Page 46 of Let Her Live

"I know," Jake said."We were just about to get a confession."

Fiona bit her lip, hugging herself. "It is weird, isn't it?" she said. "He didn't seem to know what we were talking about with the trees, but he readily confessed to everything else."

Jake frowned. Did Fiona actually think this guy could be innocent? Jake's gut instinct was to ask if she was crazy, but then he remembered how working with Fiona had been so far—her gut instincts were often spot on. It was worth listening to.

"What are you thinking, Red?" he asked.

"I don't know. I'm not saying he's innocent, but it feels off. Also, the team hasn't uncovered any rope, or any other evidence, from his trailer."

"At least not yet," Jake said. "They're still looking. Something could come up."

But Fiona had a point. If they didn't find concrete evidence linking Frank to the murders, then they might lose their case against him.

He was clearly an animal killer, among all kinds of other deranged things. But without that confession, Jake had his doubts too. The stakes were too high to mess up.

Just then, an officer came into the room, a panicked expression on his face. "Agents Tucker and Red?"

"What is it?" Jake asked.

The officer took a breath. "I have something you should see."

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

Fiona's heart was in her throat as she and Jake followed the officer into his office. Once they were there, the officer leaned over his computer. Jake and Fiona leaned in as well, eager to see what he had to show them.

"It's a report," Fiona said as she skimmed the screen, reading the text. Someone called in, saying that someone named Chris Hein had cruelly injured a turtle off the highway leading into town. The caller, someone named Jason, claimed that they felt ashamed they hadn't done more to help the animal and requested that officers send someone to go check and see if it was still alive.

"Turns out someone did go look," the officer said, "and the animal was dead. I wanted to let you know because you said something about how the victims seemed to have all killed animals."

"So this Chris guy, he could be a victim." Jake frowned. "Wait... Chris, Jason..." His eyes snapped to Fiona. "Weren't those the names of those guys who were messing with the park ranger?"

Fiona's chest jumped. He was right. The troublemaking young men from earlier. Apparently, Jason had much more of a heart than Chris.

"You're right," Fiona said. "And maybe this would put Chris on the killer's list."

"Well, you caught him though, right?" the officer said. "That crazy guy you guys brought in. Is he the guy?"

"We aren't a hundred percent sure," Jake said. "It probably is him, but if there's even a chance it's not, then we should keep looking." He turned to the window, where the night was descending upon the Everglades. "It's getting late. If the killer is still out there, he'll be stalking his next victim."

Fiona's stomach sank. "He could be looking for Chris."

"Damn," Jake said, "we've gotta find those boys."

He and Fiona hurried back to the briefing room, where they had their computers. Fiona watched as Jake looked up Chris Hein's file. As it turned out, they were tourists from a town a few hours away, so they must have been down here to camp and fish. Fiona recalled how they'd been trying to camp at the conservation area—if they were taking the road back into town, then it seemed unlikely they were leaving.

"They must have been trying to find another spot to camp," Fiona said. "They could still be in the area."

"We don't have their license plate," Jake said. He clicked around. "Chris doesn't have one filed to his name."

"You've got to be kidding me," Fiona said. "That's bad for us."

"I know." Jake rubbed his face, trying to think. "But without photos or a license plate, how will we track them down? There are a ton of cars down here." Jake clicked around some more, and Fiona watched as he pulled up Jason Myer's file too. "No far in Jason's name. It could be one of their parents', but it could be a friend's too. It's hard to say."

Fiona thought about it. They didn't have their car, but they did have their last known location. "It's clear they were trying to not spend money on camping," Fiona noted. "Maybe they tried another spot because they thought they could get away with it for free. Is there anywhere on the map, near where the turtle was found?"

Jake plugged in the location of the dead turtle and then drew a circle around it. He scanned the map for any nearby camping sites.

"This area," he said. "It's pretty far from the road, and there aren't any rangers in the area."

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