Chapter 39
Wyatt removed his cap and swiped the sweat from his brow. The fifty-five degrees felt like ninety. The teams had filed out nearly six hours ago to search their designated grids.
Womack, Sullenger, and Addy were on Wyatt’s team but they’d gotten a later start than the others. Addy had insisted on bringing Nichols to the location.
Wyatt couldn’t deny the woman had sensed some of the details about the killer, but he wasn’t so sure how far to follow that lead. And daylight was wasting.
He’d kept a close eye on Addy. He could hardly believe her mother was dead. Even more unbelievable was the idea that he’d allowed her to be a part of this search.
Admittedly, as long as she was focused on the investigation, she didn’t dwell on all the insanity.
But there was no way to avoid the issues. She was in denial now. He couldn’t let her fall apart without being close by to back her up.
The way he’d failed to do nine years ago.
Wyatt shook off the painful thoughts. He couldn’t afford to be distracted.
Nichols turned all the way around, her eyes wide, her big wool coat swallowing just about all of her but those eyes.
“He came this way.” She pointed to the water and nodded with complete certainty.
Then she stilled. Her head started to wag back and forth.
“He didn’t bring them here.” Her gaze settled on Addy.
“But he was here . . .” She gave her head another good shake.
“Don’t know why, but he came here for something.
Or maybe he passed this way going where he was going. ”
“A lot of these waterways intersect,” Womack suggested. “He may have used a canoe, moved about that way with his victims.”
Wyatt heaved a disgusted breath. “Yeah. We’ll keep searching until dark.” Scarcely a few minutes more. There was nothing else to do at this point. “Tomorrow we’ll take another sector and do the same. We’ll just keep doing it until we find them.”
Pain tightened in Addy’s face. She offered her arm to the older woman. “Come on, Ms. Nichols, I’ll walk you back to the command post. From there one of the deputies will give you a ride home.”
Wyatt started to argue, but Sullenger jumped in. “I’ll go with you, Detective Cooper.” She smiled at Wyatt. “Better to move about in pairs, right, sir?”
Addy rolled her eyes but didn’t argue.
Wyatt checked in with the team leaders. He knew damned well that if any of them had made a discovery he would have known about it within seconds.
Still, it was something to do until Addy was back at his side.
He’d sworn he wasn’t letting her out of his sight.
But they weren’t that far from the temporary command post and Sullenger was with her, both were armed.
If he didn’t give her some breathing room, she would revolt.
He shook his head. So far they hadn’t found a damned thing and Nichols had just insisted the women weren’t anywhere near here. Of course, she could be wrong. But she’d been right about a hell of a lot so far.
Damn it.
What the hell was wrong with him? One minute he thought the woman being involved was a waste of time, the next he’d done an about-face.
He seemed to be doing a lot of that lately. Wyatt shoved his phone back into the holster on his belt. If this thing hadn’t happened, Addy likely would never have come back home. Selfishly, he was glad she was back. But every minute that this crazed bastard was on the loose, her life was threatened.
Damn it. He felt helpless. Just plain damned helpless.
“This guy’s a true psycho, don’t you think?” Womack asked. “What he did to his wife is unthinkable.”
“Yeah.” Wyatt had read about the children of killers and how sometimes they ended up following that same path, but he’d never worked a case where the perp fell into that category.
Well, there were the Cooper boys, Gage and Clay.
But, to his knowledge, neither one had resorted to murder.
If Cyrus had ever committed a homicide, he’d kept it under wraps.
No way to be certain with a man like that.
Womack scanned the woods all around them; the trees and underbrush grew right up to the riverbank. “I’m scared to death we’re going to be too late for those women.” He settled his attention on Wyatt. “No harm in a man admitting fear, especially in a situation like this.”
“None at all,” Wyatt agreed. “We hope for the best and brace for the worst. Then we do all we can.” It may already be too late. Wyatt exiled that truth.
Every county from here to just north of Laurel and all the way west to Picayune was looking for those women and the damned man who had taken them. He couldn’t be that good.
Wyatt turned to stare in the direction Addy had gone with Nichols and Sullenger. He shouldn’t have let her out of his sight. How many times had he said that and gone on to let her have her way? He started in the direction of the command post. Womack called out to him, but Wyatt just kept walking.
He had to get to Addy and this time she wasn’t getting more than two feet from him.