He Kills Me, He Kills Me Not (36 page)

“What do you mean he didn’t believe her? He was there.”

“After Kate got mad at him, he took off, left her and Tom behind.”

Pierce leaned in around the screen door. “Logan, we have to leave. Now.”

“Just a minute.” Logan studied the boy in the picture. The face was so familiar. “Sadie, what did you say the boyfriend’s name was?”

“David, his name was David Riley Bennett.”

David Riley
. Logan’s gut clenched and he looked up at Pierce. Alarm coursed through him when he saw how pale he was. “What is it?” Logan asked. “What’s happened?”

Pierce glanced pointedly at Sadie. “Outside. I’ll tell you in the car.”

Logan quickly thanked Sadie again and rushed outside.

Standing in the opening of the driver’s door, his face tight and drawn, Pierce said, “Toss me the keys. I’m driving.”

Logan didn’t waste time arguing. Whatever Pierce had found out had completely rattled him. Logan had never seen Pierce rattled before. He dug the keys out of his pocket and tossed them over the roof of his car. As soon as the doors closed, Pierce gunned the engine and punched the gas, throwing Logan back against the seat.

“Damn it, Pierce, what’s going on?”

Pierce’s knuckles whitened against the steering wheel. “When I gave Bennett’s name to one of my men, he repeated it out loud as he wrote it down. One of your officers overheard him and mentioned that he knew someone named Tom Bennett. He’s a mechanic at your police garage.”

A mechanic?
Riley had argued with a mechanic outside the police garage. Cold fear settled in Logan’s gut as the pieces of the puzzle snapped into place. “Have they found Bennett yet?”

“No, but they will. I’ve put out a BOLO. Every cop in the state will be on the lookout for him. We’ll get him.”

“I want Riley picked up immediately and put in a holding cell until we get back to the station.”

“Riley?” Pierce’s voice held a note of shock. “Why?”

“He’s Bennett’s brother.”

Pierce’s face went white. “Oh, shit.”

Dread coiled in Logan’s stomach. “Riley’s missing, isn’t he? That’s what you wanted to tell me, that Bennett and Riley are in on this together.”

Pierce shook his head. “No, that’s not what I wanted to tell you, but you’re right. No one knows where Riley is right now. He said he had a hunch and he took off. But he’s not the killer. He doesn’t fit the description the witnesses gave.”

“What witnesses? What happened? Damn it, Pierce. Spit it out.”

“Man, I’m so sorry,” Pierce said. “Karen was transferring Amanda to the safe house. Tom Bennett attacked them before they could get inside.”

L
ogan paused in the doorway of the hospital waiting room. He spotted Madison sitting near a bank of windows, cradling a paper cup between her hands. Her eyes looked bleak as she watched him approach.

“Hey, trouble,” he said, trying not to let his despair show in his voice. He kissed her on the cheek and gave her a tight hug before sitting beside her. “Heard anything?”

She shook her head. “Karen’s been in surgery for over two hours. No updates yet. Mike is getting another cup of coffee. I would have gotten it for him but I think he needed a few minutes alone.”

“I’m surprised you’re the only one here.”

“Oh, plenty of officers have been here, trust me. But every time someone tries to stay, Mike tells them they need to be out there catching the man who did this to Karen. I’m sure he’ll tell you the same thing.”

“I had to come check on her.”

“I know.”

“I heard you were out of town when Karen and Amanda were attacked,” Madison said. “Mind sharing some details with your baby sister? All of your police officers are tight-lipped. They don’t like to share information with us civilians and I’m not about to ask Mike.”

He glanced at her, noted the worry lines etched on her face. He took her hand and tucked it beneath his elbow. “I was tracking down a lead, a very good lead, as it turns out. We know who the killer is.” He realized he was crushing her hand and he forced himself to ease up on the pressure. He gave her a sanitized version of the attack, that a man ran up to the car and hit Karen over the head. “From what I hear, Amanda tried to warn Karen. She put up a good fight. But she was no match for a taser and a lead pipe.” His voice broke on the last word.

Madison clutched his hand, her face a mask of misery. “I’m so sorry. I know how much you cared about Amanda.”

He pulled his hand from hers, shaking his head. “Don’t say it in the past tense. She’s not . . . we’re going to find her in time.”

Madison didn’t answer.

Karen’s husband rounded the corner into the waiting room with a steaming cup of coffee in each hand. Madison jumped up and took the cups from him, setting them on one of the side tables.

Logan rose and shook Mike’s hand. “Is there anything I can do, someone I can call?”

Mike waved him back down and took the seat Madison had left open for him next to her. “There isn’t anyone to call, chief, but thank you just the same. I already told the other officers not to waste their time here with me either.” He patted Madison affectionately. “I’ve got this sweet girl if I need anything.”

Madison smiled through the tears trickling down her face.

“Chief,” Mike said. “I know you care about Karen and I appreciate the gesture, but you have a young lady of your own you should be searching for instead of sitting here with me.”

“A young lady of my own?”

Mike smiled, a gentle, sad smile. “Karen knew Amanda had feelings for you, and Karen was sure you felt the same.”

Logan drew a ragged breath and scrubbed his face with his hands. Feelings? What a pathetic word. What he felt for Amanda was so much more than just “feelings.” When he tried to picture a world where she didn’t exist, all he could see was a black void.

“You have responsibilities,” Mike continued. “I’m sure there are more important things you could be doing right now than trying to console an old man, like finding the man that hurt Karen, and making sure that whatever happens to her, it isn’t in vain. Karen cares about Amanda. She wouldn’t want you sitting here when you could be out there doing something to find that young lady.”

A feeling of relief shot through Logan because he wanted to go help look for Amanda so desperately. But it was quickly washed away by the guilt that followed close on its heels.

Mike gave him an understanding look and patted his shoulder. “You’re a good man. I don’t blame you for what happened. Karen is a cop. She knew the dangers. There’s only one thing I want from you right now and that’s a promise that you’ll catch the man who hurt her. Don’t let him do this to someone else. Go catch him.”

Logan was humbled by the sincerity in Mike’s eyes. He meant what he’d said. He didn’t want Logan to sit there with him. He wanted him to go after the man who’d hurt his wife. Swallowing against the lump in his throat, Logan stood and shook Mike’s hand. “I promise I’ll do everything I can. Madison, call me if either of you need anything, or when you hear word about Karen, okay?”

“Go. Do what you need to do.” She added an encouraging smile along with her words.

Logan nodded, turned on his heel, and rushed from the waiting room.

As soon as he cleared the doorway he broke into a run, ignoring the startled looks of the people he passed as he sprinted down the hallway and out the front doors of the hospital.

“H
e fits the profile perfectly. Absolutely perfectly.” Pierce folded his arms over his chest and leaned back in the conference room chair, watching Nelson update Bennett’s details on the white board.

Logan bleakly watched Nelson write, but he couldn’t focus on the words. All he could think about was Amanda. Where was she? Was she hurt? He clenched his hands into fists and tried to concentrate on the lists on the board. There had to be a pattern. There was always a pattern, something to tell him where Amanda had been taken. But damned if he could see it.

Detectives were clustered in small groups around the room, strategizing, planning new searches. A pair of them on the other side of the table leaned over a map of Walton County, writing the names of the men leading search parties in each area.

“His father drank and beat his wife,” Pierce continued. “That’s why she left him. There’s also evidence Tom and Riley’s father abused them, too, although charges were never filed. Tom was a social outcast at school. After Anna Northwood rejected him and cut his face, his father moved them to a small town in Alabama. Five years later the father disappeared. No trace of him was ever found. I’ll bet Bennett killed him.”

Logan critically eyed the board, reading what Nelson had written. “You’ve established Bennett in the same towns, at the same time five of the attacks occurred. What about the other four? Why are you being so stubborn about agreeing that Riley might be guilty?”

“Because witnesses identified the security badge picture of Bennett as the man who attacked Karen and abducted Amanda. They didn’t finger Riley. Bennett had access to police cars and could have pretended to be a cop to abduct his victims. Everyone who knew Tom Bennett said the same thing. He was “off,” antisocial, talked to himself half the time. He was a brilliant mechanic, which is the only reason they didn’t fire him, but everyone who worked with him said he was nuts.”

“Which means he probably couldn’t focus enough to plan the murders and leave the scenes so clean we didn’t find any forensic evidence. Even if he was involved, someone else had to have helped him,” Logan said.

Pierce shook his head. “All right, all right. Go ahead, Nelson. Put up what we’ve found about Riley.”

Nelson added five more bullets to the board.

* Victim #3—Riley on vacation; Credit card records show him in same town as victim

* Victim #6—Riley on vacation; Hotel records show him in same town as victim

* Victim #8—Riley on vacation; no receipts yet, but was out of town, had opportunity

* Frank Branson—Unable to establish Riley’s whereabouts at the time of Branson’s abduction and later murder

* Born David Riley Bennett, legally changed his name to David Riley at age eighteen

* Dysfunctional family (evidence of abuse, abandoned by his mother), intelligent, organized

“It looks damning, Logan, but even if you think Bennett and Riley are some kind of serial-killer tag team, which is extremely rare, Riley doesn’t fit the profile. He’s a police officer, no reprimands on his record, no trouble with authority.”

“Profiles can be wrong.” Logan held up his hand to stop Pierce’s response. “He’s not answering his phone and he disappeared after hearing that we suspected Bennett. He knew Bennett would lead us to him. That’s the only reason he would have run off.”

“Or maybe Riley realized his brother might be the murderer and he went off to find him on his own, to stop him. There’s no reason to think Bennett didn’t commit all of the murders. We just haven’t proved it yet,” Pierce insisted.

“And Riley just happened to be on vacation and in the same towns when three of the killings occurred. And he had time to drive back and forth between some of the other victims’ locations and Shadow Falls and still make it in time for work each day.” Logan grabbed his jacket off the back of a chair and shrugged into it. “If Bennett killed Branson, how do you think he found my house? He wouldn’t have been in the station when my sister came looking for me. He wouldn’t have known to follow her. Either Riley told him where I was, or Riley was the shooter. Like it or not, Riley’s in this up to his neck.” He headed toward the door.

“Bennett could have just as easily put a GPS locator on your car while you were at work. He could have followed you, figuring you’d eventually lead him to Amanda,” Pierce called out. “Will you stop for a minute? Where are you going?”

“I can’t sit around here doing nothing while Amanda’s out there enduring God only knows what kind of torture.” His voice broke and he cleared his throat. “I have to find her.”

“Use your brain, Logan. Not your emotions. We’ll find her more quickly if we work together, evaluate the facts, figure out where she’s being held. Our men have been searching for hours and haven’t had any luck. What makes you think you’ll do any better out there?”

Logan ignored him and strode through the outer office, which was filled with detectives on phones, shuffling papers, typing on their computers. He tried to ignore the sympathetic looks everyone gave him, as if it was a foregone conclusion that Amanda was already dead.