Page 66 of Scorched

“It’s the disk that was in Ms. Johnson’s audio-visual equipment this morning. It had film clips from news reports of the Dakota Strangler on it.”

“Why do you have it?” Paul carried it to the DVD player above the television and fed it into the machine.

Kendall’s cheeks reddened. “When Ms. Johnson passed out in her room, we got scared. We promised we wouldn’t let anyone else see the disk, so we took it.”

“Then the bright one here,” Alex jerked his thumb toward Kendall, “decided we should see if we could come up with some clues as to who put it there.”

“We justknowit had something to do with the writing on the wall in Ms. Johnson’s house, so we spent the day asking around?—”

Alex rolled his eyes. “Ditching class, you mean.”

“I wanted to find out if anyone saw someone coming in or out of Ms. Johnson’s room. I couldn’t go to class, knowing someone wanted to scare her like that. Heck, I was scared, too.”

“And did you?” Melissa asked. “Find anyone who saw something?”

Kendall’s face brightened. “Yeah, we sure did.” She grinned at Alex. “Thanks to Alex, who can speak fluent Spanish.”

Alex shrugged, his cheeks turning a ruddy red. “No problem.”

“There’s a cafeteria worker who doesn’t speak English very well,” Kendall said. “Anyway, she confessed to letting a man in the cafeteria door early this morning and also two days ago.”

Paul grabbed Alex by the arms, past his level ofendurance. Past the need for patience. “Did she give a description of the man?”

“Not much of one. Brown hair, brown eyes, so high.” Alex raised his hand to somewhere between Melissa’s and Paul’s height. “Could be anyone.”

Kendall nudged Alex. “Oh, but when Alex asked her why she let him in when it was against the rules, she got all shaky. We had to promise we wouldn’t tell anyone before she’d tell us why.” Kendall frowned. “I guess we’re gonna have to break that promise.”

Alex picked up where Kendall stopped. “She said the man threatened her. He said he’d fixed her background check and could unfix it if she didn’t help him.”

Kendall looked to Alex. “We weren’t sure what that meant, but anything could be important in a case, right? Even the smallest detail?” She gave Paul a weak smile.

Paul’s glance clashed with Melissa's. “What does Cain drive?”

Melissa frowned. “He bought a black SUV about the same time as I bought my truck.”

His chest tightened. “A witness saw a black SUV leaving the scene of the second murder. It all makes sense now.” Paul’s eyes squeezed shut. “This isn’t about Elise at all. It’s about me. Why didn’t I see it?”

“Who would have thought someone on our own team would be behind this? We’re supposed to be the good guys.” Melissa snorted. “I knew there was a reason I didn’t like that guy.”

Paul pulled his thoughts together. “Have Brian run the GPS tracker on Cain’s cell phone.”

Thank goodness each of their department cell phones was equipped with the ability to track them via the global positioning system. He didn’t know where Elise had gone or how long it would take to find her. But he did know Cain wouldn’t hesitate to kill again. Why hadn’t he heeded the warning signs? Why hadn’t he put a tail on Cain when he first suspected something fishy?

Melissa placed a hand over his forearm, the other holding her cell phone to her ear. “You can’t blame yourself.”

Paul’s back teeth ground together. He sure as hell could. “Tell Brian to hurry.”

When Elise reachedthe bridge spanning the Guadalupe River, she slowed, scanning the bridge for Luke and his captor.

“Where is he, Mom? Where’s Luke?” Brandon’s breath warmed her shoulder.

“Get down!” She hadn’t wanted to leave Brandon alone in case the killer had set up yet another trap to capture her other son. She hadn’t wanted to alert Melissa or the police and give the killer a reason to force his hand and kill Luke. Instead, she’d made Brandon promise to stay low and if anything bad happened, heshould run as fast as he could. She’d given him her cell phone and made him promise not to use it until he absolutely had to.

Brandon ducked down below the seat. “I’m scared.”

“Me, too, baby. Me too.” The rain had slackened but still came down in a heavy drizzle, keeping the highway slick, with water flowing into the ditches.

On the opposite side of the bridge, she found a dirt road that led down to the river twenty feet below. Already, weather reports on the radio had indicated the river had risen well above its normal levels. Usually no more than a meandering stream, the Guadalupe River was known to rise up over the bridge twenty or more feet above the riverbed. Elise, being new to the area, had yet to witness what the locals called the forces of nature in action. She hoped she wasn’t about to capture her first glimpse.

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