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“Remember, I sent Hickey and Lawson to search Zoya’s flat yesterday?” He watched her nod her reply. “There was a lot of stuff to go through in her flat. Seems like she was quite…messy, shall we say.” He gave a grimace and took a slug from the glass of orange juice she’d placed in front of him. “They found another bracelet charm. Exactly the same as the one Linc found at the crime scene the other day.” Nico’s look was exultant.
When the two detectives had questioned Zoya’s mother about the charm, she thought she might’ve remembered Zoya having something similar, but wasn’t exactly sure, and so Hickey had been tasked with keeping a lookout for it. But now they had their answer. It was the same charm someone had been brazen enough to attack Linc for, to stop him taking it as evidence.
“Wow.” Lacey made an O with her mouth. “That’s big.” She stopped eating and put her fork down for a second.
“Yes. At least we can definitely say this charm belonged to Zoya. But we’re not so sure who the other one belonged to. Was it Sukey’s? Is that why the killer wanted it back? Because it points to a link between the girls? Or is there something else going on here that we don’t know about? It’s one of the things we need to ask Sukey’s parents tomorrow. If she owned a charm like the one we found. And if she did what was the significance of it.” Nico scraped the last of his food off his plate and sat back in his chair. “I think we need to go back to the gymnastics club tomorrow too. We need another chat with Erica, as well as all the other coaches. It’s too much of a coincidence for that sign to be up on the wall, and now to have found a second charm with exactly the same wording.”
“Practice makes perfect,” Lacey muttered to herself. The puzzle pieces were slowly coming together. And it seemed the gymnastics venue was at the center. “What about Tia? Are you still considering her death to be involved in this riddle somehow?”
“Not sure,” Nico admitted. “We definitely need to find out more about these mysterious girls who bullied her.”
“I’m not sure how a pack of bullies, even if they did help to drive a poor girl to commit suicide, could somehow then turn around and become murderers four years later,” Lacey said.
“Hmm. I know it’s a stretch, but stranger things have happened,” he observed.
And she couldn’t disagree with him.
She sat back and patted her full stomach. That was better. But now a huge yawn nearly split her face in two. She was exhausted. Nico was staring thoughtfully at her, an unreadable expression on his face. She got up and took the plates over to the dishwasher.
Nico came up behind and she twirled to face him “Thanks, Lace,” he said, reaching out to pull her closer by her hips. “For dinner. And for everything. I know I get a little…overprotective. But I was scared as shit tonight. When I think what might’ve happened if you’d come home earlier and found that guy inside our house…” He leaned his forehead against hers. “All I want is for you to be safe. In my arms.”
“I know. But I’m okay. We’re both okay.” She understood where he was coming from, she would’ve felt the same if things had been reversed. It was terrifying to think of Nico getting hurt. Unimaginable even, to think of ever having to go through the rest of her life without him. She could feel her heart softening toward him, feel the walls crumbling. Wondered why she was fighting with him. But then an insistent little voice spoke up from somewhere deep in her head.Nico lied to you. Nico kept his biggest secret from you.He didn’t trust you enough to tell you this one thing.
This one thing that changed everything.
Gently, she lifted her head away from his, so she could look him in the eye.
“I’m sorry, Nico, but I’m still sleeping in the spare bedroom.”
He dropped his hands away from her waist and turned away. “As you wish,” he replied flatly, and her heart ached. Was she doing the right thing? Punishing him for no good reason? She knew she was intentionally shutting him out. But deep down, she still couldn’t find it in herself to forgive him. And if she returned to their bed, she’d be lying to him. And lying to herself.
CHAPTER TWELVE
NICO STRODE DOWN the hallway toward the operations room. He’d requested this morning’s briefing start a little later today so that he had time to interview Sukey’s parents. And his chat with the young woman’s family had been quite enlightening. He had a lot to pass on to his team this morning. Even though it was Saturday, most people had agreed to come in, even if they weren’t rostered on. A murder investigation didn’t stop just because it was the weekend.
Sally-Ann was the only one in the room when he entered. She looked up as he stood beside her next to the whiteboard on the wall. “Hey, boss. Lookin’ a little worse for wear this morning.” She elbowed him in the ribs playfully. Nico didn’t mind the over familiarity on Sally-Ann’s part; he wasn’t one to pull rank or keep strict lines between him and his staff, but he wished she didn’t know him quite so well. Because therewerelarge dark circles under his eyes but he hoped she didn’t perceive his restless night was to do with his problems with Lacey. More to do with Lacey sleeping in another room and not in his arms, rather than the amorous night Sally-Ann was hinting at. He’d missed Lacey so much last night. That made two sleepless nights, and it didn’t look like their problem was about to be resolved anytime soon, so he’d better get used to more nights alone in his big bed.
“Yeah,” he laughed, hoping it sounded genuine. “Goes with the job, I guess.”
“Hmm.” Sally-Ann skewered him with her laser-beam gaze.
Shit, she’d seen through him. He pretended to be acutely interested in something on the whiteboard.
“Is there something going on between you and Lacey?” She put her hands on her hips and pursed her lips. “I noticed Lacey acting a little strange yesterday, and I—”
“Morning.” Tyrell’s cheery greeting stopped Sally-Ann midsentence. Hickey and Gorman followed close on Tyrell’s heels, and the room began to fill up. Thank God for small mercies. Sally-Ann meant well, but she was a bit like a mother hen. For a few years before Nico had met Lacey, Sally-Ann was constantly trying to set him up on dates, telling him he needed a good woman in his life. And then when Lacey had come along, she’d taken an immediate liking to her, had been ecstatic for them both when they finally admitted their feelings for each other. Now, Sally-Ann saw it as her own personal achievement that Nico had finally settled down with that good woman she’d always dreamed for him. She’d want to help if she got even a sniff that Lacey and Nico were having problems. And although he was very fond of his colleague, he didn’t need her meddling in his life.
“I heard you had some kind of break-in last night?” Tyrell walked between the tables so he could stand in front of Nico. “What’s with that?”
Sally-Ann rounded on him. “You what? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because there’s not much to tell,” he replied. And because she hadn’t given him a chance, what with all her sixth-sensing trouble in paradise between him and Lacey. “Someone jimmied a window open, but no one was hurt, nothing was taken, and no evidence was left for forensics to nail him.” Nico gave a sardonic shrug. Forensics had paid his cottage a visit early this morning, but like he and Lacey had feared, the criminal had not left a single clue. Not one fingerprint, not one strand of hair.
Sally-Ann narrowed her eyes at him. “Don’t you try to pull the wool over my eyes,” she growled. “Is this related to the case?” They all remembered clearly how Lacey had been attacked last time he’d conducted a major investigation. No one wanted the same thing to happen twice. Least of all him.
“I can’t see how,” he replied.
Sally-Ann held up her hand. “Don’t give me that bullshit. I don’t believe in coincidence any more than you do. Have you asked Shadbolt to put a car outside your house?”
