Page 32 of Preying Game

“Anybody ever look for unmarked graves around the estate?” Jonah asked.

The cop’s head snapped toward him. “What?”

“Arthur Hayward may have killed some women.”

“That was a long time ago.”

“They’re still dead. Maybe you want to go through your cold cases.”

Cooper’s eyes narrowed. “First you say you’re looking for a kidnap victim. Then you claim there are bodies buried here.”

“I can’t change what we’ve been told,” Jonah said, but he figured he’d better not press his luck. He and Grant return to the helo.

When they had taken off and put their headsets back on, Jonah looked out the window toward the house and snapped several pictures.

Through his microphone, he said, “The fire was 1961, not 1955.”

“But I guess the car was still being driven back then,” Grant said. “It’s still drivable, right?”

“Because I worked on it.” Switching subjects, Jonah said, “She told me his name was Hayward.”

“Yeah.”

“Now we’ve got his first name. We can do some research when we get back.”

“I want to be here!”

“I know, but you came to the estate in the past while you were lying in your bed. That’s probably your best strategy.”

“I don’t know. I lost contact with her before I left.”

“You just need to relax and reach out to her—like you did before.”

Jonah gave his friend a long look. He knew Grant was trying to reassure him, but he wasn’t going to be reassured until he got back here—in 1961. He swore again under his breath. To say this was weird would be the understatement of the century.

“I’m coming back in the car,” he said.

“What?”

“I’m driving the car down here. The car radio was my first point of contact with Alice. I’ll park it in the woods and go from there.”

“You’re not being rational.”

“Were you rational when you thought you’d lost Jenny?”

“You have a point.”

“Plus, if I get her out of there, I can bring her back and drive home in the car.” He hated the word “if.” “No—when I get her out of there,” he corrected.

Luckily Grant didn’t ask how he was going to bring Alice to this time period—because Jonah would have screamed that he didn’t know.

As they flew, he got out his cell phone and looked up Arthur Hayward on the Web. Apparently the man had inherited wealth and had always felt entitled to live outside the rules of ordinary men. He had been a famous big game hunter in the fifties and had retired to his family estate where he led a reclusive life. The articles didn’t say he’d also become a very effective serial killer, although it did say his wife had died when she’d gone on a hunting trip to Africa with him. Yeah, sure. Probably he’d arranged her death—his first kill.

“You find anything that can help Alice?” Grant asked.

“No. Only confirmation that the house did burn down in 1961, and the guy was a first-class bastard.”

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