Polly looked at her best friend. “Your mom?”
“Yeah. I wish they’d find her killer.”
Polly wished that too.
Cox was only responsible for the murders in the last twelve months. He was a copycat. Which meant the original killer, the person responsible for five women in roughly twenty-five years, was still out there. Six years had passed since the last woman had gone missing. It was possible they’d stopped or died or left town.
There was also a chance the women weren’t connected. Only two of the five had been found. Maybe the other three had gone missing in the forest on their own. Maybe there was nothing sinister about their disappearances.
Or maybe there was.
“You boys are doing a reallygreat job at protecting this town,” Ferris said, hitting Joel on the back. “First Maggie’s stalker, now Cox. You’re earning your money.”
“Any update on the identity of the guy paying our wages?” Ryan asked, leaning back in his chair.
Ferris laughed. “I would tell you if I could. But he likes remaining anonymous.”
“But you know, right?” Ethan asked.
“Of course.” The smile slipped as he looked out the window. “Ward has been a pain in my ass.”
Joel almost scowled. “What’s he doing now?”
“Telling anyone who’ll listen thathesolved the most recent case, and your team did nothing but get in his way. Gerome’s spreading the lies too.”
Connor scoffed. “No one will believe that.”
“I don’t know, both of them have pretty big mouths.” Ferris shook his head. “Anyway. I should get going. Just wanted to stop by and tell you boys how proud I am of you.”
The second he headed out of The Pancake Bar, Joel turned back to his team. “How are we all feeling?”
“Glad Cox is gone,” Zac said.
“Sickened that he wasinspiredby the previous missing and dead women,” Ethan growled. “He killed four women and blamed it on his faith.”
“He saw what we saw though,” Ryan said quietly. “That there’s a pattern of missing women.”
A quiet slipped over the table. They all felt it. The heaviness of wondering if something was coming…and whether or not they could stop it. The blindness of not knowing who was behind the original abductions or which direction they might come from again.
Zac rubbed his chin. “Theymighthave stopped. It started twenty-five years ago. The person responsible could have moved or passed away.”
“Or”—Ryan glanced around the café—“they’re going to choose another target soon. There were years between some of the abductions.”
Ethan cursed under his breath, his gaze going to the counter.
Joel’s followed, but while Ethan looked at Maggie, Polly stole his focus. The way her lips curved into a soft smile. The laugh lines beside her eyes.
He’d almost lost her once. He couldn’t go through that a second time.
“She doing okay?” Connor asked softly from his right.
Joel shifted his gaze back to his friend. “For now. I don’t want her to be a sitting duck though.”
“She won’t. She’s protected by you and by us. For now, the good news is, the original killer hasn’t escalated like we’d originally thought.”
Connor was right. Thatwasgood, and it should be their focus. But he couldn’t completely relax. Not yet.
Something at the window caught Connor’s attention, and his friend frowned.
