AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Now, with Liam safely in my bed, the day’s events got the better of me. My nerves were shot, and a drink sounded fantastic.
I refrained, though. No way would I throw away seven years of hard slog. I’d fought too hard for my sobriety.
I called Sam.
“Hey, how is he?” Sam asked.
“He’s sleeping. Much better than when I saw him last night, and thank god it was an accident.”
“I can go see Damian tomorrow alone. You stay with Liam.”
“I should come with you.”
“You should be there for Liam. Take a sick day, a holiday, whatever. I can handle tomorrow.”
I warred with myself. This was an important case, but Liam was important too.
“Let’s see how he is tomorrow.”
Nothing much had happened that day. Still no further forward. There had to be a connection to Stuart and Damian, but we couldn’t figure out how.
“Sam, could it be a copycat?
“It’s a theory. One we’d be stupid to ignore. You don’t think it’s the sister, do you?” Sam asked.
“I mean, there’s a chance, but none of the victims identified a woman as being their attacker.”
“No, and she’s not listed as a visitor to either Stuart or Damian.”
“There has to be a connection. We need to find it. It would be great if we could close this case before Christmas, but with only a few days to go, it’s looking unlikely.”
“It would be. I need to go. Help Trish put the kids to bed.”
“Yeah, of course. I’ll call you tomorrow and let you know how I’m fixed.”
“Take care of Liam. That’s the best thing you can do.”
We ended the call, and I sat at my dining table with a notepad and pen. Time to go old school and solve this case. I had a list of visitors too and laid them side by side, comparing each one.
Stuart had had quite a few visitors in the five years he’d been in prison. No names I recognised, though.
Even more people had visited Damian.
Except, what was this?
A visitor to both Stuart and Damian with the same date of birth. The names didn’t match, but it was a woman. This could be something.
How had we missed this? We’d both pored over these lists, but because of the different names, it hadn’t clicked.
It could be nothing. Lots of people had the same birthday. This visitor was forty-five. I didn’t recall how old Georgie was, but she was definitely older than her brothers.
But why come back now? Why start these assaults?
I fired off a quick message to Sam. This could be the breakthrough we’d been waiting for. I stood and paced the room, vibrating with anticipation. Adrenaline coursed through me, and my heart raced.
This could be a tremendous coincidence, but I didn’t think so. Something in my gut told me this was it. How could it be anyone else? The link to Stuart and Damian had been staring us in the face all this time. We’d just needed to make that connection.
Hopefully, this was it.
