Fallen Angel (Detectives Kane and Alton)

Kane smiled. “Thanks. I’ll look forward to hearing from you. Bye for now.” He disconnected.

The door opened and Jenna walked in with Emily. He’d do his job as if nothing had happened between them and hope like hell everything would go back to normal.

“We found Kitty Pandora’s ring.” Emily waved an evidence bag.

“It was just under the foot of Julie’s bed, dropped and kicked under.” Jenna smiled. “Now we know for sure, whoever killed Kitty was in Julie’s room.”

The hairs on the back of Kane’s neck stood up. This was bad news, but from the smiling faces before him, neither of them had considered the ramifications. “I called Jo before and ran through a few ideas. I wanted her take on how the trophies from a historical case ended up here.” He gave them the details of the call to Jo. “So, if we consider ten-year-old Paul Tate witnessed the kills and took the earrings from a mother who’d allowed him to be abused, it would be enough to turn a susceptible kid into a killer. Now we have Julie, who has triggered the memory of his mother.”

“The kid wasn’t there. Paul Tate discovered his mother’s body after school the following day.” Jenna dropped into a chair. “And why Julie and not Emily? They are almost identical, apart from age.”

Kane pulled up the image of Diane Tate and looked at the cigarette held between fingers with long red nails. “The blonde hair maybe but look at the fingernails. The combination of hair and red fingernails might have been enough to trigger him or at least make him desire to get closer. His full recollection of his mother would be diminished by time.”

“And Julie does have a habit of holding a pen like a cigarette and twirling it in her fingers.” Jenna nodded in agreement. “It could be enough, but it doesn’t account for how the kid got the earrings.”

“He could’ve taken the earrings from the body when he found her.” Emily scanned her files. “It says he told the cops he checked to see if she was alive, so if he had blood on him, they would have discounted it.” She looked slowly up at Kane. “Just how much danger is my sister in right now? Maybe we should call Dad to come get her?”

“If she remains in a crowd and we make sure she’s never alone, it’s safer than trying to negotiate the mountain road.” Jenna glanced out the window. “The snow has been relentless and there’s another blizzard due to arrive later today. When that blows through, the weather forecast said we’d have freezing temperatures and blue skies for a week or so.” She sighed. “As soon as they clear and salt the mountain road, she is out of here. You should leave as well, just in case.”

“Then you’d have no forensics team here.” Emily gave her a determined stare. “I’m staying. You need me.”

Kane’s phone buzzed. It was Rio using the landline. “You’ve been gone over two hours. Couldn’t you find our suspects?”

“Not yet. They’re all in different places and move around. It’s organized chaos down here, but I figure I’ve located August Bradford, and Bexley Grayson. The girl on the desk said she saw two people heading for the elevator fitting their descriptions not long ago, so I’m guessing they went back to their rooms. Finnian and Rain are in different conference rooms as far as I know. The person on the door doesn’t know everyone by sight and people are coming and going all the time to change rooms, use the bathroom, or go outside to smoke.” He sighed. “Do you want me to wait until the current session is finished to grab Finnian and Rain or head up to the rooms, for Grayson and Bradford?”

Alarm bells went off in Kane’s head. “What do you mean by them “going outside to smoke”? Is there a separate balcony area or what?”

“Nope, the manager disabled the alarm on one of the fire doors on

the ground floor so they could step outside. There’s no smoking inside the lodge.”

Kane shook his head in disbelief. “You’re saying, we have an unmonitored exit for our killer to move around as he pleases?”

“Seems so.” Rio cleared his throat. “If I go and tell him to reinstate the alarm, and to inform the guests they must go out the front door to smoke, can you clear it with the boss?”

Annoyed the manager made a significant security change without informing them, Kane sucked in a breath. “Yeah, do it now. He can announce it over the speaker system. Then go and collect Grayson or Bradford. They’ll break for lunch soon, and we’ll grab the others before the next session. Have you seen Julie?”

“Yeah, I escorted her to one of the halls. She’ll be tied up there until lunch.”

“Great. Thanks.” He replaced the receiver and brought Jenna up to date.

“So, the killer hasn’t been using the staff door as we thought. He’s just been walking in and out of an unmonitored door. You’d have thought Mr. Brightway would’ve mentioned it—the idiot.” Jenna rolled her eyes. “Going back to Julie being a possible trigger, I figure we have Emily here during the interviews, in sight at least.” She collected documents scattered around the desk and sorted them into neat piles. She looked at Emily. “Sit just out of the direct line of their sight and we’ll see if you attract any interest.”

“You want to use me as bait?” Emily smiled. “Cool.” She looked at Kane. “Do I get my own stun gun now?”

“Here.” Jenna pulled one out of her jacket pocket. “Take mine. Do you know how to use it?”

“Oh yeah.” Emily turned the weapon over on her palms. “I was there when Dave made sure we both knew how to use it, but I hope whoever is killing people doesn’t come close enough for me to zap them. What setting is this on?” She peered at the controls. “High looks good to me.”

“Be careful. High can kill.” Jenna frowned.

“It’s kill or be killed if he comes for me.” Emily gave her a long unblinking stare. “My dad says if someone attacks me, to show no mercy, for as sure as the sun rises in the morning, they won’t be giving me any.”

The door opened and Rio walked in with Bexley Grayson. Jenna stood and looked at Kane.

“I’ll speak to Mr. Grayson.” She waved Grayson toward a desk across the room.

Kane stood and followed her. He had some questions of his own he wanted to ask and sat down. He placed his notebook on the table and pulled out his pen and turned his attention to Jenna. “I’ll take notes.”