. “Yeah. Have you seen this before?”
“It was a cold case I studied last year, mainly because we had nothing to do.” Carter scrolled through the images. “Women dressed the same with a mask glued over their faces. They had many broken bones. Some had partially healed breaks in their fingers and toes. It kinda proved that the killer had held them for a time. They had one hell of a time trying to identify the bodies and then discovered the ID of only one of them. It was nasty. Six dead women, no missing persons reports, and no clues.”
Turning to look at him, Kane picked up a pen. “Where was this? We’ll need all the case files.”
“Colorado.” Carter’s gaze narrowed. “Wasn’t that where Poppy said she was heading?”
Kane nodded. “Yeah, but the body we found is small. It’s not Poppy.”
“I’ll have Kalo send the files.” Carter pulled out his phone and gave Kane a smile. “This visit just got interesting.”
Glad to have Carter in town to assist with the case, Kane pushed to his feet. “Jenna will want to know everything you have on the cold case. She’s in her office.”
“Okay, but rather than repeating myself a dozen times, grab Rowley and Rio as well.” Carter stood and shrugged. “Lately, my vacations are becoming more interesting than work.”
Kane peered at Duke asleep under his desk. “You coming, Duke?” The bloodhound gave him a bloodshot look from under his lids, sighed, and went back to sleep.
Heading for the stairs to Jenna’s office, Kane stopped to gather the other deputies. He knocked on Jenna’s door. “Carter recalls a cold case with a similar MO to our murder. Rio and Rowley are on their way.”
“A cold case?” Jenna spun toward him in her office chair. “As we don’t know how long the victim has been in captivity, Kalo went back five years and found over twenty missing women with the same description.” She sighed and leaned back in her chair. “No one has been reported missing in my county. This one is going to be tough.”
Unstacking chairs from a pile in the corner, he slid them across the floor to the others and they all sat down to listen to Carter. Kane moved his attention to Jenna. “Wolfe mentioned that the crime scene and kill were too clean. This could be the same person starting up fresh in our county.”
“The problem with the missing women is only women people care about are reported.” Carter stretched out his long legs. “A killer preying on the homeless, prostitutes, or any number of people living on the edge of society would slip through the net.”
“That’s true enough.” Jenna pushed both hands through her hair and tucked it behind her ears. “And they’re easy targets for someone wanting a quick kill. In this scenario, if the killer is keeping them for a time, who would miss them?”
“This is why the case went cold.” Carter ran one hand down his Doberman’s slick black head and shrugged. “We couldn’t identify the victims. One we believe was a prostitute, but only by another recognizing the necklace we found with the body. The lady in question was an addict, so not a reliable witness, and she changed her description of the necklace on two different occasions.”
Kane stood and went to pour a cup of coffee from the pot brewing on the counter. “You know, if this is a serial offender, he could be swapping personal items from one body to the next. If he’s smart, there’s no end to what he might do to hide the victim’s identities.”
“Yeah.” Rio rubbed his chin. “I’ve seen that happen before. They believe if we can’t identify the victims, then the chances of them leading us to them is remote. If this is a planned move, we’d have to assume the current victim is from another county or state.”
The phone on Jenna’s desk rang and she held up a finger and picked up the receiver. “Sheriff Alton.” She listened and nodded. “Okay, that might be significant. Thanks, Shane.” She replaced the receiver and stood. She went to the whiteboard, took a pen from the holder, and turned to the team. “Wolfe has started a preliminary examination of our victim and called to inform us that the victim was raped. He didn’t find semen or trace evidence of her attacker, but he did find traces of soapy water on her skin. He will run an analysis on the soap and see what he can find. It will take time.”
“Ah, you mentioned the similarity to when Poppy Anderson hightailed it out of town?” Rowley leaned forward in his chair with his hands clasped between his knees. “I followed this up with Kalo. He’s been keeping an eye out for her as you requested. Seems she is still on the payroll here. A paycheck has been going in her account regular since she left. Another thing, Kalo said she was still using her credit card out at Colorado Springs. She’s taking out wads of cash every so often. I figure if she’s living somewhere, she’s paying cash. She’s a cop and would know how to get around a trace if she doesn’t want to be found.”
Kane exchanged a surprised look with Jenna. “She’s on the payroll here? How is that possible?”
“I’d bet my bottom dollar Mayor Petersham is paying her.” Jenna shook her head. “You know, I don’t recall Maggie saying she’d stopped her pay.” She picked up the phone and called down to the front counter. She put the phone on speaker. “Hi, Maggie, did you cancel Poppy Anderson’s paycheck?”
“She wasn’t in our system.” Maggie sounded surprised. “I can’t stop what isn’t there. If she’s getting a paycheck, it’s not from our account.”
“Okay, can you call the mayor’s office and find out if he placed her in his system. If so, tell them she resigned. Maybe send them a copy of her email as confirmation.”
“You got it.”Maggie disconnected.
“From all this information have you got anything, Dave?” Jenna looked hopeful. “Anything at all?”
Clearing his throat, Kane met her gaze. “We have nothing to link the cases yet, no. We’ll go through the cold case files and make notes of anything similar between each one and then apply the information to Wolfe’s findings. If this is the same person, we’ll need to hunt down people who recently settled here or who travel between states regularly. I’d say focusing on the similarities will be the best way forward. I can’t offer a profile without information, and we’ve got zip.”
“Okay.” Jenna glanced at her watch and then at Rowley and Rio. “As we’re chasing our tails right now, it’s time to call it a day. I’m off duty and so is Kane from now until we return, so I’m handing this case over to Rio as next senior officer. Rio you have Carter and Jo at your disposal, and Rowley will be an asset. While we’re away, I want you to go through the cold case files. Check in with Wolfe and use any information he can offer you. For now, check if any of the victims were sexually assaulted and then make a list of all the similarities. The reason being, this could be a copycat, and right now, we have no proof the cold case murders are even related.”
Kane stood and pushed on his Stetson. “I’ll drop you and Duke home and then I’m heading back to town.”
“Why?” Jenna gathered her things and stared at him. “You going somewhere?”
Smiling, Kane tipped back his hat. “Yeah, Shane, being my best man, insisted on throwing me a bachelor party, and Emily figured you should get an early night. Jo and Jaime are staying over at the ranch to keep you company. I’ve been banished to the Cattleman’s Hotel. I’m not allowed to see you before the wedding.”
“Oh, really?” Jenna frowned. “So much for a quiet night at home.”