AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Well, give me a call if you need me.” Jed winked at him. “I still might have an idea or two, no matter how old I am.”
Cole reached out to shake the old man’s hand. “I don’t think you’ll ever be too old, Jed. And I might just take you up on your offer.”
“Say, you know this Moretti woman, Cole?”
Cole forced himself to remain calm. “Yes. I do. Why?”
“She called my house the other day. I hear she’s poking into those cases from long ago.” He shook his head. “Bad business, Cole. Bad. Making a lot of people angry. You need to tell her to quit before she gets hurt.”
Cole clenched his teeth so tightly he was afraid his jaw would crack. “You sending some kind of message, Jed?”
The man looked at him for an endless moment. Then he shook his head. “Just letting you know the climate. Well, I need to get going, then. Have to run a couple of errands before heading home.”
“I’m on my way, too,” Garrett said. “What do you think, Cole? About the article?”
“Good job from what I read so far. I really appreciate it.” He looked at the others. “I asked John to write something that would help keep the town from exploding.”
“If I’d known everyone was here, I’d have brought extra copies,” John apologized. “I have a stop to make, but if you go by the paper, they’ll give you one. Anyone who wants it.”
“I might do that,” Jed said and dipped his head in a farewell gesture. “Later, folks.”
“We have to get going, too,” Tate said. “I have some business to take care of this afternoon, and I need to get Adele home first.”
“Honey, I’d be happy to go with you,” she told him. “No sense doing all that back and forth driving.”
“You’d just be bored, sweetheart.” He patted her hand. “I’ll finish up as soon as I can.”
“Boy, do I know how to clear a room or what?” Cole joked. At that moment, his cell phone vibrated, and he looked at the readout. Grace. He clapped the phone to his ear. “Yes?”
“You’re being paged,” she told him.
“I’m right there.”
****
Dana debated stopping at Cole’s office to let him know the results of her meeting. No, bad idea. He’d be caught up in a million things. Better to call first. Anyway, she knew he’d expect to hear from her.
She hadn’t known whether to laugh or cry when she left the Winslows’ and saw a sheriff’s patrol car gliding down the road and back again. On the way to town, it passed her, but then she spotted another one.
I’m all right, Cole.
She punched in his cell number, listening as the phone rang four times and then kicked over to voice mail.
“I know you’re busy,” she said, “but I learned some things this morning you really need to know. Please call me when you get a chance. I’ll be…at your place. Working.” She made a couple of quick stops before letting herself into his house with the key he’d given her. After changing into shorts and a T-shirt, she fixed a plate with the food she’d just bought at Don’s Deli. Settling herself at the kitchen table, she booted up her laptop and went to work.
She tried to keep from checking her watch every ten minutes, hoping Cole would be able to return her call soon. She really wanted to tell him more about the clowns.
****
Scott, Zak, Nick, and Nita wore identical looks when Cole walked into the conference room. Sick. Angry. Even murderous.
“Zak’s contact at the Bureau, Clark Lorimer, already has us up and running with the files we faxed.” Scott sorted his notes into piles on the conference room table. “I asked—begged—them to get the BAU on a complete profile right away. Like yesterday. This monster’s got to be stopped. Now.”
“Don’t I know it,” Cole muttered.
“I also called the office,” Nick added. “Sent them the same files and asked them to do a search for cases similar to the old ones here.”
“What do you think?” Cole asked Scott, dropping into a chair next to him.
