Andy arrived at the lake house with two officers. He didn’t want to think that anything was wrong, that Jeffrey Ogdenburg was already dead—it was only five minutes after midnight. But the feds had him worried, and listening to the profiler earlier in the day had disturbed him on several levels.

Andy loved being a cop, but he was a small town cop. Vandalism, theft, a few domestic violence situations that weren’t fun but at least predictable because Andy knew most everyone in town. Murder was way out of his comfort zone. This investigation had made him think long and hard about his future, and whether he was cut out for a law enforcement career.

Except that Victoria Manners was the first murder victim in Liberty Lake in more than a decade, and he couldn’t expect to have another serial killer in his town in his lifetime.

The cops—a rookie and an experienced cop—stood on the path watching while Andy knocked on the door of Ogdenburg’s cabin.

At first, he didn’t hear anything, and he grew worried. He was about to tell the officers to check around back, when a light came on in the entry. “Coming, coming,” a voice inside said. “Who is it?”

“Detective Andy Knolls from Liberty Lake PD.”

“The police?”

He heard a bolt slide and then the door opened. Andy realized then how easy it would be for a killer to pretend to be a cop and get anyone in this small town to open their door.

Ogdenburg was in his late thirties and Andy had clearly woken him up. He showed his badge and said, “Mind if I come in?”

“Is something wrong?”

“You didn’t answer your phone.”

“I get crappy reception up here. Is it my sister? My parents? Are they okay?”

Now he was worried, as Andy would be if a cop came to his house late at night.

“Everyone is fine. We’re reaching out to everyone in the educational field who lives in the area to notify you of a potential threat. My officers are going to walk around the property and check things out, if you don’t mind.”

“Threat? Um, no, go ahead.” Ogdenburg rubbed his face. “Come in.”

“Do you mind if I look around?”

“Not at all, but what’s going on?”

Andy asked him if he’d heard about the woman who was killed. He had, and Andy filled him in on the basics of the investigation. Nothing that hadn’t been said at the press conference, but reiterating that they believed that the killer would be targeting a teacher or administrator in Liberty Lake.

“We’re recommending that you find another place to stay. Maybe with relatives, or out of town. After a day or two, it should be safe for you to return, but for the next twenty-four hours we have some concerns.”

“Why me?”

“We don’t know that you are a specific target, but the FBI believes that his next target is a teacher, someone who lives or works in Liberty Lake.” Andy didn’t get into the profile details, that some of the victims may be specifically chosen, while others might be surrogates for someone else. He didn’t know if he agreed with the psychological assessment, but again, that was way outside his comfort zone. Nothing about this case made sense to him.