Fear for Me (33 page)

Paul was looking over her shoulder at Anthony then. “You saved my life in the swamp.”

“I did my job.”

“Yeah, that job involved saving my ass. If you hadn’t burst through those bushes, if you hadn’t distracted Walker, I’d have a knife in my heart, too.”

Paul offered his hand.

Anthony took it. The shake was brief, solid.

“We think we may know where he buried Jenny’s body,” Lauren said quietly.

Paul’s head turned toward her. “How?”

“Cadence. She found evidence in the autopsy that’s given us a search area in the swamp.”

“An area around Walker’s cabin,” Anthony added.

“Fuck, you mean…” Paul stepped back. “All along, she might have been right
there
?”

Lauren nodded.

“We’re going to search,” Anthony told him. “While we’ve still got daylight to use.”

“I’m coming with you,” Paul replied, before staggering back.

Anthony caught his arm. “I think you need to leave the swamp to us…for now.”

“Dammit, I want to help—”

“Then you dig up the case files. See if you can make any new connections between the victims.”

Sweat had appeared on Paul’s upper lip.

That hospital stay was looking better and better to Lauren. “Get rest,” she told Paul softly. “Then you can help us.”

Jaw locking, he nodded. “I’ll call Hawthorne. Tell him what’s happening. He can come out there, even send some of his men. The more bodies you have on the ground, the easier the hunt will be.”

The hunt.

That was exactly what they were doing. The killer wasn’t getting away scot-free. They were the ones hunting now, and they wouldn’t stop.

Not until he was found.

They hadn’t listened to the mayor. He’d had to talk in that bastard’s ear forever just to get Louis to call the meeting, and they were still going to keep looking for the killer.

They were heading for the swamp. Back to the old cabin. This was so fucking bad. If they found the body…

They can’t tie her to me. It’s been years. So much decomposition. There’s no way the evidence could still be used. It’s far too compromised.

He didn’t want them bringing Jenny out of the ground. Jenny was at peace. Jenny shouldn’t be disturbed.

Not Jenny.

If they found Jenny, they’d look for others. They’d keep going.

Jenny’s blood had soaked his hands. He’d
felt
her life flow away. The power, the rush, had been the most amazing thing he’d ever felt before.

Animals—animals didn’t compare to humans. Nothing compared with staring into someone’s eyes and
seeing
the life drain away. It was the ultimate power.

Jenny had tried to take his power away from him. He’d wanted to love her. He’d tried. But she’d told him that he scared her.

So I fucking really scared her in the end.

Jenny had consumed him. Obsessed him. He’d taken to following her, watching from the shadows because he’d wanted to see her—all the time.

Other boys had tried to come around her. Had tried to take what was
his
.

He’d known then, there would be no letting her go.

She was his. Always
his
.

Getting her to meet him that day had been so easy. Jenny had always been far too trusting. He’d told her he wanted them to be friends, that they just needed to talk once more.

She’d been smiling when she got out of her car.

By the time he and Jon had her in the swamp, she’d been begging.

Too late.
Jenny had made her choice. There was no going back for her then.

Only…

I missed her.
After she was dead, after that wonderful rush was gone…he’d wanted it again. Wanted her. The need had built within him, and he and Jon had planned again.

Another girl. Another who reminded him of his perfect Jenny.

Again and again, he’d killed. Again and again…

But the others had never been as good as the original. Never as good or perfect as Jenny.

Would Lauren be as good?
He’d come back to this town to be close to Lauren. She was Jenny’s sister. Staring at her always reminded him of his first kill. That wonderful power.

Maybe when he looked in Lauren’s eyes at the end, maybe it would be just like it had been with Jenny.

The rush. The pleasure.

Soon, he’d find out. Because Lauren Chandler wasn’t going to live much longer in this world.

She’d die begging, too.

The swamp was full of bald cypress trees, with thick trunks and knotted knees growing in the muddy water. Spanish moss hung from the branches, coiling down as Anthony passed.

He looked to the left. To the right. Lash pine, swamp tupelo, even swamp chestnut oaks were scattered in the area.

No willows. Not one damn weeping willow.

“Maybe your expert was wrong,” Wesley Hawthorne said as he stopped, putting his hands on his hips to survey the area. “The willow doesn’t have to be out here in the swamp. Hell, Walker killed in the city, maybe someone out there was growing one in a backyard.”

“The soil found with the seed matched this area,” Lauren said. “The swamp’s soil isn’t like a backyard. You
know
that, Wesley.” She’d pulled her hair back into a ponytail. Like the others, she was dressed for the hike.

She’d been so determined as they searched. The hours had slid away. They kept looking, kept widening their parameters, but so far…

Jack. Shit.

Where the hell is the tree?

“Like finding a needle in a haystack,” Wesley murmured. “The swamp goes farther than most people realize.”

They wouldn’t give up.

Lauren turned away and went south with one of Wesley’s men at her side. Anthony kept his gaze on her.

“I know she wants to find her sister.” Wesley closed the distance between him and Anthony. “But do you think it’s fair to give her false hope?”

The man was pissing him off. “It’s not false when it’s real.”

Wesley shook his head. “I remember when Jennifer went missing.”

Anthony glanced over at the Fish and Wildlife agent. “I didn’t realize you knew her.”

“A swamp rat doesn’t exactly run in the same circles as the society belle, at least, not back then.” A sad smile twisted his lips.
“I went to a different high school, but at football games, well, everyone noticed Jennifer. It was hard to miss her. She was always flying through the air, captain of the cheerleading team…”

The American Dream.

“There were rumors back then, stories that floated in the schools, about Jennifer hooking up with an older guy. That they’d run away, headed out to LA for a fresh start.” Wesley’s gaze had turned to Lauren’s back. “She never believed that.”

“Because it didn’t happen.”

Wesley faced Anthony. “I searched for Jennifer out here.”

Anthony gazed steadily at the other man.

“If you want to dump a body, the swamp’s the best place to go. I looked, over the years…”

Strange, for a man who hadn’t known Jenny.

The suspicion must have showed because Wesley’s jaw hardened. “When I get word of any disappearance, I always search. It’s as necessary as breathing for me.” He waved his hand toward the swamp. “My grandfather was half Choctaw. He taught me early to love the land and treat it with respect.” His head shook sadly. “The swamp isn’t a dumping ground. It’s not where those girls should have ended up.”

“You never saw any signs of them?”

“No. Never found any clothes, any shoes, any tracks at all that told me they’d been here.”

“Maybe because the killer was just as good at tracking as you were.” Walker had known the area like the back of his hand. Anthony bet Walker’s partner had, too. “Who do you know who’s like that? Who can slip into this area, know every trail and every path, and leave no trace behind?”

A man who’d be the perfect killer.

“Did I ever tell you…” Wesley rocked back on his heels. “That Jon Walker and I went to high school together?”

Sonofabitch.

“Hated the bastard back then. He was a mean jerk who got off on bullying weaker kids.” Wesley’s gaze had returned to the trees. To Lauren. “If you’re looking for someone who knew Walker back then, for someone who could never get lost out here, but someone who
could
make a body vanish into the swamp…then you’re looking right at me.”

Yes, he was. Anthony’s question had been deliberate, to see what Wesley’s response would be.

His response had been chillingly cold.

Wesley’s eyes narrowed. “Do you suspect me?”

Anthony waited. When he didn’t speak, Wesley’s stare came back to him. “I knew you went to school with Walker.” Like he hadn’t gotten his hands on Walker’s old yearbooks first fucking thing. “I asked if you knew someone who’d fit the profile.” His smile sharpened even more. “And you just listed yourself.”

Wesley grimly shook his head. “Go look somewhere else, Marshal. I’m not the killer. If I were, I wouldn’t be trying to help you find the body, would I?”

“
Anthony!
”

Lauren’s cry. High. Excited. In the next instant, Anthony was racing toward the echoing sound. His feet thudded over the earth still wet from an afternoon shower.

He turned to the left. The right.

He saw her with Matt at her side, beneath the sloping branches of a weeping willow tree.

The willow had been hidden, crouched beneath tall pines and cypress trees, blocked by moss.

But it was there. Not too big and with branches bleached light by the sun.

He touched Lauren’s shoulder. She flinched and spun toward him. “Is she here?” Lauren asked, her voice filled with hope so desperate that it hurt him.

There was only one way to find out.

Anthony glanced at the men who’d circled them. “We need the shovels.”

Lauren stood back while the uniformed men worked. Louis might have tried to shut her down, but she was the freaking DA. She still had pull and plenty of cops and techs who owed her. If her sister was in that ground, then Lauren was doing this scene right. There’d be no blunders with evidence as shovels were driven into the dirt. No contamination.

Every care would be used. Every. Care.

The pile of dirt grew. The silence in the area was thick as the men worked.

Lauren’s stomach was twisted into knots. Her hands were shaking. Every whisper of movement from the deepening hole had her adrenaline spiking.

Anthony was at her side. Watching. Waiting. Every few moments, his assessing gaze would drift to her. She knew he was worried about her. About what she’d do if they found the body.

And if they didn’t.

If she’s not here, I won’t give up. I won’t ever give up.

Her parents had kept looking for Jenny. They’d offered rewards, sent out so many missing posters, even bought a few billboards.

Her father had flown to LA twelve times, following rumors that Jenny had run away with an LSU grad student.

She didn’t run away.

Her parents had been so determined to never give up on Jenny.

Then cancer had ravaged her mother. Taken her so quickly, in the blink of an eye.

Her father had been the only one left for Lauren then. He’d still been searching for Jenny, always searching, when a heart attack took him far too soon.