LITMIR.BIZ

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incredibly young; he could easily pass for eighteen with his clean-shaven look, Five Finger Death Punch T-shirt, and baggy camo shorts. Mackenzie was able to quickly look past his appearance, focusing instead on the indescribable grief she saw in the young man’s face.

      He looked up to them, waiting for either of them to speak. Mackenzie noticed Bryers giving her the go-ahead, nodding subtly in Caleb Kellerman’s direction. She stepped forward, both terrified and flattered that she was being given such authority. Either Bryers thought a lot of her, or he was trying to make her uncomfortable.

      “Mr. Kellerman, I’m Agent White, and this is Agent Bryers.” She hesitated there for a moment. Had she really just called herself Agent White? It sort of had a nice ring to it. She skipped past this and continued on. “I know you’re dealing with a loss that I won’t even pretend to be able to understand,” she said. She kept her tone soft, warm, but firm. “But if we want to find the person that did this, we really need to ask you some questions. Are you up for it?”

      Caleb Kellerman nodded. “Anything I can do to make sure the man that did this is found,” he said. “I’ll do anything.”

      There was rage in his voice that made Mackenzie hope that someone would seek some sort of therapy for Caleb in the coming days. There was something in his eyes that looked nearly unhinged.

      “Well, first of all, I need to know if Susan had any enemies…anyone that might be a rival of sorts.”

      “There were a few girls she went to high school with that would get pissy with her on Facebook,” Caleb said. “It was usually over politics, though. And none of those girls would do it, anyway. It was just nasty arguments and things like that.”

      “And what about her job?” Mackenzie asked. “Did she enjoy it?”

      Caleb shrugged. He sat back on the couch and tried to relax. His face, however, seemed resigned to a permanent frown. “She liked it about as much as any woman that went to college and lands a job that has nothing to do with her degree. It paid the bills and the bonuses were pretty good sometimes. The hours sucked, though.”

      “Did you know any of the people she worked with?” Mackenzie asked.

      “No. I heard about them in the stories she’d bring home, but that was it.”

      Bryers chimed in next. His voice sounded very different in the still of the house as he used somber tones. “She was a saleswoman, correct? For A Better You University?”

      “Yeah. I already gave the police her supervisor’s number.”

      “We’ve had some people from the Bureau already speak with him,” Bryers said.

      “It won’t matter,” Caleb said. “No one at work killed her. I can guarantee it. I know it sounds stupid, but it’s this feeling I have. Everyone at her work is nice…in the same boat we were in, trying to pay bills and make ends meet. Honest people, you know?”

      For a moment, he teetered on the edge of weeping. He stifled it back, looked down to the floor to collect himself, and looked back up. The tears that he had barely suppressed floated along the edges of his eyes.

      “Okay, then what can you think of that might lead us down the right path?” Bryers asked.

      “I can’t,” Caleb said. “She had a sell sheet of the clients she was visiting that day, but no one can find it. The cops said it’s probably because the killer took it and trashed it.”

      “That’s probably the case,” Mackenzie said.

      “I still don’t get it,” Caleb said. “It still doesn’t feel real. I’m waiting for her to come back through that door any minute now. The day she died…it started out just like any other day. She kissed me on the cheek as I was getting dressed for work and said goodbye. She left for the bus stop, and that was it. That was the last time I saw her.”

      Mackenzie saw that Caleb was on the verge of losing it and, as much as it seemed wrong to do so, she got in one last question before he collapsed.

      “Bus stop?” she asked.

      “Yeah, she rode the bus to the office every day; she caught the eight twenty to get to work on time. The car crapped out on us two months ago.”

      “Where’s that bus stop located?” Bryers asked.

      “Two blocks down,” Caleb said. “It’s one of those small vestibule-type deals.” He then looked at Mackenzie and White, hope suddenly blooming in his eyes under the pain and hatred. “Why? Do you think it’s important?”

      “There’s no way to know for sure,” Mackenzie said. “But we’ll keep you posted. Thank you for your time.”

      “Sure,” Caleb said. “Hey…guys?”

      “Yeah?” Mackenzie said.

      “It’s been more than three days now, right? Three days since I last saw her and almost two whole days since they found her body.”

      “That’s right,” Bryers said quietly.

      “So is it too late? Is this bastard going to get away?”

      “No,” Mackenzie said. It was out of her mouth before she could stop it and she knew right away that she had made her first mistake in front of Bryers.

      “We’ll do the best we can,” Bryers said, placing a gentle but urging hand on Mackenzie’s shoulder. “Please call us if you think of anything that might help.”

      With that, they made their exit. Mackenzie shuddered a bit when she heard Caleb break down in a sobbing fit before they were able to shut the door behind them.

      That sound did something to her…something that reminded her of home. The last time she’d felt such a thing was the moment back in Nebraska when she had become absolutely consumed with the task of stopping the Scarecrow Killer. She felt that all-consuming need again as they stepped out onto Caleb Kellerman’s front steps, and she slowly realized that she would stop at nothing until she caught this killer.

      CHAPTER FOUR

      “You can’t do that,” Bryers said the moment they were back in the car, he taking the wheel.

      “I can’t do what?”

      He sighed and tried his best to seem sincere rather than disciplinary. “I know you’ve probably never been in this exact situation before, but you can’t tell the family of a victim that no, the killer isn’t going to get away. You can’t give them hope if there is none. Hell, even if there is hope, you can’t say something like that.”

      “I know,” she said, disappointed. “I knew it the moment the word was out of my mouth. I’m sorry.”

      “No need for apologies. Just try to keep your head on straight. Got it?”

      “Got it.”

      Because Bryers knew the city better than Mackenzie, he drove them to the Department of Public Transportation. He drove with some urgency and requested that Mackenzie call ahead to make sure they could speak to someone that knew what they were talking about and could get them in and out of there in a hurry. It was such a simple method, but Mackenzie was impressed with the efficiency of it. It was a far cry from what she’d experienced in Nebraska for sure.

      During the half hour drive, Bryers filled the car with conversation. He wanted to know all about her time on the force in Nebraska, most notably the Scarecrow Killer case. He asked about college and her interests. She was happy enough to give him the surface-level information but didn’t go too deep – mainly because he wasn’t going very deep himself.

      In fact, Bryers seemed reserved. When Mackenzie asked him about his family, he kept it as general as he could without being rude. “A wife, two boys that are off to college, and a dog that’s on its last legs.”

      Well, Mackenzie thought. It’s only our first day together and he doesn’t know me at all – just what he read about me in the papers six months ago and from whatever is in my file with the Academy. I don’t blame him for not opening up just

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