The Cold Road (Book 1)

Chapter Fifteen

'Do you want to talk about it?' said Jeb as James slid into the seat beside him in the car.

James shook his head. 'I don't want to remember the last half hour of my day. We have more important things to do anyway. Have you managed to track down Mrs White yet?'

'We contacted her sister in Cypress. Catherine is due down there today. They made plans two days ago for her to go down there and stay a while.'

'Okay. The moment Catherine arrives, get her to ring me.' Relapsing into silence, James stared out the window at the empty road.

After a minute of sitting silently, Jeb coughed loudly. 'Where do you want to go, sir?' he asked.

Looking up, James turned his attention to his new partner. 'Franks doesn't have any suspects for this Damascus Devil, does he?'

Frowning, Jeb shook his head. 'He suspects everyone in town, he's that desperate. But, no, we have no definite suspects. Why?'

'And the only suspect, apart from the two that I'm not allowed to question, is Catherine White. It's a very poor selection, don't you agree?'

Nodding cautiously, Jeb said, 'It is. The evidence we have been able to gather for both cases are lacking, but we are trying to broaden our search. We're looking into motives for all the victims as well as trying to find links between them all and decipher what their crucifixion means-'

While Jeb talked through the steps the department were undertaking, James turned his attention back out the window. Something was missing. Something he knew once, but it was avoiding his grasp now that he tried to catch it. Gritting his teeth, James closed his eyes, allowing his body to relax and began focusing on separating and sifting through all the facts that had accumulated over the past couple of days.

'-Franks wondered if crucifying the victims was maybe a statement. I'm not sure about that though-'

A statement? The thought processed slowly through James's mind. Not a ransom. The Moon rises in Four; Death Rises in Five. Soon blood will water the first crops of the new world. Shit.

'That's the link!' shouted James, looking up. 'What if the Damascus Devil is connected to Lindsey's kidnapping? We have the note that proves whoever has Lindsey wants her dead. If we want to find her, we have to find the Damascus Devil. It works vice-versa. We find Lindsey we find the Devil. But neither case has an abundance of suspects to gather evidence from. So, what if we add an external, non-connected case, to the two we already have and see what fits?' he exclaimed, grinning broadly and slapping his hands together in a rub.

'What case?' asked Jeb. 'We have no other case to work on at this time. We've only got the two.'

'An open and shut case,' explained James. 'One that was closed the day it opened. The rumours of the supposed cult. Plant said it was just kids, and after the first pentagram was cleared away, no one ever saw any more. But rumours continued to fly anyway of chanting and wild animal noises in the forest. Three years ago when I was sent to the sawmill, the person who put the call in to alert us of the break in said that he also heard chanting.'

'You think that this Damascus Devil is part of this cult?'

'I'm thinking they are the cult. Remember that there's more than one killer out there. We're looking for at least six. And seriously, crucifying victims, skinning and raping them? Threatening even to murder a girl the evening after a full moon? It's all connected. I don't know how I didn't even think of it before! If we find the cult, we find the killers and Lindsey. We can catch them all.' James puffed, exhausted, his eyes sparkling at the thought.