Chapter 1

The young brunette opened her eyes. She seemed surprised at the pile of sand that trapped her. She looked left. Then right. Her hazel eyes widened. She couldn’t budge. Her nostrils flared.

“No, no! Help me!” She tried to move. Sweat oiled her nose. “Oh, my God! I can’t get out! He’s coming! He’ll kill me!”

I cringed. Buried in sand. What a nightmare! I paused the video and glanced at Ayden Scott, my agency’s investigator. In a collared blue shirt, he looked professional today, less like a beach bum. “What is this? Do I really need to see it?”

Ayden raised a blond eyebrow and redirected me with his head to the laptop screen. “Keep watching.”

I hit play.

“Tommy!” the girl yelled. “Don’t do this. I want to be with you. I love you!” She spit out sand. Her expression froze, as if she saw this ‘Tommy’ approaching. “No! Don’t! Please don’t! Not that, please! No more sand!”

Off screen, someone snorted. The trapped teen pressed her lips in annoyance. The clip ended.

I sat back. “That’s it?”

Ayden nodded. “That’s it. Fake. The person filming it blew it.”

“So, Sand Girl’s play-acting? Like she was buried alive by a serial killer?”

“Yup. There’s more on NicKnac if you wanna see ‘em.”

I shook my head. “She said Tommy. Our Tommy?”

“The same. He’s getting quite a fan base.”

I turned Ayden’s laptop screen away. I normally love research, but this one hurt. “Tommy,” the killer these girls adored, had once snatched my best friend, Hailey Harper. She’d been just thirteen at the time, a year younger than me. Tommy Ray Bruder had picked her up on his Harley. I was there. I’d never forget his flirty dark eyes and trimmed mustache. Girls think cute guys can’t possibly have wicked intent. Hailey and I were that naive. When Bruder removed his helmet to offer us a ride, his wavy brown hair had looked boyish. He’d focused on Hailey. She’d gotten on. He’d sped away, and she was gone. A search commenced, but the case went cold. I’d been devastated. I’d blamed myself.

Ayden grabbed a cinnamon scone from the plate I’d set out. “You goin’ to the trial, Boss?”

I nodded. “I want to catch that psychologist, Maura Reynolds, after she testifies. She discussed Tommy Bruder on a podcast. Maybe she can help us. Plus, it’s a unique trial.”

Ayden winked. “Your thing.”

“Yes, my thing. And thanks to my expertise on suicide, I got a reserved seat. Killing two birds with one stone, I guess.”

He cocked his head with a knowing look.

“I won’t get sidetracked. Dr. Reynolds is relevant to our current investigation. That suicide case is secondary.”

“Bet they’ll hire you.”

“They have their experts. I’m just an observer. You know better than anyone that finding Hailey’s my priority.”

Over the past twenty years, I’d searched for her. That’s partly why I established my agency, the Nut Crackers, named for the twisty “hard nuts to crack” that we investigate. Recently, I’d gotten closer to my goal.

I’d pieced together Bruder’s past to locate possible places he’d taken his victims. I still had aggravating gaps but also better leads. In the process, I’d bumped against crime groupies like ‘Sand Girl’ in this video. And they weren’t just wacky sideshows. Their antics contaminated the trail. These drooling Bruder fanatics could thwart my progress. Some listened to my podcast, Psi Apps, where I’d vilified Bruder and displayed my dismay over his dim-witted devotees. They’d left nasty comments on my website, even some death threats. One in particular, Carly Krebs, often taunted me on her own podcast, Killer Hooks.

They baffle me. How do they get so inured to the horror of murder? Why do they joke that murder tales soothe their daily stress? Some as young as my nine-year-old daughter wear T-shirts emblazoned with “Choke me, Ted” and “Eat me, Jeffrey.” They seek to swoon like Victorian virgins in gothic fiction from a vampire’s bite.

On video media sites like NicKnac, I’d watched a fan of Ted Bundy drag herself across a floor, as if he’d just bludgeoned her with the crowbar he used on his actual victims. She’d even purchased envelopes offered as Bundy’s from murderabilia sites. On camera, she pressed a seal against her lips to “absorb his essence” from where he’d licked it.

And now on Ayden’s laptop I’d just watched the same bent devotion play out for Tommy Bruder. I motioned to the laptop. “Get on the Killer Hooks website. Krebs was supposed to make some big announcement today.”

I got up to fill our coffee mugs. “Maybe Sand Girl got her idea from Krebs’ rumor that Bruder buried girls alive. I think Krebs started that just so she could pin her nickname on him.”

Ayden looked up. “Captain Kidd?”

“A play on words. A pirate with buried treasure, and kids are his prey. Krebs likes to use shock and awe, even disgust, to hook listeners.”

Ayden scanned the website. “Same stuff here. Claims she’s identified more than two-dozen victims. Brags about her uptick in followers. Thanks her chat partner, BH.” He squinted.

I sat down and tapped the table. “BH is for Bleeding Heart.”

Ayden rolled his eyes.

“Krebs has devoted several episodes to Bruder. She thinks she owns him.”

Over the past two decades, Bruder had been a minor killer, unknown and languishing in his cell. He’d pled guilty to a single murder in Tennessee. On paper, he was just a run-of-the-mill loser. But podcasters seeking their own signature investigation had decided he was linked to several cold cases. He was an “undiscovered” serial killer. That claim gave them better purchase in a crowded marketplace.

I leaned toward Ayden. “Two days ago, something changed. Krebs hinted at an announcement. If she has something truly explosive, Bruder’s gonna get media attention like never before. That’s bad for us. Krebs claims she’s confirmed the links but she won’t say what she has. Claims he has victims in multiple states from New York to Florida. By her reasoning, if he could have abducted them, he did abduct them. She wants to solve them. If she can turn Bruder into a significant predator, she raises her online profile.”

Ayden pointed at the screen. “Got it. The big announcement.” He turned his screen toward me, pressed a key and sat back as an audio came on.