Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
Kenna glanced down the street where Jax had raced after the killer.
She wanted to pull her phone out and call him, but that would only be a distraction in a situation where he needed total focus.
Lord. She didn’t want to contemplate something happening to him.
Anytime he was feeling protective, she wasn’t going to argue with him needing to ensure her safety.
She knew exactly what it felt like to swallow back the fear that someone she cared about could be hurt and run down a deadly killer.
Sirens in the distance got louder.
“Cavalry is almost here.” Should she get Langley to lie down on the ground? “Stay with me, Detective.”
His head lolled to the side, his skin clammy. He caught himself like had to drag his consciousness back to the forefront and lifted his head on a sharp intake of breath.
“There you are.” She touched her fingers to his neck and felt his pulse. “Hang in there. We’ll get you patched up.”
The first cop car sped around the corner, followed by two more and then an ambulance.
“You’re gonna be famous in a minute,” she said. “The cop who got stabbed by a serial killer and survived.”
He eyed her, his expression glassy.
“But you’ve gotta be alive to enjoy it.”
She saw a tiny note of humor in his expression.
“Langley!” The first cop raced over with thundering footsteps and all his gear creaking on his belt. “Step back, ma’am.”
“I’m not letting go of pressure on his wound. He’s bleeding out.” She shifted enough he’d see she was pregnant, which in most people’s world made her instantly less of a threat. Clearly not the perpetrator. Where was Jax?
She glanced that way again.
“Let me.” He tried to shove her hands aside.
“I’ve got it. No sense in both of us being covered in blood. The EMTs are almost here.”
The cop knelt on Jordan’s other side.
Kenna leaned on one hand and used the other to pat the detective’s cheek. “Stay with me, Langley. If you’re going to fall asleep, I want you to do it where medical professionals can make sure you wake up again.”
More sirens on the street. The EMTs raced over with their duffel bags, pushing the cot.
They crouched either side of her, and the other officer got out of the way.
Kenna said, “Male, forties. Strong pulse. Single stab wound. No other injuries that I know of. It was quick, and I didn’t see it happen. ”
“Got it.” The EMT took over putting pressure on with her jacket, but he needed to see the wound. The guy was in his thirties, and moved with competence, instructing his partner. Probably a paramedic, or a guy with years of experience in trauma care.
“Ma’am?” The cop held his hand out. “Let’s step aside.”
She grabbed his wrist, and he helped her up. Kenna immediately stretched her back and shoulders. “Thanks.” She bent and brushed off the knees of her maternity pants and checked again for Jax. “My husband chased after the suspect.”
“Recount for me what happened.” The officer pulled out a notebook, a frown drawing his thick dark brows together. He didn’t like what had happened but, so far at least, didn’t seem to have any animosity toward her. Right now, until he had the facts, he seemed to be reserving judgment.
Kenna explained that she and Jax were private investigators looking into a few cases locally, and that Langley had been given permission—as opposed to what he’d told them about being ordered—to talk to them about this case.
As she was talking, she glanced down the street, saying another silent prayer for her husband’s protection, and spotted him walking back. She motioned toward Jax. “There he is.”
The EMTs lifted Langley onto the stretcher and pushed it toward the ambulance.
With an oxygen mask over his face, she couldn’t tell if he was awake, but at least no one was doing chest compressions.
The guy would need surgery, though. Or so she figured.
Hopefully, the knife hadn’t nicked anything important that would jeopardize his life.
The officer standing with her said, “Any idea why someone would show up today and stab Detective Langley?”
She watched Jax approach. He shook his head.
She didn’t glance at the cop, but said, “It’s far more likely that he was targeted because someone has a beef with him than any reason I might know.
Other than that, we came here to the scene to take a look and it’s possible the killer doesn’t want Langley solving it now.
He wants to stall the case long enough for it to go cold. ”
A killer who already got away with his crime, left no fingerprints or DNA evidence behind, and knew enough of what was going on to show up here and stab the detective? She didn’t like this at all.
She also didn’t want to be a target, not while carrying a baby. But why would the ghost have tried to kill Langley today? Also, why not deal a blow that was certain to end with death? A stab wound to the abdomen was messy and bled a lot, but there were far more expedient ways to kill someone.
Kenna needed to know why.
Jax came close enough to give her a quick side hug. “He got into a silver compact, Maryland license plate.” He gave the officer the information.
“Nice.” Kenna silently thanked the Lord. That was a lot preferable to him actually fighting the killer. Or being kidnapped.
Her arm on his waist tightened, but Jax didn’t react to it. He knew how she felt because they had the same fears.
“Are you able to ID this person you saw run from the scene?” The cop glanced between them.
Jax asked Kenna, “You have that picture?”
She dug out her phone, curious that he wanted to let the officer know this tidbit of information. That she’d created a composite image of the killer she’d met on that platform. She pulled it up and showed him. “Was this the man you saw?”
He stared at it, and the cop moved close enough to see as well.
“The hair is longer,” Jax said. “He has the same profile, because he glanced back at me and I saw his jawline. But I’m not sure I’d be able to say yes definitively enough to swear it’s him in court.”
“That something you do often?” the officer said.
“I used to be an FBI agent in Phoenix.”
“And I used to be an FBI agent in Salt Lake City.” Kenna smiled. “But a much longer time has passed since I quit.”
“All right.” The officer nodded. “Here’s hoping Langley can confirm it’s this guy who stabbed him, or if it was someone else. Can I get a copy of that?”
Kenna nodded. “Give me your email and I’ll send it over.”
After she’d done that, they exchanged basic information and phone numbers with the officer and were able to leave.
“What is it?” Jax glanced over as they headed for their vehicle. “Do we need a new way to find out if other cases exist that look like they were done by the same guy?”
Kenna chewed over that for a second, thinking it through. “Yeah, probably. I just don’t get why he kills Langley. He left him alive. What was the point in that?”
“Because you’re the one on his hit list so he came here, and it was a crime of opportunity?” Jax clicked the locks on the car, but it was already open. He held her door for her. “Or do you think Petyr and the president are right about you being safe because you’re pregnant?”
She slid into the passenger seat, and he went around, climbing in the driver’s side. As he pulled away from the curb and navigated through the sea of cops who’d showed up because one of their own was hurt, she said, “I don’t want to think that Langley was targeted because of me.”
Jax entered the RV park address into the dash screen of the car and then pulled out, following the directions home. “Ramon and Zeyla are going to meet us at home so we can regroup.”
“We can ask them why the man they’re looking for showed up where we are and they didn’t.
” Given a man nearly died, and still wasn’t out of the woods, she held off trying to be funny.
“I don’t want to know how the two of them will deal with this.
They’re going to take it out on him when they find him, and we need this guy in custody, not dead. ”
“Maybe it’s one of those Dominatus lookalikes running around, trying to throw us off.”
“Consider me thrown.” She shifted in the seat to try and get more comfortable.
Jax squeezed her knee. They drove the rest of the way in silence and within the hour pulled into the RV park.
Ramon’s car was parked on the lane in front of their RV, leaving the space for them to pull into.
Both he and Zeyla sat on the plastic Adirondack chairs beside the front door, and she had Jolene on her lap, stroking the cat in long swipes.
Kenna pushed open the door and tried to climb out gracefully, feeling huge even though she didn’t look it. “So you’re a cat person.” She wandered over, and Jax went in the storage unit under the RV, where he pulled out two folding chairs.
Zeyla shrugged. “Never said I wasn’t.”
The door to the RV wasn’t open.
“Did you pick the lock?” Kenna asked.
“Trade secret.”
Jax chuckled, unfolding a chair for Kenna to sit on. “She texted me, and I remotely unlocked the door.”
Zeyla shrugged again.
“Sit here.” Ramon shot up out of the chair. “I’ll take the uncomfortable seat.” He looked like he wanted to pick her up and set her in the chair so she didn’t have to expend the energy sitting.
Kenna held on to his arm, much like the cop who’d helped her to her feet and used her hold on him to ease down slowly.
She stretched out her feet and let go of a long breath.
Then realized she needed to pee again. “Never mind. I’ll be back.
” She levered herself up out of the chair.
“Figure out how to resolve all this while I’m in there. We need a plan.”
She let herself in the RV and found a sweater, since she’d given her jacket to the detective bleeding out.
Kenna set her gun in the lockbox in the closet because she didn’t need it on her here with three people around to protect her, then took care of the pressing business that came with there being a baby sitting on her bladder.
Her phone rang before she toweled off her hands, but she got to it before it quit ringing. The number was local, but not one she’d stored in her phone. “Banbury Investigations.”
“I told them I was calling my lawyer. They want me to tell them everything, how I planted that bomb, and how I tried to kill the Croatian president.”
Kenna knew the voice. It was one of the lawyers from Hann, Anthony & Associates. “And about how you didn’t mean to kill a child, but you’re so very sorry about the collateral damage.”
The caller gasped. “Who wouldn’t be sorry? But that doesn’t mean I did it.”
“I need to know everything about that think tank,” Kenna said. “All of it. I need information if I’m going to make connections, and right now I’ve got a bunch of nothing.”
“We sent you that packet.”
“Someone needs to fill in the gaps.” Kenna braced a hand against the wall in the RV, holding the phone to her ear.
“Then come and see me. I’m sure I’ll be easy to find. I’m the one behind bars.”
The line went dead.