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That’s when she saw it. The license plate number was seared into her memory. They’d all been on the lookout for this car. It was one of the missing pieces of the puzzle.
“Holy shit! Is that Sukey Lui’s car?” she asked on a whisper.
“I believe it is,” Nico replied in a voice that held as much confusion as her own.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
NICO LOOKED OUT the kitchen window to see Sandra Brown’s backyard swarming with police officers. Forensics was going over the car still parked up in the shed, taking fingerprints and documenting everything they found as evidence. Nico had already scrutinized the interior—wearing gloves and being as careful as he could not to disturb anything—and had ascertained there were no obvious signs of blood or of a struggle taking place inside the car. A purse and phone were in the car, and he’d already admitted those to evidence. There were more officers in the house, striding up and down the hallway, opening doors and cupboards, picking through the paperwork in the study, pulling out drawers in the main bedroom. All of them looking for the same thing: a clue as to Sandra Brown’s next movements. Something to hint at her mental state. Anything so they could track her down.
Taj Brown sat dejectedly at the kitchen table, watching the organized chaos of the police searching his mother’s home, his gaze becoming more mutinous with every cupboard door the officers opened or every piece of furniture they moved. Lacey sat opposite him, ostensibly to support him through this traumatic time, but both she and Nico knew she was acting as his unofficial guard as they waited for his lawyer to arrive. Taj wasn’t their main POI, his mother was. But that didn’t mean he didn’t have important information that might help them crack this case, and he couldn’t be allowed to run. Which, judging by the increasingly distrustful glances the boy was sending Nico’s way, he could possibly be contemplating. A stupid move with this many cops in the vicinity, but perps under pressure often acted in strange and unpredictable ways. Shame he’d clammed up and refused to tell them anything more after they’d found Sukey’s car in his mother’s shed.
Nico still couldn’t believe they’d found her car. After expending so much time and energy on looking for it, they would never have found it if it wasn’t for the sheer chance they’d been here when Taj had arrived upset and agitated enough to let it slip that his mother had sent him a peculiar message hinting that something was hidden in her shed.
Nico had come to the swift conclusion that Sandra Brown was in possession of the car because she’d murdered Sukey Lui. There was no other explanation. Even though his mind had struggled to put two and two together when they’d first lifted the tarp and seen the license plate. Both he and Lacey had stared at each other for a full minute in complete silence, incomprehension written all over their faces.
At first, Lacey had tried to fob it off as some sort of terrible coincidence. “There must be some explanation,” she’d said. “Maybe the real killer planted the car here to make her look guilty. They’re trying to frame her.” Lacey had said with a flash of inspiration. “Or maybe it was Taj who hid it here. Maybe he’s the murderer.” That was a concept Nico was happy to explore. But his gut told him it wasn’t correct. The look on Taj’s face when he’d first arrived, just after receiving his mother’s message, had been one of pure shock. He’d been completely appalled by his own suspicions at what his mother might’ve done. But those emotions had faded from his features, to be replaced with a sick kind of inevitability. Like he knew exactly what his mother was capable of. Like he knew he’d not only lost his sister four years ago, but was about to lose his mother as well.
“She can’t be the person we’re looking for. Surely Sandra isn’t a murderer? She’s just a grieving mother who lost her only daughter,” Lacey had said, continuing her argument.
And Nico had replied, “Exactly. A grieving mother with an axe to grind. If she believes those other girls were responsible for Tia committing suicide, that’d be motive enough for murder, don’t you think?”
Lacey had been shocked at Nico’s words, like she didn’t want to believe him. This was the first time she’d come across a potential female killer, and it was always hard to swallow. The idea that a woman, a mother no less, someone who was supposed to be nurturing and compassionate, was capable of something as coldhearted and heinous as murder.
“Perhaps she decided we were getting too close for comfort and she’s done a runner,” he’d said, his mind already past the obstacle of whether Sandra was the killer and onto the next question of where she’d gone. Maybe their visit the other day had set off alarm bells in Sandra’s head and instead of toughing it out, she’d decided that discretion was the better part of valor and hightailed it out of Burnie. “If Taj hadn’t turned up when he did and given away her little secret, we may never have found Sukey’s car. Never have put it all together,” he said to Lacey thoughtfully.
Nico had already put out an APB in an attempt to stop her leaving the island. But it might be too late. If she’d caught the overnight ferry, she might already be on the mainland. It was also conceivable that she’d driven down to Hobart overnight and caught a flight out of the international airport there. Which meant she could be on her way to just about anywhere in the world by now. If that was the case, they might have a better chance of catching her when she landed at the other end. He already had the guys in Hobart trying to trace her movements, but so far, they’d had no luck. There was one other scenario, but Nico didn’t think Sandra would be that stupid.
Right then, his phone rang. It was Sally-Ann at the station, helping Lawson with the legwork in trying to track Sandra; she’d come back into work after he and Lacey had found the car and called in all available officers. “We’ve had a development,” she said, not bothering with any of the normal platitudes. “Sandra Brown’s car was found parked up near Cradle Mountain. Not in the main parking lot, but down a dirt track a few miles from the main lodge.”
“Shit,” Nico swore softly. This was the exact scenario he’d just been trying to convince himself wasn’t going to happen.
“Do you think Sandra is going after the last girl on her list?” Sally-Ann asked into the ensuing silence. “Is she going to try and kill Teresa?”
It’d make sense. If Sandra was out to get her retribution for her daughter’s suicide, and she’d already killed the other two girls, then Teresa was the last one left before Sandra’s vengeance was complete.
“Maybe. Shit,” he swore again as he dragged a hand through his hair. Why would she be stupid enough to put herself at the risk of getting caught just to fulfill a vendetta? It wasn’t the logical choice. The logical choice would’ve been for her to get the hell out of Tasmania, before the police apprehended her. But criminals didn’t always have a logical thought pattern. If Sandra was mentally disturbed enough to actually murder two of the girls she saw as responsible for her daughter’s death, then she was mentally disturbed enough not to care about the consequences of going after the third. As long as she achieved her goal, then perhaps it didn’t matter if she spent the rest of her years in jail or not. “Thanks, Sally-Ann,” he said and ended the call.
“What’s going on?” asked Lacey; she must be able to see the consternation on his face, even if she couldn’t hear the conversation.
Nico glanced at Taj. They needed the boy to talk. Needed him to confirm what Nico already suspected. He took two strides over to the table and loomed over Taj, who remained seated. The kid needed to understand how dire this situation was.
Not bothering to make his words gentle, he said, “We found a photo of four girls. One of them was Tia. They were all in a gymnastics team together back when they were fourteen. Two of the other three girls are now dead. That car we found in your mother’s shed belonged to one of the dead girls. Is this the group of girls your mother alluded to? The ones she said were bullying Tia?”
Taj glanced up at Nico, eyes widening with fear as he cringed back in the chair.
“I’m waiting for my lawyer to arrive. I don’t have to answer your questions. I know my rights,” Taj said in a small voice, running a hand over his short-cropped hair, the tattoos on his arm stark against his pale face.
“You need to answer my question. A girl’s life might depend on it.” Nico leaned in, ever so menacingly.
Lacey stood and put her hand on Nico’s arm in warning. Nico was skating on thin ice and they both knew it. Now that Taj had requested his lawyer, Nico wasn’t technically allowed to question him until the guy arrived. Questioning him now might make everything Taj said inadmissible in court, but Nico was prepared to take that risk, if it meant saving a life.
“I think you knew what we’d find in your mother’s shed. I think you knew what she was capable of,” he growled, leaning in even closer so he could get right in Taj’s face. “Your mother’s car was found up near Cradle Mountain,” Nico rushed on, ignoring Lacey’s hand. He knew the rules, probably better than she did. Knew what he might be risking. Even so, Nico stared at the boy, letting glimpses of his simmering rage show; if he could intimidate the boy into telling him the truth, it might just be worth it. “The third and last girl in that photo is taking a guided walking tour in that area. I need to know if your mother intends to go after this last girl. Will she try and exact her revenge?”
The kid seemed to crumple in on himself, all the self-righteousness and belligerence now gone. “I don’t know,” Taj confessed. “I truly didn’t know what you’d find in her shed.”
Nico backed off slightly. “Maybe not,” he finally conceded, his gut telling him the boy was telling the truth. “But you had an inkling, didn’t you?”
Taj merely nodded. Then he took a deep breath. “My mother was never the same after Tia’s death. Like I said before, she mentioned some girls were bullying Tia, but then she told me she’d take care of it, so I never gave it a second thought. Until you guys turned up and started asking questions, and then some things began to make sense.”
