“Actually, it’s because of Ginny that I stopped by. I wanted to pick your brain about Ginny’s stalker. There’s something Shade, Rider, and I are missing.” Shoving his hands in his back pockets, he paced back and forth in front of Lucky’s desk.
“I was wondering if dealing with the Wests would give you a guilty conscience.”
Frowning at Lucky, Reaper stopped at pacing. “Where the Wests are concerned, the last thing I feel is guilt. Ginny wasn’t close to the Wests—Shade reported they hadn’t talked in years. His report said the Wests gave negative feedback to the State on Ginny. There was not one thing positive they had to say about her in her file. The only good deed they ever did was give that other child, Darcy, back to the State.”
“I agree. Lisa gave Darcy back to the State when she was sick and failed to tell the caseworker. If the new foster mother hadn’t reacted fast enough and sought medical attention, that little girl would have died. Do you think Ginny’s stalker could have any ties to the Wests?”
“No. I looked at their hard drive. The Wests weren’t like the other couple. Slate was their only contact to provide their fantasies. I’ve gone over Shade’s and Rider’s information over a dozen times. I’m missing something.”
“Shade did the same thing you’re doing when he was watching Ginny. I’m afraid I wasn’t much help to him or Rider when they asked me for a new pair of eyes.” Lucky twirled his ink pen between his fingers.
Frustrated at himself for not being able to come up with any new ideas about Ginny’s stalker, Reaper stopped pacing in front of Lucky’s window. The Colemans were lifting an iron gate out of a heavy-duty pickup truck. Silas, Jody, and Jacob were straining to lift the gate once it was on the ground.
“There wasn’t much information on Ginny’s mother in the file,” Reaper mused out loud.
“No, there wasn’t,” Lucky said from his desk. “I asked Shade about her. He said he checked that lead out. Her mother died shortly after giving full custody of Ginny to her father.”
“Did you ever meet him?”
“Freddy?”
“Yes.”
“Oh yes, I met him.” Lucky laughed. “He was a character. He had no time for the church or me. He was a nicer version of Greer Porter, but even more mountain-minded about wanting to stay isolated. His children were his whole world.”
“Silas takes after his father.” Watching the men outside work to set the gate up, Reaper couldn’t place what was bothering him. Each day after he had left the Colemans’, it nagged at him that he was missing the component to make everything click into place.
“Do you still have the file that Shade gave you?”
“Yes.”
Reaper heard Lucky open his desk drawer.
“I’ve got it here,” Lucky said.
“Who was at Ginny’s roommate’s party when the first note was found?”
As Lucky rattled off several names, Reaper braced his hands on Lucky’s windowsill.
“Shade checked each of them out,” Lucky said when he finished the list. “He even went so far as to break into their houses and double-checked their whereabouts during each subsequent note that followed. There was no connection.”
The nagging feeling he had been experiencing was so close that he could almost grab it ….
Reaper turned from the window to face Lucky.
Lucky looked up from the file on his desk at his silence. “What?”
“There was no connection.”
Confused at having his words repeated back to him, Lucky stared back at him blankly. “I don’t get it.”
“We’ve been looking at this fucking wrong.”
“How?”
“If there isn’t a connection to Ginny—”
“There has to be … The notes and attacks—”
Reaper shook his head at him. “One of the first lessons I learned when I was in the SEALs was when a problem couldn’t be solved, change the problem.”
“So …?”
“Take Ginny out of the equation.”
Lucky paled. “The problem becomes different.”
“Ginny isn’t the target. The Last Riders are ….” Reaper was flinging the office door open before the last word was out of his mouth. Running through the church, he then ran out the front door with Lucky trailing after him.
Making his way behind the church, Silas, Jody, and Jacob looked at him like he was crazy when he came barreling toward them.
Reaper took out his cell phone and started calling Ginny’s phone number at the same time he asked Silas, “Where’s Ginny?”
“She’s at home.”
Ginny didn’t answer, and her voicemail didn’t click on. Reaper tried the number again.
“Who’s with her?”
“No one. Moses had to take one of his dogs to the vet. Ezra and Matthew are taking Fynn to his mother’s. Isaac was supposed to be there but they—”
“Fuck!” Shouting out the profanity, Reaper started running toward his motorcycle. “Lucky!”
“I’ll get Knox. We’ll be right behind you. I’ll call Viper,” Lucky yelled over the noise of the motorcycle starting.
Releasing the clutch, Reaper sped out of the parking lot, leaving tire marks in his wake. Opening his motorcycle wide, he raced to get out of town, whizzing past the slow-moving vehicles as if they weren’t even there.
He had to get to the Colemans’ home in time. The pits of hell were open, and he had to get there before it closed. The gateway wasn’t going to close without him … and he was bringing a guest.
Chapter Forty-Six
Raising a clean lavender-scented sheet to the clothes line, Ginny pinned one corner of the sheet before sliding her hand along the line to use another clothes pin to hold the other corner. The wind sent the sheet gently swaying in the breeze.
Reaching for another sheet, Ginny rose to see Trudy standing in front of the sheet that blocked her from being seen from inside. She dropped the clothes pins in her hand into the laundry basket. Fighting the instinct to run toward her sister, she took a step back.
“I told you to not to come here.” Blinking back emotion-filled tears, Ginny managed to give her sister a wobbly smile.
“I lasted a whole two days after coming back from Florida. If I had been able to talk Dalton into going golfing, I would have been here yesterday.”
“How’d you manage to get out today?”
“I told Dalton that Killyama and I were going to the store.”
“He agreed to you being around Killyama?”
“He had Killyama take her temperature and made her take a test in front of him before he let me in her car. I was determined to see you today. I missed you.”
“I missed you, too.” Ginny smiled, then gave Trudy a mock-stern look. “I expected you to stay another week in Florida.”
“I came back early for two reasons.”
“Do I want to know why?”
“Probably not.”
Ginny felt Trudy’s gaze critically assessing her.
“Killyama saw you at the grocery store the other day.”