Undercover Hunter(106)

                “I did. I was thinking about it.”

                “Well, hell. You don’t need me to remind you what kind of line you’d be walking. You’re a law officer, not a civilian. You’re limited to what’s in plain sight unless you have a warrant. You don’t suppose some killer is going to show off his victims to you, do you?”

                “No.”

                “Then what are you hoping? That he might attack you?”

                DeeJay bridled a bit. “It appears he may have killed at least two women in the past—both of them fitting my description.”

                “Then this is even crazier.” Micah apparently didn’t believe in tiptoeing around. “You want to be bait? I had a case of that a couple of years ago, and it was a damn good thing I was on a rooftop with a sniper rifle. That’s easy to arrange in town, but a hell of a lot more dangerous out on a ranch. I don’t care what kind of training you’ve had. I spent twenty years in Special Ops and I wouldn’t walk into that alone. Assuming we’ve even got the right guy.”

                The justice of his words sank home. But she still had a stark reality to face. “Some other child could be at risk right this minute. He could accelerate. Most of these killers do and from what the FBI said, he may have accelerated in the past. For all we know, he’s making friends with some boy right now, luring him.”

                Micah lifted a brow. “You think he lures them?”

                “How else can you explain that nobody ever notices anything when these kids disappear? He must gain their trust enough to get them to come to him. I want to know if Sweet has been giving talks at the schools. How he could meet these kids and persuade them he’s trustworthy.”

                Micah nodded slowly. “I can see it. But what about you?”

                “He asked me out to his ranch. I’m supposedly here to write about the resort, but he asked me out to his place, promising spectacular views of the mountains to photograph. That’s a lure.”

                “It could be.”

                “Or maybe not,” said Cade. “I don’t want her going out there alone, either, so maybe we can go as a couple.”

                Micah sighed and finished his coffee. “Which is going to undo the whole bait thing.” He rose. “I’m as worried about these kids as anyone, but I know the limits of the law as well as you do. Let me talk to Gage and Nate. Maybe we can work out some way for DeeJay here to go in and still be covered. God knows, I don’t want to see anyone else dead. And keep in mind, before you go haring off on your own, that right now there isn’t enough to build a case. You might just be wasting your time. Right now, our guy could be almost anyone in this county.”

                DeeJay couldn’t deny it. But her nose was twitching. “Intuition is telling me something else.”

                “Maybe so. And you might be right. But, damn it, we need something more, and preferably without your body providing the evidence. You read me?”

                “Loud and clear.”

                He gave a short nod. “One of us will get back to you. I’m not sure how far Gage has gotten looking into Sweet’s background.”

                “We don’t have much, either,” Cade said. “And we’ve been looking, too.”

                “Same resources.” Micah frowned. “We need to find something.”