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One more night.
One more night with Nico.
Suddenly, her decision was made for her. She wasn’t going to the vigil. She already knew that she’d probably garner a lot of attention if she went, being one of the last people to see Rania alive. Attention she didn’t want or need. She had her own way to honor Rania, and it didn’t include crowds or other people’s expectations. And these things sometimes got heated. What was supposed to be a peaceful memorial to a woman taken too soon could be hijacked by people with other agendas. She’d already heard talk about making this vigil about women’s rights and women’s safety. Which wasn’t a bad thing. But the last thing she needed tonight was people deciding that Lacey was a good candidate for their cause and pushing her to the forefront of their political action. Nope, she needed peace and quiet tonight.
She would make something delicious and that would be it. Her last hurrah. For her last night in Nico’s house. She had a hankering for a slow cooked chicken tagine. Nico would like it, she was sure. Lacey pulled up short, halfway down the stairs. Was it bad of her to have taken up the domestic role so easily in Nico’s house? Always being the one to cook because he was never home in time? Taking on the role of the little woman, always in the kitchen. It was a simple routine to fall into. And not one she’d ever found herself in before. She shrugged and decided with only one night left she could leave those thoughts for later.
There was a fresh market on the edge of town where she could gather the ingredients for her tagine. Yes. Now she had a plan, she felt invigorated.
At the bottom of the stairs, she was about to turn left to head out into the main street when she spotted a door that saidEmergency Exit Onlyoff to the right.
Was that the door that led into the rear parking lot? It was worth a try, as it’d save her a five-minute walk if it was.
Tentatively, she pushed the door, half expecting an alarm to sound. But there was nothing except sunlight streaming in through the gap. Quickly, she ducked around the door and let it bang shut behind her, only to find she was in the rear alley all right, but not in the parking lot she was seeking. She must’ve come out farther along than she thought. Bugger. The alley smelled bad and there were a stack of dumpsters lined up along the opposite wall. The parking lot should be to the left, so she turned and walked in that direction. She stuck to the dank pathway that hugged the opposite side of the alley, where it backed onto the rear fences of suburban houses behind the shopping precinct. Now that she was walking the alley, rather than driving down it, she noticed things she hadn’t seen from the Jeep. Each shop had its own rear entryway, and some were kept clean and tidy, like the one to the clinic, but in others, there were garbage bags piled up in a heap or a stack of empty beer bottles left to litter the dirty concrete. Some even had little covered alcoves, where Lacey imagined an employee might stand to have a smoko break and keep out of the rain.
The roar of an engine heralded a dump truck, which appeared at the other end of the alley and began the process of picking up a large dumpster. Lacey was nearly to her car now; she could see where the alley opened up ahead into the parking lot. She stopped on the path to watch the truck tip the large dumpster over its head. The sound of breaking glass and the roar of the garbage landing in the truck was almost deafening.
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a slight movement, and turned to see two figures partly hidden in the alcove of one of the shops. The weathered sign above the door saidBakery. Lacey squinted into the gloom, wondering what the couple were up to. It looked like they were…
Oh. Lacey let out an embarrassed giggle. They were full-on kissing. Snogging, her little sister, Sammy, would’ve called it. So engrossed in their tryst they didn’t seem to notice anything else going on around them, including the garbage truck.
She hurried on by, not wanting to embarrass them with her presence; they probably hadn’t heard her approach over the sound of the dumpster being emptied.
Then she caught the side profile of the person closest to her.
It was Gabe. Wasn’t it?
She stopped to study him. The truck was nearly finished emptying the dumpster; she’d have to hurry if she didn’t want them to hear her retreating footsteps. Yes, it was definitely Gabe; she recognized his clean-shaven face, high cheekbones and well-coiffed hair.
And the woman he was kissing…was a man!
A young man with dark, curly hair and smooth cheeks, as if he wasn’t even old enough to shave.
Lacey nearly stumbled backward. Gabe was gay? Not that it was a problem. But Nico had made out that Gabe was very much a ladies’ man. And the way Gabe had come onto her in the car the other night, she’d never have suspected he was gay. Or perhaps he was bisexual. Maybe he liked both equally. And that was fine with her as well. Nevertheless, it was an interesting discovery. No wonder there hadn’t been any sign of Gabriel in the clinic. He’d been otherwise occupied.
Lacey charged ahead, eager to get to her car now, glancing back over her shoulder.
Had Gabe seen her? She didn’t think so. Not that she was specifically trying to hide from him. But something about the circumstances of the tryst, that they’d chosen a dingy back alley as their rendezvous and were trying to stay hidden in the alcove, pointed to the fact that perhaps they didn’t want to be seen.
Changing her mind about not bothering Nico, she decided she’d go and see if he was free for a late lunch. Let him know she wasn’t going to the vigil, and that she was cooking something delicious for dinner. He could make her apologies if anyone asked about her at the vigil, because she knew Nico would definitely go, being the detective in charge of Rania’s murder. Reversing the Jeep out of its parking spot, she glanced in the rearview mirror. The alley was empty.
Maneuvering her way down the narrow passageway, her mind was only partly on driving the big, unwieldy car. The rest was occupied by this new revelation about the country doctor. Did Nico know of Gabe’s predilection? More to the point, should she be the one to reveal it, if he didn’t?
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
NICO TAPPED THE large whiteboard affixed to the wall with the tip of his pen, considering the photo of Karim Khaled’s face. Things were not looking good for the young man. Evidence was piling up against him. He chewed the end of his pen as he lifted his eyes to the ceiling, brooding on the new information they’d just received.
Even though Floyd Hamilton denied it, Karim was adamant he’d gone to the young man’s house and knocked him around, trying to scare him so he’d leave Rania alone. This had been backed up by Danny, the head mechanic, who swore that Floyd had come into work the next day with a black eye and bruises all over. Floyd had been sullen and wouldn’t talk about who’d used him as a punching bag—Nico was still to get to the bottom of why he refused to admit to the beating, perhaps it was a pride thing, or perhaps he’d merely wanted to save face in front of Rania—but it was further confirmed by Floyd’s flat mate that it’d been the young Syrian boyfriend of the hot receptionist who’d come to the house that evening, full of aggression and brutality. Karim probably thought that by revealing this to the cops, he was implicating Floyd in her murder. But it might do Karim more harm than good, as it was more evidence of his violent streak. Evidence that spoke of how he was controlling in his relationship with Rania.
They’d also had the results from the coroner this morning from Rania’s autopsy. Tyrell had given Nico the rundown, as he hadn’t had time to read the full report himself. Cause of death was a heart attack, which was exactly what Gabe had described earlier. The loss of blood had been so great, and her blood pressure had dropped so low, her heart went into cardiac arrest. The timing as to when she’d actually been stabbed and when she finally succumbed to her wounds, was a little more circumspect. The coroner commented that judging by the size of the stab wounds and where they were situated—they’d missed all vital organs—he could surmise how much blood she’d lost over time, and he estimated she could’ve been alive for two or three hours before Margie found her. He stressed this was an estimation, however. His report also listed all drugs found in her system. There was a blood thinner, an analgesic, and adrenaline. Which all sounded reasonable to Nico. All the drugs must’ve been administered by Gabriel as he was trying to save her life. Gabe had also hooked her up to a saline drip, in an attempt to increase her blood pressure but that’d come too late to save her life.
There was a quiet knock at the door. Nico was the only one left in the command room at present; the rest of the team were either out following up leads, or had gone for a much-needed lunch break. He turned to see who it was.
Lacey’s slim form was silhouetted in the doorway and Nico did a double take. Not only because he hadn’t been expecting to see her, but because of the way his stomach jumped like a frog in a sock at the sight of her. Messy, blonde hair fell around her shoulders, whipped up from the wind outside. The hair framing her face turned her eyes a light, sandy color, and for a moment, he was lost in their pale depths.
“Hi,” he said with a smile.
“Hi,” she replied, glancing quickly around the room.
