Page 70 of Whispers in the Night

Harper didn’t want to move, but she knew he was right. “Okay.”

She stood, stretched. Silas stood too, and for a moment they just looked at each other. Then he leaned down and pressed a kiss to her forehead—chaste, gentle, but full of promise.

“Good night, Harper.”

“Good night.”

Harper retreated to her bedroom, climbed into bed, and lay in the darkness thinking about everything that had changed. A week ago, Silas Kane had been an obstacle, a hostile detective who didn’t want FBI involvement in his case. Now he was...what? A partner. A friend. Something more than both.

In the living room, she could hear him settling onto the couch, keeping watch like he had every night since the note appeared on her door.

For the first time in days, Harper fell asleep without dreading the nightmares.

Because even if they came, she knew she wouldn’t face them alone.

Chapter 14

The operation launched at six a.m.

Harper stood in the command center—a converted conference room at the station—watching monitors stream live feeds from eight different locations across Blackridge. The Daily Grind coffee shop. Summit Fitness gym. The downtown farmers market. Three different grocery stores. A bookstore. A park where two victims had been seen jogging.

Each location had two undercover officers working in shifts, plus mobile units ready to respond. Sanchez coordinated the tech side, monitoring security cameras and body cam feeds. Morris and Holt managed the ground teams.

It was the most comprehensive surveillance operation Blackridge had ever mounted.

“Team Three, status?” Holloway spoke into his radio.

“In position at Summit Fitness,” came the response. “Light foot traffic. No subjects matching profile yet.”

“Team Five?”

“Farmers market setting up. Vendor booth is almost done. Good visibility of the whole space.”

Harper studied the screens, cataloguing every face that appeared. Women in their twenties, brunette, petite—potential victims. Men aged thirty to fifty—potential suspects. The killer was out there somewhere, and if he was still hunting, he’d show up at one of these locations eventually.

“You should eat something,” Silas said, appearing at her elbow with coffee and a breakfast sandwich. “It’s going to be a long day.”

Harper accepted both gratefully. They’d been at the station since five a.m., coordinating final details. She’d barely slept despite Silas’s best efforts to make sure she rested.

“How are you feeling about this?” Silas asked quietly.

“Cautiously optimistic. If he’s still selecting victims, he has to show up somewhere.” Harper bit into the sandwich. “But he’s smart. He might see through this just like he saw through the coffee shop stakeout.”

“That was obvious. Just the two of us sitting there for fifteen hours. This is different. Eight locations, multiple teams, everyone blending in. He can’t watch all of them at once.”

“Unless he’s already gone to ground. Already selected his next victim and is waiting for the right moment.” She sipped her coffee, grateful for its warmth.

Silas squeezed her shoulder briefly. “We’ll catch him. One way or another.”

The morning crawled by with painful slowness. Harper watched the screens until her eyes burned, studying every person who walked through camera range. Sanchez ran facial recognition on anyone who appeared at multiple locations. Morris coordinated with the ground teams, getting updates every fifteen minutes.

By noon, they’d flagged twelve people of interest—men who matched the general profile and were observed at two or more locations. Background checks came back clean on all of them. Regular citizens going about their daily routines.

“Team Seven has a possible,” Morris said, pulling up a feed from the bookstore. “White male, late thirties, watching a female matching victim profile. She’s browsing the fiction section,he’s pretending to look at magazines but keeps glancing her direction.”

Harper leaned closer to the monitor. The man was medium height, medium build, wearing jeans and a nondescript jacket. His body language was tense, focused.

“How long has he been watching her?”