Killer Love

CHAPTER 3

Wyatt stood and stretched his arms and legs. He felt stiff from sitting in the chair all night. He rubbed his eyes and blinked several times to bring the room back into focus. The conference table was filled with files and laptops. He and Adam had tried all night to find a clue on where Rose Monte was located but had failed. Again.

"Are we sure she's not dead?" Adam asked, dropping his head on the table.

"If she was, it would make our jobs so much easier," Wyatt answered.

He headed to the coffee station in the back. This would be his fourth coffee for the night.

"Let's take a break. Go home, get some sleep and we'll regroup later. Maybe if we 're not sleep deprived we can find a clue."

"We need to find something. We only have four more days till the twenty-seventh. We need to find Rose or Carl Hunt."

"Where are we on Carl Hunt?"

He poured the hot water into his cup and threw in the coffee mix. He stirred it quickly and took the first sip. God, nothing tasted better than coffee.

He looked back at Adam, who was flipping through some more papers.

"He was last seen two days ago at a motel. Local police was dispatched to the area but he wasn't located. They checked the shops to see what he bought. One of the shop owners said he bought a burner phone."

"Can we get the number?"

"We did. It hasn't been on yet. We're waiting and hopefully we can track his location."

Wyatt nodded and took another drink of his coffee.

"And Rose Monte? Where are we again?"

"Nowhere," Adam answered defeated.

"Let's summarize what we have so far."

Adam groaned but nodded.

"We know she left the foster home at eighteen. She's been on her own since then. No apartments or houses rented in her name. No credit cards to check. How she came about money or where she slept are questions we currently don't have answers for.

"We know she knew some of the past victims. She was in pictures though never in full frame. It looked as though she didn't want her picture to be taken. But she was caught in the background in a few. We've interviewed friends of the victims who said they didn't know her too well.

"We have CCTV footage of her following four of the six recently murdered families. We're trying to figure out what would be the next family targeted but other than that we don't have much information. All we know is that it's a family of three and the child is thirteen. Last month's victim was a male, so we know the child this month is most likely a female."

"She doesn't kill in one specific town. She's working her way across the city. Is there an order in that?"

Adam scoured through his files again.

"I don't think we mapped that."

"Let's map that and see what we get."

"I'll get started on that."

Wyatt looked across at Adam and saw his disheveled appearance. There were dark circles under his eyes from waking all night.

"Get some sleep first. I'm going to head out for something to eat."

"You should try the bakery over on Tenth Street. Their pastries are pretty good," Adam suggested.

Wyatt nodded. He finished off his coffee and threw the crumbled cup in the bin.