Before the Dawn(27)

Tucker slid his card to the other man. "Like I said, Dawn is okay right now." And I'm not going to let that change. "When Jinx comes in, get her to call me."

Malone nodded.

Tucker left the shop, but unease nagged at him. They had a copycat working in the city. And at the exact same time the bastard started hunting, Jinx Donahue had her first ever unexplained absence from work in a year? 

Maybe she'd pulled an all-nighter. It was the weekend, after all. Maybe she'd stayed up late partying, but...

She didn't answer her door.

And Tucker didn't like coincidences.

If someone had been sneaking into Dawn's place, if the guy had come into her building and Jinx saw him...then the tattoo artist could be a person their perp wanted to eliminate.

She could be a target.

As he walked out on the street, his phone rang, vibrating in his pocket. He pulled it out and saw Macey's name on the screen. He swiped his finger across the screen and put the phone to his ear. "What have you got?"

"We know who our victim is."

Hell, yes.

"Her name is Heather Hartley, she's a twenty-one-year-old former student at Louisiana State University."

His heart rate sped up.

"We used her dental records to track her." Macey was speaking quickly. He could hear the murmur of voices in the background. "The woman had no police record. From what I can tell, she never had any trouble with the law. Not so much as a speeding ticket."

"Why wasn't she reported missing?" He walked quickly down the street.

"Her parents are both dead. She was failing her classes at LSU, so she dropped out last fall. Her friends thought she just went somewhere to start new. They had no idea..."

That she'd become a victim.

"She grew up in Baton Rouge," she continued, and now her speech sounded more...measured. "Even went to Rondale High School."

He stopped walking. "I went to that school." He'd gone there. Jason had gone there. Dawn had gone there. "Shit. She's not some random victim." No, she was a deliberate message. "We need to see if she has any links to Jason Frost. Because maybe she-"

"She is linked to him."

The heat was blistering.

"Her cousin was the first victim of the Iceman."

They had a big fucking problem on their hands. "Call Samantha and let her know what you've found. I need to get to Dawn. She thinks someone has been stalking her, and I damn well believe she's right." A killer was playing a very deadly game with her.

He heard Macey's quick inhale.

"If this guy is targeting victims related to the Iceman, then Dawn is going to be his big prize. He'll go after her." No doubt in Tucker's mind.

"There's something else..."

He crossed the street and jumped into his rented SUV.

"Heather's wounds were all made with a knife that matched up exactly to the weapon that Jason Frost used. The cuts were all exact duplicates of the ones he inflicted on his victims."

Duplicates. Because that was what a copycat did. He duplicated.

"This guy knows the Iceman, inside and out." He cranked the SUV and transferred the call over to the Bluetooth system. "He's going to want to finish what Jason Frost started."


      ///
       
         
       
        

He'll want to kill Dawn.

Not happening. "Dawn needs to be under protective custody." She needed to be a million miles away from the city. "I'm getting her now."

* * *

DAWN STARED AT the line of yellow police tape. That small, plastic line was supposed to keep the perimeter safe from intrusion.

There wasn't even a cop stationed there to keep prying eyes away. And that little bit of tape? It certainly wasn't going to keep Dawn out. She headed toward the warehouse, her gaze scanning the perimeter. There were no other cars there, no sign that anyone else was nearby. She could smell the river and the sun beamed down from overhead. Dawn slipped on gloves-she always did that when she went to investigate a scene.

Don't ever leave a trace behind. Especially if you're doing something not exactly legal. Advice she'd learned from Roth. Roth's Rules to Spy By. That was what he'd called them. Never leave a trace because you don't want to give the cops any reason to come down on you.

She didn't go to the front entrance. She slipped around the building and, yes, not surprisingly, she found a broken window. Dawn slipped inside.

The building smelled musty. Light shone in through all of the windows, so she could see easily as she searched the area. The police had certainly left signs that they'd been there. Evidence tags. More tape and-