AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Five minutes later, his phone rang, and he answered it using the hands free.
“Hi, boss,” Tyrell said, but Nico caught an edge of something in his tone.
“What is it?” Nico asked without preamble. His temper was on a knife-edge, this whole day had gone to shit and it wouldn’t take much more to tip him over into a fury.
“You asked me to let you know if I found anything interesting in Rania Samann’s journal.”
“Yes,” Nico practically snapped. What was the guy getting at?
He was just about to tell Tyrell that it could wait, as he was on his way back to the office, when the constable blurted, “I think Rania found something out about our local doctor. Something incriminating. Something he didn’t want made public.”
“When you say doctor, do you mean Gabriel DuPont?”
“Yes, sir. In an entry from around three weeks ago, Rania says that she went to visit Karim at the bakery in Wynyard, but the bakery had just closed for the day, so she went to look for him around back and saw Dr. DuPont and the male apprentice baker in a… She called it a lover’s embrace. The doctor was shocked that she’d seen them and shouted at her, but Rania ran away.”
A silence hung between them as Nico digested the news.
Tyrell continued. “There are more entries a few days later, when Rania talks about her conflicted thoughts about whether she should tell Karim, or anyone else what she saw. But then the doctor cornered her in the parking lot in town the next day and asked her if she’d informed anyone. When she said no, the doctor was very relieved and then begged her to keep it to herself. Saying she’d ruin his career if people found out. Rania agreed to keep his secret.”
“Is there anything else?” Nico growled.
“Not really, sir. After her encounter with Gabriel, she seems to switch to talking about the fact Karim is becoming more violent, and the escalating fights they’re having. The last entry in the journal is around a week and a half ago, when she says she’s going to give the diary to her neighbor for safekeeping, because she’s afraid of what Karim might do if he found it.”
“Right. Thanks.” Nico’s mind was whirling with theories and hunches.
“What do you think it means?” Tyrell asked.
“I’m not sure. But I’m in the vicinity, so I’m going to call into the doctor’s house on the way back and ask him some questions.”
“Is Dr. DuPont a suspect now?”
Lacey had seen exactly the same thing as Rania. Gabriel kissing Jayden. And Gabe had called in sick today. And now Lacey was missing.
“It’s a possibility,” Nico replied with a grunt. “If he was desperate enough to keep his gay lifestyle secret at all costs…” Was Gabe that desperate? Surely not. Not in this day and age, when people barely blinked an eyelid if they found out someone was gay. The LGBTQ community didn’t have a big presence in a country town like Burnie, but they also weren’t Neanderthals. People watched TV and knew what was going on in the world. It was 2023 for God’s sake. Why would Gabe think it’d ruin his career if people found out he was gay?
He ended the call and drove like a bat out of hell to Gabriel’s house. No one was home when he got there, and Gabe’s car was missing. Nico banged on the door repeatedly and then stomped around the house peering in windows. If the doctor really was sick, surely he should be at home in bed. So, where was he?
Nico went over what he knew in his head. Floyd Hamilton was missing. Herb and Margie Garret were missing. Now Gabe was missing. Gabe hadn’t even been on his radar of possible murder suspects. But now…he definitely was. He knew he should’ve pushed Charles harder to keep a squad car stationed outside his house. His gut had told him that Lacey was still in danger.
And where was Lacey? He pulled the crumpled note out of his pocket and studied it again. It was her handwriting, but it didn’t feel like her words.
A cold, hard lump settled in Nico’s gut. Something was wrong. He could feel it.
He called Tyrell back. “I need to track Lacey’s van,” he said, not bothering with a greeting. “I want an alert sent out on her registration number.” Nico gave Tyrell the personalized number: DOTTI33. “And I want all CCTV cameras in the area surrounding Boat Harbour searched as well.”
“That’s going to take a lot of manpower,” Tyrell said carefully.
“I don’t care,” Nico snapped. “I think Lacey might be in trouble, and I think the person involved may be linked to Rania’s murder. I want everyone on this, pronto. This now takes precedence over everything else. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir,” Tyrell replied briskly.
“I want the Garrets located as well, if possible. They’re missing too,” he added, almost as an afterthought.
Dotti shouldn’t be too hard to spot. She was a one-of-a-kind vehicle. Nico was going completely on gut instinct, something he swore he’d never do. He was a logical man, who liked to analyze everything first and come up with the right answer, not jump to conclusions. That was why he was so good at his job.
But he’d run out of time, and all rational thought was flying out the window. Lacey was in trouble, he could feel it right down in his solar plexus. He could barely breathe, the band of fear was so tight.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
