“No, just cold. Remind me to buy a whole pound of sausages for Ben.” Jenna’s teeth chattered as she turned to look at Carter assisting Isla. “Is she okay?”
“That man tried to strangle me.” Isla pointed at the man secured to a tree. She walked up to him and kicked him hard in the shins. “I hope they lock you up and throw away the key.” She turned her gaze on Carter. “Thank you for saving me.”
“My pleasure, ma’am.” Carter smiled.
“What’s your name?” Jenna stared at the prisoner.
She received a string of curse words. Kane stepped forward and ripped off his balaclava. “Anyone recognize him?” He shone a light into the man’s face.
“I do.” Jenna stepped a little closer and wrinkled her nose at the strong smell of cologne. Ellie McBride had mentioned her attacker wore a strong cologne. This man had to be their killer. “I spoke to Beth about him earlier and checked out his file. His name is Ethan Rourke. The guy who installed the new security system at the Cattleman’s Hotel.” She stared at him. “I can’t wait to discover the reason you murdered two women in my town.”
“It’s good you caught me, Sheriff.” A smirk crossed Rourke’s lips. “I don’t like women in authority. Maybe you would have been next.” He laughed maniacally.
“Raven and Styles, please take the prisoner back to my office.” Jenna leaned into Kane. “We’ll be right behind you. Put him in interview room one. I’ll need to get changed and then I’ll be right along.” She turned to look at Isla. “I want you to come back to my office. I have two doctors with me to assess your injuries. I need you to make a statement so we can get this man sent to County.”
“I’d love to.” Isla glared at Rourke and followed Carter and Emily to the Beast.
Kane wrapped his arm around Jenna and they headed back to the truck as fast as possible. The cold already bit into his flesh but he had a spare coat in the back of his truck. With Carter, Isla, and Emily safely inside the Beast, they headed back to town. No one said a word inside the truck, but when he escorted Jenna to the locker room, he pulled her close. “I came so close to losing you. I figure I used a lifetime of prayers out there tonight. How we managed to pull you from the ice before it broke open, I’ll never know. I felt so utterly useless. If you’dfallen into the water, I’d have dived in to save you, but I’m not sure we’d have made it out alive.”
“First up, prayers are infinite, and secondly, I figure surviving a frozen lake is a Christmas miracle.” She went onto her toes to kiss him. “Isla and I both help people. This proves to me there is more work for us to do.”
Kane smiled. “Amen to that.”
THIRTY-EIGHT
Jenna took her time taking a long hot shower. She’d given instructions to Kane to contact the lawyer Sam Cross to have him standing by if Rourke requested a lawyer. She didn’t want anything to jeopardize the interview. Emily and Raven would examine Isla and take photographs of her injuries, particularly those round her neck. Once Isla had signed a statement, they’d take her to the hospital and keep her under observation for a day or so. Styles had collected the garrote that Isla had ripped from her neck in the boathouse and secured it in an evidence bag on scene. It appeared to be exactly the same as the others that they’d discovered alongside the bodies of the previous victims. As she dried her hair in the bathroom, she heard voices and turned to see Jo walking into the locker room.
“I figured you might need me in the interview room.” Jo smiled at her. “Don’t worry, Raya is watching the kids. “This guy sounds complex. He might be an interesting addition to my next book.”
Running a brush through her hair, Jenna breathed a sigh of relief. Psychopaths were complex people, and Jo had studied them for many years. She interviewed them in prison anddiscovered that the majority of them loved notoriety. The offer of being included in her “most notorious serial killers of the year” publication had often been the only encouragement they needed to give up their secrets. “Rourke has already threatened me. He told me he hates women in authority and maybe I’d have been next if we hadn’t caught him. What do you consider would be the best way to approach him to get him to spill his story?”
“I figured we’d leave the men outside and speak to him ourselves.” Jo turned and headed along the hallway. “Sam Cross, Rourke’s lawyer, is here.”
Jenna walked beside her. “I’ll ask Dave to get the ball rolling. He can read Rourke his rights. It’s good Cross is here. If you recall, Sam is defense all the way, and we need to make sure this scumbag isn’t going to walk away from this.”
“Yeah, I recall.” Jo led the way to Jenna’s office.
Jenna collected a legal pad from her drawer and slid the photographs of the victims into a folder. “Dave, I’ll interview him with Jo. Head down and start the process, record everything.”
“Okay but first read Isla’s statement. He stalked her and likely stalked the others too.” Kane frowned. “You sure you don’t want me in there with you? He is a serial killer.”
Jenna shook her head. “He won’t get out of the cuffs attached to the table and you’ll be right outside along with Carter and Styles.”
They read the statement and discussed it before heading downstairs to the interview room. Jenna swiped her card and walked in with Jo. Inside, Kane leaned against the wall. He straightened and left. Jenna turned to Sam Cross. The lawyer, in a battered Stetson and snakeskin cowboy boots, gave her a curt nod. “Mr. Cross. Thank you for coming in at such short notice.”
“It’s what I do.” Cross straightened his legal pad and clickedthe top of his pen. “My client wants to speak to you. I’ve advised him not to incriminate himself, but he feels it’s too late for that already. I will caution him if needs be as we proceed.”
Jenna sat down and arranged her things on the desk. The recorder had been paused and she pressed the button to continue the recording. “Recording continued at five after twelve. In the room with Mr. Rourke are Sheriff Jenna Alton, Agent Jo Wells, and Mr. Rourke’s lawyer, Mr. Sam Cross.”
Jenna exchanged a look with Jo and then swung her attention back to Rourke. “When did you start stalking Isla Monroe? We’re aware you were inside her house, left notes on the back of her vehicle, and inside her locker at the hospital. You intimidated her at the hospital and then climbed into her truck, placed a garrote around her neck, and made her drive to the boathouse near the lake.” She kept her gaze fixed on him. “I’m sure you have a very logical explanation for why you behaved in this manner. Maybe you would like the chance to explain?”
“Yeah, I’ve been watching her.” Rourke leaned on the table, his hands clasped together as if he didn’t have a care in the world. “So what? It’s what men do. Hasn’t your husband told you that, or do you believe he’s a saint?”
Surprised by his verbal attack, Jenna made a few unnecessary notes just to put him off guard. “Why were you watching her? Does she remind you of someone from your past? Because she doesn’t know you and has never met you before.”
“The thing is women like her—nurses—believe they have the power over life and death. They lie to people and tell them everything is going to be okay when it’s not. They need to know it’s me who has the power over life and death.”
“Explain.” Jo crossed her legs slowly. “What gave you this impression of nurses?”
