Scream for Me (18 page)

“He’s looking for control.” Kyle knew the SOB wanted to control everyone and everything around him.
That’s why you called me, isn’t it? To prove you were the one with all the power. But guess what, asshole? I’m taking that power away
.

“What happens,” James asked as he rolled his shoulders, “when the victims aren’t…good? What if he makes a mistake? No one is damn good all the time.”

No, they weren’t. Most folks had a darkness inside.

I do
.

“The profile is showing”—Cadence’s voice was calm and cool, still with no emotion as she talked about life and death—“that our killer is extremely dominant. When he takes the women, he exerts complete control over them. He keeps them in darkness, controlling one of the most vital things to them—light. He binds them, imprisons them, and it’s by his will whether they live or die.”

“But what happens when they break his rules?” James still pushed to know.

“He punishes them.” Simple. Stark. “If the girls break his rules, he could kill them. If they stop being what he wants, what he thinks them to be…” She licked her lips. It was her first sign of nervousness. “I believe, in his mind, the victims would lose value.”

Twelve victims
.

“We’re looking for a man who is physically fit.” Cadence cleared her throat and continued with the profile as the gazes of those gathered drifted to the victims. “He would have to be fit in order to carry the victims, to get them through the caverns. The man is probably in his midthirties or early forties and Caucasian.”

“
Is
he a cop?” Jason demanded. Kyle had known the question would come up. It had to. “Or was the guy just tricking Lily?”

This was where they had to be careful, because they didn’t know yet. Kyle inclined his head toward Jason and revealed what he could, saying, “The killer would have chosen a dominant profession for his career, one in which he was in charge. He could be a cop, could be in the military. We’re still developing his background.” He exhaled slowly. “But there is one thing I believe, one thing we all have to be ready for. This man will be hunting again, soon. We need you out on the roads. We need you to be vigilant. We don’t want another woman taken.”

It was why they were going to the media next. They wanted word to spread, because the guy had a kill zone stretching across four states.

If a woman found herself on a long, lonely stretch of road and she was approached, they wanted her to exercise extreme caution.

“He’s hunting again, and if we don’t stop him, another woman could vanish.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

Cadence stared at the entrance to the caves. Darkness was falling, the setting sun casting a red glare across the sky.

A crew had been doing excavation work all day long, and had barely made any headway. The hours kept crawling by, and they had gained damn little ground.

“It’s too risky,” Dr. Aaron Peters told her, shaking his dark head. The geology professor had come up from Auburn University, rushing to get to the scene. He’d been the lead on the cavern exploration years before, and the man who’d ruled them too unstable for the public. “Every time we try to advance, more of the ceiling falls in on us.”

She exhaled slowly. “There could be bodies inside those caverns. Victims. There are families out there, waiting to hear about their daughters.” Would this be their grave now? Forever?

“I’m not saying it can’t be done.” His voice was grim. In his late thirties, Dr. Aaron Peters had high, sharp cheekbones, and a slightly rounded chin. His green eyes shone in the waning light. “I’m just saying it’s going to take time.”

“That’s not exactly a luxury we have,” Kyle said as he came to stand with them.

In those caverns, the killer could have left clues behind, something that would help them to track the man.

“If we rush, we risk hurting the
living
men and women who have to go inside.” Aaron’s jaw locked. “I’m not risking the living for the dead.”

Kyle’s arm brushed against Cadence. “Dr. Peters, how far did you explore when you were up here five years ago?”

Aaron’s gaze darted to the cave. “Not nearly far enough. She’s got secrets, plenty of them.”

“You didn’t find the exit behind the falls?” Cadence asked him.

“I did, but we’d had a surge of storms then. The water was so high that the entrance was
covered
. You needed to swim through in order to gain access, and that wasn’t something most folks were going to do.” A shrug. “So I didn’t tell the locals about it. Didn’t see the point.”

“Was there anything else,” Kyle said, “that you didn’t tell the locals about? Something you didn’t see the point of them knowing?”

Aaron’s shoulders stiffened as he focused on them. “I didn’t see bodies, if that’s what you’re asking, Agent. I didn’t see some poor woman being held inside a chamber. I saw caverns. Stalactites, stalagmites. Miles of caves I wanted to search, but they were too damn unstable.” Anger pulsed in his words. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a crew waiting on me.”

Cadence lifted a brow. “I don’t think he likes you very much.”

“Tell me something new.” He rolled back his shoulders. “You heard the ME. The victim had been dead for eight years.”

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean her body had been in the cave the entire time. Five years ago, she might not have been inside.” She turned away from the scene.

He caught her arm. “Lily was inside.”

She tensed at his touch. His fingers seemed to burn her skin.

“You and I both know he could’ve had the others here. He could’ve been holding a victim in that chamber when the professor and his students came to explore.”

“She didn’t scream,” Cadence murmured.

“He gave her that order. He could’ve given the same order to the others. A victim could have been right there, and she was too afraid to call out.”

She glanced at him from the corner of her eye.

“Hell, the professor fits the profile,” Kyle snapped.

Yes, he did. She’d realized that quickly enough, and she’d already gotten Dani to start digging into the man’s past.

“You want control?” Kyle continued. “He’s got it over every one of his students,
and
he knows this area.”

“But he was at the university when Lily was abducted.” She shook her head. “I already checked.”

She was actually double-checking that alibi. One of his students had backed up Peters.

She wanted more than just the word of the guy’s coed. “There’s nothing else for me to do here today,” Cadence said, not with the night falling.

“He hunts at night.”

She hadn’t wanted to believe the man would hunt again, not so soon, but Kyle had convinced her. Now she was afraid of what the night would bring.

“Maybe he’s gonna start a pattern now,” Kyle said. “Fifteen years, it could be a cycle for him.”

That idea was the best one they had at the moment. But they needed to discover
why
the killer had seemingly come back full circle. She glanced at her watch. If the perp was going back to
the beginning and starting his same hunting cycle again… “The second abduction happened in Tennessee, just over the border outside of a city called Maverick.”

“Then I think we need to take us a little road trip.”

Hitting the road, searching. It would be better than waiting in the darkness.

Shouts and laughter filled the bar. A little place on the edge of Maverick, the bar, with a glowing sign that simply said Dale’s, sat nestled off the main highway, surrounded by thick pines and not much else.

Shirley Wayne had gone into that bar nine years ago. Her boyfriend had broken up with her, left her alone…she’d run out of the bar, jumped in her vehicle, and had never been seen again.

Would the perp really come back here?

Maybe
.

Cadence studied the busy bar scene, her gaze darting over the crowd. Wayne’s boyfriend had been the owner of the bar back then, and he still was.

Dale East was big and had a shaved head, with plenty of muscles stretching his shirt. He stood just behind the bar.

Cadence made her way toward him. Kyle was a few feet behind her. When the bartender looked up, Cadence flashed her ID. “FBI. I need to ask you a few questions.”

His gaze immediately slid toward the door marked “Staff.”

Great. The guy probably had plenty of less-than-legal activities going on. Right then, they didn’t concern her, unless those activities related to Shirley.

“It’s about Shirley,” Cadence added as Kyle closed in beside her.

Dale frowned, his gaze coming right back to her. “Who?”

“Shirley Wayne,” Kyle gritted. “Your ex-girlfriend. The one who went missing nine years ago.”

Dale’s forehead cleared. “Oh, her.” He shoved a beer toward a guy at the end of the bar. “She didn’t go missing. That girl couldn’t handle the breakup. She went running home to her mama.”

“Her mother died two weeks after Shirley was last seen in Maverick. No neighbors ever reported Shirley coming back to the area, and she wasn’t at her mother’s funeral.” Cadence had made a point of checking these details. She’d wondered why it took over six months for someone to file a missing-persons report on Shirley, and now she knew. With the mother’s death, there had simply been no one left to realize she was gone. A distant relative had eventually been notified that Shirley’s childhood home was being foreclosed upon, and it had only been then that someone finally noticed—

Shirley’s gone
. The perp had taken a perfect victim. One that no one had seemed to miss. The thought made Cadence’s heart ache.

But she wasn’t about to show weakness or the grief that she felt for Shirley’s lost life. Cadence carefully put her ID away. “We have reason to believe Shirley fits a pattern of abductions.”

His bushy brows lowered. “You’re shitting me.”

“No,” Cadence said very clearly, “I am not shitting you.”

Dale grabbed a cloth, swiped over the bar top. “Shirley was crying when she left. Running for the door.” His fingers whitened around the cloth. “I called after her, told her not to drive like that—”

“But she did,” Kyle finished.

Dale nodded and stared down at the cloth. “Abducted.” He shook his head, as if he just couldn’t grasp it. “Shirley?” He swallowed. “We didn’t work. I liked to party—hell, still do. Shirley
wanted me to settle down. To have a family.” He tossed the cloth away. “I always thought after all these years she was somewhere with the family she wanted so badly.”

It was possible Shirley was currently on the ME’s exam table. “Did anyone ever give Shirley any trouble?”

His jaw had hardened. “No, no, everybody liked Shirley. She was—fuck, she was one of those people that was always smilin’, you know? She just didn’t like me drinkin’ so much. Said it reminded her of her ex, that jerk Jake Landers.”

Cadence made a mental note to run down Jake Landers. “Did she have any contact with Mr. Landers?”

“He was in jail, so, no, she didn’t. She didn’t want anything to do with that loser.” His chin lifted. “Shirley was too good for him. Too good for me.” He swallowed. “
Missing? All this time?
”

Pain rumbled in his words.

“Do you remember anything else from that night?” Kyle asked Dale, his expression tight. “Was there anyone here who was paying too much attention to Shirley?”

A hoarse laugh came from him. “I don’t remember. She was pretty. Like you.” He jutted his chin toward Cadence. “Men always look at pretty women. Always want ’em.”

Cadence pushed her card toward him. How many cards had she given out over the years? Always the same routine. Always wondering if one witness would call her back with the break she needed. Only she never got the calls she needed. “If you remember anything, call me, okay?”

He swiped the card. “That why you’re here? You wanted to see what I remembered?”

“No,” Kyle said, his voice hard. “We’re here because the same perpetrator is hunting again, and we want to stop him.” He pointed to the news blaring on the TV right behind the bartender.
“Maybe you should turn that up. You might fucking save a life.” Anger snarled in the words.

Frowning, Dale turned back to the screen where the reporter was detailing the abduction of Lily Adams and the manhunt currently underway for the man who’d taken her.

Dale turned up the volume. “Authorities are cautioning women who are traveling alone The perpetrator may be assuming the identity of a law enforcement officer. If you are approached…”

Cadence turned away from the TV. Her elbow bumped into the arm of a dark-haired waitress. A woman who was staring up at the screen. “Sorry,” Cadence murmured.

The woman—Christa, according to the slanting tag pinned on her shirt—kept staring at the TV. “Someone’s taking women?” Her hold on the tray tightened. “That’s—”

“Christa, hurry up!” Dale shouted. “I got people waitin’ on those drinks.”

Christa’s face flushed with embarrassment. “S-sorry!” She immediately hurried to obey.

Cadence glanced around. No one else was paying attention to the news.

They were too busy dancing. Drinking.

Making out.