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“It’ll be a long walk, so you two take your time.” With a wave of her hand, Jen disappeared down the corridor and Sierra heard her voice as she introduced herself to Reed, and then suggested very loudly to Aileen that it was a beautiful morning for a walk.
Calm. Just be calm.Footsteps on the wooden floorboards announced his arrival. Then Reed strode through the open door, and Sierra suddenly found she couldn’t breathe. He was glorious. So tall and lean, masculine and strong in a pair of blue jeans and tight, black sweater that showed off his pecs and his broad shoulders to perfection. That chin and his square jaw, a slight one-day stubble roughing up his profile. Then he smiled, showing off his dimple, and she nearly melted into a puddle on her chair. It was not going to be as easy to resist this man as she’d hoped.
* * *
“Hi, gorgeous.” Reed leaned in and kissed Sierra on the cheek before taking the seat next to her, ignoring her frown. He’d waited long enough to come and see her, imagined seeing her for days now, and her skin felt good beneath his lips. Even if she kept her gaze cool, he saw her reach up and touch the place his lips had been when she thought he wasn’t looking.
“Hi, Reed,” she replied. She looked good. Fresh and fit. Stunning. Her long hair was left to flow over her shoulders today, wisps of it curling around her high cheekbones, as the sea breeze tickled the patio. Perhaps having her mum here, looking after her and feeding her was a good thing, after all. The leg in the cast was propped up on a chair in front of her, and there was a cat on her knee. She had on a pair of leggings that’d been cut up the side, to allow for the bulky cast and her usual oversized hoodie. On closer inspection, he saw it was the dark-blue hoodie he’d given her to wear after her car had been sabotaged. The night they’d made love. He smiled, not bothering to hide his happy grin. She was wearing his sweater. It had to mean something.
“How’s the investigation going?” she asked, bringing him back to reality. So, she wanted to start with business. That was fine, he was happy to get it out of the way, then he could move on to the real reason he’d come out here today. Reed slipped his hand in his pocket and found his lucky penny. Began to play with it, the warm coin soothing him, like it always did.
With a great effort, he removed his silly grin and replaced it with a more appropriate, serious expression. Professional mask in place, he said, “I’ve got some things in the car to give you. We found your laptop and your jewelry hidden in a closet at his flat.”
“That’s good,” she said impatiently, and he knew it wasn’t really what she was hoping to hear. “Thanks for that.”
“And I’ve got good news, actually. He’s awake.”
“What?” Sierra’s head shot up. “Evan came out of his coma?” A mixture of revulsion and relief crossed her face. He knew how she felt. A small part of him had been hoping the monster wouldn’t survive. But he also hadn’t wanted Sierra to bear the guilt of knowing she’d taken a life. Even if it had been a man who didn’t deserve to live.
“Yes, he did, and you won’t believe what he’s told us. He’s been singing like the proverbial canary.”
“Really,” Sierra said on a breath, her attention now fully focused on him.
“Yes, I think a bullet to the head has made him even more talkative than he was already. Strange how a brush with death will do that to you.”
“Tell me,” she demanded, leaning forward. “Tell me everything.”
“All right, well, I think you know, or have guessed at a lot of it already. But let me start at the beginning.” He drew his chair closer to the table so he could rest his elbows on the top. And to put him closer to Sierra. The black cat on her lap glared at him.
“He confirmed he was indeed the Port Pirie abductor.”
Sierra sucked in a loud breath at his pronouncement.
Reed continued, “He gave us all the intimate details, so there’s no doubt it was him. The first child he abducted in Port Pirie was six-year old Emily Newman. She was out playing in the front yard with her younger brother, while the mother was inside getting ready to go to the store. The newspapers said that when the mother came out Emily was gone and the boy had a candy in his mouth and said the nice man gave one to him and one to Emily.”
Sierra only nodded as she followed along with his story. It was probably all very familiar to her, she’d worked on the news articles for months on the case before she published her exposé.
“It seems that Evan, or Damien as he was called then, planned his crime well. He looked up the sex offender registry and found that Charles Dorkney lived on that street, and Damien knew he would be the number-one suspect if a child went missing. He chose the street because there were a number of young families in the area, and it was quiet. It’s scary how cold and calculating he was when he planned this.” Reed almost shivered as he remembered reading the deposition taken by the Sergeant in charge over at the Royal Adelaide Hospital.
“And you were spot-on with your suggestions about police getting things wrong. But what no one knew back then, was it was all due to Damien. He did small things to hinder the investigation, like making sure neither of the first teams on the ground interviewed the neighbors by mixing-up orders so they weren’t passed down the chain.”
“Wow,” Sierra said quietly. “I knew there was something dodgy going on. If only I’d dug a little deeper, perhaps—”
“Don’t you dare blame yourself. For any of this,” Reed growled. He was going to make damned sure she knew this had nothing to do with her. She was a good journalist, with good instincts. As it was, the police had definitely failed on this one, not her.
She frowned, the wrinkles marring her perfect high forehead. “Go on, then,” she insisted.
“So, we know the second girl was abducted eleven months later. Seven-year-old Naomi Chadstone had been playing in the local park close to home with her two older sisters. They had a fight and Naomi ran off, saying she hated both her sisters and she was going home. When the two sisters arrived home fifteen minutes later, Naomi wasn’t there.”
“Yes, I remember all that.” Sierra stroked the cat absent-mindedly as she spoke.
“Well, Damien filled in the blanks for us. This was a spontaneous crime of opportunity. Damien had been driving home from work after finishing a shift, and seen the girl crying at the side of the road. He was still in his uniform and driving a squad car. He invited her into the car and offered her a lift home.” Reed grimaced as he recounted the story. “What little girl wouldn’t think it was safe to get into a marked police car? He was a sick, sick bastard. And it kills me to know he got away with this for so long, and he was right under our noses.” Reed balled his fists on the table.
“I know what you mean.” Sierra laid her hand over the top of his, easing his fingers apart. “But you are as blameless in this as you keep telling me I am. You weren’t even working in Adelaide by that stage. There was nothing you could’ve done to stop him, either.” Her face softened as she looked into his eyes and, surprisingly, she didn’t let his hand go.
“I know,” Reed admitted, then continued with the story. “Anyway, Damien knew he’d been stupid and lazy, and vowed he’d never do anything spontaneous like that again, it was too easy to get caught. That’s why there was such a long hiatus between his crimes. He laid low for nearly nine years, until two more girls went missing.”
“Hang on. Back up a little,” Sierra interrupted. “Neither of those two little girl’s bodies were ever found. Has he…”
