Latent Danger (On the Line #2)(43)

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Chapter Thirty





Zach and Ronan got in the car and raced toward Liz Gordon’s residence.

Shauna wasn’t answering her phone and the lead ball that filled Zach’s gut the minute he’d made the connection wasn’t going anywhere. Of course, he didn’t know precisely what the connection was yet, but he knew it had to do with Liz’s mother’s side of the family.

Ronan looked at his screen. “Still no response.” He looked over at Zach. “The uniforms will be there in two minutes.”

Zach’s phone rang. Ronan hit speaker and Zach spoke into the air as he drove. “This is Reynolds.”

“It’s Hutch. We found the connection. Herschel Kenworth was Liz Gordon’s uncle, but he died back in his late twenties. The timing is right for him to be our guy. He was checked into a mental institution an hour from here. It’s a place that’s since been closed down. Its practices were questionable, despite the high price they charged for their services.”

“And the dates line up with the last killing?” Ronan asked as Zach took the exit on the Merritt Parkway that would take them to the Gordon estate.

“Yes. Admitted to the hospital two weeks after the last killing. Three months later, he was given a lobotomy by one of the doctors there, even though that was out of practice by that time in most places. Soon after that, the family took him home for a while then brought him back to the hospital, where he died later that year. He was cremated.”

“Did the family live in the same place at the time?” Zach asked. They’d given Hutch the details of the family home earlier.

“Yes. It was passed to Liz’s mother when her parents died sometime later. Herschel was her only other relative, and since he died years back, Liz’s mother inherited everything.”

“Thanks, Hutch. We’re a few minutes out. We’ll let you know as soon as we’ve got eyes on Shauna.” Ronan hit the button to end the call and Zach could feel his eyes on him.

“We’ll get to her,” Ronan said quietly.

Zach only nodded. He couldn’t think about what might happen if they didn’t.

And he couldn’t stop cursing himself for not seeing this sooner.

Ronan’s phone rang and he put it on speaker as he’d done with the other call. “This is Cafferty.”

Zach held his breath and gripped the wheel tighter. He wanted there. Now.

“Sir, this is Officer Langston. We’re at the house. Detective O’Rourke’s vehicle is in the driveway. The girl is here, but she was in the shower when we arrived. We almost broke down the door before she opened it. She says Detective O’Rourke was going out to check the property line when she got into the shower. She isn’t sure if she came back.”

“Bullshit,” Zach said into the phone, not worrying about his language. His captain could pound sand for all he cared right now. “Don’t let that girl out of your sight. We’re two minutes out.”

“Yes, sir. We’ve got a pair of men out searching the grounds, and I’ve got three more cars on the way.”

Zach nodded, despite the fact the man couldn’t see him. Then he floored it into the straightaway. He would find Shauna.

He had to.

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Chapter Thirty-one





Zach saw the quick flash of shock in Liz’s eyes when they told her they knew about her late uncle. They’d taken her into the living room to talk but they had other teams on the premises, looking for Shauna.

Liz covered her surprise almost instantly with a confused air. “He died long before I was born. I never knew my uncle.”

Zach sat in front of her and studied her, tilting his head. It was all he could do to stay calm right then. He was pulling on every ounce of control he had not to reach out and grip her neck in his hand and squeeze until she told him where Shauna was.

It was odd, really. He’d stopped seeing her as a teenage girl. As the kind of girl who could have been one of his niece’s friends, the way he saw all the girls involved in this case.

Right now, when he looked at Liz Gordon, he saw a monster. He could see the cold callous calculation beneath the fa?ade she projected to the world.

He focused on doing his job. On questioning her until she gave up where Shauna was. “Did you find the rope and lipstick? Was it stashed someplace in the house?”

Liz shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

Zach counted in his head, willing his breath to stay even and his face calm. They each had a part to play here now. She was committed to her performance, he’d give her that. “I think you do. Tell me, Liz, did your mother tell you what he’d done? Was it common knowledge in your family that he’d killed all those girls, or was that something you only discovered recently?”

He could see the gleam in her eye and he was disgusted by it. She almost seemed to want to talk to him, to tell him what he wanted to know. To describe her uncle’s involvement, and maybe to brag about her own. To tell him how she’d done it.

He played on that. “You were smart, Liz. You had us fooled for a long time. In fact, I have to think if your mom hadn’t hyphenated her name, it would have taken us even longer to figure it out.”