Alaskan Christmas Cold Case. Sarah Varland
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to give herself.
Janie was dead.
Erynn couldn’t see how she was supposed to escape the same fate. Not when every single person this killer had ever come after was dead. He’d already found Noah’s house, realized their connection.
“I wanted to be able to look at you for this conversation, not driving, but I need to know now, Erynn. Who and what are we dealing with? What do you know?”
He had managed to say the last part with no accusation in his voice.
She might be a lot of things, but she’d never hinder progress, especially not in this case. Didn’t Noah get that? This was her life, not just her.
Erynn had lost everything that mattered to her before. And thanks to this killer, she’d already come close again.
She didn’t want that to happen. Didn’t want to die. She drew in a shaky breath. “It’s faster if you search for some of the details online—they’re all out there. Someone handed the press quite the lovely story.” Her first brush with how newspapers could destroy an investigation. Let one detail slip at the wrong time, let the criminal know you were on to something, and it all blew up in your face. In that case, a reporter had not just interviewed her dad and other officers about the case, they’d also employed less than ethical tactics and listened to their conversations, even recorded some. And had compromised their safety because of it. Those reporters had been prosecuted, but it didn’t bring Erynn’s dad back, or solve the case.
“Give me the bare bones,” Noah said as he turned onto the main highway that would take them back to Moose Haven proper.
“There was a serial killer in Anchorage about fifteen years ago.”
“The link between his victims? Do they know that?”
It had been what he was known for. Some had even dubbed him the “Foster Kid Killer,” though the nickname grated so much Erynn tried not to use it. Instead she just thought of the killer as him. The unseen presence that had haunted her life in one way or another for years.
“Yes. He was killing foster kids. Some still in high school, some as they aged out of the system.”
She felt Noah glance at her, could almost hear the wheels turning in his head. She’d managed to keep her past out of her life in Moose Haven, invent this new identity for herself, where all anyone knew about her past was that she was a trooper.
She’d succeeded. Most days she was proud of herself. Today she knew Noah well enough to understand what a slap in the face it would be to him to learn he hadn’t known her as well as he’d thought... She wasn’t proud.
She just hurt.
“And you...?”
Still, he asked her to clarify. Erynn took a deep breath. “Yes. I was in foster care for part of that time period. I was adopted the summer before my senior year of high school.”
“So you knew the people who were killed.”
“Yes.” Every single one. Erynn stared out the window, watched the spruce forest as they drove through it on the approach to town. The trees were thick and the woods looked almost like a shelter. If she was Noah’s sister Kate and good in the outdoors, maybe she could hide there, manage to survive. But she wasn’t Kate and it wasn’t an option. She had nowhere to hide and anywhere she ran would only provide temporary security.
The fact that he was in Moose Haven proved that.
“Which foster kids was he after specifically?”
Erynn shook her head. “They never...figured that out exactly. Both males and females were killed. No other obvious patterns. One officer had a hunch. But he didn’t keep his speculations about that case in a file at work, since they weren’t founded on fact, and I don’t know where they ended up.”
“So we go to Anchorage, ask him and—”
She was already shaking her head. “He’s dead, too. And the notes weren’t found in any of his personal belongings.”
She could feel the tension building, knew the questions were coming. Erynn took a deep breath. “I know because my adoptive mom and I looked. He was my adoptive father.”
Noah absorbed Erynn’s story, careful not to let his face flinch. She was better at reading him than anyone he knew, and this was one of the times he didn’t like that fact.
The killer they were after might have more than one reason to be tracking Erynn down—she wasn’t just another former foster kid who might have been in danger. She was the daughter of an investigating officer. Was she in danger because her dad had been killed? Janie had mentioned a police officer losing his life in the investigation, so that meant Erynn’s dad...
“He was law enforcement?”
“Yes.” She still wouldn’t look his way. He knew because he kept glancing over at her as he drove.
“I’m not going to let anything happen to you.” Of course, he’d said the same thing to Janie earlier. He’d thought putting her in protective custody would be enough. He’d underestimated the man Erynn was so afraid of. He wouldn’t do that again.
“You can’t say that.”
He didn’t argue, knew it was better not to when Erynn was like this. But he meant it. If he had to stop sleeping, follow her around every day, armed, quit his job—
Noah almost jumped in his seat. The thought had come out of nowhere, and made no sense, not when his career gave him access to information that could help figure out who was behind the killings, and could help keep Erynn safe. Nevertheless, the fact that he’d even consider sacrificing the dream he’d always had if it would be enough to keep her safe...
It might be time to stop trying to deceive himself about his feelings for Erynn.
Those emotions were much different than Noah had ever had for any other coworker or any friend. He’d been half in love with Erynn for years and had just avoided it.
He didn’t see how he’d be able to entirely sidestep the feelings now. But he’d had to keep them hidden. He had always known there was more to Erynn, just hadn’t known exactly what. This was more than he’d expected. And it hurt to know she’d kept it from him.
But he understood. And was going to do everything in his power to make sure that sooner, rather than later, all of this would be in her past, the threat removed. That she could continue with her life, doing what she wanted to do with it without thinking of the implications her choices might have on the madman who was after her.
Noah pulled the car into the back lot at the station. Every vehicle in the department was there and he wished again he had a bigger police force. Not that Moose Haven saw an excess of crime, but if someone drove by and saw that all officers were at the station, it would be an ideal time to get into trouble elsewhere.
He pulled out his cell phone and dialed his brother, who acted as a reserve officer on occasion.
“Tyler, can you come by the station if you get a chance, get a car and just drive around town a bit?” It was more to reassure himself about preventing small crimes than to show the murderer how well equipped they were. Clearly they were not, if he’d been able to waltz into the jail.
Tyler agreed and Noah took a breath.
“Ready?” he asked her when he disconnected.
Erynn was looking out the window. He watched her as she inhaled, squared her shoulders and nodded once. “Ready as I can be.”
He stuck close to her as they walked inside, into the chaos. The police department was small but adequate for what they usually needed. Today it seemed crowded, the energy building in a way that made the air feel thick. Too tense. They were already playing defense