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

it does. But it’s not either one and I stand by that.” Clay’s shoulders were straight, his posture not defiant but confident. Summer cracked a tiny smile. Her brother was a difficult man to stand up to but Clay was doing an admirable job.

“Why don’t you describe exactly what you have done, if you don’t mind.”

Summer held her breath. Waited.

“We sorted through some ideas we both had, and compiled them in the notebook.”

“I wrote them down. That was my fault.” Summer wasn’t proud of it, but she knew that first of all, it was true, and second of all, Noah was much less likely to be upset with her than Clay, and for some reason, she didn’t want him to have any reason to dislike Clay.

“What else?” Noah kept going.

Clay looked at Summer. She winced. This was where he was going to be the least happy with them.

“We talked to some people with...connections to the case and asked them some questions.”

“You conducted unauthorized interviews?” Noah’s eyes widened. He pressed a hand on his forehead, closing his eyes. Summer half wondered if he was counting to ten to calm himself down.

“Again—” Clay’s voice was still steady “—we didn’t do anything unethical. Unadvisable, maybe. But we just talked to them. Summer is the one who has the most in common with the other victims and we thought she might be able to find a connection that law enforcement officers might overlook.”

“I don’t know what to say to either of you right now.” Noah looked between the two of them. “You.” He focused on Summer. “You need to take your safety more seriously. And leave the investigating to the people who are in charge. And you.” He fixed his glare on Clay, and Summer thought it was harsher than the one she’d gotten. “You should have known better.”

“Than what? There’s a serial killer still terrorizing south central, no law enforcement agency I’ve talked to is making progress and it’s not anyone’s fault because I’ve seen how hard people are working. I thought I might have found a way to make some progress.”

“Involving my sister in an investigation you’re supposed to be protecting her from?”

“I’m supposed to be protecting her from the killer. Not from a knowledge of the very real danger she’s facing.”

“I’d prefer she was protected from both.”

Summer threw her hands up. “Stop, both of you. Please.”

Both men looked at her. Though neither had been out of line and Clay had kept his usual calm tone, Summer couldn’t take it anymore. “Aren’t we all on the same team?”

“Technically I’m on a team with my officers here and the troopers, and my team is trying to keep you safe.” He directed the words at Summer.

“Okay, then,” she began, growing more frustrated with her brother by the moment. “Doesn’t that mean Clay is on your team?”

Her brother looked at the other man—and then his shoulders sagged a bit as the ire seemed to drain out of him. “Yes. He’s keeping you safe, doing what I ask. Yes, he is. You’re right, Summer.” He studied Clay for another moment, then stuck out his hand. “I apologize. That was unprofessional of me.”

Clay shook it. “I understand. I care about your sister too.”

Noah nodded, taking the words at their true face value rather than reading into them like she suspected she would do in whatever few quiet moments she had for the rest of the day.

“The troopers will be bringing the car into town sometime tomorrow if all goes according to plan. They took it to Anchorage and the lab needs time to examine it.”

Tomorrow? Summer wasn’t counting on it. That seemed like an unrealistically fast turnaround and besides, plans didn’t seem to mean much these days, not with the high stakes her life had turned into.

“Thanks.” She smiled.

“I’d like to look at that notebook when we get it back, with your permission, Summer.”

She knew he didn’t have to ask and so she nodded. “Sure. I don’t know what we have that could help, but if there’s anything...”

“Actually I think we should tell him what we’d come here to talk to him about,” Clay broke in.

“I’m all ears.”

“I told Summer that I was thinking, sort of rolling things around in my head about this case and realizing that the killer’s MO has changed substantially.”

“Not hard to notice.”

“No, but I think it lets us make a few assumptions or at least gives us some conjectures and possibilities to investigate.”

“Such as?”

“I think the killer believes Summer can identify him.”

Noah’s brows rose. “If that’s true, then you realize security will need to be tighter.”

Clay nodded and Summer frowned. They hadn’t talked about this. What did he mean by that? More officers, or were they going to push the safe house issue? She couldn’t imagine being stuck somewhere isolated without the freedom to hike and explore the mountains around her.

“We can talk about that in a minute. But as for the why, think about his MO. He’s a serial killer, he does things with a purpose, deranged though it may be.”

“I’m still following.”

“And he isn’t trying to kill Summer in his usual way anymore. He’s realized he’s probably not going to get that chance. But rather than give up on her entirely, he’s fixated on her.”

“Could just be some weird psychological obsession.”

“I would agree if he kept trying to attack her with the knife that was used in the other murders. That’s personal to him.”

Summer felt like she was going to be sick, remembering the glint of the blade. Instead she drew a deep breath and focused on the patterns in the carpet while Clay kept talking.

“But you’re saying that now his methods of attack are so impersonal you don’t think his motives are the same.”

Clay nodded. “Exactly. Now he just wants to eliminate her. He’s acting like he views her as a threat.”

Summer looked up from the carpet long enough to chime in. “But I don’t know who he is, I really don’t.” She shook her head. “I’ve thought through