Hunting Fear by Kay Hooper Read Free Book Online Page B

kill them? What could he possibly gain by killing them?”
    “You tell me.”
    “Points, I guess. In the game. Maybe . . . if he gets his money, he also gets points. If you don’t get to the victims before he gets his money, he wins points. You rescue a live victim, and you get points. Which means he’s ahead on points.”
    “Goddammit,” Metcalf muttered.
    She glanced at him. “Sorry to sound flippant, Sheriff. See, the thing is, all I really know is that he’s playing a game and Luke is his opponent. Everything else is guesswork.”
    “This is insane,” Metcalf said.
    “Oh, I agree. He’s probably insane too, the kidnapper. That broken mind we were discussing. Broken and brilliant.”
    “Why brilliant?” Lucas asked.
    It was Jaylene who replied to that. “Because you’re very good at what you do. Because the odds are always stacked against a successful kidnapping, and this guy has been successful way too many times. Because it isn’t about the money.”
    Samantha nodded. “He’s invented a very special game just for the two of you to play. And don’t think he doesn’t know his opponent. The first few kidnappings may well have been test runs, just to lure you in and watch what you did.”
    “I can’t believe you’re buying any of this,” Metcalf said to Lucas.
    “You don’t know all the background, Sheriff,” Lucas responded, frowning. “The cases going back eighteen months. This . . . theory . . . fits.”
    “It’s not a theory, Luke,” Samantha said flatly. “It’s a fact. This is all a game to him.”
    “Games have rules.”
    “Yes. Which means you have to figure out what his rules are before you have a hope in hell of saving the next victim’s life, catching him—and winning the game.”

 
3
    Tuesday, September 25
    “I don’t need watchdogs,” Carrie Vaughn said with a considerable amount of force. “I can take care of myself, and I don’t like people hovering around me.”
    “They aren’t hovering, Miss Vaughn. I’ve got a patrol car parked across the highway on that old dirt road; you can barely see them when you look out a window.” Sheriff Metcalf kept his voice as patient as possible. “They’re just keeping an eye on things, is all.”
    “Because some gypsy fortune-teller says I’m in danger? Jesus, Sheriff.”
    “I have to act on information received, Miss Vaughn, especially when we’ve already had one kidnapping that ended in murder.”
    “Information from a fortune-teller?” She didn’t try to hide her disgust. “I hope you aren’t planning on running again at the next election.”
    The rest of the conversation was brief, and Metcalf hung up the phone a minute or two later, scowling. He turned to face Lucas, who was on the other side of the conference table, and said, “Tell me again why we’re listening to her.”
    Lucas didn’t have to ask which “her” the sheriff was referring to. “She’s genuine, Wyatt.”
    “You’re saying you believe she can see the future before it happens.”
    “Yes.”
    “Because she proved it to you in the past.”
    Lucas nodded.
    “I’ve never in my life met a gullible cop. You sure you’re a fed?”
    “Last time I looked.” Lucas sighed. “I know it’s difficult to accept, especially given her role in a carnival.”
    “You can say that again. I think the lack of credibility sort of accompanies the purple turban.”
    “She warned you about Callahan.”
    “A fluke. A coincidence. The one lucky guess in a thousand tries.”
    “And if she’s right about Carrie Vaughn?”
    “The second lucky guess.” Metcalf grimaced when Lucas lifted an eyebrow at him. “Okay, so a second lucky guess that specific would be pushing it. But you are not going to convince me that she can see the future.”
    Lucas had heard that particular note in someone else’s voice often enough to recognize it: for Wyatt Metcalf, believing that it was possible to see the future before it occurred was a direct challenge to some deep and