Undercover Hunter(117)
“Not yet. The woman didn’t know anyone, didn’t go anywhere. If a photo of her exists anywhere outside the Sweet house, we haven’t found it. She was a true recluse.”
“Well, the female victims resemble him, too, although not as strongly. I assume when he goes for a woman, he’s going for his mother.”
“It would fit,” DeeJay said.
Gage drummed his fingers. “Didn’t I say you looked like his victims?” he reminded her. “I wasn’t actually serious, just a little disturbed at the time. I didn’t know then that he sometimes takes women. Just a moment of uneasiness that hit me. Well, double damn it.”
“So we’re going out there in the morning,” Cade said. “I don’t think we should wait.”
“Hell no,” Gage answered. “I’d love to tell you to put it off a few days. Some time would be nice. But Sarah found something else. Two days ago, Sweet talked to a ten-year-old boy on the hotline. We may not have much time. It was only a few days between the time he talked to the last victim and the day that kid disappeared.” He paused. “I put you off this morning because I went out to check the kid. He fits the victim profile.”
DeeJay looked at Cade. Her mouth had gone dry, and her heart thumped painfully. “We’ve got to go in. I may be the only thing distracting him from taking that boy right now.”
Gage spoke. “That and the fact that I gave the mother some money to take the boy out of town. They’re leaving in the morning. I didn’t tell them why, but I didn’t have to do a whole lot of explaining. Everyone’s scared. They’ll get him out of here.”
“Thank God,” DeeJay murmured.
“So that leaves you two,” Gage said. “And what the hell are we going to do about you? There’s not a whole lot of cover out there. The snow makes it hard to hide, leaves tracks anywhere anyone goes...” He glanced at his watch. “And you’re telling me I have seventeen hours.”
* * *
The boy, Andrew, called Calvin from school. Calvin could hear the sounds of young voices in the background, but experience had taught him how to filter out the background noise.
He, too, was on his cell phone. Once he was interested in a boy, he always gave them his private number for subsequent calls, a number that he’d picked up with a false name in another town with a well-stocked card to pay for minutes. He wasn’t a fool.
He’d checked out Andrew yesterday and had seen the aura around him. He was one of the chosen.
Andrew was upset that he was being bullied again. Calvin listened with sincere sympathy, promising the boy that he’d help him take care of the problem in a few days.
Damn, he had the woman to deal with first, and taking a boy so soon... Yet this one had wandered into his web as if put there by fate. He couldn’t ignore such a perfect offering or risk delaying his mission.
“I need a few days,” he told the boy gently, yet again. “Can you hang on a little longer?”
“I have to,” Andrew finally said. “I just hope I don’t get beat up.”
“Be sure to stay in sight of a teacher. Maybe I can find a way to meet you tomorrow? Just to talk some more?”
When he was done with Andrew, he went to work, but for the moment he’d forgotten the boy. He’d made a bold move asking for DeeJay’s husband to accompany her in the morning and he needed to figure out how he could eliminate the guy so he could have DeeJay to himself.