Undercover Hunter(83)

                At some point everyone seemed to decide that DeeJay and Cade weren’t there to do a hatchet job on the town, and conversation turned to the missing boys.

                “It was bad enough that we went through this once and never caught the creep,” said a woman about DeeJay’s age. She held a cup of tea beneath her face, and every time she spoke a cloud of steam emerged. Small, she seemed almost pixielike. “I’ve got a boy myself and I won’t let him out alone anymore. I’ve had to become a guard dog, and that’s not good for either of us. Lots of parents are feeling the same way. And the families whose boys have disappeared...” She looked away and just shook her head. “I’d go out of my mind.”

                DeeJay nodded her agreement, staring down the street, which looked a bit odd at the moment with so much of the sidewalks, driveway, porches and cars cleared while the street between remained buried in snow.

                She’d been resolved from the outset, but her resolve was hardening. If she could turn herself into bait, she would. The only problem was figuring out how, and she needed to see photos of the female victims to know if she resembled them at all. If she did...

                Well, that was the problem, wasn’t it?

                The distant rumbling she’d been hearing for a while suddenly became loud. Heads swung around to see a big yellow plow turn onto the street.

                “About time,” someone said. The party mood had vanished the instant the subject of the missing boys had come up. Apparently, fear and horror didn’t leave these people alone for long.

                “Might as well get inside and warm up,” a man said. “We’re going to have a lot more shoveling to do when he gets done.”

                Nods and goodbyes were passed around, then DeeJay and Cade joined the exodus, heading back into their house.

                The phone rang just as they were shedding their outerwear. DeeJay answered to hear Gage.

                “Had to move heaven and earth, but your street should be clear soon.”

                “It’s getting done right now.”

                “Give me about twenty, then. I’ll come over.”

                * * *

                He had fixated on the woman. Calvin knew it and quit making excuses. He ran the plow attached to the front of his pickup up and down his drive, even though the county plows probably wouldn’t reach his road until tomorrow. He’d grown up here and didn’t expect the impossible to happen.

                But clearing his long drive gave him an excuse to clear a route to the barn, if anyone happened to notice, not that anyone was out and about. An excess of caution. Besides, from time to time he heard the helicopter for the emergency rescue team fly by. Not exactly overhead, but he didn’t want to stand out in anyone’s mind.

                The woman. DeeJay, someone at the diner had said when he’d asked who she was. Odd name for a woman. It sounded more like a man.

                But he wasn’t really thinking about her name. He was thinking about her, about the way she seemed to glow in his mind’s eye. He recognized that aura and knew what it meant. He’d settled on her. He had to take her.

                Back inside for a break, drinking hot cocoa made with the instant mix—his mother would not have approved, but the small act of defiance pleased him in some way—he looked at his mother’s photo. It sat in a small frame along with other family photos, on a piece of furniture his mother had called a lowboy. To him it was just a table with drawers.