Jasper had been hoping the ordeal the sergeant must’ve endured last night—once he found his tires slashed and the only decent shelter in the area going up in flames—had taken more of a toll on him. The trooper did look tired and drawn. But he wasn’t cowed. His flinty expression spoke of raw determination—the determination he felt to keep the community, and especially the woman he loved, safe.
Jasper was tempted to check his wound, but he was afraid that would only draw attention to his shoulder. To avoid the possibility of anyone noticing if he was bleeding through his bandage, he shifted that side of his body away from the table.
Rather than flip his chair around, Amarok sat on it backwards. “Some of you might’ve heard about the two bodies that were discovered earlier today”—he glanced at the clock on the wall, which said it was nearly two thirty, and amended his statement—“or, rather, yesterday.”
To Jasper’s surprise, only Sean had caught the news. The others expressed shock at the revelation and began asking questions all at once.
Amarok silenced them by lifting a hand so he could speak. “A snowmobiler came across their remains in a wilderness area on the northwest side of Anchorage. I might not have immediately assumed there was a connection between the woman I’ve been searching for and this grisly discovery, but there was something about one of the bodies that led me to believe it might have some bearing on my case, and that link has now been verified.”
Jasper clenched his jaw. He’d known this might happen, but the more pieces of the puzzle Amarok held, the more precarious his own position became.
“So the Yerbowitz woman is dead?” Sean’s face twisted into an empathetic grimace. “Does her brother know?”
“He does,” Amarok confirmed. “He’s the one who made the identification. He and his friends drove to Anchorage as soon as we learned.”
“Will he be coming back here?”
“I can’t imagine he will. There’s no reason for him to return to Hilltop. He’ll make the appropriate arrangements for bringing his sister home, once the body’s been released. Then he’ll head back to his family in Louisiana.”
Skip’s chair scraped the floor as he shifted. “How was she killed?”
“The autopsy won’t take place until tomorrow, but the detective who’s been assigned the case told me there was no obvious sign of trauma—no stab wound, gunshot wound or injuries to the head or body.”
When Skip cringed as Sean had, Jasper couldn’t help studying his expression and body language. He seemed to care about the Yerbowitzes, and yet he didn’t even know them. That was something Jasper had never been able to understand.
“So was she strangled?” Skip asked.
Amarok nodded. “That’d be my guess, but we’ll wait and see what the coroner says.”
Sean slid the cards he’d been dealt to one side. “And the other woman?”
“We don’t know exactly what killed her, either. The autopsy should determine that.”
Jasper had tortured the other woman extensively before her death, and that would be obvious. Amarok had to know it by now, but he didn’t let on. Jasper could only guess he was playing the usual cop game of keeping certain information to himself so that anyone who appeared to know too much might give himself away.
“Who was the other woman?” Jasper asked this so he’d appear to show the same alarm and concern as the others.
“We don’t have any information on her yet,” Amarok told him. “Anchorage PD is still working on the identification.”
Easy leaned forward. “So now we’re looking at two homicides?”
He sounded shocked, but if Jasper had his way there’d be a lot more.
“Yes, there’s little doubt about that,” Amarok said.
Easy cracked his knuckles. “That changes things, doesn’t it? Makes it much less likely one was killed by accident or in a fit of rage?”
“That’s true,” Amarok agreed.
Sean sat up taller. “You’re not suggesting we have a serial killer on the loose!”
“It’s possible. From what I can tell so far, these women weren’t killed at the same time, which means there was a cooling-off period in between. And they weren’t related to each other, weren’t friends or even acquaintances. They seem to be totally random victims.”
“Holy shit,” Delbert said.
“Do you have any idea who the killer might be?” Easy asked. “I mean … Hilltop is such a small town. You don’t suppose it could be someone from here.”
“It could be,” Amarok replied. “Or it could be someone who only visits here, for work or whatever.”
They all looked at one another.
“Are you suggesting it might be an employee and not an inmate?” Skip asked.
“All the inmates have been accounted for, and some thing was found on the road to the prison that makes me wonder if there might be a connection to a member of the staff. That’s why I’m not only talking to you, I’m talking to everyone—as soon as I get the chance.”
Massimo toyed uncomfortably with his cards. “What was found on the road?”
Amarok shot Easy and Jasper a quelling glance. He didn’t want them to mention the piece of scalp. Jasper could easily interpret that glance because Evelyn had already asked him to keep quiet about it, and he’d done just that. He didn’t want word to get out himself, didn’t want someone to come forward who might’ve seen him, for one. He also didn’t want Amarok to think he was out blabbing his mouth, couldn’t afford to stand out in any way. “I’d rather not say, not yet,” Amarok told them.
That confirmed it. Amarok was playing games, all right.
“Two murders,” Easy muttered, still sounding shocked.
“What kind of bastard goes around killing random women?” Massimo asked.
Sean gave him a funny look. “The kind of bastards we have in here.”
“And the kind of bastard who tortured and attempted to kill Dr. Talbot when she was just a teenager,” Amarok said.
“You don’t think he’s up here, do you?” Massimo asked. “I mean, they never caught him, and people have speculated that he might try to kill her again, but … shit, that was twenty-something years ago.”
Amarok scrubbed a hand over his face. “I’m keeping an open mind. It doesn’t have to be Jasper. It could be someone who hates Evelyn and is trying to scare her by making her think Jasper’s returned. It could be someone who’s getting high committing murders in the shadow of the institution that’s been built to investigate that type of behavior. It could even be someone who’s recently become unstable. We don’t know a great deal at this point, but twenty-four hours ago, I was at the cabin from which Sierra Yerbowitz went missing, looking for evidence, when someone took a shot at me, so I fired back.”
Delbert slapped the table. “What? You were in a gunfight?”
“Whoever it was obviously missed,” Skip pointed out before Amarok could answer.
“He did, but I didn’t.”
Galled by the pleasure the sergeant took in that statement, Jasper balled his good hand into a fist under the table.
“You got him?” Easy asked. “Are you sure?”
“Positive. He was bleeding pretty badly when he took off, left a trail. So I’m asking all of you to keep your eyes open. I just checked with the warden. No one’s called in sick since the incident. That means if whoever it was works here, chances are he wasn’t scheduled. I’ll check again in the morning, but please let me know if you run across someone who’s been injured or is acting strange.”
Jasper couldn’t believe how narrowly he’d missed the net Amarok had cast. He’d almost called in sick. He’d thought he might be able to get away with it because he’d been “sick” Friday night and that was on record. But if he’d succumbed to the temptation, the trooper would’ve come knocking on his door to see what the problem was.
He’d made the right choice.
He would’ve let his breath go in a long sigh of relief—except it felt as though he had blood running down his arm. It might only be a few minutes before everyone noticed the bright red drops rolling off his fingertips and dripping onto the floor.
He waited until one of the other COs—Sean—caught Amarok’s attention. While Sean talked about some guy who’d seemed a little strange, a guy he’d met in the diner earlier, Jasper risked a glance at his left hand.