Page 50 of The Killer You Know

“We both cared,” I tell her as she pulls me and then Nikki in for a group embrace. “Everybody cared.”

Nikki and I make our way out of the cabin and the lights from the patrol cars cut into the night with a blue and red seizure.

We spot Jack over by one of the sheriff’s vehicles with Vanessa sitting inside of it and head that way.

Jack pulls me in tight without hesitation and rubs his cheek against mine hard. His hot breath scorches my neck, and for a second his lips graze over my temple.

“Are you okay?”

“I’ve got a wild headache.” A dull laugh bounces through me. “But I’ll live.”

“We’re getting you checked out,” Nikki insists. “We need a medic!”

I lean into the car for a moment. “How did you do it? How did you manage to kidnap Brittney and kill Robin in one afternoon? You never grazed yourself with a bullet either. That’s why those sisters never heard a third gunshot. There wasn’t one. Everything was a setup from start to finish.”

The execution was poor, but we all have that to be thankful for.

Vanessa gives a sorrowful attempt at a laugh. “I thought maybe you might think the two cases were unrelated. I wanted to splice your resources, send you in two different directions, and point both arrows at Derek. I guess I did a lousy job.”

“Not true,” Jack says. “We just did better.” He pulls me back to him, gentler this time, and the tip of his nose touches mine and we linger there for a moment. His heart pounds against my chest, keeping in time to mine. “Let’s get you into one of these ambulances. I’ll hop in with you. I sort of enjoy the ride.”

Jack rides with me all the way to Aspen Heights Memorial, and all the way there he holds my hand.

I don’t fight him on it, so clearly I have a concussion.

33

Special Agent Fallon Baxter

Buddy races along the shoreline of Pine Ridge Lake and his joyful barks cut through the quiet of the early afternoon. I walk along the damp sand barefoot while wrapped in a reflective silence.

The lake is filled with the last vestiges of summer as adults and children alike scream and splash their way into the crystal blue water. It’s the other side of the lake that’s teeming with life. That’s where the plethora of tourist traps lie, where the summer camps hold their participants hostage.

An entire fleet of boats careen around the middle of the lake, from fishing pontoons to families catching some rays, and a handful of those boats are hauling inflatables on their back end as the occupants scream with delight.

The side of the lake that sits below Whispering Woods is tranquil for the most part, and I suppose we have the marsh that eats up most of the shoreline to thank for that. The sun is warm on my back, warming up the oil from the pines as well as they release their sweet scent into the air.

I soak it all in.

I know soon enough fall will be here, then winter, and I’ll be dreaming of doing this right here, just praying for the warmth of the sun to transport me to summer one more time.

I think I’ll rent a kayak.

Heck, I should see about picking up a used one and taking it out whenever I like. It’s too nice of a day not to be out on the lake. And I bet Buddy would love it, too.

He comes back with a glossy wet stick and I throw it as far as I can before he’s on the chase again.

It’s been a week since Vanessa Copeland’s arrest, a week since the chaos of the reunion gave way to a semblance of peace.

The lake, with its gentle waves lapping at the shore, seems a world away from the chaos we faced.

Nikki did a little research after I disappeared from the gym and discovered that Vanessa’s mother did, in fact, own a few more properties. One was a retail space in downtown Denver, another was a condo, and the third was a secluded lodge out in the middle of nowhere. Thankfully, that’s where Jack and Nikki decided to begin their search. My phone was found in the parking lot of the school, so that wouldn’t have helped in pinning down my location.

It turned out, Vanessa gave me one heck of a concussion. The hospital kept me overnight just to make sure my brain didn’t decide to bleed out. Jack insisted on staying by my side, holding vigil all night long despite the fact I told him to go away.

He didn’t.

Instead, he held my hand the entire time and I didn’t protest. That’s because I didn’t mind. It scares me a little how I seem to not mind him more and more as time goes by.

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