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Not insisting on going to the damned whore’s place. Or somewhere else—a safe building. But no, he’d dragged her to the swamp instead, had thought he could dispose of her body with the other two, leave his signature marred hundred-dollar bill there, in that old rotting cabin, so that if and when the three dead were found, the cops would know that he was behind it.
Bad idea.
Nearly fatal flaw.
He sucked in his breath as he applied rubbing alcohol to his wounds and felt the sting. The damned burn of the medication. Served him right. He figured it was his kind of penance, as he then applied an antiseptic cream that didn’t burn, actually felt like a balm.
He closed his eyes.
Everything that could go wrong had.
It had been a miracle that he’d escaped, running and thrashing through the swamp to the car and roaring away, nearly hitting a deer that had jumped out of the underbrush.
After all this time.
The years he’d waited.
And in one fell swoop, he’d nearly ruined everything.
He only hoped that she was dead.
And he also hoped those morons in the boat—probably out poaching—found her lifeless and floating.
He wondered if they’d seen him. Could ID him.
Too late to be concerned about it now. He just had to be patient. Wait this out.
It will be all right,he told himself.
It had to be.
CHAPTER 28
“It looks like we caught a break.” Bentz’s voice was clear, as if he’d been up for hours, but Montoya groaned when he saw that the digital display read 5:13. He listened as his partner explained that a woman had been brought into St. Ada’s Hospital with wounds to her neck and body, two men claiming they’d found her being attacked in the swamp, both of them saying the assailant had been a priest. She’d been sedated, but Bentz was already at the hospital waiting to interview her.
“I’ll be there in fifteen,” Montoya said, then clicked off.
“Don’t tell me,” Abby murmured into her pillow.
“Gotta go.”
“Oh, no . . .”
“Yep.” He kissed the back of her head where her curls were all mussed. “That’s what you get for marrying an ace detective.”
“Ace detective? Oh, save me.”
He swatted her rump playfully and rolled off the bed, forcing himself into a fresh pair of jeans and T-shirt, donning boots and a leather jacket before heading outside. The Jane Doe had been admitted to St. Ada’s and he made the drive easily, the city in predawn still just starting to stir.
Bentz met him in the parking lot.
“You see her?”
His partner shook his head. “Ambulance took her directly into the ER. The doc says we can see her once she’s been examined and put into a room. The good news is that her injuries on the surface aren’t life threatening, but either she can’t or won’t remember what happened.”
“How do you know that?”
“Caught up with an EMT who came with her in the ambulance. He spilled.”
