Nowhere Certain (A Harley Cole FBI Suspense Thriller—Book 7) by Kate Bold

Author:Kate Bold [Bold, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2023-03-29T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Cole tapped her fingers impatiently on the edge of the desk, waiting for the computer to boot up. She was eager to begin searching for other connections among the three victims, but unfortunately she had to wait for her dinosaur of a computer to be ready.

“You want to fill me in on what we’re doing here?” Callaway asked. “And don’t say ‘following up on an idea,’ because that’s about as clear as mud.”

“Thus far,” Cole answered, “we’ve assumed that climbing is the connection among the three victims. That’s what brought us to Blackstone Athletics, which in turn led us to Douglas Skinner.”

“A dead end. Solid alibi, and besides that, I don’t think he’d have the stones to pull something like this off.”

The login menu appeared, and Cole leaned forward as she entered her credentials.

“I agree completely,” she said, hitting the ENTER key. “But isn’t it possible the climbing piece is incidental?”

Callaway frowned, considering the idea. “Possible, sure. Where are you going with this, partner?”

“As far back as necessary. We became so hyper-focused on the climbing aspect that we ignored other possible connections.”

Opening the database, she entered the names of the three victims. Then, using the COMPARE function, she opened results on all three simultaneously. She briefly studied the information on Leta Escudero – physical description, family background, and so on – before focusing on the three victims’ addresses.

“Can you look these up?” she asked, pointing. “I want to know how close they lived to one another.”

Callaway pulled out his phone, and Cole gave him the addresses one by one.

“Well,” Callaway said after a few moments, “they all lived in different towns, but not far from one another. All of them are within about ten minutes.”

That surprised Cole, and she sat back, thoughtfully tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. “That can’t be a coincidence.”

“Think the killer lives nearby?”

“It’s certainly possible. Then again, many serial killers travel a considerable distance from where they live to commit their murders, even if they commit those murders within a small geographic area.”

“Don’t shit where you eat, and all that.”

She nodded. “Precisely.”

Callaway took a deep breath and let it out. “So, where does that leave us?”

Cole frowned, studying the information for other commonalities, other patterns. She thought of the clothing the victims had been wearing.

“According to this,” she said, “it looks like all three were fairly well off. Middle class, if not better.”

“Think the killer’s motive might be financial? Could be taking them out there to interrogate them, maybe steal personal information or get them to transfer funds.”

Cole pressed her lips together doubtfully. “That makes sense except for the climbing piece. Where does that factor in? If he just wanted to interrogate them, he could have put them in the back of a van, a trailer, a room with the curtains drawn—somewhere without the risk of being discovered. When you add the cliff…” She shook her head. “Seems too elaborate.”

Callaway leaned against the wall and crossed his arms, looking a touch annoyed. “Alright, then.

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