Scene of the Crime Deadman's Bluff - By Carla Cassidy Page 0,36

forehead as if fighting back a headache. His frown was so deep it tugged his dark eyebrows close together as he gazed first at his sister and then back at Tamara. For the first time since she’d known him, he seemed to be at a loss for words.

“I should go home,” Tamara whispered faintly, although she had the feeling that somebody or something bad awaited her there, as well.

“That’s not the answer. Amarillo is the last place you need to be,” Seth replied gruffly. “At least here you have me and the sheriff working on things. In Amarillo you’d be all alone until you get your memories back.”

He looked back at Linda. “You can make all this happen tomorrow?”

She nodded with a certain resolve. “Without any problems at all.”

“I just want you and Samantha someplace safe and Tamara and I will stay at the house. He knows she’s here and I have a feeling he’ll come back for her. I’d rather that happened where we can have some control and we can do that here.”

Linda nodded and got up from the table. “I’ll make the arrangements and Samantha and I will be out of here by noon tomorrow. And now that the excitement is all over, I’m going back to bed.” With a tired wave of her hand, she headed out of the kitchen.

Tamara watched her go. Things were spinning out of control and she didn’t know what to do about it. She hated the fact that she was forcing two people out of their home because she’d somehow had a run-in with a crazy killer.

“Maybe it was just a normal attempt at a home burglary,” she said hopefully. “I mean, under normal circumstances that guest bedroom would be empty. Maybe some robber assumed it was empty and just decided to break in tonight.”

Seth shook his head. “No, it was definitely him.”

“How can you be sure?”

Seth hesitated a long moment, long enough for a knot of anxiety to twist tighter and tighter in her chest. “I can be sure because next to the window on the ground he left a miniature sand dune.” He raked a hand through his hair. “If he’d been successful and I’d awakened tomorrow morning and found you gone, he wanted everyone to know for sure what had happened to you, who had taken you.”

“The Sandman,” she whispered. A new shiver of horror fluttered through her as she considered the fact that the next time he tried to get to her, he might succeed.

* * *

HE WANTED TO WEEP. He’d been close...so achingly close to her. Just a few more steps, a quick stab of a needle that would almost instantly render her helpless and then all he’d had to do was carry her out the window and get away.

He’d been so proud of the whole plan, so certain that they would never assume he’d be bold enough to attack there, right beneath an FBI agent’s nose.

And he’d almost succeeded. If the bitch had just stayed asleep another two minutes he would have had her incapacitated and carried her away to the dunes...where she belonged.

It wasn’t over, not by a long shot. So far he’d had two false starts, but he knew the old saying...third time was a charm.

Chapter Seven

The remainder of the night passed with Seth on high alert. He insisted Tamara move into Samantha’s bedroom for the rest of the night and then he had half dozed in a chair in the living room, unable to completely relinquish himself to sleep as he thought about the days to come.

The mound of sand he’d found outside the window told him two things...that the killer had embraced the name the newspaper had given him, and that he was getting bolder. That could either work for them or against them in capturing him.

By the time morning came Seth made a pot of coffee to go along with his exhaustion. He definitely needed a major caffeine boost in order to do his interviews that day. And whatever he did, wherever he went, Tamara would go with him. There was no other option.

The coffee had just finished dripping into the carafe when Linda came into the kitchen and sat at the table. With her hair bed-messed, without makeup and clad in a pair of hot pink pajamas she looked ten years younger.

“You know, you don’t have to do this,” he said as he placed a cup of coffee in front of her. “I can pack up Tamara and take