Chapter 47

FORTY-SEVEN

As the Beast roared back to the office, Jenna stared at Kane. "Okay what's stuck in your craw?" She sighed. "I've never seen you take an instant dislike to anyone in all the time we've been together… well, apart from a few serial killers."

"I know Johnny Raven. This is why I didn't want him as a suspect." Kane's fingers gripped the steering wheel and he stared straight ahead.

Astounded, Jenna turned in her seat. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"You know why." Kane shook his head slowly. "He flew an evac chopper during one of my missions. He wasn't supposed to be behind enemy lines but he risked his life to save me." He flicked her a glance but his expression was hidden behind his mirrored sunglasses. "The chopper was hit and somehow he managed to put it down. We spent ten days avoiding the enemy. He's very good at his job. Yeah, he's a doctor but he's a damn fine soldier as well. Special ops would have taken him in a second. He's smart and has a brilliant memory for details. He's younger than me but not by much and he made it through from medic to doctor and was still flying missions." A nerve in Kane's cheek twitched. "He'll see through the surgery I've had. My eyes are the same. Sure the scars and tattoos are gone, but although my accent is slightly different, he's no fool. I can't disguise my size or my skills, and if he runs my prints, I'll be relocated."

Horrified, Jenna gaped at him. "You had tattoos?" She caught his mouth twitch into a smile and then fade. "Why didn't Wolfe mention him?"

"Because Shane doesn't know." Kane drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. "It was around the time his wife first got sick. I had another handler during that mission. That's probably why I came close to being captured. Trust me, I'm alive because of Shane. He thinks one step ahead all the time. If he'd known Raven, the moment his name came up he'd have shut him down."

Astonished, Jenna stared at him. "You mean kill him?"

"If he's a threat to national security, yeah. It happens all the time." His shoulders hunched. "That was one of my jobs, in case it slipped your mind."

Trying to grasp the enormity of the situation, Jenna stared at him. "What can we do?"

"He can't use a retina scanner on me if he suspects something. I mean, he might consider me a security risk, as in, I faked my death to spy for a hostile country, for instance. If he reports me and they run my prints, all hell will break loose. My DNA isn't on file anywhere. Wolfe was able to pull that, but my prints will be under my real name because if they suddenly vanished, it would send up reg flags in the military." Kane sucked in a breath and shook his head. "This guy isn't going away now, is he? I'll ask Wolfe about altering my fingerprints."

Swallowing hard, Jenna stared at him. "That's practically impossible. Burning them off with heat or chemicals doesn't work for long. Eventually they grow back."

"It's okay. Shane will have a way. There are all types of new technology now. He'll come up with something." Kane slowed as they reached Main. "I'll be sore for a week, maybe less. I'll wear gloves and tell people I got frostbite. It's the only way, unless you figure killing a man who saved Julie, Emily, and me is the only way out of this mess." He sighed. "Personally, I believe that's a little harsh, but we need to do something before the shit hits the fan." He drove into the parking lot behind the office. "I'll unhitch the trailer and you go inside in the warm."

Fear clenched Jenna's belly and she closed her hand around his arm, feeling the tension in his muscles. "They'd take you from me and our kids? Would they really do that?"

"To keep you safe, yeah, they would." Kane slipped from the truck and came around the hood to wait as she climbed out. He held out his hand. "I'll take whatever steps to make sure that doesn't happen." He pulled her close. "You are my world, nothing else matters. I'll do whatever it takes to protect my family."

Holding back tears threatening to spill, Jenna walked carefully to the back door and scanned her eye. The door clicked open and she hurried inside, glad of the warmth and familiar smell of the office. Rowley met her as she walked into the ground floor. Although panic for Kane ripped into her, she must act normal and she smiled at him. "I'm glad to see you up and around. How do you feel?"

"A little sore but I'm okay." Rowley scrutinized her face. "You look exhausted. Oberg is safely locked away in interview room one. He wants to talk to the DA. Rio called him and he is waiting for you. He said, to speak to Oberg, make sure you give him his Miranda rights on video and then he'll do his thing. He'll watch the interview from the conference room." He frowned. "First, you need to get out of those wet clothes. Sit down and I'll get you something to eat and drink. Is Kane on his way? I just had a delivery from Aunt Betty's and the peach pie is still hot."

Jenna smiled at him. "Oh, that will be wonderful. I'll go and change." She headed for the stairs.

Twenty minutes or so later Jenna and Kane walked into the interview room. Rio had searched Oberg and relieved him of a few personal items, but what was interesting was the Glock, a roll of gaffer tape, a hunting knife, a lipstick, and his phone. The most interesting was his phone, complete with images of the women he'd murdered. All items had been entered into evidence.

"Jenna." Kane pulled her to one side. "This guy is a jerk. He has no respect for women. I figure we do the good cop, bad cop ploy with him."

She stared at him. "What do you mean?"

"Look, I need to get inside his head and find out why he's doing this, so I might need to sink to his level and say some pretty derogative things about women. It will be as offensive to me as it is for you, but it's for a good reason. These guys often trash-talk if they believe they're getting sympathy. So if I say anything disrespectful against women, you know darn well that's not what I really believe. Will you be comfortable with this line of interrogation? It's used all over with success."

Nodding, Jenna understood cops used every means of legal persuasion, even lies to get a prisoner to talk, and if this worked, she'd swallow her distaste. Her husband was a good and respectful man, and if he needed to sink to the level of a monster to get him to confess, well, so be it. "Okay, I'll grit my teeth because I know you're only doing your job. Let's get at it."

Jenna switched on the video, which fed to the conference room, and gave the date, time, and who was present. She read Oberg his rights and sat down beside Kane. "Are you waiving your rights to have a lawyer present?"

"Yeah, I don't need one just for an interview." Oberg chuckled.

Jenna took a legal pad from the drawer and a pen from inside her pocket. "Okay, Mr. Oberg, tell me all about the women in the forest." She gave him a direct stare. "How did you meet them?"

"I don't want to say." Oberg looked away and his mouth turned down.

Flicking a glance at Kane, Jenna stood. "Then I'm wasting my time. You agreed to talk to me so I could speak to the DA about a possible deal. I'll need something to give him, Mr. Oberg. Details are important and will make or break a deal."

"Okay, sit down." Oberg rolled his eyes. "But I don't like your attitude toward me. Bossy women are a pain in the butt."

"Either answer the questions or we walk." Kane scraped back his chair. "I'd rather be eating peach pie than talking to you."

"I met them through dating apps, okay?" Oberg rolled his shoulders. "Everyone does it these days."

Jenna sat down and made a few unnecessary notes. "How did you get them to Black Rock Falls?"

"I offered them a vacation at a ski resort." Oberg grinned. "They couldn't get here fast enough, but when they arrived, I put them on the back of my snowmobile and took them into the forest to admire the view. They all came willingly."

"Describe what happened next." Kane rested his clenched hands on the table.

"I told them to lean against a tree and look at the view. I pulled out my phone to take a pic and then walked behind them, grabbed their wrists and wrapped them around the tree." Oberg grinned. "They got nasty but when I pressed my Glock into their faces they went real still." He looked at Kane and shrugged. "I didn't rape them or hurt them, just maybe scared them a little. I tied them to the tree, covered their mouths if they wouldn't stop screaming, and cut off their clothes. Next, I took their hair, drew a smiley face on their foreheads, and took a pic and showed them." He chuckled. "You should have seen their faces. Their hair was like a puppy they couldn't stop stroking. It drove me crazy watching them preening like damn birds all the time."

Jenna looked up from writing. She'd written a confession for him and all he needed to do was to sign it. "Then what? You drove away and left them to freeze to death?"

"Yeah, I guess I did, but wildlife might have gotten there first. It's happened before. Not here but in Colorado." Oberg shrugged. "Is that classified as murder? I guess by hacking off their hair and clothes it might be classified as assault, but I didn't murder them. The weather did that all by itself."

"Did you intend for them to die?" Kane's voice was low and almost cordial. "I mean some women nag, nag, nag, and I guess tying them naked to a tree in twenty below would be a way of shutting them up for a time."

"Yeah, I didn't want them showing up again and causing me strife." Oberg thought for a beat. "I guess deep down I couldn't stand the sight of them."

Hating hearing Kane speak like this but impressed he was getting the prisoner on his side, Jenna leaned forward, resting her hands on the desk. "Do you recall their names?"

"Nah, as soon as I walk away, they are erased from my mind." Oberg frowned. "I take photographs so I can look at them and sometimes I go back later to see if the critters have eaten them and take more pics. They look so funny staring out into the snow."

"Women can be annoying." Kane leaned back in his chair and waved a hand. "They have all these weird habits. What did they do to make you want to take them into the forest?"

"It was the hair. They were always touching their hair." Oberg rolled his eyes. "Normal people don't play with their hair all the time. The fake women, you know the types, with big puffed-up lips, eyebrows hitched up so high they looked startled or like clowns all the time, the puffy cheeks, implants all over, long fake nails. They are the ones who do it all the time. It's like they are sending out alien signals. Like it's, ‘Look at me hiding behind the mask. Really I'm an ugly old crone.' I strip them off and show the world what's underneath."

Horrified, Jenna tried to compose herself. "Were the women you left to die horrible to you? I've known many women who look beautiful because of a little cosmetic surgery. It increases their self-esteem. It's not meant to be a mask."

"No not horrible but demanding." Oberg sighed. "As if breaking a nail was criminal, or if they couldn't get their hair or nails done, it was the end of the world. They were obsessed with how they looked all the time. It was look at me, look at me. Every five minutes they were taking selfies and they couldn't walk past a mirror without stopping to admire themselves. It's not normal. They're all freaks. Crazy self-absorbed freaks." He swung his gaze to Kane. "He understands. I bet he likes his women natural, just like I do."

"Maybe not." Kane rubbed his chin. "Are we done here or do you want to go into more detail before we call in the DA? He's watching the interview and knows you've cooperated. I guess you'll need to speak to him, but first we'll need a signed confession given freely without duress."

"Sure." Oberg shrugged. "Whatever, to get it over with. My wrist hurts and it will be difficult to sign it."

"That will be fine. We'll witness the document and we have it on tape." Kane straightened. "It's all good. You did the right thing."

"Okay." Jenna finished the written confession by adding a list of the women they'd discovered dead in the forest. She mentioned the attempted murder of Carolyn and the attack on Emily Wolfe. She slid it across the table. "Read this aloud, and if you agree, sign it and I'll call in the DA."

"I confess to taking Flora Hadley, Lorraine Smith, Abilene Drew into the forest, tying them to trees, stripping them, cutting off their hair, and leaving them to die. I also confess to keeping Carolyn Stubbs prisoner and taking her into the forest to do the same thing. I attacked Emily Wolfe on the trail." He looked at Jenna. "I had no idea who she was. I figured she was Carolyn." He signed the bottom and smiled. "There, now can we do a deal?"

Jenna took the legal pad and pen and stood. "The DA will be right in."

Following Kane outside, Jenna leaned against the wall. "I guess we'd better inform all the law enforcement offices in Colorado and tell them about Oberg."

Footsteps announced the DA with a colleague and Rio. Jenna nodded. "He's all yours."

"I can't believe he gave up all that evidence so easily." The DA rubbed his chin. "The slip about Colorado is interesting. I figure this guy's crime spree goes wider than we imagined." He looked at Jenna. "I've already called County to collect the prisoner. I'll formally charge him and sort everything from hereon. Make sure you have all Carolyn Stubbs' details, parents, friends, everything in case we need her. I believe Oberg will plead guilty, but if he changes his mind, she'll be a crucial witness. Rio can handle everything from here. Why don't you head on home, you look exhausted." He walked inside the interview room.

Jenna turned to Rio. "That's a good idea. You can handle all the details and for once, we'll head home early. Christmas is just around the corner and after running through snowdrifts all day, I need time to recuperate."

"Don't worry, the office is in safe hands." Rio grinned and headed into the interview room.

Bone weary, Jenna climbed the stairs. As they walked into her office, Duke came out of his basket, tail windmilling and giving them a doggy smile. She bent to rub his ears. "Guess what, Duke? We get to head home early." She straightened and smiled at Kane. "Why don't you get his coat on? I'll call Nanny Raya and tell her we're on our way to collect Tauri. He wanted to see the Christmas decorations along Main, so we'll drive slowly so he can see them."

"That sounds like a plan." Kane bent to kiss her. "This has been one long day."