Fractured Sky (Tattered & Torn #5)(84)

“Did someone go by his house?”

Ruiz let out a grunt as if to say, “Do you think I’m an idiot?”

Hayes sent him a sidelong look. “He wasn’t home.”

My gut gave a vicious twist. I knew August was off. I could tell it simply from looking at his mugshot. And Shiloh had gotten it right. There was a deadness in his eyes.

“You’ve got an A.P.B. out on him, too, right?”

“Of course, we do,” Ruiz snapped. “But now, we’re wasting time explaining things to you instead of making progress.”

“Ruiz—”

“It’s the truth.”

“Guys,” the computer tech called. “I’ve got something.”

We all turned and hurried over to her screen.

She tapped on a few keys. “I’ve been searching all the cameras for the five minutes before they cut the power. I got two people on video. I don’t think they knew the camera’s angle could get them here.”

The tech pulled a frozen image up onto the screen—two men, both in baseball caps, one closer to the camera. I recognized him instantly. August Ernst. I let loose a stream of curses.

“Get a warrant for Ernst,” Hayes barked to Ruiz and then turned back to the screen. “Can you zoom in on the second guy?”

The tech nodded. “It gets a little pixelated, but I can try to clean it up.”

Her hands flew over the keyboard, and she moved the mouse in tiny, expert motions. As she worked, a face came into focus.

All of us went dead-still behind her.

“It’s not possible. He’s dead,” Ruiz muttered.

But there was Howard Kemper, standing right in the middle of the damn screen.

Everything in me went wired. There wasn’t anything that would terrify Shiloh more than being faced with that man. The one who had written her every week for nine years. God only knew what plans he had for her. Revenge? Something more twisted?

Ruiz pulled out his phone and began dialing. I was able to make out snatches of conversation as he ordered warrants for August and Howard. Just hearing Howard’s name again made me shake, and fury pulsed through me. It was almost too much for my body to handle.

Hayes spoke in quick, demanding sentences to someone on the phone. It took me a few minutes to realize it was the prison warden. As his voice rose, I knew heads would roll. “You find him, and you stick a guard on him. He doesn’t make one damn phone call until my officers have picked him up for questioning.”

Hayes paused for a moment, and then his expression hardened. “Save your damn apology. Just do what I asked.” He ended the call without another word.

“What?” I growled.

“Howard Kemper was a model prisoner. And with that, he got privileges—like his choice of work-detail assignments.”

“Where did he work?” I prodded. I knew Hayes was leading to the how, but he wasn’t getting there quickly enough.

“The prison’s medical ward. The warden said the doctor on staff took Howard under his wing. Was mentoring him.”

My back teeth ground together. “Or Howard was mentoring the doctor. Manipulating him into finding him a way out.”

Hayes ran a hand through his hair, tugging on the strands. “That’s what I’m guessing, too. Howard supposedly died from a seizure, but he never made it to the hospital. If a doctor was helping you, you could fake that.”

“Holy hell. This is unreal,” Ruiz muttered. “I’m going to pick up the doc myself.”

“I’ll go with you—”

“You can’t, Hayes. Do you want to be the reason something gets thrown out as evidence? You have a conflict of interest. Let me handle this.”

Hayes gritted his teeth. “Call me as soon as you question him.”

“You know I will.” Ruiz clapped him on the shoulder. “We’ll find her.”

I had to hold on to that. Hope. I’d given up on it years ago, but Shiloh had given it back to me. She’d shown me the light that hid within the shadows. Showed me that I could be more than I ever thought possible. And I would fight for her. Hell, I’d burn down the world to get her back. No one could stop me.





43





SHILOH





I couldn’t get my body to stop trembling. If anything, the shaking only intensified. I tried to get the image in front of me to compute, the face that had been burned into my nightmares. The one that was supposed to be buried six feet under.

“H-how?”

My voice carried the same reverberation that shot through my body in waves. I hated the sound. The proof that this man could still terrorize me.

August grinned. “Howard has a real way with people. He can convince them he’s whatever he wants them to believe he is.”

I didn’t look at Howard’s cellmate as he spoke, even with the crazy claims he was spouting. I couldn’t take my eyes off Howard. It was too dangerous—as if he were a pacing predator, and I was bracing for an attack. Ask another question. I needed to keep them talking and get as much information as possible. Had to keep them at a distance.

“Who did he convince?”

Howard chuckled, but the sound didn’t match up with the man or the circumstances. It was jovial, like a Santa Claus laugh. “The doctor in the medical ward really was going through a hard time.”