Page 8 of Cold Vengeance

The Gyro Company had become one of their favorite places to eat. From their gyros to their hummus and all their other great choices, River and Tony never tired of it.

“Grab some tiramisu too,” River called out as Tony headed out the door.

“You didn’t have to tell me.”

After thinking about it, River decided she also wanted some hummus. She searched the top of her desk for her phone, but it wasn’t there. She grabbed her purse and looked through it too, but no phone. Maybe she left it in the car. Hopefully she could catch Tony before he left the parking lot. She got up and hurried out of the office and down the hallway.

The other reason she’d suggested an early lunch was because she needed to clear her head. She couldn’t stop thinking about April. Had she made the choice River had been willing to make to protect Tony? Did she leave to keep the man she loved out of harm’s way?

As she jogged past the other businesses that lined the hallway on the second floor, River glanced briefly at a couple of the newer ones. The first was a graphic design firm called Art Attack Design. Cute name. There were two men and a woman working at computers who didn’t look her way as she passed by. They’d said hello, though, when she’d passed them in the hallway before. They all seemed nice. The other new business, down at the end of the hall was called TSRS. Just one man working there. So far, they’d never spoken. He kept to himself. There wasn’t anything on his door or on his windows to indicate what kind of business it was. The man looked up from his desk and saw her. He had dark hair, a mustache, a small beard, and thick black glasses. He smiled, and she returned his smile. As she hurried down the stairs, she realized she was breathing quickly. She always felt a little anxiouswhen Tony was gone. Silly. She was a grown woman, armed, and trained by the FBI. As she tried to catch Tony before he left, she did her best to focus on their new case and not think about the Strangler’s partner, who had threatened to carry out Joseph Baker’s death sentence.

CHAPTER

FIVE

After a great lunch, River made herself a cup of cappuccino and parked herself in front of her laptop. It had been a snowy winter so far in Missouri, but today was bright, the sun shining as if promising that spring would surely come. Still, it was really cold, with temperatures in the teens. The coffee helped to warm her up, but each time she brewed a cup, she couldn’t help but think about the deranged man who had added a drug to some of the flavored pods they’d used in their single-serve coffeemaker a few months ago. These were new, and that man was gone, but the memory of that awful day still tickled her thoughts whenever she touched her lips to the rim of her cup. She pushed the uncomfortable memory back into the recesses of her mind and glanced toward the large windows at the front of their office. They looked out onto the hallway, which was also lined with glass that faced outside. Even though it didn’t look like winter from her vantage point, she felt sad knowing that each day brought them closer to the end of her favorite season. She’d loved snow ever since she was a little girl. It had made her feel safe, as if nothing bad could happen when it snowed. Evil was frozen and covered with a blanket of white that kept it hidden from the world. Butof course, that wasn’t true. Evil flourished in winter just as it did in any other season. Their recent cases had proven that.

She turned her attention back to the matter at hand. It only took a couple of minutes to find a website for April’s podcast,Hot Coffee and Cold Cases.River was surprised to see how many people followed it. Ads along the sides of the first page made it clear there were several sponsors connected with the site. She wondered how long they would hang on with April gone. River grabbed her headphones and plugged them in so she wouldn’t disturb Tony as she listened.

The main page featured a picture of April. She was lovely—long brown hair and dark eyes. A smile that made it look as if she enjoyed her life and what she was doing, yet there was something in her gaze that caught River’s attention. An echo of pain. Of fear. River recognized it because she’d experienced the same thing. That cloud following you everywhere, casting its shadow on every aspect of your life. She sighed. Had the cloud finally consumed this young woman? Was April really dead? Had she been killed by someone connected with one of the cases mentioned on her site?

River scrolled down the page and found links to several different cases. Each one had a title.

She located the two cases April had helped crack. Just like the others, they had rather silly titles, but both of them had a large red circle across the page with the wordsSolved by Hot Coffee and Cold Caseswithin its border. River quickly looked through them. Each case had pages that detailed the crime and how the killers were caught. Although they were interesting, both criminals were in prison and unlikely to be the reason someone might want to stop April from further investigation. She proceeded to the unsolved cases. April had added new cases every couple of months. There was a written description about each one, as well as the podcast that people could listen to. April also had a disclaimer stating that the identity of anyone contacting herwith a tip would be kept confidential. Besides the actual podcast, April had recorded updates as things changed with each case. It would take a while to listen to the original recording as well as the updates. River grabbed her notebook and settled into her chair, determined to get as far as possible before they had to leave for Nathan’s. Each one had an interesting title.

The Case of the Missing Mother

The Case of the Railroad Rage

The Case of the Convenience Store Carnage

The Case of the Hit-and-Run Hitchhiker

The Case of the Virtuous Volunteer

The Case of the Disappeared Diabetic

The Case of the Castlewood Casanova

The last case was the one Nathan had mentioned. River decided to listen to it first. She clicked on the link and a female voice began to talk. April. She had a soft, pleasing tone. River wasn’t sure what she was expecting, but April sounded so ... normal. Why was this young woman so interested in these violent cold cases? It was an important question. One she wished they’d asked Nathan when he was here. She paused the episode and then went back up to the top of the page, where she found a link to April’s bio.

She selected it and found herself on a page with a different photo of April. The bio contained the usual things, where she was born, where she’d attended college, etc. It turned out that at one point, she’d been studying for a degree in English. She’d wanted to be an English teacher. River wondered why that hadn’t happened. Had she dropped out? How do you get from wanting to be a teacher to investigating cold-crime cases?

Then she started on the second paragraph. When April wasa child, her mother was murdered. At one time, April’s father was the prime suspect. River wasn’t completely surprised. Family members are always looked at first. Most murders are committed by family or so-called friends. But after he was cleared, there were no arrests. It seemed that the case turned cold. April actually left college to investigate the murder herself. She was never able to figure out who killed her mother—nor could the police. It was now obvious to River why April began the podcast. She’d seen what can happen when murders remain unsolved. She obviously felt driven to help others who were in the same situation she’d been in. River couldn’t help but feel sorry for April’s father. He lost his wife, and now his daughter had disappeared. She could understand why he might suspect that Nathan was involved in some way. If River was in his shoes, it would certainly occur to her. However, if Nathan was guilty, he wouldn’t come looking for someone to investigate his crime. He’d want it ignored. If she and Tony decided to take this case, they would want to talk to April’s dad. Would he be willing to talk to them? Hopefully, he’d welcome the idea that someone was looking for his daughter, even if he believed she’d left on her own accord.

Following the bio, there was a Scripture. Job 12:22. “He uncovers deep things out of darkness, and brings the shadow of death to light.”

For some reason, the Scripture made River shift in her chair. The words were so powerful, and they resonated with her. Is that what she and Tony were doing? Working with God to bring darkness into the light? River suddenly felt an even deeper bond with April. It was as if the cries of their souls were the same. From the time she was a young girl, River had felt called to battle wickedness. Her father’s betrayal had awakened something inside her. His rigid standards and his commitment to pastoring a church he professed to care for wasn’t enough to keep him from running off with the church secretary and abandoning his wife and children.River had watched her mother disintegrate and had felt her father’s rejection. It made her angry, even vengeful. It had also given her a deep understanding of right and wrong as well as a desire to see justice done. As crazy as it sounded, her father’s treachery was the impetus that led her to becoming a behavioral analyst for the FBI. A dream had died when her father left—and a dream had died when April’s mother was killed. Yet both she and April had developed a quest for righteousness. Of course, once she came face-to-face with a loving and merciful God, River finally realized that He wasn’t the God her father had preached about. God was love, and although River was still driven to eradicate criminals from society, her desire was no longer based in hate.

River heard a muffled noise and looked over at Tony. He gestured toward her headphones, and she took them off.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Sure. Why do you ask?”

“You were making odd noises.”

She frowned at him. “What kind of odd noises?”

---