LITMIR.BIZ

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      Gage surprised her by laughing, a raspy sound. “We’ve all heard the basics. Useless. So believe me, I’m going to be racking my brains and everyone else’s for every sliver I can come up with. In the meantime, I can establish your bona fides. Stop by the office in the morning, and it’ll be all over town that you two are on the side of the angels. There’s only one thing folks are talking about right now, and they might drop another splinter into this morass that’ll help you. As long as they know you’re okay.”

      “In this town,” DeeJay remarked after the sheriff left, “I suspect it takes more than a few days to win local trust.”

      “Most likely. But let’s get out those files and burn some midnight oil. Maybe we’ll get a clue. Mostly I’d like to see if we can get a sense of his time cycle. Is he speeding up? Maybe, maybe not. But at least we’ll have some idea how long we have before the next kid goes missing.”

      “We’ve got to stop it before then.”

      Cade nodded, his aquamarine eyes regarding her with something close to genuine warmth. “I’m praying for it.”

      * * *

      At midnight, Calvin Sweet signed out from the crisis response center. One woman was leaving at the same time, and he offered to see her safely to her car.

      “Thanks, Calvin,” Dory Patterson said, and patted his cheek. He was a handsome, pleasant young man, and she was just old enough to get away with the gesture. “You’re very thoughtful.”

      “Well, people are afraid,” he said. “Terrible thing about that boy disappearing.”

      “Yes, it is,” she answered as they stepped outside onto the crunchy snow. “At least you don’t have to worry.”

      Calvin simply smiled, savoring his secret.

      “But then, neither do I,” she remarked.

      He shook his head. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned from working crisis hotlines, it’s that women are at risk. Better to be escorted to your car. It’s the least I can do. I’m parked, what, fifteen feet away?”

      Dory laughed, a surprisingly girlish sound from a woman who must have been pushing fifty. “I appreciate it. I’m sure you’ve seen more of the big bad world than I have.”

      “Big cities,” he admitted. “More opportunities for trouble.”

      “Well, you do a great job on the phones. I’ve heard you. But it must seem awfully slow here after working in bigger places.”

      He stood and waited while she unlocked her car. “You know, Dory, I’m happiest when we aren’t needed at all. Makes you wonder about the human race when the calls are coming in constantly.”

      “I bet it would.” She slid into the driver’s seat and looked up at him. “I’m glad you didn’t come back for a construction job. We needed you here.” Then she paused. “I realize it was a long time ago, but I am sorry about your mother’s passing. She was a good woman.”

      “Yes, she was,” Calvin agreed.

      He stepped back and watched Dory drive away, amazed at how little of the truth ever got out. No one in this crummy place had any idea how he had been treated by that woman, how many times he’d had an “accident” that was no accident. He didn’t miss his mother at all.

      Climbing into his truck, he wondered if he might not be getting a little revenge on all the people who had been so blind. No, he decided he wasn’t. His purpose was higher than that.

      But he was aware of the urge starting to grow in him again, stalking him like a living thing. And this time he felt himself wanting a woman. No. He shook himself. Too soon.

      Damn, he was thinking about taking a woman again. He hated it every time that urge arose. It might provide additional concealment, or it could prove his undoing. Nor did he understand exactly how it fit his mission, which unnerved him a bit.

      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.

      He understood what she meant about the sickening and sickened minds that became serial killers. He’d heard all the psychological theories about how they’d been abused kids, how many had suffered brain damage at some point. But any way he added it up, the world was full of people who’d been abused and brain damaged and

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