Karen Rose - Count to Ten

Chores. He'd hated the farm chores. Hated the man who'd brought him here so that he could have another pair of hands for slopping pigs. He hated the woman who'd known what was going on under her own roof and wouldn't help. He hated the younger brother for being a coward. He hated the older brother for… He pursed his lips as a shiver of rage singed his skin. He hated the older brother. He hated Penny Hill for being too stupid to see the truth from the beginning and too lazy to ever come back and check on them.

Penny Hill had paid for her sins. The Young family was about to get the same. He got out of his newest car as the young woman came out the front door, a toddler on her hip. She stopped the minute she saw him, afraid.

He smiled his most pleasant smile. "I'm sorry ma'am. I didn't mean to startle you. I was looking for a friend. He lived here and we lost touch. His name is Tyler Young."

He knew exactly where Tyler Young was. In Indianapolis selling real estate. But he didn't know where the other Youngs were. The woman stayed where she was, her hand on the knob of her front door, ready to flee. Smart woman.

"We bought this place from the Youngs four years back," she said. "The husband had died and the wife didn't want the farm anymore. I don't know about the boys."

The rage fanned hotter. Another dead befoie he could mete his revenge. Still he kept his face calm, slightly disappointed. "I'm sorry to hear that. I'd like to visit Mrs. Young, pay my respects. Do you know where she is?"

"Last I heard, she had to go in a nursing home in Champaign. I have to go." She slipped inside. He could see her fingers on the window blinds as she watched him.

He got back in his car. Champaign was less than an hour away.

Chicago, Friday, December 1, 4:20 P.M.

"My eyeballs are going to fall out." Fatigue and a headache made Mia petulant.

"What did you come up with?" Solliday asked, stifling a yawn.

"Of the twenty-two kids Penny placed with the Doughertys, three are dead, two in jail and six are still in foster care. On the others, I've got current addresses on two."

He ran a thumb down the side of his goatee. "Any come from Detroit?"

"Not that any of the birth records show." She stood and stretched, then dropped her arms to her sides when she saw his eyes following her movements. "Sorry."

"Quite all right," he murmured. "Don't stop on my account."

She wouldn't let herself smile. Equal terms. She came around his side of the desk. He'd been checking phone records for the Beacon Inn. "What did you find?"

"The hotel gets a hell of a lot of phone calls. None trace to Hope Center, but I didn't think they would. I figured if he called for the Doughertys, it would have been on a disposable cell or from a phone locally. These are the numbers I'm still working."

Mia ran her finger down the list. "This one's from where Murphy's searching."

He typed the number into the reverse lookup screen. "You've got a good eye, Mia. It's a pay phone." He dialed the hotel and put it on the speaker.

"Beacon Inn, this is Chester. How can I help you?"

"Chester, this is Lieutenant Solliday with the OFI. Detective Mitchell and I are here with another question for you. We're showing a phone call to your front desk at 4:38 p.m. Tuesday. It may have been someone trying to get the Doughertys' room number."

"No one would have given it out," he said. "It's against our policy."

"Chester, this is Detective Mitchell. Can you find out who took the call?"

"Tuesday afternoon would have been Tania Sladerman. You can't talk to her. She didn't show up for…" He trailed off. "Oh my God. She didn't show up for work today."

Solliday's glance was sharp. "Give us her address. Now."

Friday, December 1, 5:35 p.m.

"Hell, Reed." Mia stood in Tania Sladerman's bedroom, staring at the dead woman as the ME techs lifted her to the gur-ney and zipped the bag. "This is ten."

The assistant manager for the Beacon Inn had been raped, her hands and feet bound. Legs broken. Throat cut. "I hope that's what he was counting, Mia, because then he'd be done. But I don't think so."

"She's been here since Wednesday morning. Why didn't anyone miss this woman?" Emotion made her voice unsteady and she cleared her throat. "Check on her?"

He wanted to put his arm around her, but couldn't. "Let me take you home."

She straightened her spine. "I'm okay. I'll get a ride back to the precinct with CSU. You go home, Reed. You've got a daughter who wants to see your pretty face."

He frowned. "I don't think so. She and I had a pretty big argument yesterday."

"About what?"

"A party this weekend. Jenny Q's. I didn't like her attitude, so I said she couldn't go."

"Tough love. Go home, Reed. Spend some time with her. I'll call you if anything comes up." He hesitated and she gave him a little push. "I mean it. Go. It would make me feel better to know you and Beth were working things out. She needs her father."

She started walking toward Tania's front door and he knew she was dismissing him. He wasn't ready to go yet. "What about you and Olivia?" he asked, very quietly.

"We've been trading voicemails. I think we're going to try to get together tonight. I'll call you either way. I promise."

She leaned a little, teetering on her feet and he wanted nothing more than to take her in his arms, give her comfort. Take a little comfort back.

He dropped his voice. "I found my key to the other side." Her eyes flashed with awareness and memory. Satisfied he'd sufficiently enticed her into keeping her promise, in his normal voice he said, "All right. I'll see you tomorrow."

Friday, December 1, 6:20 p.m.

Aidan was gone when she got back, but Murphy was there, typing his report in his slow hunt-and-peck way. "Reed was right," Murphy said. "There were three pet stores in the area. Two of them had vet offices either inside or nearby. Petsville was my last stop-and guess what their supply closet was missing?"

"D-turbo-whatever-stuff. Amazon jungle poison," she said and he grinned.

"You get the prize. After threatening them with a subpoena, I finally got a list of employees and just finished mapping their addresses. These people live in a one-mile radius of where we found the car he abandoned after he killed Brooke and Roxanne. He could have easily walked to any of them."

"Fourteen households. I should be able to hit five or six still tonight."

Murphy stood up. "We should."

"Murphy…"

"Mia… You can't go alone. What if you find him?"

She thought about the bodies she'd seen this week. "You're right. If I go alone, I might kill him myself. I should call Solliday, but he's with his kid."

"And you and me have no ties."

She frowned at that. No ties. No strings. "Murphy, do you ever want them?"

He paused in zipping his coat, shot her a grin. "What, ties? Got a closet full of 'em."

She shook her head, her mouth curving despite herself. "I'm serious."

He sobered. "It's starting to get you, isn't it? All your friends pairing off."

Abe, Dana, Jack and Aidan. Now it was down to her and Murphy. "Yeah. You?"

He nodded. "Yeah. But I've been married before." He slung a brotherly arm around her shoulders. "And you know what they say. Fool me once, shame on you."

"Fool me twice, shame on me."

"Come on. Let's go."

Friday, December 1, 6:55 p.m.

The knock at their door broke the silence. His mother looked up, fear in her eyes.

"It's not him, Mom. He has a key." That she'd given him. Why, he didn't understand. But once she had, it had been too late.

She got up, smoothed her hair. And opened the door. "Can 1 help you?"

"We're sorry to bother you, ma'am. My name is Detective Mitchell and this is Detective Murphy. We're searching the neighborhood for this man."