Page 60 of Deeper Than the Dead

He shook his head. “Nothing so far. No shoe prints anywhere. Not one thing was left behind. The killer or killers were very careful with cleanup. There aren’t even any indications of drag marks, and we both know those bodies had to be dragged through those damned tunnellike holes. I can only assume he or she or they covered any and all tracks each time.” He shrugged. “Then again, time and visiting animals could have done the same.”

The words echoed in her brain. The accompanying images clicked past, one after the other. She and Eve hadn’t covered their tracks like that ... it hadn’t occurred to them. “Then our killer is smart. Methodical. Neat. Obsessively so.” Vera did an about-face and walked back to the first whiteboard. She surveyed the images and notes there. “Are any of the victims besides Sheree from the area?”

“Don’t know yet.”

Vera felt sick. “What do you make of Sheree being apart from all the others?” She faced him then. Needed to hear his voice and see his face in hopes of assessing the thoughts beneath the words he spoke. Turnabout was fair play, wasn’t it?

Was he thinking the same thing she was? How could he be? He didn’t know the things she knew.

His hesitation put her further on edge. Had her holding her breath again.

“When our killer was in the market for a hiding place,” Bent began, “the cave on your property fit the bill, which tells me he’s a local. He used the secondary cavern so his victims wouldn’t be found by just anyone.”

“But why would he leave Sheree away from the others?” It was the question he would expect her to ask.

Another pause had her nerves jangling.

“Because I don’t think he killed Sheree.”

The impact of the statement blasted against her chest. So he wasn’t convinced this was a serial killer. He was leaning toward the multiple-killers theory.

“Wait.” Vera reached down deep for the mettle she needed. “There are many similarities between the female victims. Even the timeline fits. How did you come to that conclusion?” She wasn’t cutting him any slack. He wouldn’t expect her to.

“Maybe,” he argued, “whoever killed Sheree posed her the way the other victims in the cave had been posed so that whoever found her would believe she was a victim of the same killer. She’s the only one who had a suitcase with her. Sheree’s killer definitely knew her. He knew her well, and he was aware of her marital issues. He used that knowledge to make it look as if she’d run out on her husband and kid.”

Vera remained steady, despite the fact that the damned floor had just shifted under her feet. Not because she was surprised he’d concluded Sheree wasn’t a part of the other killings ... but because he’d nailed several details and the associated motive so damned close. Eve had said Bent was a good sheriff. Clearly she was right.

“Maybe she had her things with her because she was running away,” Vera suggested. “She crossed paths with the killer, and that’s why the MO was a little different.”

What she wouldn’t give for a glass of water. Her throat felt so dry she couldn’t swallow if her life depended upon it.

“I don’t know,” Bent countered. “If someone stumbled upon the cave and the victims that were already there—it was the perfect setup to add Sheree to the lineup. The authorities would tie all the murders together. The same way we’ve talked about.” He gave a dry laugh. “I can just imagine the original killer’s surprise if he returned for a visit and found Sheree there looking like one of his victims.”

He was confident—too confident—in this scenario. That was his only mistake. Once an investigator locked onto a scenario, he put on blinders. Seeing anything else after that was nearly impossible. Did this work in their favor? Vera couldn’t say yet.

“Then you’re convinced that we have two killers,” she tossed out.

“Two killers, for sure. Maybe three, considering how the male vic was disposed of. The TBI still wants to toy with the idea of a serial killer, but like I said, I’m not really buying it.”

Breathe. She moved to the nearest stool and slid onto it rather than risk her knees buckling beneath her. No matter that she’d investigated and analyzed evidence from hundreds of cases ... as he’d said before, this was personal.

She moistened her lips again and asked the question that had to be raised. “What does the TBI think of your theory?”

“I haven’t told them.”

“Why?” She couldn’t wait to hear his answer. Call her a glutton for punishment. Actually, call her desperate.

“I want to find out who killed Sheree before I put that scenario out there.”

“Why?” she repeated, every part of her anticipating his next words—the ones that could change everything ... that could end everything.

“Because I want to be sure I know all there is to know first. Chances are, the others will come up with the same conclusion, but until then, I’m dragging it out for the extra time.”

“All you need to know?” she echoed as she pretended to study the case boards. “What does that mean?” Could he possibly be afraid it was Eve or her who’d done this? Was this his way of giving them an out or a heads-up? It sure sounded that way.

Or a clever way of getting her to confess? A distraction to confuse her or make her overconfident.

Impossible to know just yet.

---