They drew down the off-road path to Andrew’s house. Jon and Kylie were right behind them. Andrew and Nigel came out as they arrived, ready to greet the four of them.
But first out was Titan. He ran to his mom as if he were a toddler who’d been left at day care for the first time.
A happy dog. Bending down, Raina greeted him lovingly, and then introduced Titan to Kylie and Jon, who luckily had not lied.
They seemed to like the dog immediately and Titan returned the affection.
Then Andrew cleared his throat, looking at Nigel.
“Check your messages,” Nigel said. “There was a quick hit on our interagency system. The thigh material belonged to a young man named Brandon Wells. He went missing about a week ago, from the St. Pete area.”
“St. Pete?” Axel murmured. “Interesting. And until now, our killer hasn’t done any slicing.”
“For now, we have to treat it as if it might be a separate case,” Nigel said.
Axel stared at Nigel. “Unlikely someone would try to poison Raina’s dog without there being a connection.” He looked around at the silent group. “Kylie, Raina, any place in particular you’d like to be?”
Raina looked at Kylie. “Where are you most comfortable?” Kylie asked.
“Where we are out of the way?” Raina suggested.
“Anywhere you want to be is fine,” Andrew assured her.
Raina smiled ruefully. “Believe it or not, I’d love to be in the stables with the horses and the smell of hay, and yeah, I’d be comfortable there.”
“Okay, going to try the dress on in a stall?” Kylie asked.
She was serious.
So was Raina.
“Sure. Sounds fine. Just—”
“I’ll be there. Ready to catch you if you fall.”
“I don’t think I will,” Raina said.
“Jon, want to join Andrew and me?” Nigel asked.
“I’m here to help. Where are we starting?”
“We’re looking at relationships in the life of our latest victim. Presumed victim. Though it’s unlikely the young man is still alive if he’s, er, missing that much leg material. Possible, but under the circumstances...”
“It’s strange, though,” Andrew said. “How do you go from a swift, practiced kill to slicing and dicing someone?” He shook his head and started toward the house.
“We won’t disturb you—unless you need us,” Nigel said, looking from Axel to Kylie and, finally, to Raina.
“I’m going to be fine,” Raina said.
She did so with confidence. Axel hoped she was really growing as comfortable with her strange visions as she claimed.
Then again, what choice did they really have other than to exploit them in any way they could?
Sixteen
Axel was headed inside with Andrew, Nigel and Jon to quickly discuss their course of action for the day.
That left Raina to introduce Kylie to Wild Thing and Jacob. Kylie apparently liked horses as much as she liked dogs. It was hard to fake affection for dogs and horses. They instinctively knew who did and didn’t like them.
“How did you get into animal training?” Kylie asked her. “It’s not one of those careers that comes up when you’re speaking with a school counselor.”
“I think I wanted to be a veterinarian—except I found out animals died and there might be a lot of blood. Anyway, I always had a dog, even when I was young, but my dad was with a friend who had an old horse and was thinking glue factory. It turned out the horse wasn’t so old, he was just a bit wild. Anyway, I worked with him and someone at the ranch was impressed and said I should be a trainer. So, I went to college and did all kinds of courses in science and psychology, and luckily, a lot of people need their pets trained.”
Kylie grinned. “People are animals. I know a few who need to be trained.” She laughed. “Sorry—that sounded horrible. I just mean there are a lot of people out there who need to learn about manners and behavior.”
“True, people are animals. But I prefer to deal with the furry kind.”
“Easy to see why sometimes,” Kylie said, stroking Jacob’s nose.
“What about you? How did you come to be with Jon? I know you had a strange experience with a regression.”
“I went on a bachelorette party with a friend who didn’t want strippers or wild nights, just fun with her closest friends. And then,” she said, pausing and smiling dryly, “everything kind of went to hell, horrible at first. I witnessed a murder, and I had a hard time dealing with that. But then things got better because I was able