After finishing cleaning Jackson and allowing him to scamper off, she turned as Kane walked into the bathroom. He had a silly grin on his face. “What?”
“Do you figure Tashina is the one?” Kane leaned against the doorframe and crossed his arms. “He did mention visiting Canada after his mother insisted it was time he found a wife. He had dated a few of the women in town lately.”
Jenna smiled. “Well, he is a fine-looking man and I’m sure he has women falling at his feet. I hope he has found someone special. He is such a kind and thoughtful person. He’d make a good husband.” She glanced at her watch. “We need to go.”
“Raya is here.” Kane turned and headed back to the kitchen.
Once the boys had vanished through the door into Raya’s apartment, both chatting loudly, Jenna grabbed their weapons from the gun safe and they headed for the door. She peered outside into the overcast morning. “At least it’s not raining yet.”
Twelve
Jenna had Kerry Floyd’s name in her contacts list from when she’d signed up for the defense class. As sometimes cases got in the way, she needed the women’s information to enable her to contact them should the need arise. They made their way to Cottonwood Lane and parked at the curb. “I hope she’s home. I don’t have an occupation for her.”
“I hope so too. I figure the sky is gonna open again soon.” Kane stared at the clouds rushing by overhead. “I hear thunder. I don’t believe it’s gonna be too long.” He went to the front door and knocked.
A dog barked and the door opened. A small black-and-white dog stuck his head around the door and growled at them before a command had it backing inside. “Morning, Kerry.” Kane touched the front of his hat. “If you have time, we’d like a word with you about Jan.”
“Yes, of course.” Kerry leaned her shoulder against the doorframe. “Why all the interest in Jan all of a sudden? Has she broken the law?”
Jenna shook her head. “No, I’m sorry to tell you that Jan is dead. We can’t find a whole lot about her apart from the fact she lived with her grandma until she died and that she works from home. We need to contact her next of kin. If you have any information whatsoever about her, we would appreciate it.”
“Jan’s dead. That’s terrible.” Kerry’s eyes opened wide with shock. “What happened to her?”
“We’re waiting on the results of an autopsy to determine the cause of death.” Kane took out his notebook and turned it to a clean page. “When was the last time that you saw or spoke to Jan?”
“That would have been after the last class that she attended. As you know, she wasn’t there on Thursday.” Kerry pushed a stray strand of hair behind one ear and narrowed her gaze. “We all stopped by Aunt Betty’s Café for coffee and a slice of pie. It’s become a tradition with us of late. We like to discuss the class and other things.”
Seeing the shock on Kerry’s face, Jenna decided to take the questioning in a different direction. “Going back to the last time that you spoke to her, can you remember anything that she said?”
“We chatter a lot of nonsense really, but I do recall Jan telling us about the training she’d been doing with a dog she was getting from Deputy Raven.” She stared into the distance for a few seconds before looking back at Jenna. “She’d made great plans for that dog and had purchased everything she needed to keep her at home. She’d been to Deputy Raven’s house many times to learn how to look after her and to understand the commands needed to keep her safe. I do recall her mentioning that she had become more confident in herself since working with the dog and next time she wanted to take the trail up the mountain and head over to his ranch. She planned on making a video of the scenery along the way.”
“Didn’t you figure that idea was dangerous?” Kane narrowed his gaze at her. “We’ve explained in the classes the places you need to avoid going to alone. Trails like the one up to Bear Peak are notoriously dangerous at the best of times. Apart from the chance of running into a bear, that area is a hunting ground for serial killers.” He shook his head. “Raven didn’t suggest she go through that trail alone, did he?”
“No, I told her it was a bad idea at the time but thought little of it as I was there when he made the appointment with her to go and see him. He insisted that she drive to his place along the fire roads.” Kerri sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I can’t believe she would be so stupid as to go there alone. She could have asked me to go with her. I’d have been more than happy to walk the trail with her and I’d have my dog with me.” She looked from one to the other. “Something happened to her on that trail, didn’t it?”
Nodding, Jenna didn’t want to upset the woman any further, but honesty was the best policy in these cases. “We found her in the ravine.” She paused for a beat, allowing the information to sink in. “Do you recall if Jan discussed at any time any family, apart from her grandmother?”
“No, she did mention that her grandma was the only relative she had left in the world.” Kerry hugged her chest. “It’s so sad because she had just started to come out and join us as a group. It took us a couple of weeks to encourage her. She’d spent so much time with her grandma she didn’t know how to socialize with people outside of the home. I know she was an accountant. She managed the books for a couple of the local stores in town and worked from home.” She sighed. “That’s all I really know about her. She was a lovely person. I believe we could have become close friends.”
“What about the other women in the group?” Kane raised one eyebrow. “Did she become friends with any of them?”
“No, not really. Apart from perhaps a wave. She always sat next to me when we went for coffee.” She met Jenna’s gaze. “She’s very shy. I was the one who started to speak to her. She looked so lonely and I wanted to find out what had happened to her and the reason she was at the class. Most of us who attend are concerned about living alone, although not all of us live alone. Some of us are married and others live with their parents. We all have a story. The main reasons are being afraid of someone breaking into the house overnight, driving home from work, or being alone when their husbands are away. Just living in this town is a danger when you look at it—isn’t it? It seems someone is always getting murdered.”
Pulling a card out of her pocket, Jenna handed it to her. “Thank you for your time. You’ve been really helpful. If anything else comes to mind, any other conversations you had with Jan or any relatives she may have mentioned in passing, please give me a call so I can contact them. In the meantime, I suggest you keep your doors and windows shut when you’re alone inside the house. We don’t know for certain if there’s someone in town hell-bent on hurting women, but until we do, I suggest you take all precautions to protect yourself. The classes are being suspended for a short period while we sort out this case.”
“Okay. I will.” Kerri stepped back inside the door and closed it.
Jenna followed Kane back to the Beast. “We know someone murdered Jan. What really puzzles me is how they knew she would be alone on that trail at that time of the morning. Okay, so it might have been an opportunistic thrill kill, but something doesn’t seem right.”
“Thrill kills are usually messy.” Kane pressed the ignition button and the Beast’s engine roared. “The thrill usually means stabbing someone to death or some other kind of self-indulgent murder. Pushing someone over the side of a ravine is a clean kill. No blood, no evidence. Nothing left behind for us to find.”
Jenna leaned over the back of her seat and rubbed Duke’s ears. “So, if it didn’t happen the way I suggested, how did the killer know?”
“There are two possibilities and both come from Aunt Betty’s Café.” Kane shrugged and headed the truck back toward Main. “Maybe it was a case of being in the right place at the right time. Twice, Jan told people in the café that she planned to walk up the mountain trail at Bear Peak to go to Raven’s ranch. It was opportunistic to some degree because her killer would need to be in the café to overhear the conversations. I believe this is how it happened. A serial killer overheard when and where Jan—a woman clearly alone and facing her fears—would be at a certain time, and he took advantage.” He flicked her a glance. “He just headed up the mountain and lay in wait for her to arrive. It was very dark in there. If anyone else came by, no one would see him. It was a perfect plan.”
Thirteen
As Kane headed for the river, the wind picked up and large spots of rain hit the windshield. “I want to check the levels. After the melt, the river has been lapping the road. Any more rain and it will go over the highway.”
