THIRTY-EIGHT
After touching down at the ranch, Jenna wasted no time and climbed into the Beast. As Kane headed out of the driveway with Carter and Jo close behind in Jenna’s cruiser, she called Aunt Betty’s Café to place an order for takeout. It was a little after noon and she expected Susie Hartwig to pick up the phone. She gave the order to Wendy. “Do you have time to make up the order now, or can someone drop it by the office when it’s ready?”
“I’ll start on the order now, but delivery might be delayed. Susie hasn’t shown for her shift.”Wendy let out a long sigh. “This will be the first time I think she’s ever been late. She was planning to go to the beauty parlor this morning, so maybe she got held up. If she arrives by the time I’ve made up your order, I’ll drop it by on my way home. If not, I’ll call you. It’s the lunchtime rush and we’re snowed under.”
Not wanting to be disturbed when they arrived at the office, Jenna pulled on her bottom lip. “I’m just leaving the ranch now. We’ll drop by on the way through town and wait until it’s ready.”
“Thanks, I’ll see you soon.” Wendy disconnected.
“Problem?” Kane gave her a sideways look.
Jenna shrugged. “I don’t think so. Susie is late for work, is all, and you know how busy they are at this time of the day. We’ll just stop by and pick up our order. We have a ton of things to discuss when we get back to the office. What Vito told us will help narrow down the suspects.”
“You can’t take everything he says as gospel.” Kane shook his head. “I agree he made some good points, and you did get to see the inner workings of a psychopath’s mind, but he’s only talking to you because he gets a kick out of it. He’s not doing it to help. For him, any violent stimulation, especially looking at crime scene photographs, is like giving him a box of candy.”
Jenna’s phone chimed. It was Wolfe and she put it on speaker. “Hi, Shane. I hope you have good news for me.”
“It depends on how you interpret good news.” Wolfe sounded exhausted. “I’ve experimented with several different light filters to enhance the fingerprints. It took longer than I’d expected, but I’ve found a cryptic messagescrawled in Poppy’s sweat across the victim’s stomach. It reads:Help! Underground cells.” He paused a beat. “I checked every image of the victim and that’s all she wrote. There’s nothing to pinpoint her position, I’m afraid.”
Stunned into silence for a beat, Jenna held her breath as the images popped into her inbox. The case had blown out in another direction. She scrolled through the images he’d sent her. “This is incredible work. Thanks, Shane. You’re a genius. Who would have thought Poppy was smart enough to think of doing that? When you said you’d found her DNA on a victim, I figured she was involved with the murders.”
“Yeah, so did I. Before you go,I guess you haven’t spoken to Rio yet? We’ve had a hit on missing women out of Colorado.” Wolfe yawned explosively. “Sorry, it’s been nonstop for hours. Kalo sent me the information and I’ve forwarded the dental records to all the dentists in the state. I’ll call you when I get a reply.” He disconnected.
“It looks like Poppy’s a victim after all.” Hearing Kane’s sharp inhalation of breath, Jenna stared at him. “What? This proves we have someone on the inside. Poppy has somehow made herself useful to the killer. She managed to get a message out. This is epic.”
“I don’t buy it. If she’s a victim, how did she get access to the body?” Kane’s mouth turned down. “Allowing a woman to get involved goes against the killer’s previous behavior—so is dropping his guard and leaving DNA. Something’s not right here. Even psychopaths have logic. It’s just different to ours. There’s no proof Poppy actually wrote the message, is there? Maybe he’s giving us a surefire suspect so he can walk free, but it could also be a trap, Jenna. It wouldn’t be the first time.”
The interview with Bruno Vito was still playing through Jenna’s mind. She’d gained insight into the current case but could understand Kane’s concern. “You have to admit some of Vito’s points made sense.” She turned in her seat to look at him. “For instance, he believes that Poppy isn’t involved in the murders and the killer works alone. If the message on the victim is legit, it also means all the time since Poppy went missing she’s been in the hands of a psychopath.”
“One who drives to Colorado on a regular basis and uses her credit cards to keep up the illusion she’s safe and well.” Kane took his hand off the steering wheel and rubbed his chin. “That will narrow the suspects down. I’ll check over the case files again when we get back to the office.”
Pulling her notebook from her pocket, Jenna thumbed through the pages. “Something else I figure is significant. Although Vito made a case for the killer to be working alone, the fact that he is keeping women prisoners would make me believe he had a partner. He’d need someone to watch the women in his absence. Yet, Vito believed the killer has a ritual, he likes to perform in private. This makes sense to me, although I know I shouldn’t try and apply logic to anything a psychopath does.”
“I agree. The entire interview was a valuable insight into the criminal mind.” Kane pulled into the curb outside Aunt Betty’s Café and waved at Carter, who was following them, to keep going. “I’ll go and grab the takeout.” He slid out of the door.
Anxious to start a search for Poppy, Jenna checked her messages and found nothing from Rio or Rowley. There were no missed calls either, which she found unusual as Rowley was a stickler for checking in with her. Five minutes later Kane emerged from the diner carrying a cardboard box and deposited it on the back seat next to Duke. “I wonder if Rowley and Rio have finished the interview with Lucas Davies. I haven’t heard from them all morning.”
“They probably didn’t want to bother you.” Kane headed along Main. “They know we’re due back at noon, so they’ll be waiting for us at the office. Rio is used to taking the lead in murder cases. I’m sure he’ll have everything up to date when we arrive.”
The vehicles parked outside the sheriff’s department indicated that everyone was in the building. Jenna gave Maggie a wave as she walked past the front counter and went straight up to the conference room they were using for this case. The smell of fresh coffee brewing wafted down the hallway. She pushed open the door glad to see everyone at work around the long table. After dropping her things on the desk, she sat down and gave them Wolfe’s news. Everyone inhaled at once when she showed the powerful images. “Our priority is finding Poppy. If she’s with the killer, we need to be moving at warp speed to find her.” She moved her gaze around the table. “This means in a covert way, no lights and sirens, no guns blazing. The killer is holding prisoners and by going off half-cocked we’ll be giving him a reason to murder them.” She swung her attention to Rio. “Okay, what have you got for me?”
She listened with interest as Rio brought her up to date. “Yeah, I know about the missing persons. Wolfe called. Nothing more on that as yet.” She made more notes. “That’s very interesting about the Bright cousins. Get out a press release saying they’re persons of interest and set up a hotline. It’s a shot in the dark because we have reason to believe the killer takes regular trips to Colorado and we know Sam Bright hasn’t left the state.” She took the cup of coffee Kane handed her with a smile. “Lucas Davies travels to Colorado. He needed special permission by the parole board to cross the state line, but they consider him such a low risk it was granted as it’s part of his profession and, so far, he hasn’t put a foot wrong.” She looked at Carter. “Do you figure it’s possible for him to somehow get back to Black Rock Falls with a body and then drive back to collect the truck?”
“Looking at the entries in his logbook, he travels the same route.” Carter scanned the images on Rio’s phone. “He frequently stays overnight, which gives him a window of opportunity. He could easily use the credit card in Colorado and have his final sleepover within driving distance of Black Rock Falls.”
“We’d be looking for a place he stops overnight within a three-hour drive of town.” Kane unpacked the box of takeout and placed it on the table. “So, he either uses a rental or he has a vehicle stashed somewhere along the way.” He sighed. “The problem I have with Lucas Davies is that he has no priors other than arson. We know the killer in our case has murdered before and Lucas Davies doesn’t fit the profile.”
Jenna stared at Kane. “Sam Bright does, and I don’t recall asking Derek Bright if he’s been in Colorado recently because it wasn’t relevant at the time.” She scrolled through her files. “His occupation is listed as a road driver as well, so he could easily be the one using the credit cards in Colorado.”
“Seems to me we should be including anyone with the opportunity of driving to Colorado over the last three months, that’s how long Poppy has been missing.” Carter stared at the whiteboard. “Did anyone follow up on Tom Parsons?”
“He’s been out of town and isn’t due back until today.” Kane scanned his notes. “We spoke to his wife, but she didn’t have too much information. He would be due to drop off his consignment at the warehouse. I’ll give them a call and see if he has arrived yet. According to his wife, he isn’t due to go out again until Friday.” He reached for a sandwich. “His truck hasn’t got an oil leak either. I checked out where he parks when he’s at home.”
Jenna sipped her coffee and sighed. “We’ll keep him on the list until we can speak to him.” She stared at the whiteboard. “With the Bright cousins in the wind, they have to be our prime suspects.”
A knock on the door and the sight of Atohi Blackhawk brought a smile to her face. “Hi, Atohi. Did you find any caves?”
“It seems the old timers kept things underground.” Blackhawk dropped into a spare chair and leaned on the table. “I know the historical sites but they’re not plausible. Many years ago, way back in the 1800s, they mined for gold in the lowlands around these parts. You recall seeing the miners’ cabins or what’s left of them out past the industrial areas on the edge of the county? It seems that many of the miners carved out caves in the granite rock formation each side of the dry riverbed to store their machinery during the winter. Some sunk mineshafts all along the dry riverbed, but many of those mine shafts have been sealed as they are dangerous, but the storage tunnels into the rock meet the requirements you’re looking for. They’re deep and isolated. It’s almost barren there, apart from the wheatgrass. No one lives for miles in any direction, so someone could come and go without being noticed. It wouldn’t take too much to shore up the caves to make them safe.”
Jenna pulled up a map of Black Rock Falls on her iPad and handed it to him. “Do you know where these caves are exactly? It’s a massive area to hunt down one single cave.”
“There are many, but with discussion they came up with the most likely caves. All agreed he must be holding the women here.” Blackhawk moved the map and pointed to an area flanked by a granite wall of rock. “This is the old riverbed. It goes for miles and if someone is taking women there, they must have access. From what the elders remember from the stories, the caves here were extended by miners.” He indicated to an area that widened from an old riverbed to an open plain. “The gold mines are all around here. Many holes in the ground. It makes sense if some of them stored equipment or used the caves for shelter, they’d be here.”
The thrill of closing in on a killer gripped Jenna. She smiled at Blackhawk. “Thank you so much for tracking the caves down for us.” She squeezed his arm. “Stay, we have fresh coffee and a ton of food.”
“You’re welcome.” Blackhawk grinned at her. “And thanks, I’d appreciate a bite.”
“I’ll go with Jo and scout the area in the chopper.” Carter pushed to his feet and looked at Jenna. “It will give us a better idea of where to start searching. If we see anything, we’ll call you. If not, I’ll drop the bird on the ME’s roof when we get back, in case we need it in a hurry.” He poured his coffee into a to-go cup and scooped up a cherry pie. “Come on, Jo, grab two forks, we’ll eat on the way.”
Jenna nodded. “Thanks.” She turned to Rowley. “Go with Rio and hunt down Tom Parsons, see what he has to say for himself. If he can prove his whereabouts, we’ll drop him from our list because it looks as if he was out of town when we discovered the last victim.”
“I’m on it.” Rowley led the way out the door with Rio on his heels.
“Okay.” Kane stared at the whiteboard. “We should consider cutting down the suspects list while we’re waiting. It will be an hour or so before Carter has done a sweep of the mining areas.”
Before Jenna could open her mouth to reply, Maggie was at the door, her face distraught. “Is anything wrong?”
“Mrs. Jenkins out of Maple dropped by with this purse, said she found it and the phone in the grass alongside the road.” Maggie held out an evidence bag. “They belong to Susie Hartwig. I called Aunt Betty’s and she didn’t show for work this morning. Wendy has searched everywhere. She went by her house and the beauty parlor, but no one has seen her.”
Chills ran down Jenna’s spine as she took the evidence bag. Now this is getting personal. She turned to Kane. “You took Susie through a self-defense course personally. She carries a weapon and knows how to use it. She wouldn’t be easy to take down.” Scared for Susie’s safety, she swallowed hard, trying not to think of what might be happening to her this very minute. “He’s taken her, hasn’t he? This is a message aimed right at me. The others were strangers. Susie is our friend, and he darn well knows it.” She slammed her fist on the table. “I want her found—today!”