Free Until Dark by Mariah Stewart

moms. None of them women whose lives should have ended this way.”
    “No one’s should.” Kendra stared at the photos. “Do you think their physical appearance was a factor in their being chosen as victims?”
    “You mean because they are all tall, slender, and blond?” Adam nodded. “Hard to believe that could be a coincidence, isn’t it?”
    He slid the photos into a small stack, like a deck of playing cards.
    “Miranda Cahill is joining the investigation,” he told Kendra. “She should be here by tomorrow afternoon at the latest.”
    “Is she the profiler—excuse me, the criminal investigative analyst—you spoke of earlier?”
    “No. That’s Anne Marie McCall. Miranda’s joining the investigation to help with the interviewing process; specifically, to interview the families. One thing we’re looking to determine is whether these women knew each other or were connected in some way. I’ll be interested in seeing what she comes up with.”
    “So will I.” Kendra leaned back against the sofa, her eyes half-closed with fatigue. “She’ll want to take the sketch. Maybe someone will recognize him.”
    “I’m one step ahead of you,” Adam said as he returned the photographs to their respective folders. “I also want to speak with the state police about replacing that first sketch that was circulated with the one you did this evening.”
    When she did not respond, he turned back to her, and found her head resting against the back of the sofa. Her eyes were closed and her breathing rhythmic, her face soft with sleep.
    “Kendra?” he asked softly.
    Her eyes flickered slightly beneath the lids but did not open.
    Adam went into the bedroom and returned with a blanket he’d taken from the bed and one of the pillows. He spread the blanket over her carefully and tucked the pillow under her head, then turned off the light. He put the safety chain on the door, and went back into the other room to go to sleep.
             
    Kendra awoke in the night, mildly disoriented and more than a bit chagrined to find that she’d fallen asleep in Adam’s room rather than her own.
    “Oh, hell,” she muttered as she struggled to free herself from the blanket that she’d wrapped partially around her midsection as she slept.
    Stumbling to the small desk that sat along the far wall, she peered at the phone for the read-out of the time. Three forty-seven A.M. She wondered how long she’d been asleep.
    Berating herself for dozing off in the middle of a conversation, Kendra folded the blanket neatly and left it on the sofa. In the dark, she paused, debating whether or not to turn on the light so that she could gather her notes and whatever else she had left on the coffee table. From the next room, Adam’s breathing was rhythmic, steady. Turning on the light could awaken him, something she wanted to avoid at all costs. It was bad enough she’d fallen asleep when she did. Advertising that she was sneaking back to her own room in the wee hours would only embarrass her more. She stood next to the sofa and allowed her toes to search for her shoes. Finding them, she slipped them on, then quietly walked to the door, unlatched it, and stepped out into the hush of the hallway.
    It was hard to believe that people were sleeping behind the doors that lined the hall, the floor was so quiet. She found her room, six doors down from Adam’s, and as carefully as she could, slid the card in the lock to open the door. Closing it behind her, she set the safety lock and turned on the light switch. The light in the bathroom to her left came on, giving her enough visibility to find her way to her bed. Stripping off her clothes and searching through her suitcase for a nightshirt, she reached for the phone to call the desk clerk to request an early wake-up call. Knowing that Adam would want to get an early start, and still feeling sheepish about falling asleep in his room, she reached for the phone on the table next to her bed.
    It was then