Unlocking Darkness (Keys to Love Series, Book Five) Page 4

  It was clear that Allie wasn’t going to debate with him. She’d made up her mind to hear him repeat the case history in person. Nothing he said or did would get him access to her profile until he began talking about the most important case he’d ever worked.

  She’d settled the aviator sunglasses on the bridge of her nose, not caring that they were a little too big for her features. Her chestnut colored hair had been pulled back into a bun of some sort, yet the style came off as casual. After all, she was on vacation. She could have been a local given a few more days to blend in, yet the way she carried herself gave off a city vibe.

  He’d missed her.

  The thought came out of nowhere, and she’d caught him staring at her.

  “Ken?”

  Allie lowered the sunglasses to see if he was paying attention, peering up at him with brown eyes that had the most unusual green flecks he’d ever seen. He really needed to get his head on straight, or he’d screw this up, too.

  “I want to hear from you everything that took place in this town before I give you the updated profile I amended on the plane last night.” Allie gave a light shrug when she pushed the glasses back up the bridge of her nose. “There’s something I want to check first, and I’m not comfortable giving you the file without confirming it myself. Technically, it shouldn’t even exist. I could lose my job over meddling in this, Ken.”

  “I’d never let that happen, Allie.” Mitch hadn’t spent the last sixteen years in the Corps without making quite a few connections with people still in a position of power. Allie had only served five years in the intelligence field in the Corps before heading off for college and joining the FBI. They’d stayed in touch through it all—emails, texts, and phone calls. A lot had changed in the Marines since she’d gotten out, and he’d worked his way up to Gunnery Sergeant before being forced out due to medical reasons. He knew people who knew the right people. That’s all that mattered in this situation. “Just tell me what it is you need to know. I’ll confirm or deny it right now.”

  “You’ve always been impatient, haven’t you?”

  Mitch rubbed his mouth with his hand to prevent himself from denying her claim. There was one area where he had the patience of a saint, and she was well aware of that fact. It was best not to bring up their intimate past, so he let her comment slide.

  Allie was here strictly because he’d asked her…and for the right kind of business purposes only. Besides, they were a hell of a lot better off as friends.

  “You hated calling in that chip, didn’t you?” Allie asked softly, buttoning her jacket as if she only now realized that her firearm was showing. Another strand of hair had come out of the bun at the base of her neck and formed a curl next to her cheek as she peered down at the button. It was as if she couldn’t look at him while he answered. The thing of it was, he didn’t want to reply to her question. “Ken, you saved my life back then. There’s no question that I owe you everything, but I’m not here because of that. I’m here because that’s what friends do for one another. So, keep that favor you’ll need tucked away in your back pocket and know that you can still use it sometime in the future.”

  Mitch was prevented from responding to her tempting offer when Tobias Essinger turned the corner of Third Street. He was carrying one of the western books he loved so much in his right hand, clearly not expecting someone to be right around the corner.

  “Sheriff, I’m so sorry. I wasn’t watching where I was going.” Tobias looked over his shoulder, as if someone was following him. “Maybe it’s a good thing I bumped into you. You should know that I think I saw someone skulking around Chad Schaeffer’s house, but I know he’s not home. Maybe it’s his father?”

  Mitch had seen Miles Schaeffer sitting at the counter with Harlan Whitmore and Chester Mayer. No, Chad’s father wasn’t over at his son’s house.

  “It’s good to have neighbors like you, Tobias,” Mitch responded, purposefully remaining relaxed as the conversation progressed. He wasn’t about to have the older gentleman believe that someone was actually breaking in to Chad’s place. The entire community would be up in arms, and he wasn’t going to allow that to happen unless there was some truth behind Tobias’ claims. “Maybe Chad has someone checking on his house while he stays with Gwen. I’ll tell you what. I’ll give Chad a call while Allie and I head that way. We’ll make sure the coast is clear.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, young lady. I hope you can help catch this son of a bitch who’s all but turned our town into a headline for the nightly news,” Tobias grumbled, his grip tightening on his hardback western book. “Did you see that reporter on television last night? She all but suggested that your sister wasn’t happy here in Blyth Lake. Why, that piece of—”

  “I did catch Charlene Winston’s clip,” Mitch advised Tobias, wanting to wrap this up quickly so that he and Allie could check out Chad’s property. “We can’t control the media, so it’s best to ignore the reports. You go on and enjoy your breakfast, Tobias. Try not to dwell on the newscast. All that accomplishes is putting us all in bad moods.”

  Allie stepped to the side with a warm smile, nodding at Tobias as he walked past them. She waited until he was out of earshot to speak her mind.

  “What do we have here, Ken? Don’t you have one of those radios these small towns use to communicate with your deputies?” Allie peered down Third Street, but she waited for him to decide. She must really be lacking in the caffeine department, because this wasn’t her normal disposition. “And isn’t Chad Schaeffer the man involved with your sister?”

  “Yes, which is why I’m well aware that he isn’t home at the moment.”

  “And Miles Schaeffer was at the counter of Annie’s Diner enjoying what appeared to be biscuits and gravy with a side of bacon,” Allie tacked on, tilting her head to the side while she waited for his decision. He regretted handing over his sunglasses, because all he was doing was staring back at his own reflection. “So, what’s it going to be, Ken? Do we go in with guns blazing?”

  “Funny. By the way, do I want to know how you identified Miles Schaeffer as one of the men at the counter?” Mitch didn’t want to waste any time, so he began to walk briskly down Third Street. He scanned the various properties they passed once they got deeper into the residential neighborhood. Each house was decorated with pumpkins, makeshift graveyards, and an occasional haunted yard for those folks who went out of their way for the trick or treaters to enjoy the holiday. “I don’t recall sending you pictures along with those names.”

  “If I told you all my secrets, then you’d be an agent and wouldn’t even need my help.” Allie wiggled her eyebrows behind his sunglasses, keeping up with each long stride he took. “Which house is Schaeffer’s? More importantly, why aren’t you going to radio this in?”

  Mitch didn’t want to admit that he did have one of those small radios, but he’d left it at the station. She’d make some quip about him being the local Barney Fife, and he wasn’t in the mood for that type of banter right now.

  Besides, Patty had his cell phone number.

  Should anything of relevance occur, she and the other deputies knew how to reach him and vice versa. He wouldn’t be calling anything in until he knew for certain a crime had been committed.

  “Hey,” Allie said softly after she’d removed his sunglasses and causally rested a hand on his arm. Her gesture brought him to a halt in the middle of the sidewalk. “I didn’t mean to make fun of your team. Listen, Tobias is one of those neighbors who keeps an eye on things, and he believes he saw someone out of place. You gave me his information in one of the files. From what I remember, there isn’t a resident in this town that he doesn’t know. That means either he witnessed an individual he’s not familiar with breaking into Chad Schaeffer’s residence or Tobias’ imagination is working overtime for…”

  Mitch realized that he’d gotten so caught up in the residents as if they were his own family that he wasn’t succeeding at compartmentalizing the information Tobias had share
d with them. It didn’t help that his baby sister had been attacked in her own home recently.

  “Because he ruminated over Charlene Winston’s clip last night on the eleven o’clock news.” Mitch hated being made a fool of, and he’d succeeded in doing just that. This case was personal, and he was now becoming a Tobias Essinger. “We should still check it out.”

  “We should. One can never be too careful,” Allie readily agreed, handing over his sunglasses with a smile. She no longer needed them since the sun wasn’t directly in their eyes. “It’s rare I get to go into the field, Ken. A little excitement isn’t such a bad thing.”

  Mitch shook his head at her ability to cover up his overreaction, but he still wouldn’t be satisfied until he was one hundred percent certain that someone hadn’t broken into Schaeffer’s residence.

  It didn’t take them long to reach Chad’s home.

  Sure enough, there wasn’t any sign of a break-in.

  Had Tobias’ mind been playing tricks on him?

  Allie was the profiler. She’d hit the nail on the head, but again…he needed concrete proof that nothing was disturbed either outside or inside Schaeffer’s house.

  Allie had gone around the back of the property, while Mitch located the spare key underneath one of the rocks near the front step of the porch. He’d have to speak with Chad about the lack of safety in such an obvious hiding spot, but it was the way things had been done in Blyth Lake for years.

  Unfortunately, times had changed.

  A quick search of the house revealed that nothing was out of place.

  It was a relief to step out onto the small porch and see one of the younger teens running through the yard, probably coming back from one of his friend’s house. The local school was on fall break, meaning no classes yesterday, today, or tomorrow. Thursday would resume as normal, but the teen’s route of travel between houses was most likely what Tobias had noticed as being unusual.

  “It’s good to know your skills are as sharp as ever,” Mitch praised once Allie came around the corner. She had a grace to her that reminded him of his mother, not that he’d ever say that aloud. Allie would definitely take his compliment the wrong way. It appeared as if he didn’t have to say a thing to offend her, because her frown spoke volumes. “Allie?”

  Something was wrong.

  “No,” Allie said, abruptly holding up her hand to stop him from walking past her. “Don’t. Everything’s fine.”

  “No, everything isn’t fine.” Mitch closed the distance between them, looking over her shoulder toward the back of the property to see what could have warranted such a judgmental reaction. “What did you find back there?”

  “Mitch, this town…” Allie looked up and down the neighborhood street in what seemed to be disbelief. It was then he noticed that she wasn’t upset so much as taken aback. “Look around you. People have their garage doors open. Flimsy screens are in the windows. Nothing is locked. Some even have nothing but screened doors to allow the cool air into their homes, without any thought that someone could walk inside without the slightest hesitation.”

  Mitch relaxed somewhat. He’d said it before, but she was city all the way clear to her obsession with having a coffee place on every corner. She wasn’t used to country folks who trusted in their neighbors to do the right thing, which included making their own coffee.

  “Allie, these people grew up in a time when locking doors wasn’t something you needed to do unless you were leaving the house to go on vacation. Trust me when I say that they have started to take more precautions, but they aren’t going to change their perception of their neighbors overnight.”

  “Well, you better hold some type of town meeting soon,” Allie suggested seriously, her brows practically touching as she did one more scan of the neighborhood. “A town like Blyth Lake is a serial killer’s dream, and he’s not going to give it up without a fight.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Allie walked along the perimeter of the fence as the cool breeze brushed past her face, wicking away her body heat. She could hear the rustle of the golden leaves in the trees above moving against one another as the gentle wind came through the meadow to her right. Every now and then she’d hear beautiful songs of various birds as they readied themselves for the approaching winter and their migration south.

  It was hard to believe that such a peaceful plot of land existed while a serial killer stalked his prey less than a few miles away.

  “You’re a very lucky man, Ken.”

  “You don’t have to tell me that,” Mitch replied, falling into step beside her after he’d disconnected a call with Deputy Warner. The warrants his office had executed to search the various boats docked on personal property at the behest of the FBI hadn’t gone over as well as Agent Thorne had expected, even though they’d been conducted by a local. That wasn’t much of a surprise to anyone involved. “I’ve been fortunate to have my family, and even more so to have been blessed with two loving parents.”

  Allie ignored the sharp pierce of envy she always experienced whenever anyone mentioned family. She hadn’t been so lucky in that department, but she was never one to dwell on the past. She steeled herself with an eye toward the future.

  Allie continued to walk along the aging barbed wire fence line, breathing in the fresh autumn air. There was an intoxicating scent that couldn’t be found in D.C. Autumn was definitely in the air. Mitch had decided that a walk through his small town was no longer needed, so he’d all but escorted her to the sheriff’s car.

  She kept to herself that maybe an upgrade in vehicles was due, considering the buttons and switches on the dashboard could have been from the 1950s he’d spoken of earlier. He’d witnessed her disbelief before giving her a brief explanation that Deputy Warner was currently driving the SUV the town had authorized for the sheriff’s department.

  That one thoughtful act told Allie how much Mitch cared for his deputies.

  “Could you please do me a favor and finally start from the beginning?” Allie asked, not needing to turn her head to see the frown she knew would be on his face.

  Mitch didn’t want to waste any more time.

  She understood his impatience, but she wasn’t like some of the other profilers employed by the FBI. Her colleagues could look at a case file and whip something out for the lead agent in a matter of a couple days. She’d done it herself more times than she could count, but she personally liked to get an up close and personal read of the investigation.

  “We were interrupted before, but I wouldn’t be asking you if I didn’t feel it was important,” Allie pressed once more. “We need a fresh perspective.”

  Mitch had driven her out to his new place, which she had to admit was absolutely stunning. The land was positioned right at the entrance of town, giving any passerby a view of vast acres of rolling pastures, a barn that must have been a staple of the property since the early part of the century, and a beautiful farmhouse that was meant for a larger family.

  She’d never pictured Mitch as a family man, because the individual standing before her didn’t like to commit to anything other than having his team’s backs, or six as they called it in the service. Yes, he took his duties of protecting this town just as seriously as he had when securing the freedom of this country in distant lands…but there was something different about him now that she couldn’t pinpoint.

  “We’re only wasting time,” Mitch argued, bringing her attention back around to the conversation at hand. He leaned down to grab a stick that had been directly in his path, telling her that some of the attributes in his fierce demeanor still existed. “Agent Thorne is probably up at the lake right now, scouring through my neighbors’ boats moored to private docks. Byron is up there to make sure the residents are placated, but it’s not going to be enough. We’re all missing something that’s key to bringing this son of a bitch down.”

  “Jay got the warrant, and he had probable cause to do so or he wouldn’t have been able to get the judge to sign it,” Allie said in def
ense of an agent that she didn’t particularly like. No one could argue the man’s closing rate on these types of investigations. It was rather impressive. “The individual you’re looking for is right here amongst the residents—someone you’ve seen most of your life and thought you knew. The unsub is male, most likely in his early to late thirties, experienced a loss of a parent early on in his life, and truly believes he’s doing something right by his victims in killing these young girls. He’s grouping them together, providing them a makeshift family plot with that gravesite you discovered in the lake.”

  “You’re not telling me anything Thorne’s profiler hasn’t already written down in some case file somewhere, but I’ve also witnessed you in the field. When we were looking for that sniper in that village in Iraq—the shooter who was taking our guys out one by one. You were able to identify him within three days of us arriving at that village.”

  “I’m not a miracle worker, Ken. And I wasn’t even a profiler back then. I was an analyst. It was just common sense. A process of elimination that I used to weed out the possibilities in order to identity of the sniper.”

  Allie had known early on what she’d wanted to do with her life, and she’d entered the military with a clear goal in mind. The FBI favored those applicants with military backgrounds, especially those with defined close-in-weapons skills and field experience so that they could hit the ground running. It also hadn’t hurt that the military had taken her away from a not-so-good home domestic situation.

  “We’re dealing with a serial killer who has his own personal hunting ground here in the surrounding counties. To pick up anything different than the profiler Jay has been relying on will require me to see or hear something that’s not in the reports. Some hint of a clue that everyone else had dismissed as meaningless.”

  “Every damn detail is in those damn reports,” Mitch muttered, his frustration shining through as bright as the sun overhead.