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It was the station, just as he’d thought. He’d call them back in a moment. Pulling on his clothes, he went to flick on the coffee machine and then let Smudge out the back door. Poor Smudge had lain on his mat all afternoon, ignored and forgotten. But the dog had had a great walk this morning, so Nico pushed the guilt aside, knowing Smudge had probably slept the whole time, twitching and dreaming about chasing seagulls up the beach.
He was going to need coffee if he was to get back into work mode this afternoon. Turning his phone over, ready to return the work call, he was surprised to see he had two messages from an unknown number. Upon opening them, he saw they were from Sukey’s father. Nico had left his card with the family after his interview, urging them to contact him if they thought of anything else that might be relevant to their daughter’s death, big or small, night or day. The message said:We found this photo of Sukey and Zoya in an old photo album. Not sure if this helps. Sorry, we don’t know the names of the other two girls in the photo.
There was an image attached to the message. He clicked on it and then enlarged it, peering intently at the picture. It showed four teenage girls, all of them standing in a line with their arms around each other, wearing gymnast leotards. The photo had clearly been taken at the Somerset Gym as Nico could see the sign up on the wall behind them.Practice Makes Perfect. He recognized Zoya on the end, her arm around Sukey, both girls grinning and holding up a trophy between them. Perhaps they’d just won a local competition, but the picture was too grainy to make out what the writing on the trophy said.
Nico peered closer.
“Holy shit,” he whispered.
Striding down the hallway, he almost skidded through the door to the bedroom. “Lacey,” he called, and she lifted a sleepy head from her pillow. “I need you to look at this photo for me.” He didn’t give her any more details, just handed her the phone and waited. Lacey blinked a few times, giving a confused frown, but took the phone and narrowed her eyes at the picture. It only took her two seconds to see what he’d seen.
“Is that Tia Brown on the end?” she asked, her face going from sleepy to alert in a single second.
“I wasn’t sure,” he replied. “But I think you’ve just confirmed it.”
“This means Tia knew Sukey and Zoya. How did we not make that connection earlier?” As she’d sat up in bed to look at the photo more closely, the sheet fell away to reveal her spectacular breasts, and Nico had to force his gaze away so he could focus properly.
“The mother never told us she practiced gymnastics,” Nico growled. And he suddenly wondered if that omission had been intentional.
Absently, Lacey pulled the sheet up to cover herself as she looked up at him, biting her bottom lip in thought. “Do you think these are the girls her brother mentioned? The ones who were bullying her?”
“God, I love you.” He bent down and kissed her soundly on the lips, because that’s exactly what he’d been thinking. He went to take his phone from Lacey’s grasp, but she pulled it back.
“Wait. Who is this other girl in the photo?”
“I don’t know, but I think we need to find out damn fast. Don’t you?”
“Yes.” She was already scrambling out of bed. But then she must’ve remembered her clothes were also still lying on the floor in the kitchen, as she grimaced, then marched out the door, leaving Nico to follow behind, surveying her very fine ass as she sashayed down the hallway. He watched her getting dressed without uttering a word. Talk about a distraction. How the hell was he supposed to do any work now, when all he wanted was to toss her back up on that table and go another round or ten with her?
“What’s the plan?” she asked as she slipped her T-shirt down her arms and over her head, blocking his view of her enticing body, then tied back her hair in a neat ponytail at the same time.
He held up a finger as he listened to the message from work. It was from Constable Hickey asking him to call back when he had time. It didn’t sound urgent, but Nico was already feeling guilty that his team were still diligently working on a Sunday, while he’d been lazing in bed. Admittedly, he’d just restored his relationship with the most important person in the world, so the guilt was easy to push down. But now he had what might just be the most valuable piece to the puzzle in that image of the girls, his mind wouldn’t stop whirling.
“I’m going into work,” Nico declared. This photo was a big breakthrough, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to rest until he’d looked deeper into it.
“I’m coming with you.”
He started to argue that this was her rostered day off, but one glance at her beautiful, determined face made him shut his mouth with a click. She was just as invested in this case as he was. He couldn’t stop her. And he shouldn’t stop her. But there was one thing he needed to do before they got back into work mode.
In two steps, he’d swept her up into his arms, lifting her so her feet were off the ground. “I love you.” Their eyes locked and as he stared into her gorgeous, whisky-brown eyes, he knew he’d never been happier than in that particular moment.
“I love you too,” she agreed. “I never stopped loving you. Things just got a little…complicated for a while.”
Amen to that,he thought, as he kissed her lightly on the lips. The world was the right way around again, and now he was secure in Lacey’s devotion, he was able to think clearly about other things.
“I’m going to get changed,” he said, placing her gently back on her feet. He probably shouldn’t go into the station dressed like he’d just come from a day on the beach. He was lead investigator on this case and had a reputation to uphold.
Lacey, however, shook her head and said, “I’m not technically on duty, so I’ll forego the uniform tonight. Which reminds me.” She pushed out of his arms. “I need to put a wash on before we go, I’ve got no clean shirts for work.” She rushed to the bedroom and then he heard the machine beep in the laundry as she programmed the wash.
While he waited for Lacey, he phoned Sukey’s father to thank him for the image, and to ask if they had any further details they could share. But he drew a blank, the sister told him, after translating her father’s words, telling him it was from one of Sukey’s photo albums she kept in her room, and they’d never seen the photo before. Perhaps one of the other mothers had taken it, but they weren’t sure.
Nico didn’t let that little drawback bring him down. He had a clue, now he just needed to follow it up and find out where it led.
They were in his Jeep and on their way into town less than five minutes later.
“Can you please call work for me?” Nico asked, handing Lacey the phone as she sat in the passenger seat. The call went through his Bluetooth connection and Karl Hickey answered after the second ring.
“Hi, boss,” he said genially. “I’ve got some great news. I finally tracked down Sukey Lui’s boyfriend.”
