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I don’t think about the sisters. Don’t want to focus on the killing.
Not yet.
Not when there are so many pitfalls. So many who want to unmask me.
The worst: Nikki Gillette. But I will deal with her. The camera I bought used, the GPS tracking device now affixed to the undercarriage of her Honda, will tell me where she is. Still, it may not be enough.
With each passing day, every hour that goes by, every minute that I breathe, they are closing in. I have to find a way to slow it all down so that I can finish. All too soon the sand will have drained away, my time up and I’ll be exposed.
Naked to the world.
CHAPTER 21
“You found another body!” Nikki charged when Reed took a quiet step into the bedroom. He’d hoped she would be fast asleep when he sneaked into the darkened room, but he didn’t get lucky.
She slapped on the bedside lamp and he noticed the books and papers and notes and iPad that were strung out on his side of the duvet. “Is it Rose Duval?”
“No, we’re sure not,” he admitted, sloughing off his jacket and draping it over the back of a chair. “But a kid. Possibly preteen, most likely a boy, though there are more tests that have to be run.”
“Who?”
“Don’t know.”
“Murder?”
“Again, that’s unclear.” He sank down on the mattress beside her.
“You didn’t call me!” she charged.
When he didn’t answer she had the good grace to seem a little chagrined.
“Nikki—”
“Yeah, I know. What about the computer image of Rose? Has anyone come forward?”
When he took her hand, she rolled her eyes. “I can’t help it. You know how I am. And you have since we first met.” She leaned forward on the bed, pressing her face close to his. “Can’t we work on this together? I’m going to be doing a lot of research on the Beaumont family and estate and I think I can help.”
“You’re not on the force.”
“We’ve worked together before,” she reminded him.
“And you nearly lost your life.”
She flopped back on the pillows. “I’ll be careful.”
He thought about that and shook his head. “No, you won’t. You don’t know how to be. And, really, I think there’s been enough damage done already.” He held her gaze and didn’t mention the lost baby or the fact that Sylvie Morrisette had given up her life. He didn’t have to. She got the message. Her expression changed from hopeful to sad in an instant.
“Low blow, Pierce,” she whispered, shrinking away from him. “Really low.”
And she was right. But she had to be reminded. He couldn’t take a chance on losing her, too.
* * *
Margaret Duval’s voice was thin and quavering over the connection, almost inaudible over the rumbling of the air-conditioner as it blasted cold air through the vents at the police station. “Did you, Detective Reed? Did you find my Rosie? I heard about a body being discovered up at Black Bear Lake.” She sounded so frail, her voice clogged with repressed tears. “Dear God. I prayed, you know. I prayed and prayed and prayed that she would be spared,” she sniffed.
Seated at his desk, the phone pressed to his ear, Reed silently swore at the idiot who had leaked the bad information to the press. If someone was going to talk, they could, at the very least, get their facts correct.
“No, Mrs. Le Roy, we didn’t find your daughter,” he said, glancing over at Delacroix, who was also on her desk phone but had turned her head to listen to him as he continued. “We did discover a youth’s body near Black Bear Lake, that’s true,” he said. “But it’s not Rose.”
