Chaos ruled all around him. He couldn’t place all the voices shouting.
“Call Caleb. Half-alive sheriff is more important than dead reporter.”
“We have to get him on his feet.”
“What happened to Special Agent Conrad?”
“Where’s Laura?”
Where was Laura?
“Stop,” Cam shouted. His roar filled the room, and everyone stopped. “Hope, get Caleb over here. Edward, you stay. Wolf, get the sheriff into the bathroom. Everyone else, get out of here. When Logan gets here, send him in.”
“I need to sleep.” The sheriff tried to shove Wolf away.
“No, Sheriff, you need to spend a little time in the bathroom.”
“Can’t. Gotta keep it open for Callie.” But the sheriff was on his feet, stumbling toward where Wolf wanted him to go.
Rafe helped Brad sit down. “What the hell happened?” Brad’s forehead was swollen above his right eye, and his face was covered in blood. It seemed to have stopped, but Brad held a towel to his head anyway. “I walked in to ask the sheriff about the recording equipment, and I found him like that. I realized something was wrong, and I tried to get your girl out of here, but she attacked me. I hit my head and then nothing.” He turned to Edward. “Just where the hell were you?”
Rafe shook his head. “It wasn’t Edward. It was Joe. We need to figure out where Joe would have taken Laura.” Edward’s face went a stark white. “It can’t be Joe. Joe is out at the crime scene. He told me to handle the cameraman because he needed to focus on evidence.”
Cam was sick of everyone hiding their heads in the sand. “He killed his wife, and now he has mine. You’re the closest one of all of us to him. Where would he go?”
Edward shook his head as if he was trying to wake up from some nightmare. “He loved Marla. He loved her so much. I was so sure of it. He was devastated when she died.”
“Edward, snap the fuck out of it.” Cam needed a different tactic.
Just because Edward was blind didn’t mean he was stupid. “I need you to focus. You know more about the actual facts of this case than anyone. Stop thinking of him as Joe. He’s the Marquis de Sade.
Where would he take her? Where would he go?” Edward swallowed, and for a moment, and Cam worried that he wouldn’t answer.
“Somewhere isolated,” Rafe prompted the profiler.
Edward nodded. “Yes. Isolated. He prefers places that no one looks at. Places that blend into the background. It’s why he worked in abandoned warehouses. There was plenty of space and no one to hear screams. He could work in privacy.”
“He’s not going to find a warehouse out here,” Cam said. There wasn’t anything industrial about Bliss.
There was a bang as the door slammed opened, and Caleb Burke rushed in. “Where’s Nate? Do we have any idea what he ingested?”
“Some type of sedative,” Cam guessed.
The doctor slammed his bag on the desk. “Shit. And we have no idea how much? No chance it was anything acidic?”
“I don’t know,” Cam answered, feeling utterly helpless.
“Joe has a prescription for sleeping pills. I would assume it’s that.
It’s a very common prescription. He could easily call it coincidence if anyone thought to ask,” Brad said. “I saw it in his hotel room the other day.”
Caleb strode toward the bathroom. “Holly, have that charcoal ready.”
Cam turned, and Holly stood in the doorway, a mug in her hands and tears in her eyes. Caleb had come prepared. “He has Laura?”
“Yes,” Rafe replied. “We’re trying to figure out where he would take her.”
“Would it be the same place he took that reporter?” Holly asked.
Cam could see plainly that she was forcing herself to hold it together.
Her hands shook and there was a pale fragility to her face.
Of course. He already had his kill spot. “It has to be close. He was here this morning. When is the first time anyone remembers seeing him?”
“We all got the call at seven,” Brad said.
“I heard him in his room far earlier than that.” Edward sounded stronger now. “I have the room next to his. He was in his bathroom running the shower at four this morning. The walls are paper thin, and I am a horrible sleeper. Anything wakes me up. Unless someone else was using his shower, he was in his room at four.” Now they were getting somewhere. Cam looked into the bathroom. Wolf had Nate upright, one hand around his waist and the other under Nate’s arms.
“You’re going to swallow this.” Caleb didn’t sound like he would take no for an answer.
“Don’t wanna,” Nate said, struggling against Wolf’s hold.
Caleb didn’t back down. “And I don’t want to get covered in vomit, but that’s probably what’s going to happen.” Cam did not want to watch that. “Have you figured out the time of death on Jana Evans?”
“According to liver temp, I would say no later than 2:30 this morning.” Caleb held up Nate’s head and tipped back the small container he held. “I would leave now. It’s about to get messy. Ipecac doesn’t take long. Wolf, get him over the sink. I need the contents of his stomach for testing.”
Cam stepped out just as the ipecac began to work. “Did you hear that?”
Cam noticed Logan had arrived. His face betrayed no emotion as Logan stared at the bathroom. “Is Nate going to be okay?”
“I think so,” Cam said. “Caleb’s taking care of him. Now, we’re trying to figure out places to look for Laura.” Logan nodded. “I got that. I heard Joe was in his room at 4:00, and the reporter was killed at roughly 2:30. He’s got to be in the area.
He couldn’t be farther than Del Norte. Creede is forty minutes away.
There are only a couple of spreads between here and there, and all of them are occupied right now. We have a lot of land, but our population is small. We all know each other.”
“There are no new developments?” Rafe asked, frustration evident in his tone.
“No.” Holly’s hands were shaking slightly. “You would have to go about a hundred miles east to Alamosa to find any real development projects. We have some summer cabins, but they’re mostly privately owned. I could call and see if they’re occupied.”
“You do that. Have Hope help you.” Cam took the mug out of her hand. “I’ll pass this to Caleb when he needs it. Also, check on anything that’s for sale in the area. He needs to know that the place won’t be occupied. He would make sure of it.” The horrible noise coming from the bathroom stopped, and Wolf reappeared, his face a surprising shade of green. For the first time, the man didn’t look like the all-American hero. “Caleb needs the activated charcoal. Nate’s going to be fine.” Cam passed the mug. “We’re trying to come up with an isolated place within about twenty minutes driving distance. Do you know of any cabins that are known to be unoccupied?” Wolf passed the mug, but kept his eyes on Cam. If anything, he got even sicker looking. “Wasn’t this guy at the town hall meeting?” Edward looked up. “Yes, we all were. Joe insisted on it.”
“Then he knows about my mom and Mel.” Cam went still. “Where is this Mel’s place? Everyone is talking about the fact that they won’t come out of their bunker until the feds are gone. Joe has to know that.”
“He laughed about it,” Brad interjected.
“We need to get out there,” Rafe said, walking toward the door.
“Mel’s place is a no-go. He has all kinds of whacked-out security, including cameras he can monitor from his bunker,” Logan said.
“But my mom doesn’t. She refused to spend the money. She just planted beets everywhere. She thinks they’ll keep the aliens away.” Wolf took a deep breath and visibly stilled. He was back to being in control. “Her place is right on the county line. You can easily get there in fifteen minutes, and her closest neighbor is two miles away.” If Wolf was wrong, Laura could be dead by the time Cam figured out where else to look. He looked to Rafe. He stared at his partner and was suddenly so fucking grateful he wasn’t in this alone.