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This one was little more than limp flesh by the time he wiped himself as best he could and pulled his clothes back on. Her eyes fluttered when he closed his hands around her throat, and the fear was stark as she realized what he was about to do. Her fear drove him as he snapped her tender neck.
After checking carefully to make sure no one had managed to pop up unexpectedly, he lifted her body and carried it out the back door. Five hundred yards into the trees was an old well. He’d already opened the padlock on the cover. Shifting it to the side with one foot, he heaved her slight body into the opening and heard it thud as it landed on the remains of those who had gone before her.
Finished, he slid the cover back in place, fastened the padlock, and strolled back to the cabin humming his favorite tune.
Chapter Fifteen
It was seven a.m. when Cole arrived at his office. As soon as he dropped into the chair at his desk, he received a call from Reno Sullivan, Guardian’s senior partner.
“You know Susan Pritchard’s in the hospital, right?” Of course, Reno would already be up to speed. “She’s had a complete breakdown. Leanne was the sun and the moon to her.”
Cole rubbed his face. “Yeah, this has to be hell for them.”
Grace inched her way into the office quietly and deposited a cup of coffee on his desk.
He mouthed, “Thank you.” To Reno, he said, “Nobody’s resting until this is over, but we could use Guardian as advisors on the case. I’m sure I can get the county to pay.”
“This one’s a little too close to home, Cole. We’ll help all we can and cover the cost,” Reno offered. “But what about the Rangers. They work murder cases. Or the FBI?”
“It’s barely been thirty-six hours since we found the body,” Cole pointed out. “And this isn’t the kind of case the FBI will jump in on. At least not yet.”
“Then tell me what you’ve got.”
Cole picked up his cup, blew on the hot brew, and sipped at it, trying his best not to make a face at the taste. “Someone slashed one of her tires while she was in the Supermart. Probably waited for her to come out, so he could offer her a ride. We have to consider the possibility it might be someone from around here. Leanne would never get into a car with a stranger. Her daddy would have tanned her hide, and she knew it.”
“I agree.”
“Her truck was way off to the side. Someone could have grabbed her and knocked her out before she could scream.”
“The town won’t want to think about that as a possibility.”
Neither did Cole, but Dana’s words kept haunting him. As a conscientious lawman, he had to consider every aspect of the situation. He’d found himself staring out the windows of his truck on the way to work, wondering if any of the men he passed could be the one he was looking for and hating himself for thinking it.
“Just to fill you in, I’ve got deputies checking everyone we can pinpoint as being at Supermart around that time. The manager pulled all the slips with charge or debit card numbers, and the names we don’t have, the bank’s getting for us. We’re talking to everyone who was working, hoping they’ll remember if they saw some of their neighbors there or others we can talk to.”
Reno grunted. “What else have you got?”
“No evidence of anything where Leanne’s body was left, which indicates she was killed somewhere else. I’m damned if I can figure out, though, how he got her there without leaving any tracks. Every possible route to the park is being checked and rechecked in case someone might have noticed something.”
“If another young girl turns up like this…”
“That could indicate a serial killer, and we’d be calling the FBI first thing,” he said, not wanting to think about the hell that would bring to High Ridge. “I won’t sit on my hands, waiting to see what develops.”
As soon as he got off the phone with Reno, Cole sifted through the reports his deputies had left for him, checked to see who was out doing what and where, and decided his stomach was too touchy for Grace’s coffee without something in it to soak it up.
“I’m going over to Harry’s for a breakfast roll,” he told the dispatcher, clapping his hat on his head.
Maybe Uncle Tate would be there and he could bounce some ideas off of him again. Tate always had a good head for analyzing things. And he always stopped at Harry’s when he came into the city.
****
She dreamed again about Cole Landry.
“You said I could taste you this time,” she told him.
“I’m counting on it.” His voice was husky, edged with lust. His very masculine face was darkened with need, his whiskey-brown eyes now the color of rich coffee.
She dropped to her knees on the carpet in front of him, one hand cupping the heavy sac of his balls, the other sliding up and down the swollen thickness of his cock. She ran her tongue over the broad, flat head, catching the bead of fluid that sat like a pearl on the slit.
