Shadow's Prey (Darkwater Cove Psychological Thriller Book 8) by Dan Padavona

Author:Dan Padavona [Padavona, Dan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-05-17T00:00:00+00:00

Darcy’s head hurts from staring at the monitors. Officer Chen pinches the bridge of her nose as Julian studies the screen. They’ve been at this for two hours, and now the list of matching vehicles is up to thirty-one. Until Julian whittles down the number, there is little hope of catching the killer.

Footsteps approach the monitor room. Officer Ramirez knocks on the door with a triumphant grin on his face. "Detective Haines, we may have hit pay dirt."

Julian and Darcy exchange a glance, hope and trepidation in their eyes.

“Take a break while I speak with Ramirez,” Julian tells Chen. “Be back in ten minutes.”

They follow Ramirez to the bullpen, where Officer Nguyen is already loading a flash drive into his computer.

"What do you have for us?" Julian asks.

Nguyen clicks a few keys and pulls up a series of images on the screen. "We hit the jackpot with the Robinsons' security system. They have cameras covering the whole block. In my humble opinion, the Robinsons take this stuff a little too seriously, but they caught something interesting two hours before the suspect showed up at your door."

Darcy scans the grainy footage. At first, she sees nothing out of the ordinary, only the stillness of a sleeping neighborhood. Then movement catches her eye.

"There," she says, pointing to the screen. "In the top left corner."

Nguyen nods, zooming in on the image. A dark sedan crawls down the street, its headlights off to avoid detection. It's impossible to make out the driver's face.

"Timestamp matches," Ramirez says. "And get this: We ran the plates. The car's registered to a rental company in Monroeton."

Julian's head snaps up. "Monroeton? That's three miles outside of Genoa Cove."

Darcy feels nauseous. Could the killer have followed Hunter since her son returned home from college? Could he have been stalking their family all this time? Monroeton is close enough for the killer to come and go as he pleases. Yet she’d believed the unsub was from Georgia.

"Did you get a name on the rental?" Darcy asks.

Nguyen shakes his head. "Not yet. The company's dragging their feet on releasing the information. Says they need a warrant."

“Then we'll get a warrant,” says Julian. “Judge Halverson is up for election. If he doesn’t help us catch the Genoa Cove Killer, the community will have his head. I'll call it in.”

As Julian steps away to make the call, Darcy turns back to the screen, studying the image of the mysterious car. A lead, a direction, a glimmer of hope.

"Good work, you two," she says to Ramirez and Nguyen. "This could be the break we've been looking for."

Ramirez grins, a hint of pride in his voice. "Just doing our job, ma'am. Be sure to thank the Robinson family for going overboard with the security cameras."

While they wait for a warrant, Darcy compares the plate numbers from the village square with the rental car. She finds a match.

“This has to be our killer,” she says, jabbing a finger at the number on Chen’s list.

Nguyen removes his cap. “I’ll be darned.

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