Page 49 of Crossing Lines

No problem.

He’d just have to hack Carly’s account and message Vicky to move the meeting up an hour. That would give him plenty of time to grab her before Carly arrived.

At first he’d been disappointed when Vicky had changed the time from evening to earlier in the afternoon, but now he realized this time was even better. Vicky had told Carly she wanted to change the time because she’d been afraid of Kirsten’s killer and didn’t want to be out after dark.

Everyone else was probably thinking that way too. No one would be expecting him to grab someone in broad daylight, including the police. The killer had contacts, and from what he had heard, the cops were ramping up their investigation.

Oh well, he could hardly expect them not to. But he was smarter than the cops on the case. He’d proven that years ago. And now that things had been fixed so Thorne would be in jail forever, they would be totally confused about any evidence on these murders that matched evidence from five years ago.

Now, to fix things so Carly never suspected she’d been hacked. This part was important, because he didn’t want them to figure out the message was actually spoofed and trace it back to this computer’s IP address. He was confident he could cover his tracks; otherwise he’d have used the computers at that café like he always did to send emails that he didn’t want traced.

Now all he had to do was go to the meeting spot ahead of time and pretend to have car trouble. The van was already loaded up with everything he needed. When beautiful Vicky got curious, he’d grab her and bring her to the woods.

He rubbed his hands together in anticipation. He could hardly wait until three o’clock.

* * *

Sam was anxious. He should be doing something. But what? He had his suspects being watched, but were Ricky and Robert really all the suspects?

Beryl came to mind. She’d come to his cabin with the beer and acted nervous. She was taking over Thorne Enterprises. Thorne had said she was dangerous. But she couldn’t be the killer, could she? She was small. Would she have been able to overpower Kirsten? She’d have the element of surprise, and if she were able to incapacitate someone right off the bat, maybe she could have done it.

Could she have also messed with the golf shoes to keep her husband in jail? They hadn’t found any of his DNA when Sam had originally submitted the shoes. In fact, it had been unusual that they hadn’t. They’d been wiped clean, but Beryl had suggested that Thorne always cleaned his shoes at the end of the season.

Bascomb had claimed someone planted the DNA. Corruption was everywhere—could Beryl have paid someone off? She would have had plenty of access to shoes and other items that Thorne had worn from which she could get his epithelial cells. Maybe even samples of his blood.

Not for the first time, Sam wondered if they really had pinned the murders of those girls on the wrong person.

He could have someone watch Beryl, too, but he was out of people. He and Jo were the only ones left.

It was still early, not even noon. He’d think about that and come to a decision before dark. His instincts told him something was going to happen sooner rather than later, and tonight might be the night.

In the meantime, he needed some downtime away from the case to let his subconscious marinate on the clues. While he was doing that, he had a question for Kevin that needed to be answered.

Hillcrest had left a message that Kevin was regaining spurts of consciousness, and Sam wanted to check on him. He glanced at the corkboard as if committing it to memory then turned to Lucy. “What do you say? Want to visit Kevin?”

At the sound of Kevin’s name, Lucy leapt up from her spot and trotted over.

* * *

* * *

Sam and Lucy had great timing and arrived during one of Kevin’s “awake” moments. His eyes fluttered open as they approached the bed.

“You’re awake?” Sam asked softly.

“Little bit.” Kevin sounded groggy, his eyes unfocused. The nurse had told Sam on the way in that Kevin was in and out, resurfacing like a diver coming up for air but then going back down into the depths when he got tired.

Sam touched his shoulder lightly. “It’s good to have you back.”

Kevin smiled, his lids drifting closed. “Good to be back.” His voice was barely above a whisper.

Lucy huffed and pushed her nose into Kevin’s hand. His eyes flew open, and he smiled, his hand seeking the top of her head. “How you doing, girl?”

Lucy made a sympathetic whine.

“She’s great. I think she misses you.” Sam could tell Kevin was about to drift off again. Better ask him now. “Last time I was here, you mentioned something about a corner.”

Lucy’s ears perked straight up.

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