Hunting Fear Read Online Free PDF Page A

Vaughn—”
    “Bye.” Carrie shifted her toolbox to the other hand and went back into the house, deciding to check the heat pump later. When she looked out a front window just a few minutes afterward, it was to see Sam trudging down the driveway toward the road.
    Carrie watched, frowning, until she could no longer see the other woman.
    Every ounce of her common sense told Carrie to shrug off the “warning” and go about her business normally. She was rather on the fence when it came to believing in psychic abilities but was definitely skeptical of carnival fortune-tellers and was not at all inclined to believe this one.
    But.
    It wouldn’t hurt, she thought, to take a few sensible precautions. Lock her doors, be wary. Because Mitch Callahan had, after all, been kidnapped and murdered, and she would never have picked him to be a target for something like that.
    So Carrie locked her doors and went on to other things, thinking about the warning for a good hour or two before it faded from her memory.
     
    “I guess you guys see a lot of rooms like this one,” Detective Lindsay Graham said to the two federal agents.
    Lucas Jordan glanced around at the functional if uninspiring conference room of the Clayton County Sheriff’s Department, exchanged glances with his partner, then said, “A few, yeah. They always seem to look the same; only the view outside the windows changes. If there is a view.”
    This room had no view, since it was central in the building, but it was well-lit and spacious and seemed to contain all the necessary furniture, equipment, and supplies.
    “We haven’t generated a whole lot of paperwork on the Callahan investigation so far,” Detective Graham said, indicating the file folders on the big table. “And all of it after the fact, since Mrs. Callahan only called us in when the kidnapper got his ransom and her husband never showed. Statements from her, his coworkers, the hiker who found the body; the medical examiner’s report; our forensics unit’s report.”
    “Since you only got word he was missing on Saturday, and the body was found Sunday morning, I’d say you had accomplished quite a bit,” Jaylene Avery said. “I’m Jay, by the way.”
    “Thanks, I’m Lindsay.” She barely hesitated. “We don’t have a clue who the kidnapper is, dammit. The boss says you guys believe it could be a serial deal?”
    “Could be,” Jordan told her.
    “And you’ve been tracking him for a year and a half?”
    “Don’t rub it in, please,” Jay requested humorously. “We’ve been one step behind him all the way, and Luke is taking it personally.”
    Eyeing the fair and decidedly good-looking Jordan, Lindsay took note of that very intense gaze and said, “Yeah, he looks the type to take it personally. Does he make lists? The sheriff makes lists, and I hate it.”
    “He swears he doesn’t, but I don’t believe him.”
    “I’m still in the room, ladies,” Jordan said, sitting down at the conference table and selecting a file folder.
    “He’s also a workaholic,” Jay confided, ignoring his comment. “In the four years I’ve been his partner, not one vacation. Not one.”
    “I went to Canada last year,” Jordan objected mildly.
    “That was a law-enforcement seminar, Luke. And you ended up spending nearly a week helping the RCMP locate a missing teenager.”
    “They asked for my help. I could hardly say no. And I came back rested, didn’t I?”
    “You came back with a broken arm.”
    “But rested.”
    Jay sighed. “An arguable point.”
    Lindsay shook her head. “Does anybody ever ask if you two are an old married couple?”
    “Occasionally,” Jay said. “But I always tell them I wouldn’t have him on a platter. In addition to his very irritating perfectionism and workaholic nature, he’s got one of those dark and stormy pasts that would frighten any sensible woman out of her wits.”
    Jordan lifted an eyebrow and was clearly about to speak when they all heard Sheriff