and the trees and all the wide-open spaces. I see it as a place to breathe. To find myself. And all those women found was death. Quite brutally, too, based on the forensics.”
“They did.” Aisha picked up the various photos and turned them over. “Classic serial killer behaviors of dominance and a deep desire to hurt another. To not only kill but to torture before doing so.”
“A coward who gets off on causing fear.”
“Yes,” she confirmed.
“Right here. Under our noses.”
He let out a sigh, his gaze drifting once more over the box of pizza. The hunger that had carried him into the room had vanished and now he was left with a strange emptiness roiling in his gut in its place.
All of it had happened right under his nose. And if he didn’t get a handle on it, it was going to happen again. Of that he had no doubt.
Aisha settled herself in the last row of the public meeting room at the back of the Bradford County Community Center. As county seat, Roaring Springs had a number of buildings devoted to local government matters, and this one saw regular use. Public hearings, voting and a host of other issues were considered, discussed and decided inside these four walls.
She’d never been a particularly large joiner, but she’d discovered her interest in public discussion once Trey had taken on his job as sheriff. What had begun as support of her best friend remained that way, but it had given her new perspective into the workings of local government. Sometimes mundane and often quite functional, Aisha had to admit it was never boring. And it gave continued perspective on her life’s work: human nature in all its glory.
Tonight’s agenda was an open discussion of the Avalanche Killer’s crimes and proposed increases in local law enforcement. Which was a bit of a joke since the FBI had already descended en masse to deal with the situation. This was their domain, and even though bodies hadn’t been found across multiple states, the Feds weren’t leaving this one alone.
Still, Aisha knew this hearing was a prime opportunity for Trey to make his authority clear to their citizenry. She saw several others scattered around the room, there to give him the additional support of friendly faces. His parents, Calvin and Audrey, sat in the middle toward the front. Close enough to be supportive but far enough away to give him space. His trusted deputy, Daria Bloom, was in the front row. She sat tall and straight in her seat, her uniform as immaculately pressed at six o’clock at night as it no doubt had been that morning.
Aisha continued her perusal. She eyed a few more people scattered around the room, including several Coltons, a few resort employees from The Lodge as well as the local hotel and spa, The Chateau, and a guy Trey had already pointed out to her as FBI, Agent Stefan Roberts.
She’d nearly turned her attention back to the front when her gaze alighted on the doorway and the last-minute entrant to the meeting.
Barton Evigan.
He strode in as if he owned the place, a smirk on his face. It was a step up from the perpetual sneer she usually saw there but not by much. He had a few people with him, a guy she recognized as his campaign manager and a slim, mousy woman who had to be his wife. They all took seats in the front row.
So not good.
Aisha pulled out her notes and scanned them once more. Although she and Trey had kept her involvement with the crimes to themselves, she had prepared a few arguments as a Roaring Springs resident who was concerned about the killings and who had a background qualified enough to raise the proper points. Nothing she’d prepared would contradict anything already publicized in the news, but it would put a clinician’s spin on the details in hopes of calming some riled nerves. Based on the rumors she’d already heard since walking in, the town’s citizens were ready to lock up all young women between the ages of fifteen and thirty in hopes of keeping them safe.
The murmuring that started behind her pulled Aisha from her thoughts, and she finally turned around, curious to what had created the hubbub. The meeting still had about five minutes until things were called to order so it wasn’t that slight buzz that swelled just before things started. It was only when a few people still milling around the back parted that Aisha saw the reason for the fuss.
They had a genuine movie star in their midst.
Obviously hoping to sneak in unrecognized, Prescott Reynolds had missed that mark completely. He had Phoebe Colton, one of Trey’s younger cousins, on his arm. Although the two of them presented a united front, clearly in love by their connected body language and close heads bent toward each other, their stiff shoulders telegraphed they were both uncomfortable, as well.
Aisha didn’t know Phoebe well, but the moment she caught the young woman’s eyes, she waved the couple over. The back row still had plenty of room, people anxious for any drips or drabs of gossip having filled in the front. Their voracious appetites now worked in Prescott’s and Phoebe’s favor.
Phoebe nodded at the invitation and in moments the two of them were seated beside Aisha.
“Thank you for the quick rescue,” Phoebe whispered as she settled into her seat.
Aisha didn’t miss the way Prescott’s arm wrapped around Phoebe’s slim shoulders or his clear protectiveness of her.
“Let me introduce you,” Phoebe said.
It was the work of a few seconds for Aisha to meet one of the world’s most recognizable movie stars. And although her heart had long beat for Trey Colton, she couldn’t deny its rapid speed at the heartbreakingly attractive face that stared back at her. Prescott Reynolds was warm and observably kind. Handsome as sin, too. The camera didn’t lie when framing his image, but if anything, it failed to truly capture his dazzling blue eyes or thousand-watt smile.
Despite the fanfare that seemed to follow him everywhere, she liked him instantly.
He was also obviously in love with Phoebe.
The two had gone public with their relationship the prior week and it had been the one thing that had given Trey a slight reprieve from the endless barrage of press. While a killer on the loose was and would remain big news, the romance of a major Hollywood heartthrob had added a delicious twist to the endless coverage in Roaring Springs.
Trey had also told her that the couple’s willingness to go public wasn’t just about their personal happiness. His cousin Skye was Phoebe’s twin sister. With her sister missing, Phoebe was desperate for any way to find her, and the constant images on the TV and internet were hopefully a way to draw Skye out. The thought was, if Skye had simply gone away on her own, she would see the news and get in contact. But if she were missing, there was a greater hope the publicity surrounding her twin’s happiness would draw out a killer.
A dangerous game, Aisha knew. Sadly, she couldn’t find fault in their logic.
The meeting was called to order, and the murmuring at the movie star in their midst died down as the town focused their attention on the front of the room. Trey came out, along with several other county leaders and the mayor of Roaring Springs, who acted as a moderator for these meetings and presented a connection point for the county seat and the broader proceedings in Bradford County.
The
