She also knew none of those witnesses had gotten a look at his face.
But that didn’t explain who’d done this to her.
“Serial killers often develop a following,” Cord said, going for a different angle. One that might put an end to this conversation sooner rather than later. “Groupies. Has anyone like that contacted you? Maybe someone calling themselves a fan who wanted you to get a photo or some other personal item of Willie Lee’s?”
Karina shook her head after each of the questions and then winced. The paramedic moved quickly to examine her, and that’s when Cord noticed that she had another cut that her hair was covering.
“He clubbed me on the head.” Karina’s voice was trembling again. No doubt from the fear and adrenaline. None of her injuries appeared to be serious, but the memories would be with her for a lifetime.
“Start from the beginning,” Cord insisted. Because that hit on the head was a game changer. She couldn’t have done that to herself. “Tell me everything that happened.”
Karina flinched again when the paramedic dabbed at the head wound. “I woke up when I heard the horses. I thought maybe they were just spooked because it was a new place. I’d just moved them out here this week.”
Yes, he’d known about that. Karina was setting up a temporary operation here for training her cutting horses. Ironically, the name for that kind of trainer was a cutter. A sick joke now considering her injuries.
“I went outside to check on the horses,” Karina continued after she’d gathered her breath. “When I stepped into the barn, he hit me over the head. I didn’t even see him. Didn’t know he was there until it was too late.”
Cord jumped right on that. “But you could tell for sure that it was a man?”
“Yes,” she said without hesitation.
Damn. He hoped that meant the guy hadn’t sexually assaulted her in some way. But if this piece of dirt had done that, it would definitely break from the MO of the Moonlight Strangler, who’d never sexually assaulted any of his victims.
“What happened next?” he persisted when she didn’t continue.
Karina closed her eyes a moment. Shuddered. “I screamed as I was falling, and he cut my face.” She reached to put her fingers there, but the paramedic moved them away.
It was the slice on her cheekbone. And the signature of the Moonlight Strangler.
Or rather the signature of his copycat.
“Did your attacker say anything to you?” Cord asked.
She swallowed hard. “He laughed and said, ‘This will show them.’ It wasn’t in a regular voice. He was whispering as if his throat was raspy.”
Perhaps just someone who wanted to clear Willie Lee’s name. Of course, to the best of his knowledge, there was still only one person who fell into that particular name-clearing category.
Karina herself.
Cord studied her injuries, trying to look at the pattern to see what they could tell him. Karina didn’t seem like the vain type, but he had a hard time believing that any woman would allow her face to be cut so she could try to prove someone’s innocence. If she’d set this up, she could have merely had the person hit her on the head and leave bruises on her neck.
Cord’s phone buzzed, and when he saw Jericho’s name on the screen, he answered it right away. “Did you send that ranch hand, Rocky, off to do something?” Jericho asked.
“No. Why?”
“Because he’s not here. The CSIs finally made it so I started looking for him to take him to the office, but he’s not in the house or bunkhouse.”
Hell. “You don’t think he went looking for the attacker?”
Jericho cursed, too. “If he did, I don’t need this now. If Karina has his number, try to call him.”
Cord assured him that he’d try, but he figured since she didn’t have her phone with her, there was little chance Karina would remember the ranch hand’s number.
But she surprised Cord when she rattled it off.
“I have a good memory,” she mumbled. A comment that snagged his attention because there seemed to be something else, something that she wasn’t saying.
Something that she remembered.
“What is it?” Cord asked, staring at her.
She didn’t get a chance to respond. Didn’t get a chance to explain, either. The driver hit his brakes, bringing the ambulance to a jarring stop.
“Draw your gun,” the driver told Cord.
Cord did. And he soon saw why they’d stopped and why the driver had given that order.
It certainly wasn’t what Cord had expected to see.
There. In the middle of the dark country road. A man. He was wearing a ski mask.
And he had a gun pointed right at them.
Karina lifted her head to see what had caused the ambulance driver to give that order to Cord.
Draw your gun.
Not exactly an order to steady her racing heart. But then, seeing the man in the ski mask didn’t help with that, either.
Oh, God.
He’d found her.
Cord did indeed draw his gun. Fast. “Call for backup and get down,” he told the paramedic beside her.
While the paramedic did that, Cord maneuvered himself in front of her, and the driver got down onto the seat. But the man on the road did some maneuvering, too. With his weapon still aimed at them, he ducked behind a tree, probably so that Cord wouldn’t just shoot him.
“Don’t try to drive off, Agent Granger,” the man shouted. “Wouldn’t be good for your health right now if you tried to do that. We need to have a little chat first.”
There were no side windows on the back of the ambulance, and with Cord in front of her, she couldn’t see much through the windshield. However, it sounded as if this monster had some kind of backup. Or maybe he was just bluffing and wanted them to be like sitting ducks while he fired shots at them.
“The ambulance is bullet-resistant,” Cord said, as if reading her mind. “And I want to catch this sick bastard.”
So did Karina. More than anything. Not only could catching him clear Willie Lee’s name, but it would also get this killer behind bars, where he belonged. She’d known in her heart that Willie Lee wasn’t the Moonlight Strangler, and arresting this man would prove it.
She hoped.
Of course,
