Her Broken Wings by D.K. Hood
Fifty-One
The moment Jenna’s message came through, Kane headed to his truck. His gut wrenched as he listened to the voice of a psychopath and Jenna and Jo fighting for their lives.
“What’s happening?” Carter jogged to his side, pulling on his jacket.
Kane pressed his phone to his ear, not wanting to miss anything. “Someone’s broken into the ranch.”
“Jo and Jenna are more than capable of taking care of an intruder.” Carter laughed. “I doubt anyone could get the drop on them.”
Kane took long strides toward his truck. “Some crazy psychopath took out the power and has their weapons.”
“What?” Carter stared at him. “Let’s go, man. How come you’re not barking advice?”
Kane frowned. “He got their phones as well. The audio is coming through Jenna’s tracker—we all have them, they’re one-way communication devices that trigger a recording on my phone.”
As Jenna gave the all clear, Kane climbed behind the wheel and tossed the phone to Carter. The Cattleman’s Hotel sat on the outskirts of town and they were twenty minutes away from Jenna’s ranch. If the intruder broke free, he might find both women slaughtered on his arrival. He left rubber on the road as they screamed out of the parking lot.
“Who could it be?” Carter tightened his seatbelt. “Any enemies?”
Kane accelerated, pushing the pedal to the floor as they flashed alongside Stanton Forest, his headlights barely cutting through the thick swirling mist. “Too many to count. There’s a bigger problem. If he cut the power, the backup generator should have kicked in in seconds. It’s very reliable and I check it every Sunday like clockwork.”
“With your setup, no one could get onto the ranch to cut the power.” Carter looked at him. “If it were me, I’d shoot out the transformer at the end of the road. Jenna is the only occupied house along that road. She mentioned the snowplow guy had left recently for Florida. No one would be home to report the problem.”
Kane flicked on the wig-wag lights and headed down the center of town. Apart from the Halloween ghosts and ghouls in a sea of white fog, not a soul loitered on Main Street, and it was just as well as he blew through town doing ninety and hit the road to Jenna’s ranch in record time. They slowed and Kane hung out the window and aimed his Maglite at the ruined transformer before taking off again at speed. “You got that right, but it doesn’t account for the generator.”
“What about the old guy you had working there the day we arrived? Tom?” Carter hung on as the truck slid around a corner. “He could’ve disabled it. You said he was short of money. Maybe he decided to break in.”
It seemed inconceivable to Kane that a man Jenna had helped would try to kill her at the first opportunity. He shrugged and aimed the truck along the dark highway. “He didn’t act like a psychopath and has no ax to grind with Jenna. He needed work and Jenna was feeding him jobs.” He glanced at Carter. “Unless he was after Jo.”
“How would he know Jo? It’s her first time in town.” Carter rubbed his chin. “I guess we’ll find out soon enough.” His phone rang. “It’s Jo.”
“Are you okay?” Carter placed his phone on speaker.
“Yeah. Close call but all those early-morning training sessions came through for Jenna.”Jo sounded bemused. “How the hell did Sam Cross get Kelly out of custody?”
“He what?” Carter frowned. “Beats me. Nobody informed us. As far as I know a chopper picked him up and transported him to county.”
“Yeah, that’s what Rowley said.”It was Jenna’s voice on the line. “So how come he’s hog-tied in my hallway?”
Kane pulled up beside Jenna’s cruiser and dashed inside the house. The lights were blazing. Jenna had started the generator. He stared at the prisoner in disbelief and then back at Jenna. “Carter confirmed the county jail has eyes on Brad Kelly. If he’s there, who the hell is that?”
“He’s not saying but from the uncanny resemblance, he has to be Brad’s missing brother, Scott. Obviously, Scott Kelly didn’t die in the forest after all. It would make sense as the search team haven’t found a trace of his remains.” Jenna looked at him. “I’ve read him his rights. We’ll have to haul him into the office and lock him up for the night. I’ve arranged for deputies from Blackwater to watch him. We’ll haul him downtown as soon as they’re on their way. I can’t send him to county without an arrest warrant, and that’s going to be a problem as he refuses to give his name.”
“What’s your name?” Carter crouched down and looked at the prisoner.
“Take your pick.” The prisoner narrowed his gaze and his voice changed to a slow drawl. “This morning I was Tom Dickson, out of Saddle Creek. Sorry about the generator, Sheriff, but I only flipped the switch to off.”
“You’re not Tom.” Jenna stared down at him. “Tom is at least thirty years your senior and has brown eyes, gray hair, and wrinkles.”
“Oh yeah, poor old Tom.” He chuckled. “He never has any cash. Maybe he uses that disguise to get close to his victims. Have you never heard of contact lenses and wigs, Sheriff? The wrinkles spray on and just peel off.” He smiled at her. “When I added the limp and the old coat I found in a dumpster, I had you all feeling sorry for me, huh?”
“Are you related to Brad Kelly?” Carter looked at him closely.
“What, do all us boys from the res look alike to you?” The man snorted. “Anyway, Brad is dead.”
Kane leaned against the wall. “What makes you believe Brad Kelly is dead? I spoke to him not four hours ago.”
“Liar.” The man thrashed around. “I’d like to see you die real slow, Deputy.”
“Why does speaking about Brad upset you?” Jo moved forward. “Can I speak to someone who knows?”
“Let me up from the floor and I’ll let you speak to anyone you like.” The prisoner’s voice had changed to smooth and cajoling. “I won’t hurt anyone. Promise.”
Kane wanted to observe him all night. Being this close to a psychopath with dissociative identity disorder was something he’d never imagined would happen. He noticed Carter scrolling through his phone and then walk into the kitchen. He left Jo trying to get some sense out of the lunatic and followed him. “What are you looking for?”
“I’m following up on Jenna’s hunch and searching for birth records.” Carter smiled at him. “We know Brad Kelly’s date of birth, so I’ve set up a search for relatives born around the same time. He looks the same age.”
Kane nodded. “The eyes are unusual and the same as Brad’s—they have to be related.”
“Well, darn.” Carter looked at him and smiled around his toothpick. “I believe we can call off the search for Scott Kelly’s remains. His father didn’t murder him after all. Scott and Brad Kelly are identical twins. They both escaped after their father murdered their mother.” He indicated with his chin toward the hallway. “Identical twins have identical DNA. Scott is batshit crazy and admitted to killing Lucas Robinson and Ann Turner. He fits the profile and, unlike Brad, is exhibiting dissociative identity disorder. He admitted to using different disguises to get close to people. It fits in with the Baltimore murders—all the same MO but seemingly done by different people. If we search his home, I’m guessing we’ll find a ton of professional disguises like contact lenses, wigs. If this guy worked alone, we’ve charged the wrong twin and Scott Kelly is the Chameleon Killer. It will be difficult to prove Brad isn’t involved, unless this guy has scratches on him.”
“It’s out of our hands now.” Jenna pushed both hands through her hair. “It’s up to the DA to sort things out, we just catch the bad guys.”