“Why isn’t she bleeding?” His girlfriend looked over her shoulder at him breathing heavily. “I want to see her bleed.”
He took her arm and eased her to her feet, unwrapped her fingers from the screwdriver, and tossed it down the mineshaft. “She’s dead. She can’t bleed when her heart’s not beating. Help me clean up here and we’ll head to the school before we’re missed. We’ll need to stop by the park and get washed up.”
After collecting the plastic and wrapping their aprons and gloves into a big ball, they carried it to the trunk. He’d burn everything later. He drove the vehicle fifty yards from the body and they ran back. They dragged dead branches over the ground to remove footprints and tire marks. By the time they reached their ride, his girl had calmed down some but she still had a sour expression.
As he drove back to town, he glanced at her. “What’s wrong? It felt good killing her, didn’t it? You taught her a lesson.”
“I don’t feel anything. It wasn’t good enough. The next one, I’m gonna mess up real bad.” She folded her arms across her chest. “You know I love you, right? So, maybe you can take her to a house I found in town, like a date and then ‘surprise’, I’ll be there waiting for her. I want her to know that I’m better than she is and that you chose me over her. I want her alive and suffering, so the last thing she sees is me with you. Strangling Laurie was too fast, it didn’t last long enough.”
The wild look in her eyes and the way she talked aroused him. His heart raced. Excitement tingled through him, he wet his lips. Watching her kill Laurie had turned his girl into a superhero. He worshiped her. She had said she loved him and it made him feel wanted. Not even his ma had done that. If it made his girl happy, he would walk through fire to see her kill again. He slid one arm over her shoulder and pulled her closer. She smelled like Laurie, slightly putrid, but the memory of her strangling her for him made him smile. “Yeah, make her suffer.” He rubbed his chin on her hair. “They all deserve to suffer.”
Eight
The hall fell silent as Jenna moved in front of the lectern. She noticed the media jump into action and suddenly felt exposed. Her life as DEA Agent Avril Parker was long gone, but the vulnerability that even plastic surgery couldn’t erase, surfaced the moment she stood in front of a camera. Two things she couldn’t change were her voice and her eyes, and the idea of being discovered hiding in plain sight in Black Rock Falls was never far from her mind. The Cartel she’d messed with, even though all had been reported dead, had fingers that stretched out in all directions.
It would be the same for Dave; although he was officially dead and had remained off the grid, his past life had come back to haunt him. It would seem no matter how hard they tried to remain hidden, the threat was a constant nagging ache. She glanced at him standing straight beside her, her rock, and then cleared her throat. “It’s good to see everyone here. First, I need to know if anything unusual happened to Laurie during practice. Did she argue with anyone?” No hands went up. “Okay, next I need to know who was with Laurie Turner in the parking lot after practice.”
A show of hands shot up. “Okay. I want you to stand against the wall. Deputy Kane will take statements from you but before you go—did any of you return to the gym with her after she dropped her phone?”
She waited but no one raised their hands. “Okay. Did anyone speak to Laurie when she returned to the hall?”
“Yeah.” A man wearing jeans and a faded T-shirt pushed to his feet. “I spoke to her.”
A buzz of conversation went around the hall. Jenna nodded. The man had to be Cory Hughes, the school maintenance man and cleaner who Vicky had mentioned earlier.
“Okay, I’ll need to speak to you as soon as I’ve finished here.” She looked back at the people in the hall. “Was there an
yone hanging around or touching Laurie’s pickup when you left the parking lot?”
Not one person put up their hand but people had already started to stare suspiciously at Hughes. Jenna waited for people to stop talking and looked over the crowd. People were still filtering in the door and Emily was taking names. “Okay, did anyone see Laurie between nine and nine-thirty last night?’
“I did.” An elderly woman wearing spectacles gave Jenna a wave.
Jenna smiled at her to encourage her. “Will you come and speak to me, please?” She looked around the room. “Anyone else see her or hear anything unusual in the vicinity of Stanton Road between the school and Ravens Hill?”
No one stepped forward. Disappointed, Jenna heaved a sigh. “Okay, I’m looking for volunteers for search parties starting at daybreak and going through until we find her. Please report to the command center outside the sheriff’s department. The search parties will need to be changed during the day, so we’ll be starting at staggered times, six and twelve. Anyone willing to help with getting out supplies to the volunteers during the day, coffee, water, sandwiches, and the like, it will be greatly appreciated.”
A group of young men waved at her and she pointed to one of them. “Yes?”
“We have trail bikes and can help get supplies out to the search parties.” He smiled. “I’m Levi Jones. Who do I see?”
“Come see me.” Susie Hartwig from Aunt Betty’s Café pushed to her feet. “I’ll see you get what you need.”
To Jenna’s surprise, Mayor Petersham stepped out from the back of the hall. He nodded to Jenna. “Evening, Sheriff. The town council will pick up the tab for supplies. Just send the bill to my office, Susie.”
“At cost then.” Susie frowned. “I’m not planning on making a profit over someone’s misfortune.”
“We all know how much Aunt Betty’s Café contributes to the community.” Mayor Petersham smiled broadly. “Don’t we, folks?”
After the applause had died down, Jenna nodded toward the kiosk. “The kiosk is now open for refreshments. Thank you for coming. I’ll see some of you at first light.”
As Jenna stepped down to speak to Cory Hughes, a skinny woman with a cameraman right behind her burst into Jenna’s personal space and stuck a microphone in her face. Surprised, she took a step back and looked at her without saying a word.
“Deni Crawford, Blackwater News. Tell me, Sheriff Alton, how did you win another term as sheriff?” Crawford leaned in, spewing bad breath like rotting fish. “You don’t seem to be coping with the crime in Black Rock Falls, it’s like murder central over here.”
Wanting to cover her nose, Jenna moved back again but the woman followed her, relentless and rude. She straightened. “I’m not sure what you mean. We have a missing girl, not a murder. In fact, the last murder to occur in Black Rock Falls was almost a year ago. If I recall three murders occurred over summer in Blackwater, not here. That’s your town, not mine. My county covers many thousands of miles and yes, we do have criminals using our vast forests to hide off the grid but, my goodness, how would you cope in the big city? Just a minute.” She scrolled through her phone. “As an example, twenty-five people were shot and twelve killed in one day in Chicago this week. Hmm, it makes Black Rock Falls kind of tame don’t you think?” She held up her phone to show the news report.
“Ma’am.” Kane came to her side. “Ah, there’s someone you need to talk to.”