“Where are you going?” she said.

“It’s twenty degrees outside. I’m warming up the car. This isn’t Southern California, kid.”

She cleared her throat and held out her hand.

Brian was about to argue with her; she could see it in his eyes, then he relented. “I really hate this.” He dropped the keys in her palm.

“I know.”

She called the patrol that was down the street.

“Can you both come to the house? There’s hot coffee in it for you, and your relief will be here shortly. We’re getting ready to leave.”

“My savior,” one of the cops said.

She chuckled.

“This is overkill,” Maddox said.

“Yep.” Babysitting cops was no fun. She’d done it once before, backing up a federal protection detail. Even the smartest of cops didn’t want to follow someone else’s lead on their personal security.

She met the officers at the door. She pointed to the taller cop. “You’re with me. Your partner can collect coffee for the two of you. And your relief will be here by oh-eight-hundred to watch the house.”

The first snowflake fell as she stepped out into the cold.

“It’s going to be a mess out there pretty soon,” the cop said as he flanked her.

“I sure miss Southern California about now.”

Kara walked across the yard toward the garage. This setup was tactically a nightmare. The garage where Julie had her workshop was between the house and the carport where Brian parked his police truck. No direct line of sight until you passed the garage.

“Eyes open,” she said.

“He’d be an idiot to take on four cops.”

Glen Hamilton was no idiot; otherwise he wouldn’t have gotten away with multiple homicides. But he could be desperate. They were already seven hours into his twenty-four-hour kill window; he’d killed his first two victims in Liberty Lake before dawn.

Costa could be wrong and neither Maddox or Corrigan were the targets. He thought it was one or the other. So far, no one was missing so his protective strategy was working. They had double duty on the two likely targets. Hamilton may have done surveillance and spotted the extra firepower. Otherwise why hadn’t he gone for his chosen target? Everyone else was on the buddy system. Much easier to take out two cops than four—not that taking out two cops was easy.

“Where are you?” she muttered.

“Excuse me?” the uniformed officer said.

“Talking to myself.” She approached Maddox’s truck cautiously. Unlocked it. Started the engine. She removed the clicker from his key ring. Under normal circumstances he’d probably leave the car unlocked and running while puttering about in the house, but she didn’t want to give the killer a chance to get inside. He could hide in the back seat—Maddox didn’t have a cage in the back for criminals because as deputy chief he wasn’t in the field other than as a commander.

She got out and locked the car with the clicker and looked down the street. A car was idling, a steady stream of hot, white exhaust drifting in the cold air. Not unusual. Not in this weather.