I told you that you’d pay for what you did to me.
Her breath caught in her chest. The comment sounded familiar, stirring some sort of memory from the recesses of her mind. She tried to wrack her brain to remember exactly where she’d heard it before.
“What’s wrong?” Cord asked.
Ellie hesitated before telling him about the message. “Sounds personal, Ellie. Who did you piss off bad enough to do this?”
“I don’t know. There are plenty of meth dealers I arrested. But this type of planning doesn’t fit with them.”
Looking back at her phone, she listened to the voicemail messages.
The first one was her captain. “Ellie, what the fuck has gotten into you? Bryce wants you fired for disobeying orders and letting McClain out. I don’t know if I can save your ass this time. Get McClain back here right now.”
Ellie quickly called him back. “I’ll be on my way soon, Captain, but we found another victim. She’s local, Honey Victoria.”
“Jesus,” Captain Hale muttered. “Maude is going to fall apart. She doted on that girl.”
“I know.”
“I’ll make the notification.”
Ellie thanked him, then clicked to listen to a message from Derrick.
His warning about Cord killing Finton made her uneasy. Not because she was afraid of the ranger, but because she’d seen the pain in his eyes when he’d talked about his past. The evidence was stacking against him, pointing to him and Finton being in cahoots.
And if Finton wasn’t the Weekday Killer or acting alone, they were back to square one, with no suspect. What were they missing?
“Agent Fox found Roy Finton and arrested him,” she told Cord. “He denies being the Weekday Killer.”
“Did you really think he’d confess?” Cord asked gruffly.
“No, but I was hoping. Shondra still needs us to find her.” She inhaled sharply. “Cord, the sheriff and Agent Fox think you’re working with Finton, covering for each other.”
“Is that what you think?”
“I don’t know what to think,” she admitted. “The evidence points to both of you. It also pointed to Hiram and a man Hiram met in the psych hospital. I feel like the killer is some kind of puppeteer, pulling strings and sending all of us running and pointing fingers at each other.” And making her doubt everyone.
“Roy Finton could have framed me, although I don’t see how he’d know about all the other things.”
“The Ghost case has been all over the news,” Ellie said, thinking. And there was the therapist he’d used to get information.
“Where’s Finton now?” Cord’s voice was gruff, his look puzzled.
“Being booked at the sheriff’s office.” Ellie hesitated, before clearing her throat. “Cord, do you have any idea what happened to Felix Finton?”
Cord’s eyes darkened and he exhaled through gritted teeth. Then he gave a small shake of his head. “When I was sent away, I never looked back. Why?”
“I’m just looking for the truth.” Ellie kept a cool face, studying him for a reaction. “Cord, Roy Finton accused you of killing his father.”
Cord went still, then angled his head, staring at the thickening gray clouds above them.
He said nothing, which left Ellie wondering why exactly he was lying to her.
One Hundred Twenty-Two
Crooked Creek
“I’m sorry, Cord, but Captain Hale ordered me to bring you here. Finton is being held at the sheriff’s office, and we want to keep you separate.”
“I understand.” The ranger looked resigned, his expression grave. “I didn’t mean to get you in trouble.”
“You didn’t. I made my choice. I needed you. Thank you for leading me to Prayer Point.”
Ellie’s stomach clenched as Captain Hale pounced on her.
“The sheriff is livid, Ellie, and Maude is a wreck.”
“I’m sorry,” she replied. While she didn’t care for Maude, she would never wish this type of tragedy on anyone. “He still has Shondra, Captain.” She explained about the text she’d received. “I’m beginning to think this all centers around me, around someone who perceives I’ve done them wrong.”
The captain rubbed his balding head. “We’ve exhausted the list of protestors, and I’ve been looking through your arrests. No one fits the profile of this guy. Can you think of anyone?”
Bryce’s face flitted through her mind. They’d been adversarial for years. He liked the attention of being sheriff, enjoyed the notoriety. That part of his personality fit. But he wasn’t a killer.
Just then Deputy Landrum appeared, his expression lit. “I found links from the other victims to Kennedy Sledge. They all joined an online group therapy chat too.”
Disgust ate at Ellie. The impostor had encouraged her to join that group. “That’s how he knew details about them,” Ellie said. “They spilled their thoughts and feelings to the fraud therapist and each other, and he was watching and listening.”
“Who knew you were seeing a therapist?” Captain Hale asked.
Ellie chewed her bottom lip, thinking. She didn’t want to break Shondra’s trust, but if it helped save her life, she had to be truthful. “Just Shondra. She suggested Kennedy Sledge.” Then something else struck her. As she’d left Haints that night with Shondra, she’d seen Bryce watching them closely. Had he overheard them talking about the therapist?
Meanwhile, the captain was scrutinizing Cord. He’d worked with the ranger enough times that surely he couldn’t believe the accusations against him, Ellie hoped.
“I’ll take care of McClain. Go home and get some rest,” said the captain.
But there was no way she could rest tonight. “I’m going to the sheriff’s office. If Finton wants to hurt me, maybe seeing me in person will trigger him to talk.”
Cord’s eyes darkened. “Be careful, Ellie. He’s sadistic.”
“I’ve seen what he can do. He doesn’t scare me.”
“Go home, Ellie,” Captain Hale said more forcefully. “Best if you avoid the sheriff right now.”
Anger rippled through her, but the captain’s look warned her not to argue.
Still, she couldn’t sit on her ass and do nothing while Shondra was still missing.
That latest message from the killer echoed in her head. I told you that you’d pay for what you did to me.
A memory tickled her conscious. Back in high school, all those years ago, Bryce had been high from scoring the winning goal at a football game. He’d cornered Ellie as she started to leave, asking for a celebratory kiss. Her refusal, coupled with the beers he’d just consumed with his buddies behind the bleachers, had spiked his temper and he’d gotten aggressive. He’d pushed her into the back seat and reached for her shirt. Said he knew she had a crush on him, that he wanted to be her first.
Furious at him, she’d kneed him in the groin, shoved him from the seat onto the ground, then jumped in the car and taken off.
She’d never told anyone. But he’d bragged that he’d screwed her after the game, the rumor spreading around school. Then his buddies had started coming onto her. She’d had to teach Bryce a lesson after that—she knew she couldn’t let him get away with it, do the same to other girls. She’d tricked him into meeting her behind the bleachers and told him he was right, that she’d had a crush on him for years.