Page 6 of Now or Never
“They?” Jax looked over at her.
She shrugged one shoulder. “Figuratively speaking. One person—the killer. It could have been more than one, though. Or someone else helped him cover it up.”
“Assuming it was even a male who committed the crime,” Maizie pointed out. “Though from the angle of the stab wound that killed her and the depth, it was definitely a bigger and stronger person, most likely a male.”
“A male with military training,” Kenna added. She could see Samantha being strangled if it was the heat of the moment. Or beaten, or a messy stabbing. But that wasn’t what had happened. There was far too much about this that seemed cold and calculated in a way that crimes of passion never were. “Possibly more than one person.”
“I’ll start looking into the people I have on this list, alive and dead,” Maizie said. “Zeyla has a contact at the Department of Defense, apparently. She said she can dig up their actual personnel files and find out if any of them had a violent streak they couldn’t control in a way it was being put to good use as part of their normal duties.”
That sounded like the result of a conversation between Maizie, Ramon, and Zeyla about violence and military personnel. Kenna was of the opinion that anyone could commit violence if they were pushed to the edge and felt they had no other choice. Some people were more comfortable with it, for whatever nature-or-nurture reason life handed them, or could be trained to the point they were.
All Kenna cared about was what kind their killer was. And, if he was alive, where to find him so they could turn him and the evidence over to the police.
“Sounds good,” Jax said. “Anything else?”
“I was looking into those other missing persons Kenna sent me, trying to find a connection between any of them and Samantha Ambrose.”
This sounded interesting. “Anything?”
“Not without the military angle,” Maizie said. “Other than that, there’s no connection between her and Samantha.” She went quiet for a second. “Her name is Megan Tiller. Seventeen, so two years older than our victim. She had a boyfriend six years older who was in the army. Around the time of Samantha’s death, Megan went missing as well. Her mom is the only parent in the picture, and she doesn’t seem to care much. There’s nothing on her socials about her daughter being missing all these years. The police report is closed, and it’s noted that she dropped out of school a few weeks before and told her mom she was going to California with the boyfriend.”
Kenna straightened in her seat. “The boyfriend? That’s the military connection between this Megan and Samantha?”
Before Maizie could answer, Jax said, “Sounds like it’s only a thread of a connection between the manner of Samantha’s death and the boyfriend. The fact that another young woman went missing shortly after she did...”
“Could be an overlap.” Kenna had seen it in another case, a serial killer who disposed of one victim and all too soon claimed another, sometimes before the previous victim was even killed. “Samantha was dead, so he took Megan.”
But if the boyfriend was responsible, why would he do that? It could be that Megan found out what happened to the other young woman. Or they might not be connected at all.
“Megan has never shown up,” Maizie said. “Not so far as we can figure. Although, it is possible she’s a Jane Doe who was never identified.”
“What about the boyfriend? Is he on the list you came up with?”
“Yes,” Maizie said. “But he’s dead. There’s no one to question. Mitch Caudelle was deployed to Afghanistan a month after Samantha’s death and died a few weeks before he was supposed to come home.”
“Keep digging. This is the best lead we’ve had so far.”
“Got it.”
Jax reached for the dash screen. “Catch you later, kiddo.” He ended the call with a stab of his finger and didn’t waste any time saying, “Those who don’t fall in line…”
“I’m not finishing it.”
“You know what it means.”
Kenna laced her hands on her lap, biting her lip.
“If this case connects toDominatus, that is significant.”
“Sometimes it seems like everything in my life does,” Kenna muttered.
She squeezed her fingers together hard enough that her forearms twinged with something that wasn’t quite pain. Just the mild discomfort of a pulling sensation. For years, the tendons in her forearms that had been severed and repaired by surgeons were a source of intense pain. Then along came their enemy, trying to do her a favor. Now she invited the familiar pull that used to be pain where they’d repaired her forearms because it meant she was still who she’d been before they came into her life.
“I’m not ignoring it,” she added. “Or burying my head in the sand.”
Jax pulled over into the parking lot of a high-end grocery store she knew had a sushi counter. “You’re pretending…” He shook his head. “I wanna say you’re pretending they aren’t a threat, but I know that isn’t true.”
“I’m not in denial, and I’m not refusing to see the truth.”
