Laurel looked for him but couldn’t see beyond a series of hanging plants. “Just a second.” She moved away from the desk and toward the far corner with Haylee behind her. “Where are you?”
“Here.”
She turned a corner and found Huck ducking down, brushing dirt from the ground with his glove.
He knocked and something echoed. “My boot hit something hard. What is this?” He tugged and pulled out a buried metal box.
Laurel crouched to pet Aeneas, who was staring intently at his master as if waiting for a command.
The box was about one foot wide and two feet long. Dials on the front lock showed it to be a turn combination. Huck reached for a gardening shovel and pushed it above the lock, grunting as he worked it back and forth. Finally, the lock sprang open.
“Whoa.” Huck’s eyebrows lifted.
Laurel leaned over to see. “Oh.” Photographs of Sharon Lamber in various sexual positions with her husband were visible on top of many other pictures. She checked to make sure her gloves were clean and then lifted a stack while Huck did the same. “Haylee? I need you to go stand by the door, all right?”
Haylee gulped and nodded, backing away from the photographs as if they were poisonous.
Laurel took a deep breath and flipped quickly through the first half, which were all of Sharon and Morris in various sex acts. She paused at the next picture, which showed an older man kissing Sharon, both of them nude. “I think this might be Dr. Joseph Keyes?” She held up the photograph for Huck.
“Yeah? I don’t know who this is.” Huck held up a photograph of Sharon engaged in sex with a brown-haired man. “Or this guy.” He showed a blond male who looked like he should be surfing.
Laurel filtered through several pictures, finally finding one with the first man’s face in focus. It was Dr. Keyes. She recognized him from his photograph on the hospital website. She kept rifling through the pictures, many depicting men who hadn’t been identified as of yet. “Our suspect pool might’ve just exploded.”
“Yeah. To an ocean.” Huck shook his head. “I have no problem with kink, but tracking down all of these guys is going to take time. I’ll need to bring donuts to the office.”
“Oh.” Laurel paused at seeing a familiar face. She held up the picture. “Officer Frank Zello.” His handlebar mustache was unmistakable.
Huck paused. “That’s interesting. He was the only point of contact for Dr. Rox, and he might’ve met Abigail at the auction.”
True. Laurel nodded. “He also didn’t tell us of his affair with Sharon Lamber. He should have. We’ll have to bring him in.”
Huck sucked in air, and his nostrils flared as he looked at another picture.
“What?” Laurel asked, her nape itching.
His chin lowered. “Sharon Lamber and Davie Tate.” They were definitely engaged in sex. “He’s seventeen. Just a kid.”
Laurel sat back on her knees, pictures on her lap. “We’re going to need to bring him back in as well.”
Huck looked at several more pictures. “This isn’t his fault. She was the adult.”
“No. But if he killed her, he has to answer for it.” Laurel felt nauseated.
“Yeah. We’ll bring both Zello and Davie in tomorrow morning, and we need to find the cardiac surgeon.” Huck looked up, his eyes blazing. “I’m tired of this damn case.”
Laurel looked at her watch. “Me, too. And he’s going to take another victim soon.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
He’d been rushed during his time with Dr. Franklin, and it wasn’t his fault. Fuck the FBI. He was glad he’d shot the fat guy and wished he could shoot him again. Nobody messed with his timeline. Yet he’d had no choice but to move fast before they could put his Christine somewhere safe.
There was no safety from him.
They should all know that by now.
Kicking snow, he moved between the trees, wanting to howl at the glowing moon. If he were an animal, he’d be a wolf. Primitive and deadly. He punched a tree and the pain grounded him. He’d taken Christine to that stupid cabin during the daytime. Wolves like him hunted at night. He hadn’t gotten to spend enough time with her.
She’d been a fighter, but he’d been stronger. It was that simple.
