Page 27 of Finding English

He was by her side in a second, crouching down to eye level, and taking her cold hands in his. “What happened?” Henry tipped his head back to Cruz, who was shaking hands with Reid, his face wearing a small smile.

“Sorry. Cruz, Dax, Calder, this is Jack, Will, Aubrey, Reid, Nate, Zin, and Waggs.”

“Good to meet you,” Cruz said shaking the others’ hands as Dax did the same.

“And this is Cassie.” He heard the note of pride in his voice as his friends said hello.

“Tell me what happened?” Henry directed his question to Cruz.

But it was Dax who answered his question. “They found a body one town over. Woman in her fifties tortured to death and covered in silk scarves.”

Henry’s skin went cold. He hadn’t thought the killings would start again so soon. He glanced up at Cassie, and she was biting her lip with anxiety. “Any witnesses?”

Cruz shook his head. “Not so far, but we have people out questioning the homeowners. Traffic cams caught nothing, so we have people checking the CCTV from the surrounding areas. There’s a lot of surrounding woodland though, so it’s entirely possible he’s using that. We have to remember he stayed hidden for fifteen years. This man is a pro at not getting caught.”

“Where was she found?” Will asked.

Cruz turned to him, assessing the heavily muscled, tattooed tech genius. “Found inside her home.”

“Any shops or places of business close to there?”

“Yeah, a few and they’re on our list of things to check out.”

“We can do that. I have my own facial recognition software that might help.”

Dax tilted his head in question. “Oh?”

“It can remove a head covering in real-time so that anyone wearing some sort of hat or prosthetic is digitally stripped of it allowing us to see the actual person.”

“Sounds amazing. Can you handle that for traffic cams too?”

“Yes, unless it’s a blackout window and then obviously it won’t detect properly,” Will explained with a shrug.

“We can check the woods too,” Jack added. “That way you can concentrate on other stuff. If we find anything, we can call it in and let you handle it. Nobody must know we were here.”

Cruz turned to Henry and then looked back to Jack. “How dark is this team?”

“We don’t exist on paper at all.”

“But you expect me to believe you dropped everything to help Henry?”

Jack crossed his arms and locked his jaw, bristling at the implication.

Aubrey stepped forward and glared at the men in the room. “Let me tell you something about Henry English. He’s had my back from day one, taught me everything I know about police work, saved my ass, saved all of our asses in one way or another. He’s our friend and friends help each other.” Aubrey let her gaze travel across the room the censure on her face clear. “I’m not sure how things work over here, but in Hereford, if one of us is in the shit, we drop everything and do what we can to help.”

Mack began to laugh. “I like her.”

“Me too,” Cassie said, prompting Henry to turn to see her color had returned a little and she had a small grin on her face.

“Fine, I’ll buy that, but you set one foot out of line, and you’re out,” Cruz stated with steel in his voice.

“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” Jack said and smirked, then nodded to Will, and the others in a silent signal to get started.

Will whispered something to Aubrey and she looked at Cassie, kissing him before he left with the rest of the men.

Pushing closer Aubrey sat next to his mum. “Good to see you again, Josie. We miss your cookies at the station.”

Henry watched his mother beam at the compliment.