Latent Danger (On the Line #2)(35)

“It was very consistent in some ways. Not so in others. The girls were all between the ages of sixteen and seventeen. All were petite and blonde. That never varied. Nancy Cheever and Jill Porter were from working class families but in very different areas of town. They didn’t share the same school, friends, or any activities that we found. The third girl, Wendy Bridgeton, was from a wealthy family visiting the area. Her family lived in New York, but were visiting family. The last was Michelle Hankey and she was from a middle-class family. She lived a few minutes from where the Bridgeton girl was visiting family, but their areas were night and day. Moderate homes, compared to almost mansions in the area Wendy’s family lived in. The girls didn’t seem to have met at all, despite the proximity.”

Ronan frowned. “Our girls are two wealthy, one not; all seventeen; only one was blonde.”

“It really bothers me that the setting of the bodies is so different and he’s moved from blondes to a real mixed bag.” Shauna looked at the men and received nods. Candice Jordan had been the furthest from their victimology so far with darker skin and black hair.

“Maybe we need to head up to the cold case division and get our eyes on what they’re working on. See what they’re seeing,” Zach suggested. “It’s possible we need to pull the two investigations back together again to see what it is we’ve been missing here.”

It was clear from the looks on the faces of his partner and Shauna, they both agreed they were missing something. He just hoped like hell whatever that piece was, that they somehow managed to find it soon.

Zach’s cell buzzed with a text and he lifted it from his pocket to check the screen. He bit down on a curse and stood. Kate Sorino hadn’t come home after school and none of her friends had any idea where she was.

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Chapter Twenty-four





Zach was glad he’d drawn the short straw on making the thirty-minute drive to the cold case division in Rocky Hill. There was nothing short about that straw to him, because the drive included Shauna. Of course, he was happy to let Ronan think he’d taken one for the team. Never hurt to have your partner owe you, especially with the amount of paperwork and reports they were having to file on this case.

They’d spent the afternoon questioning everyone at Elmhurst Academy who could have any knowledge of Kate’s whereabouts. They’d talked to her parents, her driver, and her friends. They’d dragged Jonathan Sawyer back in for questioning, despite the fact he’d been under a police tail. The officers watching him weren’t trailing his every movement on campus. They watched him go down the drive each day, then waited out on the street for him to come back out at the end of the day.

Now, they had officers combing the campus and the woods surrounding it. Ronan was overseeing the deployment of the search and rescue team and would work on coordinating with their lead, while Shauna and Zach went to see what they could piece together by looking at the cold cases again. The cold case team had been sending reports daily, but for the most part, their work consisted of checking hundreds of possible suspects off lists of people who’d been incarcerated or hospitalized during the period between the killings.

They were quiet for the first part of the drive, but Zach didn’t want to lose the time to talk to her. They wouldn’t have much time alone, and when this case was over, he had a feeling she’d be gone.

“What happened with your ex?” He didn’t know why he opened with a question she was unlikely to answer. He was an idiot.

Rather than take back the question, he waited as she looked him over, forcing himself not to squirm.

“Answer one of my questions, first.”

He glanced over at her, before looking at the road. “I’m an open book. Ask away.”

“Why did you become a cop? When we were together, you were trying to figure out what to do after the military. You never mentioned the police academy as an option.”

Well, shit, did he say open book? He cleared his throat. “Well, it was, uh, a good living. And something I knew I could do. I mean, I thought I could do it.”

“Uh huh,” she said, letting her tone tell him she knew damned well there was more to it.

“And it fit my need for doing something with an adrenaline rush. Of course, that doesn’t come every day. There are a lot of boring days, too, but it keeps me needing to stay sharp, stay fit, hone my training. I like that.” He was stupidly telling her shit she knew all too well.

“Um hmm.” This time, her tone said she thought he was getting close, but hadn’t gone all the way yet.

He shook his head and gave it up. “I liked seeing the way you were passionate about your job. The way you cared whether you were able to make a difference. I wanted to feel that, okay?”

“Do you?”

“Do I what?”

She snorted. “Feel like you make a difference?”

“Most of the time.” He focused on the road for a minute, then, “Most of the time, yeah.” He thought about the times he’d lost his head in the interrogation room as a rookie detective and blown cases.

He hadn’t gotten his temper under control completely as a patrol officer. He’d quickly learned he wasn’t going to do well as a detective if he didn’t master his emotions.