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That was plausible. “Not a person?”
“No,” Colton spat. “I wanted to, trust me. But I didn’t.”
“Who did you want to hit?”
“Guy at work. Just an asshole. Tried to get me riled up so I’d hit him. He wants my job.”
Sam didn’t know if that was true or not, but if Colton had hit a wall, he was at least trying to manage his anger in his own way. An unsuccessful way, to be sure, but he had redirected his rage.
“That had to have hurt,” Sam said gently. “I’d like to help you find other ways to deal with your anger that don’t hurt you.”
Colton looked down at his damaged hand and sighed. “Maybe.”
That was the most positive response Sam had gotten in the four weeks he’d been seeing Colton Driscoll. “Then let’s talk about that.”
The rest of the session passed with no other issues.
“I’ll see you next week,” Sam said as he walked Colton to the door.
“Yeah, yeah,” Colton muttered.
When he was gone, Sam closed his office door and went to his computer. Normally, he’d type up his personal notes from the session, but not now.
Pulling up a browser window, he typed “women lacrosse San Diego purple uniforms.”
He crossed his fingers, hoping for a purple-uniform-wearing adult intramural league or a college league. Don’t let her be a teenager. Please. He’d have a duty to warn regardless of the victim’s age, but if she was a minor, it made his involvement even more urgent.
He exhaled heavily at the search results. There were only two teams with purple uniforms, both at the high school level.
Sam clicked on both links and studied the photos of the girls’ teams. One team’s uniforms were dark purple, the other a lighter shade. Lilac.
The Tomlinson Wolverines lacrosse team lined up in the photo arm in arm, smiles on their faces. Several of the girls wore their long hair up in ponytails. About half of them were blond, but only two of them were petite—Destiny Rogers and Alyssa Newman.
If the depression in the ground at Longview Park that Sam had seen truly had been a grave, Colton liked his pretty young things small.
Sam stared at their faces, hoping that he wasn’t too late, hoping that Colton hadn’t hurt his most recent conquest. I have to report this.
But he’d thrown the burner phone away. Which seemed silly now but had seemed like the right thing to do four days ago. He could buy another, but that would take time and he was feeling each tick of the clock.
Tearing his gaze away from the Tomlinson High School team photo, he brought up another browser screen and typed “pay phones near me.” They had to still exist somewhere, didn’t they? Luckily they did, and there was one only five miles away. He had time to make the call before meeting his parents for dinner.
CHAPTER THREE
SDPD, San Diego, California
Friday, April 8, 4:30 p.m.
Kit went straight to her desk and opened the drawer, cursing quietly when she found it empty. She’d forgotten to refill her stash.
Bracing her hands on the desk, she hung her head and closed her eyes. Then flinched when something landed in front of her.
Opening her eyes, she found a king-sized Snickers bar. Raising her gaze, she saw her boss leaning against the corner of her desk, his expression sympathetic.
“Rough one?” Navarro asked.
She nodded, ripping the wrapper from the candy bar and taking a generous bite. Lowering herself into her chair, she let the chocolate, caramel, and peanuts work their magic on her frazzled nerves.
“Jaelyn Watts’s parents got home from their vacation this afternoon,” she finally said after chewing and swallowing.
