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“We’ll head straight to the scene when we do,” Valerie nodded. “We’ve got to make a breakthrough as quickly as we can.
“Agreed,” said Will. “I just hope we can make a big enough difference to save Jackson’s jobs … and our own.”
Valerie pointed at the photograph in Will’s hand as the plane began to descend through the thunderous clouds. “Whoever did this is already several steps ahead of us. We need to get the son of a bitch before he kills again.”
The plane juddered again as it moved down towards the airport, lashed by the rain and the elements. He didn’t believe in omens, but Will couldn’t help but feel that there was nothing but lost highways and blind turns down there in Kansas. A place where a smart killer could run them ragged in the most murderous of ways.
CHAPTER FIVE
Valerie thought the rental car smelled of disinfectant as she drove behind Charlie and Will up ahead. She wondered why the smell was so strong but decided that she didn't want to know or even think of the details.
All around her, the world had become a picture of yellowed cornfields and dark, brooding skies above.
She'd never visited Kansas before, but the farmsteads of Kerry County were something to behold in the winter. The world felt decayed with the long since withered summer crops.
Valerie suspected that, during the summer, there was vibrancy and greenery all around, but there was little sign of that now. Trees with bare and crooked branches punctuated the deep browns and yellows of the world undone by the cold.
Charlie was driving faster than usual up ahead, though not recklessly so.
They were headed to Marlane Farm, where the third victim had been discovered. A local County Sheriff was to meet them there as a go-between.
Will had said he'd drawn the short straw having to sit in the car with Charlie, but that made Valerie smile. The two of them were as thick as thieves, and she knew they enjoyed making fun of each other.
Besides, sitting in the rental car by herself, looking at the bleak yet agonizingly beautiful fields around her, Valerie was glad to get an opportunity to think things over.
Above all, Tom was on her mind.
There was a pain inside of her, a growing one that wouldn't relent. When she was younger, she'd always wondered if she'd ever get engaged. Valerie had watched countless romantic films and read several sentimental novels, all which shaped her expectations. But the reality was very different.
She loved Tom. But hiding her mental health issues from him had taken its toll, so much so that he had become distant. She didn't blame him. It was tough being engaged to an FBI profiler. Never knowing when she would be called away.
But Valerie had begun to suspect that Tom knew there was more. She was worried that his recent ultimatums had come from that knowledge.
Does he know I'll end up like my mom and sis?she thought.
A darker idea came after that. One that made Valerie momentarily consider that Tom was unconsciously trying to break them apart now because he knew how hard it would be to take care of her when she became sick.
“No,” she said to herself immediately. “He's better than that.”
Up ahead, Charlie indicated and took a right turn.
The sign for the farm was partly obscured by an overgrown bush. The rust on it made Valerie think of all the forgotten places she'd been to in the past. Sometimes a place could be so empty that it echoed with her thoughts and with her fears.
Taking the turn, she moved onto the single-track road and headed towards the farmstead. Stalks of dead corn, too many to number, flanked the car as she moved along the bumpy road.
Valerie had a memory from a previous case of chasing a suspect through such a place in the dark. She just hoped there were no similar struggles to come on this case, but she couldn't be sure of that.
The fields soon gave way to a farmstead up ahead.
Parking in front of a large farmhouse, Valerie stepped out to see Charlie and Will waiting for her.
"It's a shame there was a murder here," Charlie said, pointing to house. “This place might be run down, but it could be beautiful.”
The door to the house opened and then the screen door followed. Stepping out into the cold air and then walking towards Valerie was a broad-shouldered man in a Kerry County Sheriff’s uniform.
He looked rugged to Valerie, with strong features that suggested a tenacity. Whether that tenacity would be a help or a hindrance remained to be seen.
Charlie nodded towards a hill where a large barn cordoned off with police tape sat. "I always fancied buying somewhere like this if I could afford it. Minus the police tape."
