Out Of Control (35 page)

“Christ,
a singing predator. Well, it wouldn’t be the first time. And I’ve certainly
heard stranger things.” He frowned. “I wonder what kind of unusual smell she’s
talking about. If it was something common I’d think she’d have been able to
identify it.”

“I
don’t know. Not grease-paint. I asked. She thought maybe some kind of cologne.”

Scott
pulled out his cell. “Let me call my office back again and ask them to run a
program on predators who sing. Sing, for Christ’s sake!”

“You
can do that?”

He
gave a half smile. “We like to think we can do anything.” When he finished the
call, he said, “I think we’ve found the answer to what our perp has been doing
all this time. It’s a stretch, but it’s a good possibility.”

Cole
lifted an eyebrow. “More cases like the old one?”

“Maybe.”
Scott rubbed his hand over his face, now bristly with end of day growth. “We’ve
been trying to track down a human trafficking ring we got a tip on. They pick
up girls in Mexico, ages ten to fifteen, and bring them over the border to the
buyers. Then they’re resold all over the world. Nobody’s going to notice if a
bunch of illegal immigrants disappear.”

Cole’s
stomach pitched and rolled. Too much about this case was making him sick. In
the military, he sometimes had to do extreme things to survive and to protect his
country. Things that turned his stomach. But this? This was just pure evil.

“You
think our unsub is involved in this?”

“Seems
like a logical market for him,” Scott pointed out. “He’d have the pick out of
each group for his own warped amusement. Not quite as tasty as the little ones
but close enough.”

“Jesus,
Mary, and Joseph. This animal needs to be taken out and shot.”

“If
the law would let us, I’d pull the trigger.”

“The
law.” Cole snorted. “At times, it’s hard to uphold something that protects
animals like this.”

“My
SAC says we’re still trying to pinpoint a specific location for the exchange of
‘merchandise.’ We get a lead on one place and they move to another. Or they
change the days or the time. This organization is like an snake, slithering
away just when we reach out to grab hold of it.”

Cole
turned as he heard his name called and saw Gaylen coming toward him, his face grimmer
than ever. Whatever he had to say, Cole knew it wouldn’t be good news.

Chapter
Thirty-Two

“This
will kill Grace.” Gaylen shook his head. “I can hardly get over this one
myself. Gaby lives in the house she grew up in, right there at the end of River
Street.” He pointed. “You can see it’s the last one on the block. There’s
nothing past it except these fields and trees.”

“Perfect
for our killer.”

“Whoever
this bastard is,” Gaylen went on, “he somehow managed to drop her way out in
those fields—in that copse of trees just like the other two—and sneak away
without being seen. But here’s the worst part. He called Stacy pretending to be
Gaby and whispered, ‘I’m home. Help me.’ Then he hung up.”

“Bastard.”
Cole spat the word out.

“Unfortunately,
Stacy didn’t take time to call us, just hauled ass with her husband over there.
When no one answered the door, she opened it with a key she has. But the house
was empty so they started look around outside. Her husband’s the one who found
the body.”

“Shit.”
Cole was running out of appropriate words.

“Andi
and Mickey have got the scene roped off, as you can see, and Nita’s working
with the body. Just waiting for the feds to get here.”

Scott
pulled out his cell. “Let me check how close my people are.”

“Here.”
Cole scribbled directions on a piece of paper and handed it to the agent. “Tell
them this is the easiest route to take.”

“He
held her somewhere else before killing her,” Gaylen went on. “Probably some
isolated building. We just need to find out where. I’ve got one of the deputies
back at the office pulling up property lists and any other list they can find
that would give us some kind of hint.”

“Maybe
I should ask for the chopper,” Scott put in. “It’s dark now, but if you can
give me any locations to start with, I can get the bird up at first light. If this
guy’s got a hidey hole somewhere, who knows what else we’ll find there.
Especially if it ties in with the other thing I told you about.”

“Do
it,” Cole said.

As
he moved slowly toward where the body lay, he heard Scott giving information to
someone and putting in his request.

Chapter
Thirty-Three

He
managed to get home and into the house without any questions. He was careful
about the excuses he used, and always meticulous about cleaning himself up
before he left his cabin.

Tonight
had been the trickiest, but luckily it was dark out and no one was looking out
their windows. He laughed thinking of the irony of tonight’s delivery. For
years, folks had complained about how dark it was on that street. Hell, he’d
been one of the people to lobby the city council to put in a light at the end
of the block. Now he was glad they’d dragged their heels.

His
own house was quiet, the only light coming from the bedroom. He’d make himself
known, report on his nonexistent meeting, then help himself to a beer. Lord
knew he needed one.

But
as he made his way back to the kitchen and took a bottle from the fridge, a new
rush of excitement coursed through him. Tomorrow would be his finest hour.
Tomorrow his prize would be Dana Moretti. Little Carrie Nolan herself.

And
once he had her, there would be no rushing. He intended to take a great deal of
time with his little flower. No quick session in the truck with her. Like
Leanne and Shannon. Oh, no. He’d bring her to the cabin where he could take his
time with her. He was going to enjoy himself and he’d make certain she did,
too.

Twenty-five
years ago, she hadn’t cried out like the others. She’d been quiet, defiant,
beautiful. Tomorrow, he would make her cry out in all kinds of ways. He was
damn hard thinking about how she’d scream and yell. Maybe, if she was really
good, he’d take the tape off her mouth and let her beg.

The
idea of his little Carrie begging him to stop hurting her almost made him come
and he had to grab hold of the counter to hold himself together.

Oh,
he wanted her. Wanted her like he’d never wanted her when she was just a little
bloom. Now, she was a full blossom, a flower that had matured just for his
pleasure. He could hardly wait to see her again face to face. To watch her eyes
grow wide with knowledge and fear when his hands wrapped around her throat and
his thumbs squeezed the life from her. At last, he would finish the job he’d
left undone twenty-five years ago.

Chapter
Thirty-Four

The
scene near Gaby’s house was organized chaos. The FBI agents had finally arrived
and two men in dark blue FBI issued coveralls immediately went about their job
with neat efficiency. Additional lights illuminated every area of the scene. In
the center of it all was Gaby’s broken body. Blood-stained and bruised, it bore
the signs of unbelievable sexual torture. Like the others, she’d been arranged
with her head at an angle to show her broken neck.

Cole
walked off into the shadows, pulled out his phone, and made the call he’d been
putting off.

“We
found Gaby,” he told Dana when she answered, not knowing any way to soften the
news. He heard the hiss of an indrawn breath.

“Please
tell me she was still alive.”

“I
wish I could, darlin’. I wish I could.”

“Oh,
Cole.” He could hear the tears in her voice. “I am so very, very sorry. How is
her family taking it?”

“She
doesn’t have much family,” he told her. “Her parents are both dead. They were
killed in an auto accident a few years ago. No sisters or brothers. All she has
is Grace and her uncle. And her friend Stacy, who found her.”

“Oh,
my God.” Dana’s voice trembled. “How did that happen?”

Cole
explained about the phone call, telling her how the perp had lured Stacy over
to the house. “Nita called an ambulance for her, and she’s in the hospital,
heavily sedated, under the watchful eye of her distraught husband and Barry
Engler, Nita’s clinic partner.”

“That
poor woman. Both of them.” She paused. “Are you still there? At the scene?”

“Yes.
I wanted to let you know what happened and tell you again to be sure every door
and window in the house is locked. Do not go out unless it’s with me or one of
my deputies. Or someone I call you about.”

“I
can promise you that. Believe me.”

“I’ll
cut someone loose as soon as I can. I promise.”

“I’m
fine. Really. They all have more important things to do right now, and I don’t
plan to go anywhere.”

He
wished he could be there with her, comforting her. Taking comfort
from
her. But he knew he’d be tied up here and then back at the station for hours.
The FBI was present now in full force and everyone would have to be brought up
to speed.

“I
have no idea what time I’ll be through here. I was planning to head home when
we’re done but that could be really late.”

“Cole,
I can assure you I don’t think I’ll be doing much sleeping tonight.” A pause. “I’ll
be waiting for you.”

A
warm feeling coursed through him. “Then I’ll see you whenever.”

“Cole?”

“Yes,
darlin’?”

“Be
careful.”

“Always.”
He clicked off.

Eventually
he left Scott and Gaylen supervising the scene and went back to the station. He
was weary in every bone in his body and the night was far from over. One of the
rookies was manning dispatch and coordinating everyone out on the road. He
sought out another young deputy, the one who was searching records for isolated
buildings in the county.

“Find
anything?” he asked.

“It’s
kind of hard to tell, Sheriff,” she explained. “I have to pull up the property
listings, then the topographical maps and try to match properties with aerial
locations.”

“Get
as much as you can,” he told her. “The FBI will have a chopper here first thing
in the morning to start a search by air. I’d like to have a list going by then.”

“I’m
working on it. The problem is, the county’s just full of ranches, big ones that
have all these line shacks and cabins that haven’t been used in years. Mostly
people have forgotten about them.”

“That’s
just the kind of place our guy would look to use.” He sighed. “I know it’s a
tedious job. Let me know when you need a break.”

“Yes,
sir, but I’m fine.” She turned back to the computer.

He
sat down behind his desk, put his feet up, tilted back his head and tried to
sort out everything they knew. He ran down a quick mental list of the ranchers
whose property held the most out-buildings and line-shacks. It was actually fairly
small.

The
first three people were, to his mind, the unlikeliest of the lot—Tate, Jed
Nickels and John Garrett. John was more into the newspaper than the ranch these
days, leaving it to his two sons. Besides, he’d been in town near or with Cole
or Dana when at least one of the murders was taking place. That had his mind
circling back to Jed and, much as he hated it, his Uncle Tate. Both men used
ranch managers now to do most of the work, especially now that both of them
were pushing seventy.

He
cringed as the words of the profiler came back to mind, ‘sixty to seventy years
of age.’ But Jed and Tate were the last men in the community who would ever get
involved in something like this. They were pillars of the community. Visible
and popular with everyone. He couldn’t see either of them committing these
heinous crimes. Or, for that matter, being involved in a sex slave business.

Reaching
in his drawer, he pulled out the current list of members of the chamber of
commerce in High Ridge. Even people who didn’t live in town belonged to it. It
was the ruling social organization of the entire county.

Flipping
it open, he began slowly going through the list, using a pen to tick off names
he’d go back to later. He was still engrossed in the list when there was a tap
at his door and Scott came in, closing the door behind him. He dropped into a
chair across from Cole, looking weary enough himself.

“I’d
give a year’s pay for five minutes alone with this bastard when we catch him,”
he spat. “This goes beyond sickness. This guy is insane.”

“Is
Nita finished with the body?”

“Only
the first pass. My guys and I followed her to Drowdy’s so I could hear what she
had to say. The forensics men are still at the scene and the other two are
waiting with Nita until she’s finished.” He raked his fingers through his hair.
“Cole, this time it’s the worst. I’ve never seen anything like it, and I’ve
seen a lot. “