Stone Cold Heart (Tracers #13)(82)

“Yeah.” Nerves tightened her stomach as she followed him to the door and flipped the latch. “Or even if you don’t.” She paused awkwardly. “Call me anyway.”

He bent down and kissed her. “I will.”

When he was gone, Sara returned to the kitchen and picked up her coffee. She sipped it absently as she replayed their rushed conversation.

Thing were heating up, coming to a head. There was a suspect sketch.

He was slammed with work, and still he wanted to see her.

She looked at her rumpled bed and pictured Nolan in it. The two pillows were bunched together in the middle because they’d spent the night curled up together.

And it hit her.

There was no heading this off. It had already happened. Whatever this was, she was in it.

Her downstairs buzzer sounded, and she looked at the intercom. Was he back? He wouldn’t come back—he was late. Maybe he’d forgotten something.

She crossed to the intercom and pressed the button. “Yes?”

“Hi, it’s Alex. Can I come up?”

“Uh, sure.” Sara checked her watch and buzzed her in. What would Alex be doing here at eight in the morning? Sara threw on some clothes and smoothed her hair as she opened the door.

Alex was striding down the hallway. She wore her usual jeans and T-shirt and had her computer bag on her shoulder.

“Sorry to bug you so early, but this couldn’t wait.”

“No problem.”

She stopped in front of Sara and gave her a puzzled look. “Weirdest thing, I could have sworn I just saw Nolan’s truck on your street.”

Sara opened her mouth to say something but couldn’t think of a thing.

“Oh, my God. Was he here?”

“He just left.” Sara ushered her inside. “You want some coffee?” Before Alex could answer, Sara went into the kitchen and started pouring a mug.

Alex’s grin faded as she set her computer bag on the counter. “Well, that’s interesting.”

Sara slid the mug across the counter. “It is.” She took a deep breath. “I think I just did something stupid.”

Alex laughed. “I bet it was worth it.”

“No, the sex part definitely was, but I think . . .” She rubbed her forehead. “I think I might have just started a relationship.”

“Hmm. And?”

“And . . . and he’s a workaholic cop who lives nowhere near me! This will never work out.” She combed her hands into her hair. “And he’s an unbelievably good man, and one of us is going to end up disappointed. What the hell am I doing, Alex?”

She gave Sara a sympathetic look.

“Forget it. Let’s not talk about me.” Sara held up her hands. “Let’s talk about whatever you have that couldn’t wait.”

Alex unzipped her computer bag. “I’ve been investigating that drone footage, and I found something interesting.” She took out her laptop and powered it up. “After tracing the digital footprints of the user who set up these two Twitter accounts, I’m more convinced than ever that he’s our unsub.”

“Why?”

“He’s got some disturbing tastes in porn. This goes beyond the run-of-the-mill BDSM stuff. He frequents sites that serve up violence and snuff films.”

“As in people being murdered?”

“Correct.”

“Can we identify him?”

“I’m working on it. I’ve got Laney working on it, too, because she specializes in the dark web. But in the meantime, I wanted to show you this.”

Sara leaned closer for a better view.

“Digging around, I found another video clip,” Alex said. “This one is longer than the others.”

“Okay.”

“It’s only a few more seconds of footage—twelve, to be exact—but it reveals something interesting.”

Alex clicked open a file of video footage. This clip started low to the ground, near some mesquite trees.

“There.” She hit pause. “See that?”

Sara leaned closer. “What?”

“That black glove. That’s his hand in the shot. See? He’s standing right there.”

Sara saw that there was, indeed, a gloved hand on the edge of the picture.

Alex resumed the clip, and the camera lifted into the air, giving more of a bird’s-eye view. The ground below whisked by as the drone swooped over parched land dotted with scrub trees. Suddenly, the land dropped away, and Sara recognized Rattlesnake Gorge. A few moments later, the blue tent came into view, and from there all the footage was familiar.

“This longer clip shows the drone actually being launched,” Alex said. “Thing is, that property it was launched from? It’s not part of the park. It’s private property, and I checked out the satellite images. Whoever owns the land has livestock, along with some oil and gas wells. It’s all gated and fenced.”

Livestock. Oil and gas wells. Sara thought of her conversation with Will Merritt about the location of the caves he’d visited.

“Do you know if there are any caves on this property?” she asked Alex.

“Caves?”

“It’s a theory we’re investigating. We know he kept some of the victims captive somewhere, and trace evidence suggests it could have been a cave.”