Guardian Ranger (Shadow Agents #2)(19)

I don’t want her having to stare at the body.

“It’s him, isn’t it?” She swallowed. “The man who owns the bar. The one you called Reed.”

He nodded.

“I...talked to him last night. He’s the one who directed me to you when I came in Last Chance.”

So Reed had recognized him, too. Jasper had suspected that the man remembered him. Reed would also have known that Veronica was Cale’s sister. No way would the guy not be aware of her, not after all of his dealings with Cale. So Reed had realized that Jasper and Veronica were hooking up; he’d probably figured that Jasper was helping to track Cale.

Just hours after he’d gotten that knowledge, he had been killed.

Killed...silenced.

The killer knew I was coming to talk to Reed.

So Reed had been taken out.

“He asked me...asked if I was sure I wanted you.” Her gaze was on his. “I was sure.” Her chin lifted. “Is he dead...because of whatever is happening with Cale?”

Why lie? Besides, the woman already knew the truth. “Looks that way.”

He gave her credit. She didn’t flinch. Her shoulders straightened, and she turned for the door. She’d taken two steps when she hesitated. “Did he suffer?”

“No.” The kill had been quick and clean. The work of a man who knew just what he was doing with a knife.

“Good.” Her breath whispered out. “My father...he suffered... No one should have to suffer.” She slipped from the room.

Swearing, Jasper turned back to the body. He yanked out his phone. Punched one button to get Gunner on the line. “I’m going to need a crime-scene team out at Last Chance,” he said, not bothering to identify himself. “Our guy’s struck again.”

A swift inhalation of air, and then Gunner demanded, “You’re sure it’s the one we’re looking for?”

“No sign of B and E.” Not from what he could tell. Just like the other scenes. “Looks like the victim let him in.” The kill had happened just hours before. “Then when the vic turned his back, the killer struck.” His fingers tightened on the phone. “The attack came from behind, just like the others. A slice right across the jugular. The victim bled out.” Had it been easy? Had he suffered?

He sure would never tell Veronica if the guy had. The last thing she needed to know was just how sadistic Cale could be.

“Get our medical examiner in on this.” They’d fly Dr. Sarah Jacobs in. No local with shaking hands would handle this kill. “I’m betting that once the crime-scene guys go over this, and she gets to see the body, all the results will be the same as before.”

The results...the info that the techs gathered about the killer’s height and weight and military training...all based on the kill method.

Height...approximately six foot three. Tall enough that he had to slice downward when his hand curled around the victims’ necks.

Weight...two hundred pounds. He’d left shoe imprints in clay outside one of the vic’s homes. The killer’s mistakes. Uncle Sam’s crime-scene team could do some damn incredible things with their technology. Like...

Determine the guy’s weight based on the depth of those impressions. Get the man’s height based on the length between his steps and the size of the shoe. A height that had matched dead-on with the M.E.’s estimates.

The killer had even left one other valuable piece of info behind in those shoe impressions. A few bits of clay that could be tracked back to only a handful of locations in the U.S....and one of those locations was right here in Whiskey Ridge.

The killer had screwed up on that second kill. When he’d gone after Julian Forrest, an ex-marine, the killer had counted on the forecasted prediction of rain to wipe away his footprints.

That rain hadn’t come.

Did you screw up this time, too?

He was about to find out.

Jasper exhaled. “The kill’s fresh,” he told Gunner. “We need our team searching the area. Cale Lane is here, and unless I’m wrong, it sure looks like he’s trying to cover his tracks.”

By killing.

Because Reed Montgomery wasn’t like the last three victims that had been killed in their homes. Victims who’d opened the door to the killer because they had known him.

They all knew Cale. In one way or another, those three victims had all traced back to Cale. One of the men had trained with him in Georgia. Another had been on a mission with Cale in Syria. One had worked with Cale for a month in an African desert.

All three of those victims had been EOD. They’d been executed.

Reed...he’d been executed, too, but not because he was EOD. He’d died for another reason. To protect the killer’s identity.

Jasper ended the call. He killed you because of what you knew.

Now Jasper just needed to find the evidence that Reed had possessed. Evidence that had been worth killing for.

*

CALE LANE WATCHED the house, his eyes narrowed as his fingers curled around his weapon. He preferred to use a knife on his kills. Much quieter than a gun. More personal. You were able to get right up to your target. With a knife, there would be no mistakes. No miscalculations on those up-close kills.

Jasper Adams knew all about close kills. The man had been killing for over ten years.

And now that man was with his sister. Cale had seen them go into the apartment together. Seen the way Jasper’s fingers lingered on Veronica’s arm.