Page 18 of The Last To Know (Hallowed Halls Series #2)

“G ot it.”

Cooper and the rest of the team gathered around Zeke. The victims from the past and the three current ones did resemble each other slightly.

“They’re all professional women who have dark hair. It’s something,” Cooper said. Just not enough to move the case forward any in his mind.

“They all lived within about a hundred-mile radius of Rochester,” Hannah added. Which would put them within a short traveling distance. But why these women? “One thing I think we can agree on, at least for the women who were found worthy, it wasn’t a rage killing,” Hannah said. “They weren’t tortured. Quite the contrary. Their deaths came as peacefully as possible under the circumstances, unlike the ones that were condemned.”

Cooper hadn’t thought of it that way. “You’re right. It’s almost as if he treasured the worthy ones. They were intended to be his possessions forever.” Something Cooper had put off since they arrived couldn’t be left any longer. “When the weather clears, I’d like to take a ride over to my grandparents’ place.” The farm where Cooper had so many good memories growing up. But the memories had been destroyed along with his happy childhood by his father’s actions .

“You think the killer would use the same place as before?” Zeke asked, clearly doubtful.

Cooper shook his head. “Not really. I’m thinking the copycat might be using someplace nearby. He obviously idolized my father for whatever reason. If this is some long-lost brother I’m not aware of existing, then it stands to reason he’d want to recreate everything to match the original murders . . . and supposing he was rejected by the family, he’d be angered by that.”

“Angry enough to frame your father?” Hannah pinned him with her gaze. She was referencing Oliver’s claims of being set up.

“He wasn’t framed, Hannah. I saw him murder my mother, remember? He killed all those women. He deserved his place in prison . . . and in hell.”

He’d seen the same look of pity in her eyes before. He fought back feelings of frustration that must have shown because then Hannah asked about his grandparents.

“What were they like?”

If he didn’t want to lose her as a friend, he’d have to get a grip on his emotions. “The nicest people you’d ever want to meet. Deborah and Ralph Ellison. They owned a hundred-acre apple farm outside of town. We went there every chance we got. We spent holidays there. I’d stay with them over the summer. They were good people who trusted God and loved their family.”

“What happened to them?” Megan asked.

“Grandpa Ralph died of cancer. Grandma Deborah passed away a few weeks later. Her heart. I think she didn’t want to go on without him. They’d been married close to sixty-five years.”

“Sixty-five years?” Hannah’s eyes widened. “They didn’t have your father until later in their marriage?”

Cooper had never considered it before. “I guess. They were in their eighties when they passed.”

“So, they’d have been in their early forties when Oliver was born. Back then, that would have been considered unusual.”

“Yeah, I guess, although they never acted old. They were always doing something. Grandma taught Sunday school and played the piano at church. Grandpa still worked the farm—just the two of them.” Hearing his past out loud, there were things he never questioned before that now didn’t add up.

“Do you mind if I do a little checking into them?” Zeke asked quietly.

“You’re thinking they might not be my grandparents?” Cooper couldn’t fathom it.

“I’m not saying that.” Zeke shrugged. “It just seems there may have been some things they kept from you.”

“I don’t mind. I hope you find some answers into the copycat’s identity.” Because right now they had very little beyond speculation.

Soon, the rest of the team returned from Veronica Turner’s.

“Thank goodness, we made it. It’s really nasty out there,” Sierra exclaimed, shaking snow from her hair. “It took forever to get back here. Cell service is knocked out because of the storm.”

“Did you find anything useful at the crime scene?” Cooper watched her remove her coat and hang it across the back of the chair.

Sierra looked his way. “Not really.”

Jack poured coffee and wrapped his fingers around it as if for warmth. “There weren’t any fingerprints left behind. We did find some blood droplets, however.”

“You’re kidding?” Finally, a lead that might yield the killer’s ID.

“Our ERT team is hopeful. They’re using the state police lab in Rochester to analyze the evidence. Bob’s put a rush on the blood sample.” It was something.

Cooper rose and stretched the kinks from his shoulders. He stepped into the lobby to clear his head and noticed the reservations clerk wasn’t around. With the weather being the way it was, there wasn’t much of a chance anyone would be reserving a room for a while.

Driving snow reduced visibility to just a few feet from the window. Darkness descended quickly even though it was barely four.

He saw her approach through the reflection in the glass. Hannah.

“How are you really, Cooper?”

He turned toward the real woman, leaving the ghost in the window reflection. “Honestly, I don’t know. For my entire life the one thing I could always count on were my grandparents. I’m not sure how I’d feel if I find out they weren’t who I thought.”

She stood next to him and leaned her head against his shoulder. “You won’t. They were who you thought.”

He bit back a bitter laugh. “Like my father was who I thought he was? It doesn’t work that way.”

She lifted her head to him. “I wish I’d known what you went through.”

He wanted to ask her if it would change her mind about them, but he already knew the answer.

“I guess we both have secrets that are hard to talk about.”

She tensed and turned toward the window. “I guess we do.”

She believed her life had a timestamp on it. She was living it as if waiting for death. How could he make her see no matter how much time she had he wanted to share it with her. If friendship was all she could offer, then he’d find a way to be happy with it.

He reached for her hand, surprising her.

Hannah faced him again.

“I know you’re scared about dying, and I get it,” he added when she would have pulled away. “You and I have a different take on death because we deal with it every day.” He searched her face. “All I’m saying is I want to be part of your life. In whatever capacity that looks like.”

She touched his cheek without answering.

“What is it?” There was something she didn’t want to tell him.

She shook her head. “Nothing.” She spotted something outside the window and stepped closer. “Did you see that?”

“What?” All he saw was white.

“It’s gone.” She leaned in closer. “Cooper, I’m almost certain I saw Lewis’s vehicle out there.” She grabbed her coat and slipped her arms into it.

“Hannah, wait.” Cooper snatched his coat and shrugged into it as he followed her out to the portico. He searched through the whiteout conditions. “I don’t see anyone.” Why would Lewis return to their hotel? Sure, he was odd enough, but he wasn’t connected to their case . . . was he? “There’s no one here. Let’s go back inside.”

After another moment of uncertainty, she went with him.

With her hands held out to the fire, he could see she was still troubled by the thought of Lewis being outside their hotel. She kept glancing out the window.

“He doesn’t fit the description given by Isobel.”

She sat down on the sofa. “I know. But don’t you think it’s strange that he was out there in the middle of the blizzard in the first place?”

Hannah was a seasoned agent and not one to go jumping at shadows. He recalled the small car that he’d seen behind them leaving the Witherspoon place. It, too, had been white. He hadn’t noticed the make.

Cooper sat next to her and told her about the car.

“If it was Lewis, why would he be near our crime scene and then show up in the same area as Isobel’s house?”

“I don’t know.” He grabbed his phone.

“Who are you calling?”

“The officers watching Isobel’s place. I want to make sure she’s safe.” The officer in charge answered his call immediately. “Everything okay there?”

“All’s quiet. Ms. Melendez is inside. We checked on her about ten minutes earlier.”

Still, Lewis’s strange behavior wouldn’t let him go. “Keep your eyes open. And let me know if you spot anything unusual.” Cooper ended the call and looked at Hannah. “She’s safe.”

Yet why couldn’t he believe it?

“Thank goodness. If the car you saw near the Witherspoon place was Lewis’s, he’d have no reason to be there. He sells windows. I doubt the Witherspoons were having some installed, especially at this time of the year.

“You’re right. It was odd that he’d be out in the middle of a blizzard.” Cooper stood and waited for Hannah while wondering how many more loose ends would be thrown at them before some of them finally made sense.