6

After sitting at my desk and reading some reports I came to a decision. I went to the boss's office. "Sir, I need to talk to you."

My boss, Anthony Tone, looked up. "Have a seat."

I sat. "So far the killer has killed three girls and two adults."

He nodded. "Give me everything you have so far."

"Night wolf kills girls who have brown hair. He makes sure there is a two-inch difference in height too. So the next victim will be five foot four. We don't know which girl that is at the moment but we are looking. He puts a gag in their mouths so they don't scream, beats them, and then strangles them."

"You said he killed two adults?"

"Mr. and Mrs. Ruth. They were strangled but Mrs. Ruth didn't fight back while Mr. Ruth did. So he has bruises. I think they found something out and were about to call it in when he killed them."

"Why do you think that?"

"Mrs. Ruth had a phone beside her. When the tech guys checked it they found she had been about to call you. We found a diary and Detective Amanda is reading it to see if Mrs. Ruth wrote anything we need to know down. I have two people that I think could have done it but I don't have much evidence to prove it."

"Who?"

"Mr. Hoot and Mr. Dee."

"The principal and Daila's father? Why?"

"Because Mr. Hoot was nervous around Detective Light and I. He kept looking at the clock worriedly and he had panic in his eyes when we mentioned the orange sedan. Mr. Dee asked if I had kids and didn't follow up with any questions about her other than if I knew how Mrs. Air was. I found that odd because I didn't need to have a child to know how she was. He didn't look surprised when we told him Halla was dead too."

"Did you talk to his boss?"

"I had Detective Coon and his partner talk to him. Mr. Dee hadn't been at work for the last month but he was never home when I went to his house. I was wondering if I could get a search warrant to look at the house. I'm not sure we'll find anything. There's still a slight chance it's someone else."

"And you don't have enough evidence to arrest anyone?"

"Not yet."

"But you think it's either the principal or Mr. Dee?"

"Yes. Sir."

"I'll see what I can do about the search warrant but I won't make any promises. I want you to continue looking into this though. Don't dismiss anyone until we're sure."

"Yes. Sir. Thank you." I walked out of his office and went to Amanda's. "Anything?"

She looked up from the diary. She took it from me because she wanted to read it before Lisa. They have some kind of contest going on but when I ask about it they pretend to they have no idea what I'm talking about. "This woman really loved her husband and her daughter. I haven't gotten to the entries on Sarah's death yet."

"Okay." I walked to Lisa's desk. She was looking at the phone records from all the phones.

"I haven't found anything yet other than what I already told you," she said without looking up.

"I wasn't going to ask about that. I was going to ask how Jasp got Am away from you."

"She had fallen asleep and he offered me a ride since I had ridden with you. I put her in her car seat, he dropped me off here, and took her to our parents."

"A ride for your niece?"

"Yeah."

"You twins are weird."

"Hey, Ed! I got something," Noah said.

I went to his office. He had the CCTV footage from the school up. "What?"

"Watch." He played the video and we watched an orange sedan park and stay there. When the kids came filing out Daila ran to the car and got in. The car didn't move. Thirty minutes later her body was chucked out.

The car then drove off. Noah paused it and looked at me. "If we find the car…"

"It will have all the evidence we need," I finished.

"For the girl's deaths that is. I bet this guy wears gloves when he drives."

"It has no license plate."

"I know. At least now we know why all of Halla's neighbors said they saw no license plate. It was because there isn't one."

I nodded. "Did you get anything from the store, pharmacy, and The Ice Cream?"

"All I can say is Mrs. Air wasn't lying when she said they went to those places. I got them at the park that isn't far from The Ice Cream too."

I frowned. "Mrs. Air didn't mention that."

"She did to Julian and I when we questions her. That's why I pulled the footage."

"So she forgot to tell me?" The detective who lets his daughter play with hers? The person she claims to tell almost everything to?

"Looks that way. Or maybe she just didn't want to tell you."

I glared. "Thanks."

"Well, she was in shock too. It wasn't intentional. I can tell you that much."

"Maybe. What time did she leave the house?"

"Ten and all the footage matches up with what she said."

"I never thought of her as the killer anyway."

"Then why did you have me check to see if she was telling the truth?"

"Because I wanted to make sure and I wanted to see if that sedan had followed her."

"Okay."

I went to my desk and looked up the Dee family. Mrs. Dee had worked at a florist before she married and Mr. Dee had worked at the same place he works at now. They got married ten years ago and had Daila five years after getting married. My phone started ringing. I picked it up without looking at the caller ID. "Hello?"

"Hey, Ed. Can you come pick up Amelia?" Mrs. Light asked.

"Uh, why?"

"Because my husband and I had plans and she was supposed to be picked up thirty minutes ago by one of you two."

I looked at my watch. Oops. I was supposed to have picked her up a four and it was now four-thirty. "Sorry, Mrs. Light. I got busy."

"Are you making any progress?"

I grabbed my keys and started heading outside. "A little bit. We know what to look for. Sort of. There are just too many 'maybes' at the moment. Too many for my liking too. But this killed is smart and leaves nothing to help us." I wish I knew why he had left everything intact and left the phones.

"I know what that's like."

She used to be a detective. "I'll be at your house in ten minutes," I said.

"Okay."

"Bye."

"Bye."

I got there when I said I would and picked Am up. "How was being at your grandparents?" I asked as I drove back to the station.

"I love them, Daddy," Amelia said.

I smiled. "Good."

"Are we going home?"

I shook my head. "Papa won't be home until later and I still have some stuff to do at work. So I thought it would be fun to bring you to work with me for a little while." I had already let Jasp know and he said he'd take her home when he got off if I was still working.

"Yay!"

I chuckled. She loves going to work with me.