Page 8 of Keeping Collette

This couldn’t be what Cass was suggesting. Something as big as a serial killer would be hitting all the major news outlets, there’s no way it couldn’t.

“It’s because I don’t think the police believe they have a serial killer on their hands,” Cass said simply.

“Alistriona, how is that even possible?” Irish stared at his wife. “Why wouldn’t they think that if all the evidence points to it?”

Cass shrugged. “I’m not sure. They either don’t want to alarm the public, or they haven’t connected it all together and don’t believe it’s the work of one person, which seems unlikely. The news may not be covering it if the police haven’t talked about it to them. From what I’ve uncovered so far, most of the victims appear to be homeless, parentless, or drug addicts. There are the odd couple, like Courtney, who do have families who were or, are looking for them.”

Deal drummed his fingers against his thigh, but stopped himself before anyone noticed. It was a habit he’d picked up when he’d left the service. He wasn’t sure why he did it. Another thing he didn’t have the time to dwell on. “Right. What about all this, makes you think it’s the work of a serial killer?”

“Every one of them have disappeared from this particular spot,” Cass said. “And, as you can see, they were all found within the same vicinity.”

“Granted that is something, but it could also be seen as coincidental. Do you have the police reports on them? Or medical reports showing cause of death?” Deal fired off the questions, not doubting that Cass would have the information, because there’s no way she would make the claim without some sort of proof.

“I’ve got some of them. I’m waiting for the others. I’ll email what I’ve got to you. Once you’ve checked them out we can talk about whether we should be worried or not.”

Irish sat quietly beside Cass, not saying anything. Deal would love to get his input and to know if he thought the same way as his wife. Perhaps he was waiting for all the evidence to be laid out in front of him before coming to a definitive conclusion.

His phone pinged. “Thanks.” He’d look at them on his computer, as reading detailed reports on his phone was a pain in the ass.

“What’s going on?” Collette’s sleepy voice sent trickles of awareness down his spine. His blood warmed, and his dick twitched in his pants.

What the fuck?

Hours ago, he wasn’t sure how he felt about her, but now his body was suddenly interested. He took a moment to quell his reaction before facing her.

“We’re just talking… about things.” He cut the rest of his words off. No way was he going to mention the serial killer angle until Cass corroborated the information she had found and it definitely looked like someone was targeting people. There was no guarantee that Courtney had been caught up in it anyway. She could’ve been a victim of a trafficker. They really didn’t know anything yet.

Was it wrong to lie to her?

Maybe, but it would be better than giving her something more to worry about. And it wasn’t a total lie; they had been talking. Sometimes keeping things locked down was better than putting out false information.

He directed a look to both Cass and Irish; their barely there nods indicated they understood why he hadn’t elaborated.

“About Courtney? Do you have a lead? Have you found her?” Hope flashed in her eyes and voice, and he hated having to crush it, yet he couldn’t tell her something they didn’t know.

“We were discussing the case, but sorry, we haven’t found anything concrete yet about where Courtney is.” Again, the truth, just not all of it.

She sat up a little straighter and pushed her hair out of her eyes. Her vulnerability hit Deal in the middle of his chest, but he ignored the feeling of wanting to pull her close to him and hold her tight.

“But you’ve found something, haven’t you?” she persisted.

“We’re looking at all angles,” Irish spoke up, as if he could tell that Deal was running out of ways to say the same thing.

“I feel like you’re hiding something from me.” Collette stood, brushing her hair off her face. “I appreciate everything you’re doing, but if you’re going to keep things from me, then we’re going to have problems. This is my sister’s life. I don’t care how bad it is. I want to know.”

Deal sighed and met his friends’ gazes. Both Cass and Irish lifted their shoulders, as if saying the ball was in his court.

Great, just what he needed, but Ox had put him charge of the case, so he had no option but to tell her. There was no way she was going to drop the issue with a few well-placed words from him.

“I’ll tell you what we found, but remember, you asked to know this. We don’t know if there’s any connection or not, but the last place where Courtney’s phone pinged was the same location where a lot of other people have gone missing and haven’t been found. We suspect they’ve been trafficked.” He kept his tone level, relaying what they’d found in the least emotional way possible.

The color drained from Collette’s face, and he was up and out of his seat as she swayed. He slipped an arm around her waist, guiding her back to the couch where she’d been sleeping.

“It’s okay,” he murmured. “We don’t know if what’s happened to Courtney is connected to the others.”

Her tongue darted out and moistened her lips. “But you think it is.”

“We can’t be sure of anything. We’ve only just found the connection,” Cass said. “Now that we have a definite location of where her phone was last active, I’ll see if I can find any security footage around there.”