Her Darkest Nightmare by Brenda Novak Page B

night, you mentioned buying a ticket home.”
    â€œI wasn’t completely serious. I’ve still got a lot of work to do here.” Even if she were ready to give up, she wouldn’t leave Hilltop without doing everything possible to make sure that whoever killed Lorraine was put behind bars. Maybe Jasper had gotten away with what he’d done to her and her friends. He’d gotten away with what he’d attempted last summer, too. But the individual who’d caused Lorraine’s death would not go unpunished.
    Amarok’s tire chains clanked on patches of heavily salted pavement as he turned into the parking lot where her car sat beneath a foot or two of snow.
    Jack was waiting for them in a tow truck with his “Call Me!” logo on the side. A plume of exhaust streamed out of his tailpipe as he let the engine idle. He looked busy with paperwork or maybe a call on the radio.
    Evelyn wanted to let the sergeant get on with his work, but she had one more question. “What about Danielle?” she asked. “I can tell you realize what this could mean for her.”
    When Jack looked up, Amarok waved to let him know they’d seen him. “I’m heading to her place right now to have a look around, make sure she’s safe.”
    â€œYou won’t find her.”
    â€œHow do you know?” he asked with a scowl.
    She opened the door and got out. “I can feel it in my gut.”

 
    7
    Even psychopaths have emotions if you dig deep enough but then again, maybe they don’t.
    â€”RICHARD RAMIREZ, THE NIGHT STALKER
    Jack got her car started by tightening a few cables and hoses, then giving her battery a jump while she watched from inside the convenience store. After that, Evelyn headed to HH. She was still wearing the clothes she’d had on yesterday and it was late afternoon, but she couldn’t go home. She had to talk to Hugo, see if he had any knowledge of the murder or if what he’d said had simply been some bizarre coincidence. While she was there, she also needed to break the news of Lorraine’s murder to everyone who knew her at the prison. Evelyn felt she should be the one, but it wasn’t going to be easy. Everyone loved Lorraine, especially Glenn Whitcomb, the CO who tried so hard to look out for her. He’d never really had a mother—had been raised by his older sister since their father died when he was twelve—which was probably why he and Lorraine had become so close. Evelyn couldn’t imagine how hard he was going to take her death.…
    She hoped someone at Hanover House had heard from Danielle. Maybe Danielle was safe. She could’ve come by the money she needed and left for the Lower 48 without giving notice.
    But, in her heart, Evelyn believed otherwise.
    By the time she pulled into the parking lot, it was already dark. Earlier the temperature had warmed a few degrees, but the wind had kicked up again since, adding a chill factor that made it colder by the second—so cold that the air itself felt like a thousand needles pricking her eyes, her nostrils, her lips.
    At least it wasn’t snowing. Evelyn didn’t think she could take another storm on the heels of the last one—not while knowing how much it would hinder Amarok’s ability to figure out what’d happened to Lorraine and catch her killer.
    â€œYou bastards.” She glared through her windshield at the giant stone edifice that housed so many remorseless killers. “I will figure out why you do what you do and how to stop you if it kills me.” And she knew that someday it might. She’d had a few close calls over the years. Nothing on the scale of what’d happened with Jasper the first time, but there’d been his second abduction as well as other incidents. Like that one at San Quentin with Hugo. She’d also had a felon she’d given a psych evaluation to show up at her house in the middle of the night once. Her