Wyatt fiddled with his phone. Should he call her? Should he not? There was nothing to report on the case. And truthfully the only reason he was going to call was because he wanted to hear her voice.
"Boss we see movement," Adam said urgently from next to him.
Wyatt dropped his phone quickly and turned his attention back to the two-storey house before them. It was close to ten now.
According to the serial killer's MO, they should have already killed the victims. But so far no one had visited the Caymans.
Using the information they had found in Rose's hotel room; they had tracked down the family that was being surveyed and was now waiting for the killer – Rose – to make a move.
"Where?" he asked Adam, grabbing his own pair of binoculars.
"Second storey, right window."
He moved his binoculars and zeroed in on the window. The night vision allowed him to see the young man that was currently trying to pry the window open.
"That's not Rose," Adam pointed out.
"No, it isn't," Wyatt answered surprised.
Why was it not Rose? The plans had been found in her room. He didn't fool himself into thinking they had the wrong suspect. Rose was the serial killer, there was no doubt about it. But who was this man?
He grabbed the walkie-talkie just as the man made it into the house.
"All units, move in," he ordered.
"Are you sure?" Adam asked as they exited the car.
Wyatt looked across at him.
"What if Rose was trying to tip our hand? What if she sees all the officers and leave?" Adam queried.
Wyatt shook his head.
"Rose isn't here. She would have done the deed by now. This is a set up."
As Wyatt said the words, it felt true to him. In all the cases the victims had been killed between seven and nine. Now was too late. She wouldn't break her pattern.
The unit moved in slowly and quietly. Wyatt gave the orders to go in. The Caymans, the family that Rose's information had been about, had been evacuated from the house earlier this afternoon and now two officers were in their place.
It didn't take long for the unit to sweep the house and capture the man that had broken in. He was handcuffed and placed before Wyatt in five minutes.
The man was agitated, looking around nervously, bouncing on his feet. Wyatt glanced at his arm and saw the needle marks. He was a junkie.
"Who are you?" Wyatt asked.
"My name's Dylan," the man answered, his feet not still.
"Where's Rose?" he questioned.
This man could be working with Rose. This entire drug addict act could be just a show.
"Who's Rose?" Dylan asked, genuinely confused.
"Why were you sneaking into the house?"
"This lady told me too man," Dylan defended.
"What lady?"
"Some woman I met at a bar. She said I could score a huge amount of cash if I just broke into this house at ten on the dot."
"She gave you a specific time?" Wyatt wondered.
"Yeah man. She said that if I go to early, she wouldn't give me any money. And I need the money."
"For your next fix?" Adam asked.
Dylan didn't bother denying it.
Wyatt sighed. This was a dead end.
"Take him back to the station," he instructed the officers.
Rose had played them. She made them come here on purpose and kept their attention for so long. Tonight was the night she killed another victim.
How had she gotten one step ahead of them? Did she plant the information on the Caymans? Had she seen them at the motel and been tipped off?
But most importantly; if this wasn't the victim, who was?
Wyatt leaned against the car, thinking. It had to be a family. A family with a thirteen-year-old who was a boy. There were probably over a hundred families in the vicinity, and they didn't have time to check them all.
He groaned and ran his hand through his hair. This night had turned to shit. He was this close. This close to finally catching Rose. But she had been one step ahead of him. How had she been one step ahead of him?
"What do we do now boss?" Adam asked as he walked up to the car.
Wyatt shook his head. He had no fucking clue.
"There's something that we're missing," he murmured softly.
Both men stood in silence as both tried to think what their next step should be. Where could Rose be right now?
Wyatt's phone rang breaking the silence. He glanced at the caller ID and saw it was Cassidy calling. What did he tell her? That Rose had outsmarted them, and he had no clue where she was. Fuck, he was doing a poor job.
"Hello?" he answered.
No one spoke.
"Cassidy?" he questioned.
"Rosie?" he heard her ask.
Rosie? As in Rose? Why was she calling Rose's name?
"I don't want to believe it's you. Can you tell me it's not?" he heard Cassidy plead.
Fucking hell. Rose was there with Cassidy.
"Adam, get in the car. Rose is with Cassidy. We need to go," Wyatt shouted.
Adam took the driver side as Wyatt listened in on the conversation. He placed it on speaker so Adam could hear as well.
"Is that what you really want to hear Cassie? I'm sorry to disappoint," he heard Rose say.
Was she about to confess? Wyatt knew Rose was the killer. Sure, the evidence was barely there, but he knew it in his gut that Rose was the one they were looking for. There were too many coincidences.
"Of course, I'm the killer," Rose boasted. "Took them long enough to figure it out."
Wyatt smiled despite the situation.
"Rose just confessed," Adam said amazed.
"She did. Now let's just get there before she can harm Cassidy and her family."
Adam nodded and pressed on the gas. Wyatt radioed the other officers and called Chief to update him.
As they drove to Cassidy's only one thought filled his mind, please don't let me be too late.
---
"What do we know?" Chief asked as he approached.
Wyatt pointed to the information that was laid out on the table.
"We know Rose is in there with Cassidy and her parents. They're in the living room. Seth is in his bedroom, not aware of the situation. The drone caught him playing video games. Rose arrived close to thirty minutes ago.
We flew the drone about five minutes ago and spotted Martha and Leon. Cassidy wasn't spotted."
Wyatt's heart had sunk a bit when he didn't see Cassidy. He needed to know she was safe.
"What's the plan?"
"We're going to get Seth out. His room is to the back, and we can have officers climb in through the window. Once he's out, we'll breach."
"Is there any risk to the family if you breach?" Chief questioned.
Wyatt hesitated.
There was risk. But what else could they do. They couldn't sit out here and twiddle their thumbs all night. Rose was going to kill this family.
"There is. We're looking at it from all angles."
"We'll take over that," Agent Jones said, walking through the crowd of officers.
Wyatt looked up surprised.
He hadn't called the agents. He knew he was supposed to, but they hadn't crossed his mind.
"Chief filled us in. We're going to take over now," Jones repeated.
"You're not taking over my investigation," Wyatt defended.
He had spent too many hours behind this case to not see it to its conclusion.
"Not your decision to make. All further actions require our approval."
Wyatt turned to Chief.
"Please tell me this is a joke," he pleaded.
Chief sighed. That was never a good thing.
"The Agents have authority to take the case."
Wyatt swore quietly.
"Right. Now let's get to work," Jones said clapping his hands.
"What's your plans?" Wyatt asked, stepping back.
"We storm the house."
"What about the victims?"
"Rose is but one small person against our entire unit. She wouldn't be able to harm anyone."
God, Wyatt hoped they were right. He didn't want to see what Rose would do to this family if they were wrong.