spreadsheets. He was good enough to take care of all the dirty work, but not good enough to be seen with anymore.
“Take out the envelope.” He cast a careful eye up and down the alley, but there was nothing back here but an overflowing Dumpster and a mangy cat. “Take out what’s inside it.”
The guy obeyed, but his hands were shaking so badly he dropped the letter he withdrew onto the ground. “Oh shit, my nose hurts,” he whined.
What a fucking pantywaist. Walt bent down to get the letter and suddenly the guy wasn’t there anymore. Something was shoved in his face, and he fought to turn around, to aim his weapon.
But he couldn’t see to point it. The world around him was spinning. Until consciousness receded completely and the gun dropped from his hand.
Chapter 21
“The address is fake,” Risa reported glumly as she pulled away from the curb in front of Hastings’s house. “And I called Cooper’s number a couple times. He isn’t answering.”
“If he’s the one behind these killings, he’s been busy,” Nate responded tersely. “The tail I had on Eggers was just taken out in a drive-by shooting.”
Ice water splashed through her system. “And Eggers?”
“Your guess is as good as mine. He hasn’t returned home. I dispatched officers there as soon as I heard about Huxley.”
“Cooper got to him.” She’d seen this, she recalled sickly. Had known it would happen. And yet again, had failed to prevent it. “Eggers is the next victim. I told you that this morning.”
“Eggers could just be running scared. We don’t know anything, other than the fact that we need to bring him in. We put a BOLO out on his car, and it was found within fifteen minutes in front of a liquor store near the station house. I’m on my way over to question the clerk.”
Meaning he’d follow procedure. And in the meantime, Eggers’s chances of surviving would decrease by the minute.
He was a putrid little man. Not the sweet innocent that Ryder Kremer had been. But the courts should mete out justice for his actions. Not Darrell Cooper.
Or Sam Baltes.
She looked down at the seat where she had the drawings from last night. Balanced the steering wheel with her knee as she shook one after the other open. A blaring horn behind her had her grabbing the wheel again and returning her attention to the road.
“What’s that?” Nate demanded.
“Bad driver.” No need to mention that the bad driver was she. Risa turned onto a residential street and eased to the curb. Put the car in park and picked up the sketches to study them.
“Listen I don’t have time to wait for you. I’m heading out now. But here’s the address.” He rattled off the location of the liquor store. She didn’t bother to write it down. “You can meet me there.”
“I’m going to check something else out first.”
The sketch of the road sign swam on the page in front of her. Left off 104. A deeply rutted road. Overgrown, with branches scraping the vehicle as it bumped by.
“Risa.” Nate’s voice held a tone of warning. He was on the move. She could hear the change in the background noise as he moved through the station house. “Get back here. I can’t afford to be worrying about you with all hell breaking loose.”
“You don’t have to. Because I’m not going to take any chances.” She didn’t dare, did she, when she couldn’t even trust herself to draw her weapon. To fire it.
But she’d never forgive herself if she didn’t check this out. Especially if they discovered tomorrow, or the next day, that Eggers had been burned to death just like the other victims. And that this time the scene was right off 104.
She wasn’t sure she could bear another failure.
“Keep me posted on your progress, and I’ll do the same.”
“Risa!” She clicked the phone off on the urgent word. She knew he was worried. Knew he wouldn’t believe her when she told him that he didn’t have to be. She wasn’t about to run headlong into danger.
But she needed to check out the road sign from her dream. She owed the next victim that much.
Dusk was fast approaching when she slowed on route 104. She looked instinctively to her left. There was nothing to set the road apart from any of the others that she’d passed. Nothing but a chill working down her spine. And a flash of memory from the dream the night before.