The sky had cleared and a carpet of stars, brilliant as diamonds, filled it as he drove away from the town’s lights. Maybe the Egyptians had been right. Maybe each one of his boys had become a star up there now. He turned the idea around and decided he liked it. They were pure now, gleaming lights showing the way. Yes.
When he got home, he almost hiked out to his barn to enjoy his trophies for a few minutes, but the wind cut hard and stole his breath. It could wait for morning. They wouldn’t get lonely anymore. He had saved them from that.
Once inside, though, he felt a shift in his perspective. Light and color seemed brighter.
It was too soon.
The warning came from someplace deep inside him. In the city it had been different. He’d been able to hunt more often. In cities people disappeared all the time. He was well aware that out here they didn’t. And while he didn’t mind taking some risks, he was in no hurry to leave this place. He hadn’t yet filled his web. He didn’t want to leave the job half-done.
Sitting in an old rocker, he began to rock, trying to still the urges inside him. He knew he couldn’t afford to lose control of them. His mission would never be completed if he did something stupid. The mind must control the need, always. It was a sign of his strength that he could.
He was getting stronger, he reminded himself. With each boy, he gained power and purity, but he was a long way from done.
He forced his mind to other things and lit on something he’d heard at the call center that night. There were two travel writers in town, a married couple. Bad timing for the town, he thought with sour pleasure. Search parties going out every day, everyone looking over their shoulders...
He leaned back and smiled, the urge easing. He’d caused that. A sign of his growing power. He was approaching utter control of himself.
His thoughts trailed back to those travel writers he’d heard about. Who the hell would miss one of them? Nobody around here. He wondered if the woman looked anything like his mother.
Yeah, if it came to that...
But it wouldn’t. Not yet. He was still in control of himself and, when he thought about it, most of the people around. He saw them as puppets on strings, little marionettes. He could make them afraid, very afraid. He could make them spend their days searching the countryside for a missing boy instead of pursuing their regular lives.
Power. It was a great thing. Taking a woman would enhance it even though it wouldn’t fulfill his mission. He’d done it twice before and found a wholly different kind of satisfaction.
Something to think about.
Rocking slowly, he smiled into the darkened room. Damn, he was good.
Chapter 3
Cade woke early in the morning, despite having sat up until just after two combing over every bit in the file with DeeJay. It was a sadly thin file, one they needed to pad out. But you could never be sure when some little item might open a door in your thinking.
He sat in the kitchen while coffee brewed, facts and details running around in his head like skittering mice. Not much in the way of pattern yet, not enough for predicting much.
Sighing, he rubbed his eyes. DeeJay, he reluctantly admitted, was turning out to be an okay partner. While she was absorbed in the job, she pulled in those bristles and became tolerable. Clearly a good detective, and he thanked God that she could put personalities aside for the sake of work. He didn’t care what kind of hell she gave him otherwise, as long as they got this case solved before someone else’s kid disappeared.