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“I’m done here.” Carter gathered his clothes and nodded to Jenna as he headed out the door. “Take your time, I’ll be back soon to help Jo with breakfast.”
“What is it about my cooking that makes everyone want to jump in and take over?” Jenna took a firm grip of the punching bag and looked at Kane.
Kane smiled at her and punched the bag. “Oh, I don’t know. I guess not everyone has my love of burned toast.”
THIRTY-NINE
Jenna went through her exercise routine with Kane, concerned about what had happened between Kane and Carter. “You’re skating real close to the edge with Ty. I figure he already suspects you’re special forces.”
“If he hadn’t informed us about his background, I’d have picked him at the get-go for a Seal, same with you, Jenna. I knew by the way you moved and acted you had special training.” Kane smiled. “Observation is what keeps us alive. Ty is solid or the best liar I’ve ever met. I’m not giving him any information but he can see me for what I am. A deputy in a small town wouldn’t have the same skill set.”
“Just be careful.” Jenna’s mind kept moving to Poppy. The woman had made such a fast exit it troubled her. She wiped the perspiration from her face with a towel and turned to Kane. “I’ll follow up on Poppy today. I want to make sure she’s okay. The first th
ing I’d do is replace my phone. She’s likely got a plan with someone. So she’d get a new phone and SIM from the same company. We have the phone. Maybe Wolfe or Kalo will be able to help.”
“Yeah, and she’ll keep the same number.” Kane shrugged. “Most people do. It’s a pain notifying everyone about a new number. Once the phone is unlocked, we should be able to discover what company she’s with.” He wiped down the weight bench and straightened. “But if she’s gone off the grid to soak her head for a time, she might not return your calls.”
Jenna collected the soiled towels and opened the door. “Well at least I’ll have tried. I’ll pop these in the wash and go take a shower.”
She’d just finished dressing when her phone chimed. It was Wolfe. “Morning, Shane.”
“I’ve moved the autopsy back to the normal time. Emily is here. She doesn’t have classes until this afternoon, so I’ll see you at ten?”
As she headed for the kitchen the smell of bacon and coffee greeted her and her stomach rumbled in appreciation. “Sure. We’ll be there. We had a new deputy for a few hours yesterday. She took off and left her phone behind. I figure she dropped it. It’s password protected. Can you get into it? I need to find her… well not find her, she resigned by email and said she was heading for Colorado but I’d like to check she’s okay.”
“She’ll pick up a new phone and SIM. Give her a day or so and call her number. My girls have lost phones and they never change their numbers.” Wolfe cleared his throat. “Unless you figure she’s been involved in a crime or is in mortal danger, I can’t access her phone. You know as well as I do you’d need a search warrant to do that and you don’t have the grounds to request one—not for a person resigning and losing their phone.”
Jenna shook her head. She didn’t need to be reminded of the law but her concern had outweighed her judgment in this instance. “Of course, you’re right. I’ll give her a few days to cool down and try her number. We’ll see you at ten.”
“I’ll see you then.” Wolfe disconnected.
Taking a plate from Jo as she walked into the kitchen, she smiled at her. “Thank you so much for cooking breakfast. I feel very spoiled, chores done and breakfast cooked.”
“You can clean the table and stack the dishwasher.” Carter looked up from his plate.
Sitting beside Kane she nodded. “That’s fine.”
“Please don’t tell me that was Rowley calling with a 911 emergency for us to deal with this morning?” Kane cut into his pancakes. “If it is, can you ask him and Rio to handle it?”
Shaking her head, Jenna poured syrup over her pancakes. “It was Wolfe. The autopsy is at ten. He moved it so Emily could be there. She doesn’t have classes this morning.”
“So, nobody has died overnight?” Carter gave Jo a meaningful stare. “That’s torn my theory to shreds.” He nibbled at a strip of crispy bacon. “I figured the killer had lost control. The Flora Carson murder was messy… almost unfinished, as if setting up Rio was more difficult than they imagined. I thought maybe, as it didn’t go to plan, they’d strike again as in a thrill kill random attack.”
Jenna stared at him. “Really? They seem to be way too organized to risk a thrill kill.”
“We discussed the case over dinner last night.” Jo sat down and sipped her coffee. “I figured from the MO—as I’m convinced this is the same killer—that they had entered a heightened stage of frenzy. The need to kill is starting to overcome their judgment and they’re getting reckless. At first, I thought this was the work of an organized psychopath… the reason being, the planning of each kill is meticulous. They leave no clues and use a variety of MOs that show a ton of thought, but unless the killer has a long-time plan, it’s unusual for psychopaths of this type to kill so frequently.”
“Everything about this case is unusual.” Kane shook his head. “But these murders are linked and the differences is a deliberate ploy to mislead us. That’s a mistake on their part as we’ve had many serial killers murder in a variety of ways. This isn’t unusual at all. I know the minds of psychopaths are varied. Some kill the same way over and over, messy at first and then refining their art, but I’ve seen others consciously change their MO to outwit investigators. The thing is, most of them are super smart. The few who are completely out of control are usually caught because they make mistakes. So far this killer might as well have a degree in forensics. They know how to leave the scene and the victim without a trace of evidence.”
Jenna pushed her plate away and reached for her coffee. “Yeah, and we have three possible suspects and circumstantial evidence at best. I can’t even drag one of them in for questioning, I don’t have any just reason. They all could be carrying on doing their usual jobs or one of them is a killer. There has to be a clue we’re missing.”
“The one I lean toward is Trey Duffy.” Jo pushed the bacon platter toward Kane. “He has a suitable background that could trigger an episode and openly admits the old women scare him. This could be his excuse for killing them. They all have an excuse. I remember interviewing a killer who’d murdered his mother and her sister because they constantly belittled him. They drove him crazy with their constant chatter, so he beheaded them and then performed unspeakable acts on them… but he never killed again and handed himself in to the cops.” She leaned back in her chair. “His excuse was they drove him crazy. Another, who worked for the mob, told me he killed because he was a contract killer, that it was just a job. When I asked him why he shot three kids in a truck, he told me they disrespected him… They all have an excuse.”
“It is probably him.” Kane pushed the strips of bacon onto his plate. “He could have had access to a military-issue Ka-Bar knife as well.” He chewed slowly. “My problem is, why leave something with a connection to him behind, in an attempt to incriminate Rio? This goes against the organized psychopath theory.”
Jenna sighed, stood, and collected the plates. “Maybe we leave a cruiser across the road from his house for a few days.” She looked at Kane. “We could set up a camera inside and watch him to see if he leaves the premises?”
“Yeah, we can do that without a court order.” Kane smiled. “We’re just watching the road if it’s not trained on his house.”
