Page 68

“He’s dumping another body.”

Chapter32

Jake

Someone leaked information.The police station is in chaos. Word got out fast, and both the local and city press are conglomerating outside, throwing questions at anyone who comes in or out of the building.

I can’t get the image of that poor woman’s body out of my mind. Victoria. She’s been missing for four months. There were signs he kept her body frozen for a while. Whoever took her killed her months ago. Why dump her body now? What is he planning? Maybe it’s what he does. Dumps the body in the woods, and the animals take care of the rest. If Ava had not been here, Victoria’s body might have gone undiscovered for months, maybe forever. There are enough big predators in the area to take care of a body, for sure.

Thank God Ava didn’t see it. If we find any others, I have to make sure she doesn’t go anywhere near them.

“Congratulations.” Frank’s slap on my back snaps me out of my head and the nightmarish images rooting in my mind.

I bite my tongue and smooth my face before the sneer trying to take over has a chance to set. Congratulations. On what? Finding a body? Crushing all hope her family had of finding her alive? I didn’t solve the case. I didn’t catch the bastard, yet this is not the first time I’ve heard the word today. It feels out of place. And it’s not my credit to take.

I know Frank means nothing by it. He’s old-school and has been in the station longer than anyone else.

“How did you find the body so fast?”

Fast? I wouldn’t call four months fast. His question puts me on edge. More so than I already am. I widen my stance, resisting the urge to cross my arms. Stuff my hands in my pockets instead. “What do you mean?”

Frank rubs his bald head and wipes his hand on his uniform pants. Beads of sweat shine under the bright fluorescent lights. “Heard you got an anonymous tip about the body being in the woods. There are miles and miles of woods. How did you find it?”

I stare him down longer than needed. “I followed my nose. Hard to miss the smell of a dead body baking in the summer heat.”

He grimaces. “Yes, but how did you know where to drive to?”

I cross my arms now. What is it? Simple curiosity? Is he fishing for information? Or accusing? “Got a tip with the location. They gave me a mile marker and directions from there.”

He shakes his head. “Was it bad?”

Was it bad? No, Frank. It was a fucking picnic.I shrug. Where is he going with this? I check his wrist for scars. Nothing that I can see.

He rubs his head again. “I don’t miss that part of the job, and I’ll be glad to finish my days behind a desk and never see another dead body again.”

The chief waves to me from across the room and saves me from having to give Frank an answer. He nods toward his office, and I follow him. He closes the door and lowers the blinds on the large window facing the main area. Then he drops into the chair behind his desk. “Out with it.”

I hold my place, still standing, shoulders relaxed. I loop my thumbs on my waistband. Tilt my head. “Sir?”

“Don’t bullshit me, Knox. There’s more you’re not telling me. I’ll go along with this tip story. It works for the press, but we both know that a simple check of your phone would reveal no one called with a tip.”

The chief is a viper. I’ve had him riding my ass for months about the missing women. “I never said I got a phone call, Chief.”

He narrows his eyes. His gaze goes cold and calculating. “You didn’t, but that’s what everyone is saying. That you got an anonymous call?”

“I can’t help what they gossip about.”

He’s on his feet in an instant, and it takes everything I have not to flinch. I hold my ground, and a staring match ensues.

“Don’t fuck with me, Knox. I want this bastard. I want his ass behind bars until the day he dies. I need an airtight case. No loopholes, no doubts, no escape route—”

“I want the same thing, Chief.”

“Then you better make damn sure that whatever comes out of your mouth about this investigation is fucking clean and will hold because if anything happens to give this bastard a chance to get away, it will be your ass on the line. If I don’t get him, I’m coming for you.”

“Understood, Chief.”

He drops back to his chair. “Now, are you sure it’s the jogger’s body?”