The sunlight beat down on Hunter as he painstakingly processed his share of the grid of the police chief’s backyard while Sarah worked hers—thankfully at the rear of the property. He didn’t want to miss any clues, however small, not only because he knew the woman taken, but in his gut, Hunter sensed there would be more deaths unless he could stop the killer. When he thought about Terri Bennett’s apartment, he remembered the untidy drawers, so similar to Alicia’s. Terri had been a sloppy housekeeper, so at the time, it hadn’t stood out. But now, he realized it probably wasn’t Terri who made the mess.
Something glinted in the grass in front of him. Evidence? He prayed it was. He stooped and examined what had caught his eye. A quarter. Disappointed, he reached for it and dropped it into an evidence bag. It probably wasn’t the assailant’s, and even if it were, the quarter had been handled thousands of times by different people.
He peered in Sarah’s direction to see where she was in her search. Their gazes clashed. Earlier, he hadn’t meant to make a reference to their wedding day—or rather lack of it. He’d thought he’d worked through his anger at being left at the altar. Obviously, he hadn’t. The rage swelled to the surface when he laid eyes on Sarah. Her long blond hair had been pulled back in a ponytail like she’d worn it as a teenager. He’d loved the feel of it in his hand. He used to remove her colorful hair band and comb his fingers through the strands.
He wrenched his attention back to the task at hand. She might be an FBI profiler and probably would be an asset to the case, but he didn’t want to work with her. She still had a pull over him. He would not lose his heart to her again. It only took him one time to learn and not make that mistake again.
He continued walking his grid pattern, trying to keep his full focus on the ground—not Sarah. But his gaze strayed to her. She squatted and picked something up from the ground then dropped the item into an evidence bag.
“What did you find?”
“A wad of chewed gum. It can be processed for DNA. I know it’s a longshot, but it’s possible it could be the killer’s. I don’t think it’s been here long.”
“It might not lead to the assailant, unless he’s in the system, but it could be a piece that helps convict him.”
Sarah frowned. “Or have nothing to do with Alicia.”
“Let’s finish up, grab some fast food, and go to the dumpsite then to Terri’s apartment.”
She released a long breath. “All before we meet with Ben at five.”
Twenty minutes later, Hunter had completed the rest of his area and waited for Sarah on the deck while Officer Angel Harris made a cast of the footprint at the edge of the flowerbed. As she finished, Sarah joined Hunter.
“Not much to go on.” Sarah passed him her evidence bag.
“I’m hoping this footprint will help. From the tread of the boot, it looks like whoever wears it walks on the inside of his shoe. It’s worn down more than the outside of it. We might be able to narrow down the brand name too.”
“That’ll help if it belongs to the perpetrator. I think they have someone who mows and does yardwork for them. You’ll have to rule him out.”
“What if he’s the killer? If this print fits that guy, he’ll need an alibi before I rule him out.” Hunter strode down the sidewalk that led to the driveway. “I wish Mark had a dog. It might not have been as easy to come into the house.”
“The lower level back door had been locked, although the alarm system wasn’t set. Usually the last person home set it. But this morning, that door wasn’t locked, and none of us went out that way.”
“What fast food place would you like to go to before visiting the dumpsite?”
She named one they used to go to while dating. “I hope the hamburgers are still as good as I remember. Have you had one lately?”
He tightened his grip on the steering wheel. “Not in fifteen years, but I hear it’s still the same.”
Rosa’s Dine In or Out was only a few blocks away. Hunter parked in the only empty bay to place their order of hamburgers, fries, and iced teas.
The silence in the SUV was thick as they waited for the waitress on roller skates to deliver their food. Hunter passed Sarah her meal then he dived into his hamburger, so juicy it ran down his chin. He swiped a napkin across it and slanted a look toward Sarah. Holding her burger between her hands partway to her mouth, she stared out the passenger window as though frozen in time.
“Sarah?”
She placed her food back onto its wrapper in her lap, her face still turned away from him.
He started to touch her but hesitated. He shouldn’t. Yet, as if it had a mind of its own, his hand connected with her upper arm and latched onto her. “What’s going on?”
When she swung her head toward him, her eyes were filled with tears. “I should be getting ready for my niece’s wedding right now. Instead, I’m trying to convince myself I can find her and bring her home safely before…” Her quivering voice faded into the quiet. She shook off his grasp and turned to face him. “We have no idea what’s really going on. Is the person who has Alicia the same one who murdered Terri? Or someone else? Will he wait ten days or kill her sooner? I’ve helped to find many killers, but can I do it this time before it’s too late for Alicia? She’s the chi—daughter I never had.”
He remembered their conversations about having a family the months leading up to their wedding. They had wanted several children, and yet they had both ended up with none.
“What if we can’t find her alive—or dead? I’ve dealt with families who have no resolution to their lost loved ones. That’s a living hell. I don’t want that for Rebecca and Mark. And me.”
Her husky voice cut through his defenses, and suddenly all he wanted to do was hold her. He twisted toward her, and although the console separated them, he reached over it and grasped her hands. “Mark is my boss, but even more importantly, he’s a mentor and friend. I’m not going to let anything happen to Alicia.”
“That’s how I feel, although you and I know saying that is only a good motivator for us. We aren’t in control of what happens to her. The kidnapper is. I used to think good would triumph in the end, but I don’t know if that’s true anymore. Evil is everywhere and seems to be winning the battle.”
In the past Sarah had always been the optimist in their relationship. She’d believed in the Lord and the power of prayer. She was the one who led him to God. “In the end, it won’t be that way. The Lord will overcome evil. If I didn’t believe that, I might as well give up, but I won’t.”
She looked at their clasped hands for a long moment then lifted her gaze to his. “I hadn’t realized how much I was losing sight of that. I just came from a difficult case.”
“The one in California where a mass grave was discovered at a campground?”
She nodded.
“You caught the guy who murdered those people.”
“I know, but not before he killed his last victim. We were only minutes away.”
“When was the last time you took time away from your job?”
“Last year when Alicia and I went to Florida to spend time with Nana.”
“Our jobs take an emotional toll on us even if we’re successful in closing a case. That’s true for you even more than me because not all my cases involve murder and death.”
Sarah scanned the area as though she finally realized they were in his car and people were all around them. “I have a doctorate in psychology, and you would think I’d practice what I know is the best advice. A person must take care of herself in order to do her best for others.” She gently tugged her hands from his and turned forward. “And I will, once Alicia is found.”
Hunter quickly finished his hamburger and fries. He’d let her in for a few minutes. He couldn’t afford to do that again. He’d thought he’d known her well fifteen years ago, and he’d never thought she would leave him at the altar with the barest explanation of why.
* * *
For a few minutes, Sarah had glimpsed the Hunter she’d known before she’d walked away from their wedding. Their brief connection at Rosa’s had pulled her away from a path of self-destruction she’d seen some of her co-workers walk down. Over the years, she’d grown farther away from the Lord the more she delved deeper into the minds of sick, evil people. Until their conversation, she hadn’t realized how far and deep she’d gone.
But that wasn’t the only reason she was at a crossroad in her life.
Her secret, kept close and tightly locked away, couldn’t be ignored any longer—not since she’d returned to Cimarron City where it happened. Not coming to Alicia’s wedding hadn’t been an option for her. Sarah had thought that time would have helped her deal with her feelings concerning what had happened to her that night, but the moment she’d driven into town, despair had cloaked her in a cocoon of pain and what ifs.
Her life could be so different if she’d not let her girlfriends talk her into drinking and celebrating her last night as a single woman at the lake. Others—both female and male, mostly from the local college—had joined them. Not until later had she realized her best friend, Emily, had set it up. As the evening wound down, she knew no one could drive home in the condition everyone was in, so she sat off from the group still there and leaned back against a tree. Her head throbbed, and the world had swirled around her. She rarely drank and only had one glass the whole night, but she’d felt so disorientated.
The last thing she remembered was a medium-build guy approaching her. She’d tried to recall what he looked like, but he had remained in the shadows. He’d offered her his hand and a ride home. After that everything went blank—until she woke up the next morning in the woods and realized she’d been raped. She’d been saving herself for Hunter, and in a short time that gift had been wrenched from her. At nineteen, her world had fallen apart, and she couldn’t face Hunter and tell him what had happened. Her shame drove her from Cimarron City.
When Hunter stopped along a dirt road that ended at the edge of the woods, Sarah finally focused on her surroundings. She knew where she was. She’d never forget hiking out of the woods as the sun rose the day of her wedding near where Hunter parked his SUV.
Hunter’s cell phone rang, and he quickly answered it. “Good. I want the report on my desk. What was the cause of death?”
Quietness reigned as Hunter listened to his caller. Then he asked, “Was she raped?” His frown deepened as he listened. “I’ll read it when I get back to the station. Thanks for rushing this.”
Raped? Had Hunter been talking about Terri’s autopsy?
“Was that the medical examiner?”
Hunter nodded. “What he told me only confirmed what I knew. She was raped, and the gunshot wound to her chest killed her. The only thing I didn’t know was that she’d been given a roofie. That’s probably how he took her without a big ruckus.”
Years ago, she’d wondered the same thing. Had she been slipped a date rape drug into her drink?
“Let’s go. The dumpsite isn’t too far from here.” He climbed from his vehicle while she clutched the handle, her entire body trembling.
In one direction, she glimpsed the nearby lake and the campground where the party had taken place. She couldn’t bring herself to turn and look out the back in the direction she’d come after waking up the morning of what should have been the happiest day of her life.
Suddenly the passenger door opened, and Hunter hovered nearby. “Is something wrong?”
Yes! Everything! After a moment of silence, she realized she had to reply. “No, just thinking about the times I came to the lake.”
“I remember teaching you to water ski one summer.”
If only she could hold onto that memory rather than the last one, her heart wouldn’t be pounding so much. “Show me where Terri was found. We still need to go to her apartment.” And I’d like to get out of here as fast as possible.
“Follow me. I’m retracing my steps from earlier.”
Sarah walked behind him, noticing he went on a trail possibly used today by the police to minimize disturbing the area around the dumpsite. She came to stand next to him when he paused outside the yellow taped off part of the woods. More memories deluged her as she stared at the place where she’d awakened fifteen years ago. The sunlight, like now, was streaming through the breaks in the tree canopy above—the only difference was the different slant across the forest floor.
While Hunter ducked under the yellow tape, paralysis attacked her, and she couldn’t move an inch. Trapped. A heavy body on top of her. Pain lanced through her, and she cried out until a hand clamped over her mouth.
“Sarah?” Hunter suddenly stood in front of her, his intense blue gaze fixed on her with tiny lines of worry fanning out from his eyes.
She blinked, sweat coating her face, a trickle rolling down her forehead then another one.
“Are you all right?”
The urgency in his voice brought her back to the present. “Was Terri raped right before she died?”
“The medical examiner didn’t say when. Why?”
She couldn’t voice the reason she’d asked—at least not yet. She ignored his question, stepped to the side, and went under the yellow tape.
Hunter grabbed her arm and stopped her. “Why, Sarah?”
She had to tell him something until she figured out what was going on. Was this the work of the same person who raped her? What had he been doing for fifteen years? “Over the years, I’ve worked on a few cases of a serial rapist turned killer. A couple used to dump their victims in remote places like this. Show me where you found Terri then the photos you took before the body was removed.” She forced a professional tone into her voice while inside she felt as if she were falling apart.
When Hunter moved to the spot in the middle of the roped off area, he pointed to the ground about three feet from a scrub oak. “She was posed face up, her head near the trunk.”
Sarah shut her eyes, her stomach roiling, her throat jammed closed.