Undercover Hunter(107)

                “Maybe Gage will find it in Sweet’s job application.”

                “We can hope.”

                * * *

                Someone might notice. Someone might put two and two together. That was a risk they’d been studiously avoiding so that the killer wouldn’t be on the lookout for either of them. Yet they’d had one deputy after another, the former sheriff and Gage Dalton visit them. Some cover, if someone on the street noticed and mentioned it.

                DeeJay stood at the front window after Micah left, and she was chafing. He was right: as an officer of the law, she was far more hampered than a civilian. Any one of the people on this street could go snooping at the Sweet place and bring evidence back, but not a cop. A cop needed a warrant. Hell, a cop couldn’t even ask anyone to do the snooping.

                She didn’t usually object to that stricture. Indeed, she mainly approved of it. People had a right to be protected from intrusion into their privacy by the law. Evidence had to be gathered according to the rules.

                But she chafed anyway.

                Cade spoke from behind her. “The devil and the deep blue sea,” he remarked.

                She turned and found him holding out a fresh mug of coffee to her. She took it, thanking him, and returned to staring out the window at the snow-covered world. “He could be gaining some boy’s confidence right now.”

                “Yeah. On the other hand, if it really is Sweet, maybe he’s got his sights set on a female victim right now. Namely you. I called Gage again.”

                “Anything?”

                “He’s still trying to find the job applications for the crisis center. Somebody did a lousy filing job. Anyway, I told him I wanted a photo of Sweet’s mother.”

                “How much difference will that make?

                “If she looks like his two other female victims, if she looks like you at all...” He didn’t complete the thought. He didn’t need to.

                She set her coffee down, feeling a burst of frustration, and whirled around to look at him. In an instant, a seismic shift occurred inside of her. In one single moment, as she looked at Cade, she forgot everything but him. Inside, she softened and the world went away. The reaction was so strong she couldn’t even fight it. Didn’t want to fight it.

                “Cade?”

                “Yeah?”

                “If we get through this...”

                He waited, then finally prompted her. “What? If we get through this what? And I don’t like your phrasing. You promised you wouldn’t do something stupid, and you’re not a stupid person, DeeJay.”

                “I’m being stupid right now.”

                “Oh, hell,” he said. He put his coffee down and took a step toward her. “You’re not going out there alone.”

                She shook her head. “Quit obsessing about the case.” She almost smiled as she saw his eyebrows lift.

                “And you’re not?” he demanded.

                “I’m obsessing about you.” There, she’d said it. And now she was hanging on painful tenterhooks, awaiting his response.

                Slowly, so very slowly, he started to smile. “In what way?”