force, all good men who have been working overtime to figure this out.” He stopped talking as the waitress appeared with their orders.
The decor inside the café might be questionable, but Mick eyed the thick cheeseburger and order of fries in front of him with appreciation. Cassie had ordered a salad, dressing on the side and Ed Lambert had ordered a piece of pie to go along with his coffee.
“I’ve got to admit that I’m understaffed and pretty much over my head with these murders,” the sheriff continued as the waitress moved away from the table. “I’ve been understaffed for the last couple of years as the town has gained more of a reputation as a hot spot for honeymooning couples.” He frowned. “When Mayor John Jamison got his bright idea about this Honeymoon Haven nonsense he turned our quaint little town into a mess.”
He paused and took a sip of his coffee. “There’s plenty of money flying around town, but none of it has allowed me to hire on more deputies and the petty crime rate has tripled.”
“Sounds tough,” Mick said.
The older man shrugged. “We do the best we can, but I want to assure you these murders are on the top of our priority list. Unfortunately, they aren’t the only things we can focus on with all my manpower. Your boss has assigned another couple to help with the investigation. They’ll be staying at the Super Eight Motel just north of town. Director Forbes indicated they would be your contact if you stumble across any information that might be useful.”
“Their names?” Mick asked.
“Agents Rick Burgess and David Ellsworth. They’ll be working with me and my team, but flying under the radar. The mayor is insistent that we keep this all as low-key as possible. Needless to say, we’re not eager for any publicity concerning the murders.”
Mick nodded. He was glad to know there were two agents working with the sheriff. He knew both agents, had worked cases with them before and trusted them. He had cell phone numbers for both of them and would check in with them once he and Cassie got settled in town.
“Your tech support team arrived this morning,” Ed continued. “Three men checked into the cabin next to yours. They let me know that they had their audio in place and were ready for your arrival.”
“Audio?” Cassie looked from the sheriff to Mick, who shrugged.
“According to the agent I spoke to early this morning they have placed listening devices in the room where you’ll be staying. They’ll be able to hear anything that happens, but also told me to let you know they didn’t bug the bathroom.”
Mick smiled at Cassie. “That means if you decide to verbally abuse me it will be all over headquarters before the day is over.”
“I have no intention of verbally abusing you,” she replied with a flash of her brilliant blue eyes. “Unless you need it,” she added under her breath.
Sheriff Lambert cleared his throat. “The good news is that if somehow, someway, the killer gets into your premises, your agents will hear everything that is going on and can get inside within seconds.”
Cassie’s eyes turned somber and Mick wondered if she’d really considered how badly this assignment could go. They were intentionally putting themselves in the direct path of a killer or killers. If the killer did manage to get into their room it would only take him seconds to shoot Mick and stab Cassie.
What Mick had no intention of telling her was that while he was being hunted, he intended to do a little hunting of his own. Although their job was merely to act the part of newlyweds, to draw the attention of the killer and allow their support team to make an arrest, Mick would investigate independently to find the killer. Even knowing Burgess and Ellsworth were assigned to the case wouldn’t stop him from working on his own.
He wasn’t about to get trapped in a honeymoon cabin with a killer and depend on a team to rescue him. He’d find the killer long before the game went on that long.
He’d only been blindsided once in his life, and that had been by a woman with blue eyes and a dark soul. He’d never let a woman close to him again, and he wasn’t about to allow a killer to get the upper hand on him either.
Chapter Three
It was just after three-thirty when Mick and Cassie were back in the car and headed toward Black Creek, aka Honeymoon Haven.
Cassie pulled out the list of the places the murdered honeymooning couples had visited before their deaths and stared at it in horror. Drinks by the pool, hot springs treatments at the local spa, candlelight dinners and a romantic canoe trip down Black River, and throughout it all she would have to pretend that she was madly, desperately in love with her husband, Mick. If she could pull this off, she’d deserve an Academy Award.
She cast him a surreptitious glance. He appeared to be so relaxed, as if they were taking a vacation rather than putting their lives on the line to catch a killer.
There was a part of Cassie that wasn’t afraid of death, times when she woke up in the middle of the night vaguely surprised that she had managed to survive the madness of her childhood.
No, she wasn’t afraid of dying, but she was afraid of not doing her job properly, of somehow screwing up and letting a killer continue his work or getting somebody else killed by her carelessness.
Gazing out the window, she noticed the road they traveled was narrow and winding through the Arkansas hilly landscape. The scenery was breathtaking. Tall trees crowded the sides of the roads while woods parted occasionally to show a glimpse of bubbling streams sparkling in the bright sunshine.
She knew what she’d signed up for, she knew they were headed to a place called the Sweetheart Suites where there would be one big bed for them both to share, one small space for them both to maneuver.
Still, the closer they got to Black Creek the more real everything became for her. She hadn’t shared a bed with a man for any reason in a while. The last time had been eight years ago when she’d been dating Glen Morrow.
Glen had been a nice man, but by the end of the relationship things had gotten strained between them. Glen had finally broken it off, telling her that she had too many control issues for him to handle, that she made it impossible for anyone to love her.
Cassie had been secretly relieved. The sex had been okay, the companionship had been nice most of the time, but she hadn’t been in love with Glen and she certainly hadn’t been looking for marriage or children. She knew her limitations and she knew that inviting people into her life brought the kind of chaos she didn’t want or need.
She glanced over at Mick. At least she didn’t have to worry that a pretend honeymoon would make her fall crazy in love with him. She recognized on a base level that he threatened everything she’d worked so hard to maintain, that inviting him into her life in any way would be the biggest mistake she’d ever make.
As they crested a hill the small town of Black Creek appeared in the valley below, and as they drew closer it was obvious that honeymoon madness had possessed what had once probably been a quaint little place.
The road they were on went right through the main business district, with shops and restaurants on either side. The Wedding Cake Café, Bride and Groom Boutique, Newlywed Night Shop for Adults, all the storefronts looked as if a pink and red and white froth had exploded all over the buildings.
Interspersed
