Audra felt beyond exhausted as she rode with Ethan back to the B&B. She was glad that Ethan seemed just as content as she was to ride along in silence while driving through the sleeping town. Audra looked into the clear night sky wondering how it was possible to look into the pristine beauty of the natural sky and be in the middle of one of the ugliest and most sinister murder cases she'd ever known.
It was close to eleven o'clock when they pulled into the B&B parking lot but neither moved to get out of the car. Ethan let the engine run for a moment and turned on the radio moving the dial past talk radio, which Audra assumed was his usual station, to an easy listening country station that Audra found at once strange and soothing.
She'd never known Ethan to listen to country music and suppressed the urge to tease him about it as the female singer hit a soothing note among sad, longing lyrics that Audra could only think were pure truth.
She pushed back the overwhelming urge to cry. Abigail, Gwyn, Kendra and the others didn't need her tears, she told herself. They needed her to be the lead investigator on this case. Most important, Margret Shelley needed her to stop the killer before she became the seventh sister attacked and sixth sister murdered.
"How much do you think Cordero knows?" Audra eventually asked. "Assuming that he is not the murderer in either instance."
"More than he is letting on," Ethan agreed. "But, something about this case scares him."
"What do you think it is?" Audra asked.
"I don't know," he murmured.
Audra swallowed. "It's like he wants to walk away from this but can't. Like when he came to investigate Kendra's attack. He was there, but it was almost unwillingly."
They let those words float on the air amidst the country singer's final stanza.
"Let's get inside and talk with the team," Audra said when the song came to an end.
"Do you think they'll still be up?" Ethan asked. "Are you sure I should go in?"
"Yes, and yes," Audra said hopping out of the truck.
She led Ethan to the B&B command center where they found Yolanda in the middle of explaining what they had heard at the Daylight Candle Shop to Eric and Thomas. Ethan stepped inside gingerly until Yolanda waved him in eagerly.
"I don't know if you remember the rest of the team," she said as he took a seat at the table with everyone else.
"Eric Neil elected to remain behind tonight with Thomas Cooper," she pointed to each in turn.
"After spending the later part of the afternoon retracing the fire inspector's steps," Eric began, "I was left exhausted and confused. The inspector's findings stated there didn't appear to be a point of origin for the fire. No accelerant, explosive, or faulty wire could be found to suggest how the fire started." Eric rubbed his red-rimmed, electric blue eyes for effect. "I went over the entire site myself three times and came to the same baffling conclusion. At the end of the day, I opted to watch that useless meeting live on the local news from here so I could go over my notes and research the FBI database for any other instances of the same phenomena."
"Did you find any?" Audra asked.
"No." He looked defeated by that answer.
"My trip to the bank was equally unproductive." Thomas took the spotlight over from Eric. "The money that appeared into Abigail's account was wired in every month from an unnamed account outside of the country in Switzerland. I spent the rest of the day on the phone with the New York office trying to break through international red tape in order to get a warrant to question the bank for more information. I asked Annie to get me a print out of every statement for that account from the day it started to today. She said it would be ready first thing in the morning. "
"I want to nail whoever is responsible for these killings as well as who killed Abigail Stevens," Joshua interrupted, "but I don't want to take it on blind faith that a specter simply can't be involved because another specter says it isn't possible."
"I agree it's okay to use it as a theory, but to eliminate specters all together?" Eric shook his head. "How do we make it make sense?"
"I've been thinking about that," Ethan admitted and all eyes turned to him. "It sort of clicked when Dr. Shelley pointed out that specters began appearing ten years ago. Well, Audra's sister was attacked nearly three years before that."
"Right," Audra confirmed, "but she didn't die and, since there was no known thing such as specters capable of manifesting so prominently, it was labeled an unexplained phenomena."
"All of a sudden, the same phenomena appears three years later and it becomes easy for everyone to suspect that a specter is responsible," Ethan said.
"Exactly. From the very first case, Amanda Price, we assumed it was a specter, which could be what made the killer so bold. We were looking for a specter and somehow they knew it."
"If you tie Audra's sister into this case as the very first victim, specters have to be eliminated as suspects," Yolanda nodded.
"But how would the killer know that we were targeting specters?" Yolanda asked.
"Because we said it at every one of the crime scenes," Audra said. "At least I did. I'm sure the killer returned to at least one of them to hear it."
"Then how possible is it really that we are looking for two different killers?" Yolanda asked.
"I don't think it's likely at all."
"Okay, this has been a very long day," Eric said as Audra began to feel sick to her stomach. "I think we should wrap up here and give everyone time to write up their official reports for Cordero. We'll pick this up again in the morning."
"Yes," Audra agreed. "I think the next step is to get into the bureau of vital statistics and try to get a handle on whomever Abigail was married to. We also need to trace down birth and adoption records for Kendra Wheeler and Margret Shelley, if possible."
Ethan, Eric, and Thomas looked at her confused.
"Right, I need to fill you in. Margret Shelley is identical to my sister Kendra. That is not common knowledge so this has to remain under wraps. It may be the only piece of information we have that the killer is unaware we know."
"I think the killer has been thirteen years and two steps ahead of us on this entire case. I say we assume they know everything we know," Joshua stated.
"The killer may not know that I've seen Margret, yet," Audra said.
"But she was at the town hall meeting. If the killer was there, as Gwyn accused, they saw the both of you in the same room together," Eric pointed out.
"Maybe," Audra said. "But they would have to know that Kendra is my adopted sister. They would also have to know that we've tied my sister back to Abigail as her daughter. As far as anyone should know the only cases we are investigating are Abigail and Gwyn."
"But there is a strong chance that the killer would know otherwise," Eric said, jumping on her theory.
"Maybe," Audra conceded again. "Which means we have little time to bring this case to a close."
"What about dinner at the Shelleys'?" Yolanda reminded her. "If you go and the killer is there, you'll definitely let them know that you're already onto that connection. It may put Margret in danger."
"I'm quite sure Margret is already in danger," Audra said. "Now is not the time to bury my head in the sand or back off. This will come to an end one way or another."
"When and why are you going to a dinner party at the Shelleys'?" Eric asked.
"Principle Shelley invited us there to interview her family discretely," Yolanda answered.
"Plus, it will be a good chance to get DNA from Brendon Shelley in order to test it against the victims and confirm if he or one of his triplets fathered Abigail's children."
"Triplets?" Thomas looked scandalized, young eyes wide.
"Yes, the councilman at the meeting, the specter doctor, and there's a third brother somewhere," Audra supplied.
"That explains how Kendra had a twin, it runs in families," Eric said.
"Right." Audra nodded. "So, let's break until seven-thirty in the morning and be ready to debrief Cordero."
"Is he still a suspect?" Thomas asked with his signature cocky grin.
Two hours later Audra crawled into bed next to Ethan in one of her silk nightgowns.
"What a day," she moaned as he pulled her into him.
Her back lined against his chest and abs perfectly. She rested her head in the elbow of his lower arm as his upper arm wrapped around her.
"I don't think Cordero is going to like me spending the night here," Ethan murmured, too sleepy to really care.
"I'll kick you out at sunrise," she half joked as she fell asleep against him. She knew what a bad idea it was to continue fraternizing with Ethan, especially with Cordero's vocal disapproval. However, the more she uncovered in this case, the less she was willing to risk losing the one person she loved and trusted.