Chapter 21

TWENTY-ONE

Darkness pressed against the windows in the conference room as Jenna took a sip of cold coffee and grimaced. She checked her watch. "It's ten after six and the snowplow guy is due to leave town by six-thirty. We need to go, now." She looked at Kane. "Go and collect Tauri from Nanny Raya's and I'll meet you downstairs." She closed her laptop and gathered her things before looking at Rio and Rowley. "We'll discuss what we've found in the morning unless it's significant. I want to hunt down the suspects before anyone else is found bound to a tree."

"I'll call you after supper." Rio stood and rolled his shoulders. "I'll chase down a few more details from home. We all need to take advantage of following the snowplows this afternoon. My guy heads in the direction of my ranch around seven."

"I'll be right behind you." Rowley picked up his laptop and grabbed his hat from the table.

Jenna headed back to her office to collect her coat and pull on her boots. She attached Duke's coat and he yawned and stretched before shaking his big head and making his ears pinwheel. She patted him. "Ready to go home and go back to sleep?"

Duke barked and leaned against her leg. Jenna rubbed his soft muzzle and smiled. "You are such a good dog."

As she headed downstairs Maggie the receptionist, or administrative assistant as her new job role was explained by the mayor, glanced up at her. "Time to go home, Maggie. It's getting dangerous out there. Will you be okay getting home?"

"I'll be fine." Maggie smiled and reached for her coat. "My truck has new snow tires and it's only a five-minute drive. You stay safe now." She waved her toward the door.

Glad to see Tauri, Jenna pulled open the door to give him a hug before settling Duke beside him. Tauri was dressed for bed and hugged his dinosaur. "Have you had dinner?"

"Yes." Tauri smiled. "Meat, and I ate the greens and had apple pie. I am full up to here." He indicated to his chin. "I brushed my teeth too." He gave her an exaggerated grin.

"That's good." Kane turned to look at him. "We're sorry we're late tonight."

"I know you've been looking for Julie." Tauri's face was serious. "You must find her, Daddy."

"We'll find her." Kane started the engine and headed along Main negotiating the piles of snow each side of the road left from the snowplow. He indicated ahead. "There's the snowplow guy. It's going to be a slow ride home tonight. Best you pull that blanket up to your chin."

During the long slow drive home, Jenna listened to Tauri's day with Nanny Raya. When she heard that Atohi Blackhawk had dropped by to spend some time with him, she smiled. "How lovely. Did he tell you stories?"

"Yes, and he taught me how to say more neat things." Tauri yawned and put one arm around Duke. "We talked about feathers and what they mean." His eyes fluttered and he dropped to sleep.

Jenna smiled at Kane. "He's all tuckered out. I figure the cold weather has us all exhausted. Did you discover anything interesting on our suspects?" She sighed. "I have sent the information on our victims all over but had no replies as yet. I concentrated on the names we have and where we could find them. None of them have professions listed, and most itinerant workers head to local ranches, bars, and food outlets where they can get work as cleaners. Some get work with the landscaping business as unskilled workers. I discovered a few places where they've done a couple of days' work, but they all move around. It will be hard to pin them down."

"Apart from John Raven, who is clean, I found they all have rap sheets. Most are misdemeanors, so I extended my search." Kane sighed. "My results aren't all in yet but so far they all fall into the interesting box because three of them have arrests for assaults against women."

Frowning, Jenna stared out at the dark landscape. The snow pelted down, filling the wipers and dragging an icy film across the windshield with each swipe. Snow flattened landmarks, and at night everything turned blue and gray, it was like being on the moon. "It's strange. In most of our cases we don't have a motive and no clue as to why the killers murdered, but suddenly, everyone we look at has a dark past. It's going to make it difficult to single out one as the potential killer."

"Until I know otherwise, they're all potential killers." Kane hunched as melting snowflakes sneaked under the collar of his jacket. "We need a timeline and their whereabouts."

Nodding, Jenna tapped her bottom lip, recalling the frozen corpses. "It would help if we knew a time of death. It's been below freezing for weeks. He could have been killing for a month by now. We have no idea. When they died is crucial evidence."

"When you spoke to Wolfe this afternoon, did he have any information on the victims?" Kane flicked her a glance and then returned his attention to the snowplow moving slowly along the road in front of them.

Wiping condensation from her window, Jenna shook her head. "Only they are all the same type of woman. Not hair color, but as in all have had extensive cosmetic surgery. He managed to get fingerprints and Kalo is currently feeding them through the databases. The victims will take time to thaw before Wolfe can make a time-of-death determination and then it will only be a guess. The last time we had frozen corpses they'd been frozen for a year."

"That doesn't apply in this case." Kane shrugged. "The animals would have eaten them if they'd been dumped before winter."

She leaned back in her seat. "Agreed, oh, and I spoke to Carter this afternoon as well and brought him up to date. He is anxious to be out searching for Julie and said his chopper can fly fine in the snow but the visibility is an issue, especially traveling along and through mountain ranges." She sighed. "It looks like we have no choice but to wait and hope Julie is somewhere safe."

"She's sensible." Kane heaved a sigh of relief as they pushed slowly along their driveway, the snowplow fitting on the front of the Beast cutting a path through the snow. "Wolfe and I taught the girls how to survive in the forest in all climates. Blackhawk instructed them on what to eat if they were stranded. If someone found her and is a survivalist, her chances are good. It depends on her injuries. We must hope she's making out okay, because right now, there's nothing more we can do. The snowmobile team has been searching all over as far as they can for as long as they can. Same with search and rescue and Blackhawk's friends. It's all we can do right now."

Without warning hot tears ran down Jenna's cheeks. She buried her face in her gloves and gave in to the emotions slamming into her. The chances of Julie being rescued by someone nice was hit and miss. She could be with a man who abused or raped women, a serial killer, or anything in between. The odds she was safe was way less than fifty-fifty. Who knows what she could be going through? The idea of not being able to help her was eating her up inside. The Beast stopped and Kane clicked off his seatbelt and hers and pulled her into his arms. He held her close and rubbed her back. She let it all go then, safe in his arms. The pressure of the job crushing down on her with such force she broke. Julie was missing, likely dead or in serious peril, and she could do absolutely nothing. Her reputation of a tough get-the-job-done sheriff with the best team in the West meant nothing. Inside, she screamed to get out and keep looking for Julie, but after one day in the freezing temperatures, zero visibility, and avalanches, she had to concede that Kane and Wolfe knew best.

The mayor had deployed organized teams of well-equipped and trained people to search the forest. For a time, she leaned into Kane, absorbing his strength. Until she'd married him, she'd never believed the possibilities couples could achieve, but leaning into his solid strength and inhaling his scent was better than any medication. He never rushed her or pushed her away when she needed him. It was as if he knew just the right time to offer his support. His hugs were priceless to her wellbeing. She lifted her head, seeing the wet patch on Kane's chest and took the tissues he offered and blew her nose. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be." Kane pushed hair from her face. "We're all worried about Julie, but the work we're doing hunting down cabins and people in the area will help us to find her. You need to trust the system, Jenna. You can't fix everything on your own. We fight crime. Leave the search and rescue and the snowmobile team to do their job. I know they're grid-searching on both sides of the avalanches. They have enough people to work in shifts. The mayor has the snowplows opening up the fire roads to give them access. I've been watching the snow reports and usually we get thirty-five inches of snow and Glacial Heights recorded eighty inches just this morning. The constant blizzard conditions and now earth tremors are making everyone's job harder."

Unable to understand why she couldn't control her emotions, Jenna swiped at her eyes. "I feel so useless. Julie and those poor women. Why do serial killers choose our county all the time? Are they challenging us to catch them?"

"Who can fathom the mind of a psychopath?" Kane shrugged, snapped on his seatbelt, and started the Beast. "I'll get you home. You need a nice hot shower, a good meal, and a long sleep." He waited for their gate to slide open and drove to the house. "Don't worry, Jenna, we'll work together and take it one day at a time as always. We'll find her and solve this case."

With Kane by her side, Jenna could climb mountains. Strengthened by his presence, she dabbed at her eyes. "I know we will." She squeezed his arm. "I'm so lucky to have you, Dave."