Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 114820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 574(@200wpm)___ 459(@250wpm)___ 383(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 574(@200wpm)___ 459(@250wpm)___ 383(@300wpm)
And either Ezra, or the woman he was with, had a serial killer fetish, or a snuff fetish, and they used CK’s MO to cover it up.
Because that was what Brittanie got in the motel room.
And that was why Ezra ran.
Because their play didn’t take.
Ezra knew they knew it wasn’t CK.
And he’d been found out.
TWENTY-FOUR
Keycard
That evening, Rus was back on the balcony with his bourbon.
McGill had the stranger danger website address, which also catered to a variety of other unusual or intense fetishes, and the FBI would get names, particularly of the dominatrix that accompanied Ezra on their assignment.
Rus had called Thea in, interviewed her again, but just as he suspected, although she knew these options were out there, she didn’t know much about them, and she definitely didn’t know any Domme who was into that kind of shit.
And although she wasn’t a person to vilify what any individual might need sexually, she was infuriated to know anyone’s hard limits were ignored.
She agreed with Rus, even if he didn’t share names or details, but with what he had given her, Thea declared it was not a service rendered consensually.
It was rape.
However, even upon explaining this, Shannon refused to press charges or name the boys who started this nightmare for her in the first place, which was unfortunately what many women in her situation decided to do.
She wouldn’t even name names so Moran would know who he had in his town capable of that shit.
She might look eighteen, but they found out she was twenty-three.
Polly took her away to talk to her about victim’s assistance and finding other support she needed.
In the meantime, in the mix of all the comms coming in from people who had hints and tips and information about the motel murder and Ezra Corbin (and Moran hadn’t asked for any of this, but Moran told him the phone never stopped ringing), the sheriff’s office got a viable call.
Therefore, Rus spent the early afternoon with his gun in his hand, his other gun in its shoulder holster, moving through the woods on a rental cabin they’d gotten word had activity it shouldn’t have.
They thought they had Ezra.
Rus thought there was an outside chance maybe they had CK.
They found no one, except evidence likely high schoolers had picked that place to hang and party.
They contacted the rental company, who contacted the owners, and big win for the day: the party place would be shut down.
The last thing they got was, Brittanie’s ex-boyfriend came in.
He had an alibi. He was gone for the weekend, camping with his new girlfriend, and he was with her last Wednesday night when Brittanie was killed.
He also was broken up Brittanie was dead. They didn’t last long, but the break wasn’t bad, so he was destroyed to come home and learn she was gone.
However, this was one more strikeout of a name, which further highlighted Ezra’s.
But with Ezra in the wind, until their warrants came through to compel the people behind the website to give names and details of who they sent out on Shannon’s job, they had dick.
So he’d spent the afternoon antsy and wanting to be out there, knocking on doors and scouring woods, even in the remotest chance of finding Ezra Corbin, dragging him in, and ripping into him in an interrogation room, just as he knew Moran felt the same.
But instead, both of them holed up in Moran’s office with Bohannan, talking about how to flush out CK.
They came up with the stellar idea to wait until the next night to see if he, or someone who seemed to be wearing a disguise, or someone who didn’t but looked like one of the disguises he’d worn before, showed up at the town council meeting.
Moran would handle getting Brad there so he could make the ID.
From there, well, obviously, they’d take him down and bring him in for questioning.
Rus did not hold a lot of hope for this, since all the men agreed CK knew that Rus knew he was in MP, and he wouldn’t make it that easy, or easy at all.
But it was all they had, and all the bandwidth left in their heads for now, especially Rus and Moran, who’d listened to what Shannon shared, and it shook them at the same time pissed them off, because she then tied their hands.
There was nothing they could do for her except hope whatever Polly said got through, and she found some help.
Since crime was still happening in Misted Pines, the Seattle division sent a couple of agents to assist in the door-knocking/woods-scouring part of the investigation with the local deputies.
And Rus was left with hoping the go-ahead would come that he could call his buddy Eric, and he, or some of his team, could come up and add trained eyes and ears in the hunt for Ezra or the lookout for CK.