Whisper in the Night (Detectives Kane and Alton)

Jenna pushed her hair from her eyes and eased up onto the pillows. She’d happily forgo their usual morning workout together. After working late and with the awful feeling she could be the Shadow Man’s target, she’d spent the night in Kane’s spare room. She’d taken the offer of one of his T-shirts to sleep in and tossed all her clothes into his washing machine before falling into bed exhausted. When she stayed at his cottage, he refused to allow her to lift a finger. She glanced over at the chair to find her clothes neatly folded with military precision. This and coffee, with breakfast on the way – he’d be any woman’s dream come true. “You know, Dave, if you keep this up I won’t want to go home.”

“That’s the general idea.” He sat on the end of the bed and his expression became serious. “There were no calls on the hotline overnight. What’s your plans for today?”

“Rowley will’ve restarted the search at daybreak. I can trust him to organize that side of things.” Jenna reached for the cup and sniffed the rich aroma. “I guess as we don’t have any leads for a possible woman suspect, we’ll have to run down our second list of contacts. Sean Packer and Charles Anderson worked for both families. They’re on the list as persons of interest, and in contact with both girls at one time.” She sipped her coffee, and then looked at Kane over the rim of her cup. “Unless we get a sighting or contact from Amanda’s abductor, we’ve little to go on.”

“With both cases tied to the same list of suspects, we’ve no chance of hunting down who killed Lindy Rosen either.” Kane rubbed his freshly shaved chin. “I hope the bomb squad will contact us today with their findings. I’d like to know what they discovered – as in, what explosive he used. We might be able to trace the person responsible from that.” He frowned. “I’ve been giving it a lot of thought, trying to remember the sequence of events. The delay on the IED between the explosions was longer than usual, which makes me wonder how experienced the Shadow Man is in making bombs.”

Jenna straightened and looked at him with interest. “How so?”

“It’s usual in an IED to use a tripwire or a cellphone to initiate a small explosion and this in turn triggers a second more devastating explosion.” He met her gaze. “There were two massive explosions and from the extent of the damage, it was overkill.”

Jenna shuddered at the memory of the explosion hurling her into the air before crashing to the ground. “What are the options?”

“C4, dynamite, or the easy-to-obtain fertilizer type, aka the Oklahoma Bomber.” Kane shrugged. “All of the above cause a ton load of devastation.” He cleared his throat. “C4 and dynamite could be stolen from a mine. ANFO – it’s an industrial explosive and is likely available locally as well.”

Jenna finished her coffee and placed the cup on the bedside table. “Didn’t Packer work for the mines at one time?”

“Nope, that was Anderson.” Kane pushed to his feet. “Packer was in the army, and we know he has knowledge of explosives, but he denied it, if you remember?”

“Yeah, I recall.” Jenna eased to the edge of the bed. “Both these men could’ve tried to kill us but I’m not sure about their connection to either of the girls. They completed their jobs and left, unlike Kittredge, who acts like a sleaze, and Lancaster, who admits to Rowley he had them ‘hanging around him like butterflies’.” She snorted. “Did you catch the stink coming from him? He sure ain’t no flower.” She dragged her hands through her hair. “They should be our prime suspects but the other two sure need a second look and I’m not discounting Miller either.” She glanced at her watch. “It’s getting late.”

“Okay. I’ll go start breakfast.” Kane looked down at her. “Got everything you need?”

Jenna smiled at him. “Yes, you keep my favorite toiletries in the bathroom. I’ll be good to go in ten.”

* * *

As Jenna placed her plates in the dishwasher, the message signal sounded on her cellphone and she slid it out her pocket. Her stomach cramped at the caller ID. Private number. Oh no, not another video from the Shadow Man. She turned to Kane. “It’s a message from a private number.” She opened the message and found no text, just a video file.

“Let’s hope he wants to deal this time.” Kane moved to her side and peered at the screen. “Open it.”

With trembling fingers, Jenna opened the file and stared in horror at the image of Amanda captured by an infrared camera. She was frantically trying to escape from a room and screaming in terror. From the way she clawed at the walls, tripped and fell countless times, it was obvious the girl was in complete darkness. Her tear-stained cheeks and frantic pleas churned Jenna’s stomach. Then came the disjointed whispers from a voice so evil, her hand shook so hard Kane had to take the cellphone from her. She wanted to cover her ears and look away but bit down hard on her lip and listened in horror as the Shadow Man taunted Amanda. He told her the chilling history of the house to terrify her and by the time he’d finished, Amanda was hugging her knees in the corner and rocking back and forth.

When the clip ended, she stared at the screen, her mind in denial and heart racing. Slowly, she lifted her gaze to see Kane’s face, which was ashen. “She’s already dead, isn’t she?”

Kane didn’t reply but walked away, then replayed the attachment over and over again. She went to him and touched his arm. “What is it?”

“I remember Rowley telling me the same story.” He looked at her. His face had turned to expressionless stone. “So do you. I know where she is. It’s the Old Mitcham Ranch.”

“Then let’s go.” Jenna headed for the family room and grabbed her vest and jacket from a peg by the door.

“Wait! The clues are way too obvious.” Kane followed her. “I figure he’s luring us into a trap.”

“We don’t have any choice, Dave. There’s a chance Amanda might be alive.” Jenna grabbed her cellphone from his hand. “I’ll call it in, you drive.”

“I’ll leave Duke.” Kane pulled extra ammo clips from a locked drawer in a cabinet and slid them toward her. “He’s safer here.”

Jenna called Maggie, then contacted Wolfe and brought him up to date. She pulled on her Kevlar vest and shrugged into her coat. As they ran for Kane’s truck, she turned to him. “Wolfe is on the way with Webber and they’ll be loaded for bear.”

“Wolfe is hands-on with explosives as well. He’ll watch our backs.” Kane backed out the garage and accelerated toward the gate.

The large metal gates they’d installed for extra security after the melt slid open as they approached. The beast’s back tires dug into the road as Kane turned left and, engine roaring like a mad bull, headed to the Old Mitcham Ranch.

Jenna dug her fingers into the leather seat as the green landscape flashed by in a blur. The SUV accelerated to frightening speeds, bumping over or swerving to miss the potholes on the uneven road, pitted by last winter’s snowfall, but Kane drove the vehicle with confidence. It was as if the beast was an extension of himself. He reacted to obstacles in his path with the kind of instinct and split-second timing she could only dream about having. “Where do you figure he has her?”

“It looked like one of the rooms in the house to me.” Kane negotiated a hairpin bend then slammed his foot back on the gas, throwing Jenna back in her seat. “I sure as hell don’t want to go back into the root cellar – the image of the last time is tattooed on my brain.”

The memory of the butchered young woman they’d found in that same cellar some time ago crashed into her head like a bad dream. She’d never forgotten the expression in the young woman’s eyes, even after being prepared for the horror waiting inside. It had been her first experience of the Old Mitcham Ranch’s curse. Earlier, Kane had ventured down the steps alone, deep into the pitch-black cellar, to discover a horrific scene. The impact of finding a mutilated murder victim who resembled his sister must have been hard on him. He’d said nothing at the time but the expression on his face now spoke volumes. Jenna squeezed his arm. “Me either, but we might not have a choice.”