Page 74 of The Rookie's Second Chance

And then he pulled both triggers.

I woke up with a start, my body slick with cold sweat, my heart racing. It was just a dream, a fucking nightmare. I lay there, trying to catch my breath, the images from the dream still vivid and haunting.

Jude, who I had only known through research, had infiltrated my subconscious, turning my fears into a twisted reality. He didn't know me, didn't know Kayla, but he knew Mandy. Or did he? His words had been a contradiction, a confusing mix of timelines that didn't add up. College or high school? Which was it?

I sat up, rubbing my face with my hands, trying to shake off the remnants of the dream. It had felt so real, so terrifyingly real. The choice Jude had forced on me, the look in Kayla's eyes, Mandy's silent pleas for help—it was all too much.

Lying back down, I stared at the ceiling, the shadows dancing in the dim light of the room. I needed to get a grip and focus on the case and the facts. But as I lay there, the dream continued to haunt me, a vivid reminder of the stakes we were playing with.

I couldn't let it happen, not in my dreams, not in reality. I had to protect them, both of them, no matter what it took.

Chapter Thirty-Four

KAYLA

As I sat at my desk, buried in the computer screen's glow, I couldn't shake off a gnawing suspicion about Mandy. It gnawed at me like a dog with a bone. "Fuck it," I muttered under my breath, my fingers hovering over the keyboard. It was time to use police resources to dig deeper into Mandy's past, though I wasn't about to tell Jake how far I was willing to go.

My search led me down a tangle of public records and legal documents. That's when I stumbled upon something that made my heart skip a beat—a restraining order filed by Jude, but not against him. This one was to keep Mandy away.

"What the hell?" I whispered, leaning in closer to the screen.

The details were sparse, but it was clear that Jude had gone to great lengths to keep Mandy at bay. Why would Jude need a restraining order against Mandy? What kind of relationship did they have? It didn't add up.

I dug further, tapping into the case file, but it was like trying to read through a fog. The injunction was dropped, and the signature at the bottom of the document made my blood run cold—Officer Kilkenny. The same man entangled in this twisted web we were unraveling. The same man who was apparently Jude's father.

"Why would Kilkenny kill his own son's restraining order?" I murmured, rubbing my temples.

I leaned back in my chair, my eyes burning from the screen's glare. The clock on the wall ticked steadily, a reminder of the time slipping away as we hunted for answers. I pulled up Mandy's file again, looking for any clue or connection that could explain this bizarre twist.

But the more I searched, the more elusive the answers became. Every lead seemed to end in a dead end or a new question. Frustration gnawed at me, mixing with a growing sense of urgency.

I glanced at my phone, half expecting Jake to call and ask what I had found. But the screen remained dark, the silence of the device echoing the silence in the room. I was alone with this, at least for now.

With a deep sigh, I turned back to the screen, my fingers resuming their dance across the keyboard. I had to be missing something, some thread that would unravel this whole mess. I was determined to find it, no matter how deep I had to dig.

And I knew there was one more step I had to take to get there.

I dialed the number for Miami PD, my heart pounding a rhythm against my ribcage. "Miami Police Department, how may I assist you?" a dispatcher answered professionally.

"Hi, this is Detective Kayla Green from Silver Creek chief's Office. I need to speak with Officer Kilkenny," I said, trying to sound as official as possible.

There was a pause on the other end. “Officer Kilkenny? He retired and moved down to Key West a few months ago."

A chill ran down my spine. The timing was too perfect, aligning with when Lexi's stalker reemerged. "Do you have a contact for him? He's a person of interest in an ongoing investigation," I pressed, my mind racing with possibilities.

The dispatcher sounded surprised. “Officer Kilkenny? But he was such a great guy, a good cop, a real family man. He loved his kids more than anything."

I perked up at that. "Kids? As in plural?"

"Yeah, he was a foster parent. Took in loads of them, mostly teens. Even his own nephew, Jude, was with him for a while."

My head spun. Jude wasn't his son. The ‘kid’ at Lexi’s college wasn’t him. It could be any of Kilkenny's foster kids. "Can you send me his contact info and any details on the foster kids? One of them might be involved in our case," I said, barely able to conceal the urgency in my voice.

The dispatcher's tone shifted to one of concern. "Of course, Detective. I'll send it over right away."

I hung up, my mind a whirlwind of thoughts. If Kilkenny was the stalker, it changed everything. And if it wasn’t him, we had a whole roster of potential suspects from his foster kids.

I leaned back in my chair, feeling every second ticking by. This was big, bigger than anything I'd expected. My phone buzzed with the incoming email from the Miami PD dispatcher, and I opened it with trembling hands.

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