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  The waitress brought them their food, giving Kacey time to compose herself.

  “So Dan’s death was a revenge killing?! What a waste. I would almost rather it had been a hunter.” Kacey looked angry.

  “I know and I’m sorry to have to tell you. Detective Boaz and I aren’t going to stop, Kacey. We will find whoever did this.”

  Kacey sighed, pushing her food around her plate.

  “I know.”

  They ate in silence.

  “Captain, do you have a security system in your house?”

  “I do. I had one installed several years ago. Why do you ask?”

  “Well, Homefront Security seems entangled in our case somehow. They keep popping up on our radar.”

  “They didn’t install mine. I’m not sure he was in business that long ago.”

  “He just installed a system for me. Heck of a nice guy.”

  “Did I miss the party invitation?” Mike motioned for Kacey to scooch over and he slid in next to her.

  “You’re just late to the party.” Kacey said with a smile. “The Captain has replaced you as my breakfast date.”

  “Oh, I’d never come between you two and your food.” The Captain tossed some cash on the table and stood to leave. “You’re right about that French toast, Detective. I’ll see you both at the station.”

  Mike moved across from Kacey and ordered his breakfast.

  “What was that about?” Mike asked, taking a sip of coffee.

  “He just wanted to update us about the ‘spouse’ attacks.” Kacey filled him in on what the Captain had told her.

  “That’s a lot to take in. I’m so sorry, Kacey.”

  “Mike, I think Jack should come and stay with me until this is all resolved. I have that new security system and I wouldn’t mind the company.”

  “She gets released tomorrow afternoon, I’ll ask her.”

  They finished eating in silence.

  Chapter 66

  As they walked out of the diner towards their cars, Kacey’s phone buzzed, indicating a text message.

  “It’s Todd. He wants us to come right away. I’ll meet you at the station and we can ride together.”

  Kacey was always happy when they got a chance to go see Todd. Not only was he a heck of a computer tech, but he was a great guy.

  As they drove separately, both detectives were lost in their own thoughts.

  Kacey realized that she had always known that Dan’s death wasn’t an accident. It had felt too purposeful all along. She was thankful that the best men available were on the case.

  Mike, on the other hand, was wondering at what moment he had fallen so deeply in love with Jack. Was it when he found her stabbed in her own home and realized that maybe he just might lose her? All of the petty jealousies had been squashed and they had been enjoying confidence in their relationship. All he knew was that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her and didn’t want to wait much longer to seal the deal.

  Mike jumped into Kacey’s car as soon as she came to a stop in the precinct parking lot. Kacey had been feeling better, but when she was the passenger, she often still got sick.

  “I hate these crappy pre-winter days.” Kacey remarked, as she watched the wipers struggle to understand that low was too low and high was too high.

  “I do too. You should’ve heard my shoes in the hospital hallways. I sounded like an idiot.”

  Kacey laughed so hard at that, that she snorted.

  “At least you couldn’t sneak up on Jack. She might’ve had to take you down if you scared her.”

  “Oh, and she could do it, too. She’s closer to her time of training than we are. She still remembers her moves.”

  “Oh, the good old days … NOT.” Kacey had hated the physical part of training.

  As Kacey parked and they began walking towards the building, Mike’s phone buzzed with a text from Dr. Forrester.

  “You go see Todd and I’ll go see Dr. Forrester. It’s safer that way.” Mike loved teasing Kacey about her weakness for Dr. Forrester.

  “Fine.” Kacey huffed.

  The detectives went their separate ways upon entering the building. Kacey went upstairs to Todd’s lab.

  “Ah, Detective.” Todd had a dusting of cheese curls on his fingertips and his laptop keyboard.

  Kacey adored Todd.

  “Whatcha got, Cheesie?”

  Todd self-consciously brushed his hands free of cheese residue and grabbed a Clorox wipe to attack the crumbs on his laptop.

  “Well … the investigators found something very interesting in Colleen’s house.”

  Todd reached into his top drawer and handed her an evidence bag.

  Kacey took the bag and looked at it a second before looking questioningly at Todd.

  “They are mini cameras.” He pulled three more bags out of his drawer. “After they found the one at Collen’s, they went back to the other crime scenes and Joanna’s apartment. There were two at each victim’s home except for Joanna’s. One in the living room and one in the bedroom. The only problem is that there’s no way to find out where they were transmitting to. They were live feeds. No recording. So there’s nothing to trace. Not only that, but there are no markings on them. Who knows where they came from?”

  “Sick.” Kacey handed them back in disgust. “Anything else?”

  “Nothing I haven’t already told you about the victims. Pretty much the exact same M.O. for each victim. French restaurant, lock of hair taken, poker card ...

  "However," Todd finally got a wipe out of his drawser and finished getting the cheese dust off of his fingers.

  "We finally got all of the information from 'makeamatch'. Our "Professer" used information from a 90 year old woman and paid with a prepaid Visa card. So nothing helpful there.

  "I'm trying to trace the IP Address, but so far, it's all tied into the false information. I"ll keep working on it."

  “Thanks, Todd.”

  “Detective?”

  Kacey turned around and lifted her eyebrows.

  “I heard about your husband. I’m sorry.”

  “Thanks, Todd … I really appreciate it.”

  Kacey was surprised when Todd got up out of his chair and hugged her.

  Mike ran into Kacey in the lobby and as they walked out into weather that was turning colder by the minute, Kacey shared what Todd had told her.

  “Well, that sure puts a different spin on things. Someone had been watching for them, and I can't say I'm surprised about the website thing.”

  “What did Dr. Accent have to say?”

  “He just confirmed that a lock of hair had been cut from Colleen and that there had been no sexual activity. Same as the others.”

  They got into Kacey’s car and as she pulled out, Mike turned to her.

  “I think it’s time to flush him out.”

  “Me too. Do you think the Captain will be more receptive to the idea of bait?”

  “I don’t think it will be too hard at this point.”

  Chapter 67

  “I can never get this guy alone.” He said to himself, looking through his binoculars.

  Angie’s husband glanced over his shoulder as he and his boys left the grocery store. Clearly, he couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching him. He kept glancing behind.

  He chuckled. ‘Idiot. If only you knew.’

  “I might have to get ‘Old Faithful’ out.” He said, referring to the rifle that killed Dan. “Might just have to do another long range.

  Matt answered his cell phone.

  “Hey, Ang. Yep … I got everything … love you, too.” He said as he closed his trunk and wrangled his boys into the car.

  He slipped his phone back into his pocket. Oblivious to the fact that his sons had just saved his life.

  Later that day, he was in his basement lovingly polishing ‘Old Faithful’. The mineral oil made the stock gleam and he made sure that the barrel was free of residue and ready to use.

  “Honey, supper’s
ready.”

  He tried to love her, he really did. He did have strong feelings for his children, but really, they were more of an annoyance than anything. How much homework did he have to help with? He thought that maybe they secretly knew what to do, they just wanted to bother him.

  “Be right up, babe.”

  He sighed as he reluctantly put the weapon back into the gun safe and went upstairs to wash up for supper and put on his ‘dad’ persona.

  Chapter 68

  Mike and Kacey were elbow deep in evidence. Kacey had taken everything down so they could get a fresh perspective and had everything scattered all over the interview room table. They had been sorting everything, just beginning the process of re-pinning photos and notes all over the walls.

  Mike loved watching how her mind worked ... scary and amusing at the same time.

  She put Alice Benning’s picture in the upper left had corner, Connie Forsythe’s picture in the upper right hand corner, Joanna McKinnley’s in the lower left hand corner, and Colleen Sanford’s in the lower right hand corner.

  Then she put the corresponding playing card to each victim. After that, she put photos of any physical evidence that was found with each victim. Then, she put their ‘makeamatch.com’ profiles and any communications with ‘the professor’. Next she put all of Todd’s evidence. Lastly, she put Dr. Forrester’s reports by each one.

  As she reached for the red string to start her favorite part of the process, Mike’s phone rang.

  “It’s Jack.” He said.

  “Hey … Mmhm … I’ll be right there … Love you.”

  “Go get your girl.” Kacey said with a smile. “If she is ok with it, take her home to get some things and then bring her to my house and get her settled. I don’t know if she wants to go home to where it happened. I wouldn’t.”

  “Thanks, Kace. I’ll be back after I get her settled.”

  “Don’t you dare! You take care of her. I’ll work on this awhile.”

  As Mike left, Kacey turned back to the boards and began unwinding her red floss.

  Captain Wells walked by at just that moment and had to smile as he watched her work, knowing that before too long it would look like the room had been invaded by mutant spiders.

  Chapter 71

  Mike pulled his car around as a nurse wheeled Jack down to the circle drive in the front of the hospital. After parking, he carefully helped her into the car and began to fasten the seatbelt for her.

  “No seatbelt!”

  “You ok?” he asked, as he leaned down with his arm on the passenger side door.

  “Yeah … just a little tender.” She answered with a wobbly smile.

  Mike shut her door and went to his side of the car. When he had settled into the seat and buckled himself in, he pulled away.

  “I feel better the farther I get away from this hospital.” Jack turned to him and reached for his hand.

  “How do you feel about staying with Kacey for a while? She just got a security system put in and she said she would love the company.”

  “I’m not going to lie … that would make me feel better. You sure she doesn’t mind?”

  “She wouldn’t have offered if she did. Besides, she has mentioned several times that she would love to get to know you better.”

  “Then yes … I would like to stay there. Thinking about staying alone in my house makes me feel rattled.”

  “All right. Let’s go to your house and get you what you need, then I’ll take you to Kacey’s and get you settled.

  “Sounds like a great plan.”

  It was well after dinner time when Mike had Jack comfortable at Kacey’s house. He had all of her things in the guest bedroom and had made a grocery store run and thrown a chef salad together for their supper and Kacey’s when she finally made it home.

  They were in the middle watching The Maltese Falcon when Kacey finally walked through the door.

  She saw them watching and plopped down in Dan’s recliner.

  “I’m exhausted! You look great, Jack. How are you feeling?”

  “I’ll get your supper, Kace, while you two talk.”

  “Wow. Maybe he should just stay, too.” Kacey whispered to Jack.

  “Don’t make me laugh!” Jack clutched her stomach as she tried hard to hold her laughter at bay.

  “Oh … I’m so sorry.” Kacey grimaced.

  Mike came back with Kacey’s salad and watched as his two favorite women chatted nonstop through his favorite movie. Shooting them a dirty look every so often didn't even phase them.

  When he said his ‘goodbye’, they hardly even took a break to notice he was leaving.

  Chapter 72

  Matt dropped the boys off at school and, after waiting until he was well away from the property and wouldn't get in hot water for using his cell phone, he used his blue tooth to call Angie.

  Just as he connected, he felt a sharp pain in the side of his neck. Surprised, he put his hand there to swat at what he thought was a bee. He pulled his hand away and it was red with blood. Blood was pouring out of his body. In shock, he let go of the wheel and crashed into the side of a parked car.

  “Matt?” Angie panicked as she heard silence and then a crash.

  Urgently she dialed 9-1-1 and kept calling her husband’s name.

  By the time the emergency vehicles arrived, Angie wasn’t far behind. They quickly had him extracted and had stopped the bleeding. His pulse was very, very faint. She jumped out of the car, barely remembering to put it in park, ran over to where Mike was just being loaded into the ambulance.

  She ran over and climbed in just behind him. She held his hand and sobbed as they frantically worked on him, trying to stabilize him for transport.

  “His pulse is stronger … GO GO GO!”

  The ambulance sped its way to the hospital. Angie whispered into Matt’s ear the whole time.

  “I love you, baby … please hold on. We need you so much.”

  They got him in and straight to surgery. Angie sat in the waiting room. Covered in her husband’s blood. Praying and pleading for his life with a God who had never let her down. Trusting.

  Chapter 73

  Kacey knew something awful had happened as she drove past the middle school. There were police cars everywhere and Captain Wells and Detective Boaz were questioning witnesses.

  She hadn’t been called, so she kept driving to the precinct. When she walked through the door, it was obvious that another of their own had been attacked. The young woman who was sitting in Angie’s chair was weeping. Every face was somber, yet angry. No one was talking.

  Mike was sitting in his chair with his head in his hands.

  “What happened?” Kacey asked as she sat across from him.

  “Angie’s husband was shot.”

  Kacey gasped and put her hand over her mouth.

  “Is he …”

  “No, but they really don’t think he’ll make it. He was shot through his neck and has already lost a lot of blood. He’s in surgery.”

  Kacey stood back up.

  “I’m going to go sit with Angie.”

  “I thought you might. I’ll keep working. Let me know if I can help.”

  Kacey didn’t hear him … she was already out the door.

  She ran to her car and when she arrived at the hospital, she ran to the waiting room to find Angie with her head bowed crying into a tissue.

  She went over and sat by the distraught woman and put her arm around her. Angie put her head on Kacey’s shoulder and the two women just sat quietly, taking comfort from each other.

  Suddenly, Angie bolted upright.

  “Kacey! The boys! They don’t know. What if they find out from someone else?!”

  “Do you want me to call Mike to pick them up from the school? I know he would.”

  “I think that’s a good idea. Let me call the school so they will let them leave with him.”

  Angie called the school while Kacey called Mike. Kacey went to her car and got Angie a fres
h shirt. Most detectives kept a change of clothes handy just in case.