Chapter 24

Rio fiddled with Johanna Worth’s phone as they followed Wolfe’s van back to Black Rock Falls. He’d never found it too difficult to access someone’s phone—most who used fingerprints or facial recognition left the numeral password intact and those people usually used a very simple four-digit code. The most popular was the year of the person’s birth. The three phones he’d examined belonging to the victims he’d opened in the same way. He scrolled through the calls. Recently she’d called the pizzeria, made a call that had the ID tag of Mom, one was to the beauty parlor, and that was just about it. He accessed her social media via the phone and the passwords popped up on their own. After scrolling through her twenty or so social media friends, he found one of the suspects, Chase Holden. Johanna had followed a page for his business, Living Things, a woodcarving store in town. Rio followed this with a background check but no red flags went up. Chase Holden had arrived in Black Rock Falls in summer to open a store to sell his artwork. He carved animals from wood using a chainsaw. Rio found reels on his page demonstrating his ability.

He’d noticed a carving of a bear cub in Johanna’s family room and closed his eyes, filtering through information in his cluttered mind. His retentive memory was a curse as well as a blessing. Some things he’d rather forget, but in times like these it did come in handy. He did recall seeing a sculpture of an eagle in the home of Dakota Slade. This was one of the links Jenna had mentioned. Sometimes the simplest of things linked people to killers. He thought for a time but couldn’t recall any wood sculptures in the home of Jennifer Kriss, but perhaps they were expensive and he doubted any of them had spare cash for artwork. He turned to Rowley. “I’ve found a small link between Chase Holden, Dakota Slade, and the last victim.”

“If that’s the case, then you’ll need to take a look at the social media of Jennifer Kriss.” Rowley pulled into his spot outside the sheriff’s office. “If they’re all social media friends, we’ll need to grab the keys to Jennifer Kriss’ home and look for a wooden sculpture. I must admit, I’m usually looking for evidence and not appraising artwork.”

Nodding, Rio used the phone to hunt down Chase Holden’s social media followers. He entered the names of the victims one by one and found all three followed his page. “He has three thousand followers, but I found them.”

“Now what?” Rowley headed up the steps to the office. “If we find his sculpture in Jennifer’s home, do we go and confront him or hunt down the other suspect first?”

Considering the facts, Rio nodded. “We go and speak to him. He has a store in town. He works and lives in the back. His page says his store is open seven days most times, so even though it’s Sunday, we’ll find him there or at home.” He followed Rowley into the office. “I’ll get an update from Cade and Piper.”

“We’ve had three calls.” Piper handed him three sheets of paper. “I’ve entered the details into the daybook as instructed. These are copies.” She smiled. “Two people with dashcam footage have sent it in and the other was from the bank manager. The ATM has a camera and he went by to check it when he heard the news report. It picked up a cowboy fitting the description: blond untidy hair, brown Stetson, snakeskin boots, walking to a white truck, with an airport rental sticker on the back.”

Impressed, Rio smiled at them. “You have the pictures of the suspects. Can you make out who it is?”

“It could be any one of them and I’m not so sure this guy has blond hair. He’s kind of hunched up against the rain.” Cade raised both eyebrows. “It looks like Carter, right down to the snakeskin band around his hat.”

“Everyone has those around here, along with the boots and the Stetson.” Piper shook her head. “All the guys wear cowboy hats, ball caps, or hunting hats in this weather, so hair color is hard to distinguish.” She looked at Cade. “They need more evidence than that before they send a guy to jail for murder and I don’t believe it’s Carter. He wouldn’t kill women for fun. He loves women.”

“Maybe he loves them so much he doesn’t want to share them with anyone so he kills them.” Cade grinned at her. “They do that, psychopaths. I’m reading Jo Wells’ books on criminal behavior. That is one of the signs.”

“You’re impossible.” Piper turned her back on him and headed down to the kitchenette. “I’m taking a break.”

Rio watched her go. At twenty they were forging ahead with their own lives but he didn’t see them leaving home anytime soon. Neither had wanted to go off to college, both happy to attend the local one, although they’d gone through the usual application process and he’d been surprised at the number of colleges offering them scholarships. Both had decided on a career in law enforcement to various degrees. Piper wanted to be in the justice system, working in the courts, she’d wanted to work alongside a judge and listen to court cases. Cade, after a very bumpy adolescence, had made up his mind to become a law enforcement officer and was working toward the necessary qualifications. He’d even mentioned the FBI. He turned as Rowley came back from the evidence locker. “When we’ve searched the Kriss home, we’ll go to Aunt Betty’s and plan our next move. I want to see if there are any more links between the victims before we go and speak to Holden and have a list of questions in my mind rather than go in unprepared.”

“That works for me.” Rowley slid behind the wheel. “Do you figure we should call Jenna and bring her up to speed?”

Rio shook his head. “Nah, if she’s in the chopper, she won’t hear the phone. She’ll call us when she finds Kane. We can tell her then, if she’s in any fit state.” He gave him a long look. “If the cartel has him, his chances are one in a million to get out alive and now they have Tauri. I want a good outcome, but I’ve seen what they do to people. The best thing we can do to help right now is to take some of the burden from her shoulders by solving this case.”

“Kane is as tough as they come.” Rowley backed out of the parking space and headed along Main. “He was buried alive, struck by lightning, and survived. I don’t know many men who could take him down alone. My money is on him. He’ll make it out, he always does.”

Surprised by Rowley’s obvious hero worship, he cleared his throat. “He’s flesh and blood like all of us, Jake. If he hadn’t been unconscious, there would have been signs of a fight and Jenna found nothing. Blackhawk examined the scene as well and both concluded Kane must have been out cold when they took him. He must weigh at least two-fifty and they would have needed at least four strong men to lift him into a truck.” He frowned. “Put Kane out of your mind for a time until we know what’s happening. Keep your head in the game. We must be the professional team that Jenna needs right now.”

“Okay.” Rowley turned into Jennifer Kriss’ driveway and pulled up beside her old truck. “Let’s do this.” He pulled examination gloves from the console and tossed a pair to Rio. “This is still a crime scene and I’m betting it still stinks in there.” He grabbed two masks and handed him one.

Using the keys, they went inside, ducking under the crime scene tape. It did stink of death and they split up to look through the lower floor. They didn’t need to go far, the moment Rio walked into the family room, he spotted the small carved bear on a table in front of the window. “I found a carving, but this is way too small to have been carved using a chainsaw.” He picked it up and turned it over. “It has the initials CH carved into the bottom. It’s one of Holden’s. I’ll bag it and take it with us. We’ll enter it into evidence. I figure we go and get all three of the sculptures. They’re crucial evidence and prove that Holden came in contact with all of the victims.”

“I had a strange feeling you’d want to visit the other crime scenes today.” Rowley patted his pocket. “I have the other victim’s house keys with me.”

Rio smiled at him. “That’s what I call thinking outside the box.” He headed for the door.