“And?” Cord persisted when Jericho didn’t continue.
The sheriff stared at Karina. “It said, ‘Remember what I told you, Karina-girl.’”
Her shoulders snapped back, and she shook her head.
But a head shake wasn’t the answer Cord wanted. “What did he tell you?” Cord demanded.
“‘This will show them,’” she said. “He repeated that a couple of times.”
Cord stepped closer to her, getting right in her face. “And that’s it?”
Karina looked ready to give him a resounding yes. But then she paused. “No. He said something else.” Now, she shook her head again. “But it doesn’t make sense.”
Or maybe it was something she didn’t want to make sense. “What did he say?” Cord asked.
“He said, ‘You know exactly who I am, Karina-girl, don’t you?’”
Karina was hurting in nearly every part of her body. She felt like one giant bruise, probably looked it, too, judging from the glances Cord kept giving her from across the hospital treatment room that they were sharing. Sympathy mixed with plenty of frustration.
She understood both.
The bald paramedic was in another room getting stitched up and also receiving a transfusion since he’d lost so much blood. The second paramedic had two broken ribs, one of which had punctured his lung. He’d already been admitted to the hospital.
And then there was Cord.
Karina wasn’t exactly sure what his injuries were because he had refused medical attention and had instead been making a string of phone calls. However, he looked as banged up as she did. Maybe more. Because she knew he was still recovering from the injuries he’d gotten last month.
Stab wounds.
And he’d gotten them when the Moonlight Strangler had taken him hostage.
Of course, Cord and everybody else on the planet believed that Willie Lee had been the one to do those horrible things to him, along with killing all those women. Despite the latest attack, Cord was still convinced that Willie Lee was the Moonlight Strangler. But Karina knew differently. The only thing that made sense to her was that the Moonlight Strangler had set up Willie Lee to take the blame not just for that attack on Cord, but for all the other murders.
She’d had zero luck proving it so far.
The nurse finally finished with the last of the stitches. “Wait here,” she said.
She glanced down at Karina’s bare legs and the blue paper examining gown she was wearing. Her bloodstained T-shirt had already been bagged for evidence.
“I’ll see about getting you a pair of scrubs, and I’ll talk to the doctor about releasing you,” the nurse added and left the room.
“Good,” Karina said before she thought it through. She didn’t want to spend the rest of the night in the hospital, but she wasn’t sure where she could go.
Certainly not back home.
That thought alone caused her to curse this monster. Her horses were there. Her things. Her life. Well, her temporary life anyway. And now she might not ever feel safe there again.
Cord finished his latest call and made his way to her. She was surprised he wasn’t limping. Or maybe he just didn’t want her to see that.
She’d only known him a month and couldn’t quite figure him out. Hurt and bitter. Determined to put his biological father away for the rest of his life.
Drop-dead hot.
Yes, she’d noticed that, too, and hated that she’d noticed.
“After you’re released, I’ll drive you to the sheriff’s office so Jericho can take your statement,” he explained. “Then, we can arrange for you to go into protective custody.”
Karina nodded. This was going to be a very long night, and while she just wanted it to end, she wasn’t stupid. She wouldn’t refuse protective custody.
“Certainly, this attack must make you doubt that Willie Lee is really the Moonlight Strangler?” she asked.
Cord shook his head. “It only convinces me that we have a copycat or else a groupie who wants to pretend he’s a serial killer.”
She didn’t bother with a sigh, though it was frustrating that Cord wouldn’t even consider his father’s innocence. “Then at least tell me they found the man responsible for this latest attack.”
Cord shook his head. “Nothing. So far. But Jericho’s got a CSI team out there now. One out at your place, too. They’re going through every inch of it so something might turn up. After that, they’ll go through your house to make sure your attacker didn’t stash something inside.”
He didn’t sound very hopeful, though, that they’d find anything. Neither was Karina. Mainly because she didn’t believe the attacker had actually been in the house.
Oh, God.
Had he gone inside?
Just the thought of that required a deep breath. It was bad enough that he’d been in her barn.
“Are you remembering something else?” Cord asked.
He’d no doubt noticed the hard breath she’d taken. Heck, she could have even gone pale, too. But she didn’t want to spell out her fears to him. Especially since what was done was done. If the killer had been in her house, if he’d watched her, stalked her, she couldn’t undo that. No. It was best to move on and try to work through this.
She looked up at Cord and caught him in mid-grimace. So, he wasn’t perfect at masking his pain after all.
“You really should let the doctor check you out,” Karina suggested.
Cord must have considered that a closed and shut argument since he didn’t even address it. He dragged over a chair and sank down on it so they were facing each other. She braced herself for another round of “blame this all on Willie Lee,” but it surprised her when he reached out and lightly touched his fingers to her cheek.
To the cut that was there.
Karina hadn’t seen it yet. No mirrors in the treatment room. She figured that was intentional since all kinds of injuries were treated here.
“How bad is it?” she asked, though she wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer. Especially since just looking at her had caused Cord’s forehead to bunch up.
“It’ll heal,” he said, obviously dodging her question. “You’re the third woman I know who has that scar. My sister, Addie, and her sister-in-law, Paige. Of course, plenty of other women had it, too, but they’re not alive.”
Karina knew about the other women. About Paige, as well. She was the deputy’s wife and had been left for dead by the Moonlight Strangler. However, the other person was a shock. “I didn’t realize your sister had been cut.”
He nodded, leaned back in the chair and scrubbed his hand over his face. “When she was three, Addie was found wandering around the woods near the Crockett ranch. Jericho’s dad found her, and she had the cut then. Of course, nobody knew what it meant at the time.”
No. But Karina knew the rest of this particular story. The Crocketts had adopted Addie and raised her along with their four sons: Jericho, Jax, Chase and Levi. Because the Crocketts had wanted to find Addie’s birth parents, they’d entered her DNA into the databases, and there’d been no match until a year ago, when Addie had learned she was the daughter of the Moonlight Strangler. Cord had been matched a short time later and was Addie’s fraternal twin brother.
Ever