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Tense and tight-lipped, Kay shifted into gear and peeled off as if a raging bull were chasing them, thirsty for blood. “Someone started a fire that burned through Jenna’s life. I believe the primordial motive lies with that original perp.”
“What, a school bully? That’s who you think raped and killed Jenna?”
“This was no ordinary cyberbullying,” she replied, seeming a little more relaxed with every mile she drove. Her breakneck speed had slowed to slightly above legal limits. “We’re talking about someone who had the motive and knowledge to work a smear campaign that started slowly, inconspicuously, and ended with that website, the final blow.”
“Where are we going?” Elliot asked, wishing he’d had time for a bite to eat before leaving.
The SUV sped by Katse, but he didn’t ask her to stop for the usual order of coffee and croissants to go. The place was still closed. It wasn’t six yet.
“Office. I asked Farrell to pull all the phone records for this bunch. Somewhere, in the timing of innuendo and shreds of gossip, we’ll find the perpetrator of the smear campaign.”
“This could take weeks! Kendra—”
“Doesn’t have much time, I know,” she cut him off, her voice brimming with frustration.
“When did you request the phone records?”
She muttered an oath. “Today, at three in the morning, by email.”
“Hate to break the news to you, but you’re not in Kansas anymore.”
“Huh?”
“We’re not the FBI. We’re a small county sheriff’s office. Those records will take a week. More, if we need subpoenas that aren’t filed yet.”
She pulled over and stopped on the side of the road slamming her foot down on the brake pedal, tires throwing pebbles and dust in the air. “We ain’t got a week!”
“Kay,” he said her name calmly, searching her eyes, “look at me.”
Keeping her hands on the wheel, white-knuckled as they’d been since they left his house, she turned her head toward him, staring down, hiding angry tears. “She doesn’t have much time, Elliot. This kind of unsub, he’s… exploring. Trying new things, to find out who he is. Any of those new things could kill Kendra. All of them are making her life a living hell she’ll never forget for the rest of her life. And we’re stuck here, on the side of the road, with nowhere to go?” She turned her tearful eyes away and let go of the steering wheel to clasp her hands together in her lap.
“Kay, you know this. You know it better than anyone else. Use what you have and let’s find this son of a bitch. Work this like you did for all the scum you caught before.” He paused, but she didn’t reply. “I haven’t heard of a single scumbag who got on your radar and walked away a free man.”
She breathed deeply a couple of times. “It all goes back to Jenna, to how the unsub chose her, and I believe it was because of the website. We still don’t know who paid for that. We used K-9 to track Jenna up the mountain, we found the primary murder scene, and still, we don’t know much. The only thing we didn’t consider is why Wildfire Ridge out of all places.”
He grinned, seeing how she’d started to work her magic. Soon she’d have that perp by the throat, reeling him in like a twenty-pound bass on a Sunday morning fishing competition, nice and slow.
“He must be comfortable on that mountain. Perps like him usually go where they’re feeling safe, be it a garage or a basement, a hunting lodge—” She stopped talking, her eyes fixed on the still dark Mount Chester slopes, the rising sun hiding behind its peak. “She’s on that mountain somewhere,” she said excitedly, turning to look at him. “Kendra must be up there. Let’s get K-9 units—”
“It’s a big mountain, Kay,” he replied. “It would take weeks to search it, even with dogs.”
Her hands found the steering wheel again and squeezed. “You’re right. We know he’s younger, twenty-something, maybe twenty-five. He’s fit; he chose to climb a long hike. Yet he roofied Jenna… why?” She shook her head. “It makes no sense. He was someone she knew… maybe another online predator she met, like she did Gavin Sharp?”
“We found Gavin based on her text messages,” Elliot replied. “There was no evidence of another man in any of her messages, emails, or social media. None in her phone records either. She barely talked with anyone.”
“I’ve been digging into Gavin Sharp’s background,” she said, changing the subject abruptly like only women did. “I found the cop who locked him up last time. His shift isn’t starting until eight. There are things detectives don’t bother to put in reports, the little things only they know about their collars. He might still remember something useful.”
Elliot frowned, resisting the urge to lift his hat and scratch the roots of his hair. “Didn’t DNA clear that creep?”
She closed her fists and slammed them against the wheel. Gently, he reached out and touched her hand. “Kay, you’ll find—”
She pulled away as if his touch burned her skin. “You should save this for Miranda,” she snapped. Then she started the engine and drove off, most likely to hide a flurry of emotions he could read on her face.
Kay Sharp was jealous.
Of Miranda.
Well, throw your hat over the windmill, cowboy.He looked away to hide a smile. Then that smile withered when he remembered Laurie Ann Sealy and the reason he’d left Texas. His commitment to never get involved with a coworker again.
