“There isn’t any—”
“You’re going to lie to your mother?”
“I. . .”
“Tell the truth and shame the devil.”
I giggled. “I like him.”
“And he likes you?”
“Yes. But we’re keeping everything professional due to the reason why we’re here.”
“That’s the right thing to do. But when all of this is over, I want to hear about you spending more time with him.”
“We’ll see.”
“I hope so. I’m getting older. It’s time for a few grandbabies crawling around.”
“Oh my God.”
“I don’t want to have grandbabies and not be in the right state of mind to enjoy them.”
“Mom, would you relax?”
“I’m only telling you the truth. You over there playing around.”
“I am not playing around.”
“Well, then maybe you need to play around.”
“Wow.” I shook my head. “I have to go, Mom. I have a long day tomorrow.”
“Okay, baby. Keep me up to date.”
“Goodbye, Mom. Love you.”
“Love you too.”
I hung up and put all of my attention on my laptop.
Mrs. Mabel’s email sat in my inbox. I pulled it up and saw the Sunday School chart. As it loaded up, I grabbed my files from the desk and took out my notes with all the dates of when the victims went missing. Thankfully, the file was an excel sheet where I could do a search of names and months with no problem.
“Okay.” I went to Felicia Drake’s file. “She was kidnapped in January. Whose class was Vernon assisting.”
I put in his name and checked the teacher. “Mrs. Rosemond.”
I pressed into her class and checked out all of the ages. “There we go. Felicia Drake. Mrs. Rosemond had the pre-teens.”
My heart boomed in my chest.
“What about Karen Brookes?” I went to the month of February. “Coincidentally, Vernon had been helping in Karen’s class. “I was right. That’s how you are finding the victims. You’re picking them from Sunday School classes.”
I confirmed the same information with Ariana in March, Emma in April, as well as Shelly in May. The only change was Melody Luther for June. She was five years old. Vernon had not been helping with her Sunday School class. However, he had volunteered for Wednesday day care during weekly Bible Study. There, I found Mrs. Luther had brought Melody to the day care two different times in the month of June.
“But did you mean to take Melody from Fanny’s restaurant? Or was it just about seizing the opportunity?”
Something about how he took Melody Luther made me think that we could catch him better with that scene. It seemed more spur of the moment. The parents had been arguing in a crowded restaurant. He was possibly bus-boying that day. Unable to control himself, he slipped over and took her.
Had someone stopped him and asked what he was doing, good ole Pastor grandson Vernon would have simply said that he was taking care of her or guarding her from the crazy moment.
No one would have suspected him of being the Angel Maker.
I forwarded the email to Alexander and the rest of the agents. This would help build evidence toward Vernon, but it still wasn’t enough to definitively arrest him for the case. We needed more.
A knock hit my door.
I almost yelled out, “Just a minute.”
But I was on guard. Fast, I grabbed my gun off the desk and tip toed over to the door. The person knocked again.
I checked the peephole. Whoever was on the other side had their hand over it or something else. The only view was black.
A paper slipped under it.
Definitely him.
Quick, I undid the door and swung it open. “FBI. . !”
Noise sounded as the person rushed away. I didn’t even get sight of whoever it was. While the hallway light had been on, someone had blacked out the stairs.
“FBI! Stop!” I ran that way, not willing to let Vernon escape.
Chapter 27
Wet
Alexander
With only my boxer briefs on, I had just dropped onto the edge of my bed with the biggest, aching blue balls in history.
Suddenly someone yelled out in the hallway, “FBI! Stop!”
Is that Haven?
I had to protect her. Nothing else was more important. Forget about it possibly being the Unsub and ending the case. Forget that I was half-clothed.
I jumped from the bed, grabbed my gun, wrenched the door open, and was outside in five seconds.
Haven zipped by in nothing but a shirt. Her gun led the way. She was in fast pursuit.
I followed.
More doors opened. Both half-naked, Stein and Richards left the same room. Both looked like they’d been disturbed from a heated situation.
Okay. What? I’ll have to deal with them later.
We raced after the person rushing down the stairs. My heart kick-started with a slam into my chest.
My heart boomed in my ears. My legs moved fast, as I ate up the distance between Haven and me. We were down the stairs next, zipping past the lobby and outside of the Inn.
I scanned the lot, searching. “Do you see him?”
Haven spun toward me with her gun up. “King!”
So ready to catch our Unsub, she hadn’t even realized we were all out there with her.
I froze as Haven aimed her gun at my heart. “Calm down.”
She blew out a hard breath and then lowered the gun. “He’s here. He knocked on my door and slipped a piece of paper under it. I didn’t look at what the message said.”
Richards and Stein continued to run around the parking lot, looking for the person. More agents barreled out. A few police had been on patrol. They drove over and spoke to Richards.
My eyes tracked to the right and to the left. Only darkness. There was no moonlight tonight. Clouds even blanketed the moon. The lights in the lot were dim. I could only make out shadows. “Did you get a good look at him?”
“No.” She stepped back. “I–I just. . .ran out, when I saw that someone had knocked, but covered the peephole—”
“You opened the door not knowing what was on the other side?”
“I acted fast—”
“You should have called.”
“Is that what you would have done?”
“No.”
Stein ran over with Richards. Both appeared embarrassed. Richards only had on a bra and panties. Stein was in his boxers with an erection pushing through. One would think that the chase would have lessened it. Clearly, the adrenaline had kept it strong.
Did we disturb your love fest, Agent Stein?
Completely uncomfortable, Stein ran his fingers through his hair. “So. . .we’re going to put on some clothes and come back. Other agents are going to the back of the parking lot.”
“Good.” I glared at him. “We’ll talk later.”
Stein cleared his throat and headed away. Half-naked, Richards blushed as she rushed along with him.
The patrol car drove to the back.
Haven and I remained, scowling at each other. Just two armed and half-naked agents standing in an empty lot.
Rain began to fall.
Cold drops hit my skin.
I swallowed down my anger. “You could’ve been killed. He could’ve done something to stop you from shooting or—”