Sense of Evil by Kay Hooper

Author:Kay Hooper
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Police - Southern States, Police, Serial Murders, Government Investigators, Fiction, Romantic Suspense Fiction, Suspense, Southern States, Romantic Suspense Novels, Psychics
ISBN: 9780553803006
Publisher: Bantam
Published: 2003-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

10

CALEB HEARD THE NEWS about a fourth woman's body being found when he stopped by the coffee shop for a cup to take home. The girl behind the counter—he couldn't figure out how on earth they could be called “sales associates” when they worked in a coffee shop—was only too happy to fill him in on the latest details while she prepared his latte.

Gory details.

“And you know the worst part?” she demanded as she put a lid on the cup.

“Somebody died?” he suggested.

She blinked, then said anxiously, “Well, yeah, but I heard she'd been dead for months.”

Caleb resisted the impulse to ask what the hell difference that made. Instead, he said, “And the worst part is?”

“She was brunette,” Sally Anne, sales associate for the coffee shop and a brunette herself, whispered.

“Ah.”

“So none of us is safe. He's not just going after blondes now, he's—he's going after the rest of us.”

Caleb paid for his coffee and said with ruthless sympathy, “If I were you, I'd leave town.”

“I might. I just might. Thanks, Mr. Powell. Oh—can I help you, ma'am?”

“One iced mocha latte, please. Medium.”

Caleb turned quickly, surprised to find Hollis there. “Hi.”

“Hi.” She looked tired and also more casual than he'd yet seen her, in jeans and a black T-shirt that demanded to know if the hokey-pokey was really what it was all about.

“You're not still working?”

“No, we've pretty much called it a day.” She shrugged. “Can't do a lot in the way of investigating the body Sally Anne just told you about until we get forensics and a postmortem.”

Something about her wry tone made him say, “You didn't expect the news to not get around, did you?”

“No. But this town sets the land speed record for gossip, I've realized that much. The unfortunate thing is that it tends to be so damned accurate.”

“I'll say. I didn't grow up here, but when I started my practice fifteen years ago, it took less than a week for everyone in town to know that my parents were dead and my younger brother had gotten his girlfriend pregnant and married her literally at the business end of her daddy's shotgun.” He paused, then added, “I told no one, absolutely no one.”

Hollis smiled slightly and paid Sally Anne for her coffee. “They do seem to find out what they want to know. Which begs the question . . .”

“How can a killer walk among us, unseen?”

“Oh, not that question. Killers always have walked among us unseen. No, the question I'm asking myself is: how is it possible that a woman's decomposing body hung inside a derelict gas station less than three blocks from the center of town for months without anybody noticing?”

Sally Anne uttered a choked little sound and rushed toward the back of the shop.

Hollis grimaced. “Well, that was definitely indiscreet. To say the least. I must be more tired than I thought. Or, at any rate, that'll be my story.”

Caleb shook his head slightly. “Look, I know you've had a hell of a day, but can we sit down here and talk for a while? There's something I want to ask you.

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