Page 53 of Seeking Evil

The three stepped out. Patrick, Hannah, and Cooper waited for them.

Zeke checked the time. Still early. It would probably be a while before Flannigan’s first patient arrived.

“Patrick, why don’t you and I, Zeke, and Cooper head over to the apartment to take a look around? Megan, you and Hannah keep going over the original disappearances. See if anything jumps out at you.”

“You got it.” Megan kissed her husband. “Be careful.”

He smiled at her familiar parting words. “Always.”

Patrick pulled the cruiser from its parking space. The drive back to the doctor’s office was a quick one.

“I’m guessing the apartment will have a separate entrance,” Patrick said. “Let’s try the back.”

There were two doors around the back. One Zeke noticed had a set of new steps. “It’s got to be the next one.”

Jack inserted the key Flannigan gave him and stepped inside.

The quiet of the space was broken by the hum of the A/C unit.

The apartment was neat and clean, consisting of a small living room and kitchen. One bedroom and bath.

Nothing stood out as unusual on first look.

Zeke thumbed through several magazines on the living room table. Most were medical in theme. One was a climbing magazine. He flipped through the pages until something caught his eye. An article about female climbers. One photo in particular grabbed his attention.

“Hey, take a look at this.”

Everyone gathered around him. The photo featured Dawn Collins, a schoolteacher from Oklahoma. “Looks like he knew her from more than a casual encounter.”

“Unbelievable.” Patrick took the magazine from him and read aloud. “Collins’s next big climb will be in the summer of 2025 when she will take on the challenging Wind River Mountain Range.”

“He knew she was coming here.” Zeke couldn’t believe it. The doctor had lied again.

“Appears so.” Patrick finished reading through the article. “Says here that her fiancé, Travis Lawson, is a strong supporter though he doesn’t climb himself. I’m going to give the fiancé a call again. See if he remembers anything that might help with the case. I spoke to him once before. He flew out for a few days but had to go back to work.”

“You checked him out, I’m assuming?” Zeke asked.

“Thoroughly. He was in Oklahoma when both Dawn and Sierra went missing. He’s not our guy.”

They checked the rest of the apartment, but there was nothing useful to be found.

“Let’s get out of here,” Patrick told them. “I’m going to speak to our district attorney to see if we have enough for an arrest.”

Was it possible Flannigan was their person? He’d certainly been in the area at the time of the original disappearances. He’d lied about meeting Dawn, and he obviously had an unhealthy interest in her. Had he been able to control the demon inside him for twenty-five years until something about Dawn ignited the desire again? Dennis Rader had stopped killing for eight years. It was possible. Though Flannigan was thin, he was fit and he climbed. He could have overpowered Dawn, but Sierra was a trained agent. She’d taken self-defense classes. Heck, she’d taught classes. She would have fought with everything she had.

Unless, Flannigan had used something to disable her. Zeke voiced his thoughts aloud.

“That makes sense,” Cooper chimed in. “That’s what’s been bothering me about this. Sierra is tough as nails. But if Flannigan used something to knock her out . . .”

“He is a physician,” Jack told them. “He’d have access to the type of medicine that would render someone unconscious.”

“Sheriff, come in.” Deb’s transmission interrupted the discussion.

“I’m here, Deb. What’s up?”

“You need to get over to the Wind River Cabins right away.”

Dread slithered into the pit of Zeke’s stomach.

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