“But I can’t control what I see when I’m asleep.” Pulling away, Haley put the paintbrush down again and sat on a stool, hugging her knees to her chest. “It’s like Friday night is happening all over again.”

“I’m sorry this is happening to you,” Morgan said. Was Haley remembering more details? Or was she slipping farther away from sanity? “But the doctor said the medication would suppress nightmares, so I think you should try it.”

Haley sighed with her whole body. “I know.”

“Have you eaten dinner?” Morgan asked.

Haley shook her head. “I’m not hungry.”

“But you still need to eat.” Morgan worried about the haunted look in the girl’s eyes. “Why don’t we go upstairs?”

“OK.” Haley slid off the stool and followed Morgan up the steps.

In the kitchen, Eliza pasted a fake smile on her face. “Would you like some mac and cheese?”

Haley settled at the island. “Yes, please.”

Lance introduced them to a burly armed man in black cargos and a plain black polo shirt. Eric’s replacement. Haley paid him little attention. She didn’t seem interested in anything, not even food.

But there wasn’t any more that Morgan could do to help her tonight. She and Lance said goodbye and went outside. At nearly seven o’clock, darkness had fallen. The protesters had left with the media, and the quiet night seemed almost disconcerting.

“Is there anywhere you need to stop?” Lance asked, getting into the Jeep.

“No. I’d like to be home to put the girls to bed. I already missed dinner with them.” One of the benefits of being her own boss was the ability to set her own hours. “I keep reminding myself that big cases are the anomaly. Most of the time I’m home for my girls when I want to be.”

Morgan told Lance about her conversation with Haley as he turned the Jeep around and headed down the driveway. “She wasn’t even certain that the voice was male. She assumed it was Noah’s voice from the context. We don’t even know if the voice was real or imagined.”

The electronic gate opened, and they went through.

“I talked to the deputies while you were in the basement.” Lance stopped by the side of the road and plugged his phone into his mobile charger. “Shannon Yates’s body was IDed today. In addition to being raped, beaten, and strangled, they also found zolpidem and alcohol in her system.”

“Yes. The deputy told me about Shannon Yates,” Morgan said. “Refresh my memory. What is zolpidem?”

“A common medication for insomnia—one of the big brands is Ambien. There’s no record of her ever being prescribed sleeping pills of any kind.”

“Raped and drugged the week before that Haley was possibly raped and drugged,” Morgan wondered aloud.

“We have no evidence linking the two cases.” Lance made a left onto the road and pressed on the gas pedal. “But I don’t like the coincidence.”

“Me either.”

The Jeep accelerated. Movement caught Morgan’s attention. A shadow shifted in the woods. She squinted into the darkness. The shadow moved toward the road at a determined pace. Alarm burst through Morgan.

“Watch out!” she shouted.

But Lance was already braking.

She barely recognized the figure of a man stepping into the road before a loud crack sounded, and the windshield split into a thousand spider cracks. An object sliced through the glass and bounced off the center console.

Morgan ducked and grabbed for the armrest.

Cursing, Lance steered the Jeep to the shoulder of the road. Wind blew through a hole in the center of the windshield. In addition to the gaping hole, fissures covered most of the glass. The laminated glass had held. Instead of shattering, the broken piece hung down, still attached to the windshield at its base.

If it weren’t for the safety glass, Morgan and Lance would have been sliced by flying shards. Lance’s heartbeat stuttered as he processed the narrowly avoided danger.

“What was that?” She swiveled in her seat, searching the car.

Lance glanced into the rear seat. “A rock.”

Morgan looked over her shoulder. The rock was the size of a brick. She turned her head farther and squinted out the back window. The figure had disappeared. Had he gone back into the woods or was he still back there? Considering reaction time and braking distance, she wasn’t sure how far the Jeep had traveled before Lance had been able to bring it to a stop.

“Lock the doors.” He jumped out of the vehicle, gun in hand.

“Wait. You can’t go running after him alone.” Heart thumping against her breastbone, Morgan drew her weapon, took the flashlight from the glove compartment, and followed him.

Morgan broke into a jog, but Lance was way ahead of her. He sprinted down the road like a running back. In the best of times, she was no athlete, and today was not the best of times.

She hadn’t jogged a hundred feet before her head began to pound. She slowed to a walk and called the sheriff’s department to report the incident. By the time she reached the place where the figure had been standing, Lance was examining the shoulder of the road. She shone the beam of her flashlight on the road.

“Is there any sign of him?” All she saw was dirt and darkness.

“No.” Lance straightened. “He’s long gone.”

He took out his phone.

“I already called the sheriff’s department,” Morgan said. Her head hurt, and her stomach had gone queasy from the exertion. “I really need to get in shape.”

Lance shook his head.

“Yes, I know I’ve said it before, but this time I mean it. As soon as the weather warms up.” She put a hand on her forehead.

“In this case, I suspect it was your concussion rather than lack of fitness that slowed you down. I’d better call Sharp and warn him in case the rock thrower sets up another ambush.”

Morgan stared down the road into the darkness. “He could have killed us.”

Grim-faced, Lance followed her gaze. “Yes. We were very lucky.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Lance watched the taillights of Stella’s car disappear in the darkness. Morgan had called her sister, and there had been no reason for her to sit and wait for the tow truck, especially since she was clearly feeling ill.

He pressed a hand to his solar plexus, where tension gathered. A sheriff’s department vehicle sat behind his Jeep, the red and blue strobe lights swirling in the night.

The same deputy who had responded to the protesters call earlier now took photos of the interior of Lance’s Jeep. He opened the rear door and removed the rock with gloved hands. He hefted it in one hand. “This sucker must weigh four pounds. Good thing it didn’t hit either of you.”

Every time Lance pictured the incident in his head, he wanted to hyperventilate. If the rock had broken through the windshield eighteen inches to either side, it would have hit Morgan or him. There was nothing he could have done to prevent it. He’d had no warning and no time to react.

“Any luck finding Adam Carter?” Lance asked.

The deputy carried the rock back to the rear of his patrol car, put it into an evidence box, and labeled it. “No. He wasn’t home. His parents thought he was in his room, but he’d gone out the window. They’re as desperate to find him as we are.”

“I’ll bet.” Lance couldn’t imagine losing one son and having the other go missing. The Carters must be devastated. The depths of their grief would only be aggravated by their guilt over not keeping better tabs on Adam. He might be an adult, but they would still feel responsible for whatever happened to him.

“We’re looking for him.” The deputy closed his trunk.

The pepper spray incident had been worrisome enough, but no one had been at risk of dying.

“That rock could have killed both of us,” Lance said. “If Adam threw it, his anger is escalating.”

Lance’s gaze returned to his windshield.

This was an act of rage.

Had it been planned? Had he been waiting for them or had he been running from Eliza’s house, seen them coming, and grabbed the rock from the ground? Lance considered the darkness.