Free Touching Evil by Kylie Brant Page B

muttered a curse.  Picking up the bottle of pain pills on the table beside the couch, he shook another out into his palm and popped it in his mouth.  Davis had done a ham-handed job.  He should have shot the bastard while he’d had the chance.  Sonny had ordered him to supply him with enough pain medication to get him through his recovery, and the man had been so eager to see the last of him that he’d done so uncomplainingly.  
    Sonny turned his attention to courthouse searches.  Homeowners gave up a great deal of information about themselves by the simple act of buying property.  Of course he couldn’t be sure that Lucy Benally owned a house, but he hoped she did.  Not just because it made her easier to find.  But because the woman he suspected she was would be anxious to have a home to call her own.  To tend to it as lovingly as she had tended Janice last night.
    A few minutes later he was reaching for his cell to log in the address his search had yielded.  A bit more digging and he found her home just outside Bondurant, less than twenty miles east of Ankeny, where she worked.  Returning to the computer, he typed the address into Google Street View.  Instants later his screen filled with the image of a neat older two story sitting on a shaded acreage, a detached two stall garage behind it.
    Sometimes you really had to love the Internet.
    Sonny played with the image, zooming in and out, looking at the property from different angles.  Although the house wasn’t fancy, it was plenty big for someone living alone.
    Opening another window on the browser, he set to work combing public databases for a marriage license listing for Lucy Yanaha Benally.  Not finding one, he leaned back against the pillow and smiled.  It was easy to believe that a clear path toward Lucy meant only one thing.
    They were fated to be together.
    *  *  *  *
    “You’re right.”  Cam peered closely at the enhanced image on the computer screen over Agent Samuel’s shoulder before looking down at the composite sketch in his hands again.  “It’s the same guy.  Not that there was much doubt.”
    “Good thing you added cameras in all the rooms.  This is the only place he removed the goggles,” the other agent said, squinting from the screen to the drawing and back again.  “What’s he look like…five ten, one-sixty?”
    Cam was silent for a moment as he judged the height and weight of the image on the screen.  “I’d say so.  And that’s a close match to the description given by Franks and Boggs, not to mention that of the kids.”
    John Samuels looked up at Cam.  “Gonna release a description of the guy with the press release?”
    “The news conference was a couple hours ago.  This sketch was released at that time.”  But Cam would apprise the SAC that they had positive ID.  The same man that had kidnapped Vance’s last victim in Edina had been found assaulting a corpse last night.  And had then tried to kill Sophie Channing.
    He pulled out his cell to text the SAC.  “Make a copy of the security feed and bring it back to headquarters with you.”
    “But secure the place first?”
    “Robbins is taking care of it.”  They had deliberately left the security breach Vance had exploited here the first time he’d gained access, as well as the hole he’d left in her system that allowed re-entry.  “You can team up with Beachum on the tip line.  Nothing panned out on the BOLO this morning, but calls are starting to come in on the sketches we released.”  A valuable lead could be gleaned from a tip line, but they were also laborious to operate.  Every call that came in had to be evaluated for possible helpfulness, then prioritized.  The ones that had the most potential were then checked out.  The manpower required was not insignificant.  And it was never far from Cam’s mind that he was down two agents.
    “Cam, that neighbor you said to watch for just pulled in her drive.”  Criminalist Aubrey