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Her chest tightened as the events of the night seemed to hit her all at once. Mitch must’ve seen it; maybe he saw the panic in her eyes, or the fact that she’d stopped breathing.
He took her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. “I’ll make sure you’re safe.”
She looked up, searching his eyes. Gone was the earlier suspicion, and despite what had happened tonight, she wanted to trust him to solve this case and to make sure she was safe. The more time she spent with him, the more she realized Mitch was a man of his word.
Yet Zoe trusted no one, relied on no one.
Somehow, though, as he looked into her eyes, she felt a flicker of hope in her ashen heart. He was a good person, she saw that. And he was an honest cop. He did what was right, not what was easy.
The longer she looked at him, the more convinced she became that there was still good in this world.
She just didn’t think it belonged to her.
CHAPTER11
MITCH
For a moment he thought he saw peace creep into her troubled eyes, but it left as fast as it had come.
Why had Camilla come here tonight?
Where had she come from?
What were the chances she’d barreled into Zoe Seacombe’s house?
Those were questions Mitch needed answers to, and he hoped his detectives were speaking to Camilla now, but he doubted that. She needed immediate medical attention and knew it would likely be hours until they could talk to her.
Camilla was severely wounded and couldn’t have run far in that state. Mitch had called in officers from Oradale for backup and they were now swarming the surrounding properties, using search lights and thermal-imaging cameras to detect any areas that were unusually cold—that might contain large refrigeration rooms or cells.
Mitch knew the victims weren’t from Redwater, but it was looking more and more likely that the killer was.
The kettle whistled across the room and his eyes darted in its direction, momentarily forgetting Zoe had turned it on.
She got up, made a cup of tea, and came back to him.
“What next?” she asked, cradling the mug in both hands.
“Regarding Camilla, we’ll wait until she has received medical attention and is ready to talk. For everything else, we keep following leads, looking for the connection. We’ll find it,” he said. What he didn’t add was that he needed more time, but he didn’t know how long he’d have until the killer struck again.
“Do you think, given I look like the victims, I should be seriously worried?” she asked, a slight tremble in her voice.
He swallowed, silently debating whether the truth would do any good in this situation.
“Honestly, I don’t know. Until I know the connection between the girls, I can’t answer that. But I can tell you I’m going to have security here until it’s deemed not necessary,” he said, searching her troubled eyes.
He forced himself to focus—if he spent too much time looking into her eyes he was worried he’d get lost.
“Thank you,” she said, though he wasn’t sure if she meant it or she was upset he’d said she was implicated in the case.
He nodded. “I should get going and check in with the team. The officers here will knock three times and give you a password: peppermint. Only open your door if they give you the password.”
Her eyebrows wove together. “Why peppermint?”
“Because you like the tea,” he said with a small smile, nodding toward her tea. “Good night, Zoe.” He stood and walked toward the door, closing it behind him. When he heard it lock, he walked down the steps in search of the patrol officers.
Jackson turned toward him. “We followed the blood trail as best as we could with flashlights in the dark, but lost it about a hundred yards back that way,” he said, pointing toward the trees. “No sign of anyone else in the woods. They are still out with the sniffer dogs, but nothing yet. I don’t think she was followed, which meant she escaped. Maybe the killer was interrupted by something?”
Mitch nodded slowly, thinking that through, but he wasn’t convinced. Camilla was frightened... like she was expecting the killer to burst through the door at any moment. His gut feeling was that she’d escaped and run like hell toward the only light she could see—the lights in the windows at Zoe’s house. Now his job was to find the person who had been chasing her.
