Alaskan Mountain Pursuit Elizabeth Goddard (best short novels .TXT) 📖

Maybe Arizona. He’d never seen the Southwest and had always wanted to see the Grand Canyon.

But staying in Alaska wasn’t likely. There was nothing for him here, except for a job that would only last over the course of the season. And anyway, Clay probably wasn’t the settling-down type. It would be better to stay on his toes, keep moving, than have life come crashing down again in any way similar to what it was like when his parents died.

“You’d better not,” he finally answered Summer. “I need you to stick close to me.”

“I’m starving,” she stated flatly.

“I’ll bring breakfast out,” Tyler offered, having walked back close enough to hear them. He looked at Clay. “Since you have to keep an eye on the scene.”

He saw the warning in his friend’s eyes. Message received. Clay nodded.

Tyler studied him for another second, then glanced at Summer. He shook his head slightly and walked away.

Great. Now Tyler was seeing things that weren’t there.

Clay looked back at the writing on the house, thought about the case and tried to puzzle out why someone was after Summer in the first place. He knew there was no guarantee it was the Anchorage serial killer. In fact, he hoped for the sake of Summer’s safety that it wasn’t, because the guy was creepy good at what he did. Clay had spent some time searching online last night while he watched Summer sleep and kept an ear open for any suspicious activity.

He’d killed six women in the span of two months. Always two at a time, not necessarily together although once he’d done that, but within about four hours of each other. There was nothing too obvious that tied the pairs of victims together besides their basic demographic. They were women, all in their twenties and early thirties. Slim, athletic. All blonde.

Summer fit the profile. But Clay understood Noah’s hope that she hadn’t caught the serial killer’s eye.

Besides, Summer was the only victim, or attempted victim that they knew of this time. While it was possible the killer would have moved locations and started targeting women on the Kenai after largely sticking with women in the Anchorage area, it wasn’t likely he’d also change his MO enough to stop killing them two at a time.

So if they weren’t dealing with a serial killer, then the attack against her must have had some other motive. Come to think of it, even if they were dealing with the serial killer, there were still questions about motive that needed to be answered. Why here? Why Summer? What about her had caught this killer’s eye? To figure that out, he needed to know more about Summer.

“So tell me about yourself.”

Summer’s eyebrows raised. She laughed a little. “What?”

Clay realized he’d said nothing aloud for the past few minutes. No wonder Summer was confused. But the more he thought about the situation, the more he realized the opportunity they had. There were few leads on the killer because none of his targets had survived...until now. While the files for the other victims had been examined carefully for connections, the authorities were still at a loss to explain how the killer found his victims, and why he chose to attack.

Maybe having a survivor could help uncover answers.

“Say the guy after you is the serial killer.”

“Um, I’d rather not.”

“I mean, if he is. Assume for now that he is until we get another lead. It’s all we have to work with and we should be as careful as if it were for sure true.”

“Okay, I’m following.”

“If it is the serial killer, then finding links between you and the other women...the ones he did, uh...”

“You don’t have to sugarcoat it for me, Clay.”

Hearing her say his name did weird things to his insides. He wanted to roll his eyes at himself. Please. Was he a fifth-grade boy with a crush or an adult man who knew when things were and were not a good idea?

“The women he killed have things in common. That’s how serial killers work—they have a pattern, a type if you will, and they’re after them for a certain reason. Sometimes it’s because they remind the killer of someone in their past they were obsessed with for one reason or another. Sometimes the victims have something else in common the killer wants to make a statement against. Sometimes it’s just people who the killer happened to have access to, because of where he lived, or what he or they did professionally. There are all kinds of options. I think because of the physical similarities in the women who have been killed—and you also—there’s a good chance that’s the link between the women. But in case there’s more to it than that, I think finding out more about you and more about them might be a good way to figure out who’s behind this.”

“In that case...” Summer began.

“What?” he asked.

She hesitated. Studying him, weighing him, like she was trying to decide to what degree he was on her side.

“If that’s the case, then maybe I could talk to some of the victims’ families? See if there’s anything else I have in common with the other women who were attacked?”

Clay’s heart fell to his stomach. She was asking to get involved in the case in a more proactive way. The urge to take charge and actively fight against this guy was something he understood, but had hoped wouldn’t happen for her. For one thing, if Summer insisted on being more involved, Clay would have to be too, something he would rather avoid. He’d made the choice to leave that life behind.

Besides that, he did want Summer safe and he knew that the chances of being able to keep her safe diminished if she insisted on taking an active role.

It was with that in mind that he said his next words. “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea.”

“You’re not going to start sounding like my siblings are you?”

Maybe he was.

“Explain why