Nodding, she listened a few more moments, then clicked off the phone and put it back on its cradle.
“He hasn’t found out something already, has he?” Elena didn’t like the stricken expression on her friend’s face. Or the way Bree was avoiding her gaze.
Bree sighed. “Yeah, he did. It came right up when he ran it. The only Elena Cox in the Detroit area is a teacher who died two years ago. That’s the one we read about on the Internet. It’s not you.”
Not her? She absorbed the news in silence a minute. The little tidbits of information they’d collected were all wrong too. She hadn’t expected quite this clean a slate.
“Then where did I live? Where’s my family?”
“Doug is checking to see what other Elena Coxes are in Michigan, but it may be days before he figures it out.”
She didn’t even know her own name. Maybe it was a good thing. Maybe her attacker wouldn’t ever know it either.
9
T HE STOCKING GIDEON WORE OVER HIS FACE THE NIGHT he’d entered Eve’s house should have kept his identity safe. But his first day in Rock Harbor, he tensed, then relaxed when Eve’s gaze touched his face and moved on.
He could take his time, observe her behavior in anonymity. It was nearly three weeks before the next full moon. He could choose his moves carefully, perfect his approach. Finish what he’d started with the others before ending at the beginning.
He headed to the coffee shop and passed two men in park service uniforms, talking in front of the sheriff’s office. He slowed when he heard what they were talking about.
The bigger man stretched. “Well, you ready to go shoot some more swans? I’d hoped we could get them all the other day, but that darned protest slowed us down. We’ve only got another ten or so to handle.”
Gideon barely choked back his gasp. Shoot swans? What kind of maniacs would do such a thing? His hands curled into fists at his side.
“I sure hate to do it, Kade. I hope none of them drown when we knock them out.”
So they were just going to tranquilize them. But why? Gideon pretended to examine a shop window.
“Me too,” the one called Kade said. “But it’s got to be done. I hope moving them works. If they come back to the trumpeters’ lakes and ponds, we’ll have to kill them. I’ve got my tranquilizer rifle in my truck. Did you bring yours?”
“Yeah, I brought it.”
Kade went to his vehicle, parked along on a side street, and took out a gun. Then he slid into a truck with the other man, and they drove off. Gideon clenched and unclenched his fists. There had to be some way to make the man pay. Glancing around, he saw no one on the side street.
A shovel lay in the back of Kade’s truck. Gideon gave another quick glance around, then pulled a glove out of his lightweight jacket. He slipped it on and lifted the shovel out of the truck. With long strides he went to his vehicle around the corner and got in. He tossed the shovel in the back.
Perhaps he could kill two birds with one stone here. That was an unfortunate but fitting metaphor, all things considered. He contemplated a plan that would make this Kade pay for his abuse of the natural order and let Eve know for sure her sanctuary had been invaded. The site of his first kill lay only an hour and a half from here. No one had ever discovered the grave.
He dug around under his seat and pulled out a CD. When the music of Tchaikovsky filled his ears, he sighed and leaned back to let the swelling instrumental sounds minister to him. With the song blaring out of the speakers, he made his way to Highway 45. The music made him drive faster, and it was only an hour later that he spied the national forest road he needed.
He hadn’t been here in five years, but he remembered the night he’d first answered his calling. Parking in the trees, he put on his gloves and grabbed the shovel and a plastic bag. A fifteen-minute hike brought him to the site, still undisturbed and peaceful.
Half an hour later, sweating
“He hasn’t found out something already, has he?” Elena didn’t like the stricken expression on her friend’s face. Or the way Bree was avoiding her gaze.
Bree sighed. “Yeah, he did. It came right up when he ran it. The only Elena Cox in the Detroit area is a teacher who died two years ago. That’s the one we read about on the Internet. It’s not you.”
Not her? She absorbed the news in silence a minute. The little tidbits of information they’d collected were all wrong too. She hadn’t expected quite this clean a slate.
“Then where did I live? Where’s my family?”
“Doug is checking to see what other Elena Coxes are in Michigan, but it may be days before he figures it out.”
She didn’t even know her own name. Maybe it was a good thing. Maybe her attacker wouldn’t ever know it either.
9
T HE STOCKING GIDEON WORE OVER HIS FACE THE NIGHT he’d entered Eve’s house should have kept his identity safe. But his first day in Rock Harbor, he tensed, then relaxed when Eve’s gaze touched his face and moved on.
He could take his time, observe her behavior in anonymity. It was nearly three weeks before the next full moon. He could choose his moves carefully, perfect his approach. Finish what he’d started with the others before ending at the beginning.
He headed to the coffee shop and passed two men in park service uniforms, talking in front of the sheriff’s office. He slowed when he heard what they were talking about.
The bigger man stretched. “Well, you ready to go shoot some more swans? I’d hoped we could get them all the other day, but that darned protest slowed us down. We’ve only got another ten or so to handle.”
Gideon barely choked back his gasp. Shoot swans? What kind of maniacs would do such a thing? His hands curled into fists at his side.
“I sure hate to do it, Kade. I hope none of them drown when we knock them out.”
So they were just going to tranquilize them. But why? Gideon pretended to examine a shop window.
“Me too,” the one called Kade said. “But it’s got to be done. I hope moving them works. If they come back to the trumpeters’ lakes and ponds, we’ll have to kill them. I’ve got my tranquilizer rifle in my truck. Did you bring yours?”
“Yeah, I brought it.”
Kade went to his vehicle, parked along on a side street, and took out a gun. Then he slid into a truck with the other man, and they drove off. Gideon clenched and unclenched his fists. There had to be some way to make the man pay. Glancing around, he saw no one on the side street.
A shovel lay in the back of Kade’s truck. Gideon gave another quick glance around, then pulled a glove out of his lightweight jacket. He slipped it on and lifted the shovel out of the truck. With long strides he went to his vehicle around the corner and got in. He tossed the shovel in the back.
Perhaps he could kill two birds with one stone here. That was an unfortunate but fitting metaphor, all things considered. He contemplated a plan that would make this Kade pay for his abuse of the natural order and let Eve know for sure her sanctuary had been invaded. The site of his first kill lay only an hour and a half from here. No one had ever discovered the grave.
He dug around under his seat and pulled out a CD. When the music of Tchaikovsky filled his ears, he sighed and leaned back to let the swelling instrumental sounds minister to him. With the song blaring out of the speakers, he made his way to Highway 45. The music made him drive faster, and it was only an hour later that he spied the national forest road he needed.
He hadn’t been here in five years, but he remembered the night he’d first answered his calling. Parking in the trees, he put on his gloves and grabbed the shovel and a plastic bag. A fifteen-minute hike brought him to the site, still undisturbed and peaceful.
Half an hour later, sweating
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