Read Online Officer on Duty (Lock and Key Book 4) by Ranae Rose - Free Book Online

shielding her face with one hand while she swung the blade with the other.
    She wouldn’t give up. Next time would be better. She’d find the right girl, and she’d make a difference. This was only a test, and she would persevere.
    Her purpose was too important to abandon.
     
* * * * *
 
    Brianna Haynes became a local media darling in the way only pretty young dead girls did. Facts previously known only by her friends and family became public fodder, pieces of her short life crystallized and fed to a curious public like bread crumbs they all hoped would lead to answers.
    She’d played the saxophone in her high school marching band, then gone to community college for two semesters before taking what her family said had been meant as a break. During that time, she’d worked at a clothing boutique in Wilmington, down by the river walk.
    She’d enjoyed her job – had always loved fashion, according to her mother. Her closet still held dozens of sun dresses and shoes to match. Her family couldn’t bear to give them away. Not yet.
    She’d had a couple boyfriends, but had never been too serious with any of them. They’d all been considered by police and cleared of suspicion.
    Nobody knew who’d murdered her, and before public curiosity could cool, somebody else died.
    “Hell,” Richardson said, “we’re gonna have this county all to ourselves. Tourists will be running in the opposite direction.”
    Tourism was important to Riley County. This time of year, the beaches swelled with people from all over the country – vacationers seeking the reprieve of the quiet, mostly undeveloped seaside south of Wilmington.
    “Doesn’t make much difference for us,” Jeremy said, his tone wry as he thought of all the overtime he’d worked the summer before, “but it’s shitty for local business owners. Feel bad for ‘em taking hits like this two summers in a row.”
    Of course, his pity for local entrepreneurs was overshadowed by what he felt for the two dead women. Unlike Brianna, Kaylee Wright – twenty-six years old – had been discovered dead in her home.
    Also unlike Brianna, she’d been stabbed to death, not bludgeoned in the head or strangled. But the crimes were so close together, both in terms of time and physical distance, that it was hard to believe they weren’t related.
    People just didn’t die violently very often in a town as small as Cypress, and the victims had both been females in their twenties.
    Richardson seemed convinced that the same person had murdered them both.
    “I hate that someone else was killed,” he said, “but between two murders, something concrete’s gotta come up. Riley County might not be more than a wide spot in the road, but we’ll have this fucker in custody soon.”
    Jeremy nodded, his agreement escaping as a grunt. He agreed – both that ‘this fucker’ would be caught soon, and that the moniker was appropriate for whoever had killed Brianna Haynes and Kaylee Wright.
    It probably had been the same person – most likely some piece of shit who’d gotten his jollies watching violence unfold in Riley County the year before and had decided to use the tragedy-touched town as his hunting grounds. The different methods of murder might’ve been an attempt to confuse investigators.
    The thought made Jeremy want to break bones.
    Instead, he pulled up in front of a convenience store on the outskirts of Cypress. Someone had shoplifted some motor oil and snacks, and the owner had caught it on surveillance footage. It was the kind of crime he wished was all the county had to worry about.
     
* * * * *
 
    It was a delight to answer the door on Thursday evening and find Jeremy Connor standing there in uniform.
    Lucia’s heart faltered, pumping a dual surge of glee and concern through her being.
    “Is everything okay?”
    She couldn’t think of a reason why he’d come to her house directly after work without even bothering to change.
    Not that she was complaining. She couldn’t