Chapter 24
TWENTY-FOUR
Wednesday
The previous day, with so much information to digest, Jenna had sent everyone home at five after six, intending to start fresh in the morning.
It had been a long day, with so many incidents happening at once that it had become difficult to keep them all separated.
The snowplows usually went through town and to outlying areas between six and six-thirty each evening, so to make sure her deputies and herself and Kane got home without being stuck in the blizzard, they all left to follow the snowplows home.
When they’d left the ranch, only a few snowflakes were falling and the road was recently cleared and covered with ice repellent.
As they drove into town, the amount of people milling around surprised Jenna.
It seemed everyone had taken advantage of the lessening snowfall to get out and grab supplies.
Most of the stores in town opened at seven.
Being a rural town, most of the ranchers were up and busy at daylight.
People bundled up in bright colors and all of them moving round in a cloud of steam amused Jenna.
In fact, the crowd of people lining up outside Aunt Betty’s Café appeared to be cloaked in fog.
She checked her watch. They’d made good time getting into town and arrived at the office a little after seven- thirty.
To her surprise, Maggie stood at the counter, and Rio, Rowley, and Raven sat at their desks hard at work. She gave Maggie a wave as she walked past the front counter to speak to her deputies. “You all look very busy. Do you have anything for me?”
“Yeah, Jesse Holland’s alibi checks out.
His girlfriend was with him as he told you.
” Rio glanced at Rowley. “We split up the CCTV footage between us and have been viewing it for the last hour or so.” He leaned back in his seat and yawned.
“It’s not very interesting. Not many people came and went in the last twelve hours.
Those we found we zoomed in and captured an image of them.
Apart from Jesse Holland, Ms. Bell, Ms. McBride, and the principal, we haven’t identified anyone yet. ”
“Ms. Bell cooperated and gave me a complete list of everyone who worked or entered the building over the last week or so, along with dates and times.” Raven spun around in his chair to look at Jenna. “I’ve been trying to narrow it down to the times when we know someone stalked Ms. McBride.”
Glad that everyone worked without supervision, Jenna nodded.
“That’s really good, Raven, but don’t forget to include anyone who called in sick.
It would be to pretend they weren’t going to be at work and then slip in later.
They all know where the CCTV cameras are situated and could easily avoid them, so it’s imperative you check the logs to see who actually worked those days. ”
“Okay.” Raven rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ll call Ms. Bell and ask her for a list of anyone who called in sick over that time.”
Turning to go, Jenna glanced over her deputies. “Keep me up to date. I’m going to get the search warrant for the social services department.” She headed up the stairs to her office.
As she entered the office, Kane glanced up and smiled and then went back to tapping away on his keyboard.
The room smelled of freshly brewed coffee and she could hear the machine sizzling as the rich brown liquid plopped into the pot.
She dropped her things on her desk, removed her coat and gloves, and went to sit down.
Under her desk she could hear Duke snoring.
They had intended to leave the bloodhound at home as he didn’t like the cold weather and he wasn’t getting any younger.
They changed their minds when Duke followed them to the front door, his tail wagging with excitement to be going out, and they couldn’t leave him behind.
Kane had carried him to the truck and set him on the back seat and then carried him again from the truck and into the office.
The dog had turned around three times and flopped down in his basket under her desk.
As she bent down to rub Duke’s ears, his tail thumped, and one eye opened to look at her.
She tucked the blanket around him and gave his head a scratch. “You are such a good boy, Duke.”
The dog gave a long, contented sigh, and Kane sniggered. She looked at him. “What’s so funny?”
“I’m starting to believe that Duke prefers being here in the office in the quiet so he can sleep all day, rather than being home with the boys.
I figure they’re getting too noisy for him.
” Kane stood and walked over to the printer as paperwork started shooting out.
“I’ve written up the request for a search warrant.
I have everything covered. If you take a look at it, make sure I haven’t forgotten anything, we’ll walk it over to the judge before he starts court.
Hopefully he'll sign it and we can head straight to the Department of Social Services before we need to be at the autopsy.”
Jenna sat down at her desk and pulled out a legal pad.
There were so many things to do that she needed to make a list. When they spoke to the director of the social services, she’d need to discover which of Laney Prescott’s workmates were also her friends, or if any of them knew any of her friends.
She needed her whereabouts before the night of her murder, her current cases, and also cases involving any children who went to Black Rock Falls Middle School in the last ten years or so.
It would be a huge ask for the department and correlating information would take months unless she could convince Kalo and Beth Katz to get involved, as they had access to the type of software that gave them almost instant results.
She glanced out of the window. The snow had finally stopped falling and maybe Styles and Carter would be able to fly into town.
They would only need a break in the weather of two hours or so.
As Kane correlated the paperwork for the search warrant, she pulled out her phone and called Agent Carter.
“Good morning, Ty. It’s stopped snowing here.
Is there any chance you’ll be able to fly over the next few hours?
We really need your help right now. I will explain everything later, but we have another Christmas serial killer in town. ”
“We’re all packed and ready to go.” Carter’s boots echoed on tile as he walked. “I heard from Styles not fifteen minutes ago. They should be on their way shortly. We had planned to drop the birds down on your ranch, but will we have transportation to the office?”
Jenna smiled. “Yeah, my department truck is there and Raya is at home with the boys. She’ll give you the keys.
You have the code to get into the cottage.
You’ll be sharing with Kalo, I hope you don’t mind.
Beth and Styles in the other rooms and Jo and Jaime in one of our spare rooms. Give me a call when you arrive.
Tell Kalo and Beth to bring their laptops.
I need them to run down a few things for me. ”
“Copy that. We can disable your security net from the choppers, so we’ll be able to land without a problem.” Carter chuckled. “It sounds like I can look forward to another fun-filled Christmas in Black Rock Falls.”
Smiling, Jenna shook her head. Carter was certainly a character.
His laid-back nature covered what lay beneath the surface.
A Navy SEAL who’d suffered PTSD, he’d been dragged back into service as an FBI agent by his partner, Jo Wells.
His two years off the grid had made him antisocial at first, but now he slid into the team and had become part of their family.
“I’m sure you wouldn’t have it any other way.
We look forward to seeing you all again. ”
After disconnecting, Jenna made notes to organize the takedown of the drug distribution at the Withers ranch.
The time had come for her to delegate responsibility.
She had too many things to consider to take on any more burdens.
Styles and Carter had experience in taking down drug cartels, and along with Kane as a backup sniper, they would work out a suitable plan.
She needed to keep her mind on working with Kalo and Beth Katz on finding suspects for the murders.
With her list of things to do sitting in front of her, she realized just how vast a task she had set herself.
The leads to Ellie McBride being involved in Laney Prescott’s murder had all fallen away to dust with the death of Ellie.
Without any solid leads to find the murderer, she would need to gather herself and literally start the investigation again.
She stood and exchanged her shoes for boots and then glanced at Kane as he carefully placed the paperwork inside a manila folder.
“We desperately need this search warrant. I want to find a tie between the murders. If we follow the usual psychopath pattern, we’ll be looking at someone who has problems with teachers and social workers.
To me, this screams of a kid who has been placed in the system and maybe didn’t get the help that they wanted.
I’m going to play toward that angle and hope for the best, because right now it’s all that I’ve got. ”
“It sounds like a fine plan, Jenna.” Kane shrugged into his coat and, taking the gloves out of his pocket, pushed the folder under one arm and then pulled them on.
“I figure we’ve got enough probable cause to sway the judge.
He knows the severity of the problem we have in Black Rock Falls with serial killers.
He also understands our methods. We might get a list of names but we will also treat them in a sensitive manner.
” He buttoned his coat. “One thing you haven’t considered is if the person we’re looking for isn’t a child who went through the system.
There is a possibility they could be a parent or someone who’s had their child removed from their care and is carrying resentment toward the people who made it possible.
If we get a bunch of names and Kalo and Beth can find matches with some of the other searches that we’ve been doing, we might strike gold.
” He pushed on his hat and glanced down at Duke, who snored in his sleep. “Let’s go. Duke will be fine here.”
Smiling broadly, Jenna slid her arm through Kane’s as they left the judge’s office.
Happiness blocked out the blast of freezing wind that threatened to cut through her thick clothes.
Under her arm she gripped the signed search warrant.
Kane had been amazing, giving his genuine concern about any clients but stressing the need to prevent more murders.
Between them they’d convinced the judge but it hadn’t been easy.
At last, they could move forward. The moment they were out of earshot, she planned to whoop and happy dance in the snow, but as she turned to look at Kane, she barely avoiding tripping over a woman pushing a stroller.
Luckily, Kane had tightened his grip and she gathered herself and smiled at a red-nosed child peeking out from under a knitted blue bonnet and waving a teddy bear.
The toothless grin the little boy gave her shone out like a ray of sunshine.
She suddenly missed Tauri and Jackson, although they would be thrilled with the arrival of the choppers.
She’d made sure to call Raya to inform her they were coming and to tell Tauri about them right away as a chopper had landed in the yard previously and a notorious criminal had kidnapped him.
She hoped the arrival of the FBI agents, along with Jo’s daughter, Jaime, would put a smile on his face.
“I miss them too.” Kane leaned into her as they strolled along the sidewalk.
“I liked being the rancher for a year as well. It was relaxing.” He bent and kissed the top of her head.
“I hate to admit it, but I loved the entire process. The late-night feeding, changing diapers. It was an experience I figured would never happen. I wish we’d had those important times with Tauri as well but just having him as our son and seeing him smile is enough. ”
Glad of him beside her blocking the chill, she smiled.
“Yeah, it was exhausting—still is—but I loved every second. I’d have had ten kids, but the job got in the way.
I love being sheriff. I need to be useful and I figure I can have both: my kids and my job.
It’s just as well. Most of the time, it’s a peaceful town and we get to spend time at home.
We should be grateful the mayor allows us the time we need. ”
“Talking about time”—Kane glanced at his watch—“we need to head to Wolfe’s office, or we’ll miss the autopsy.”
Increasing her stride, Jenna headed for the office. She needed to keep moving forward on the murders as fast as possible. “I’ll get Rio and Rowley to execute the search warrant. Raven will probably like to attend the autopsy. I’ll meet you at the Beast.”