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“The blood of those women feels like it’s on my hands,” he whispered.Now that he knew it was his father who was the murderer, it changed things.Changed his perspective.Without being told, he knew his mother would absorb some of the blame upon herself.But he too, felt culpable.As if he should’ve known somehow.Should’ve been able to stop him somehow.It was illogical, but nonetheless, his self-reproach was enormous.People would look at him differently when they found out.And they had every right to.How ironic was it for a homicide detective to not even realize his own father was a serial killer.He gave a low groan of misery and hung his head, his hair falling down around his eyes.
“Don’t,” she whispered back, getting down on her knees in front of him, both hands on his thighs.“Don’t do this to yourself.These are the sins of your father.They’re his, and his alone.These murders have nothing to do with you.You couldn’t have stopped them no matter what you did.”
“I wish it were true,” he replied.
“It is true,” she insisted.“But you want to know the best way to redeem yourself?”He knew what was coming, even before she said it.“To catch him and put him in jail for the rest of his life.”
Part of him wanted to follow that continuous spiral down to the depths of hell, where recriminations were the name of the game, but Lacey’s warm grip on his thighs, and her pleading, green eyes kept tugging him away from the vortex.She was right.Now wasn’t the time to fall to the ground and curl into the fetal position, wailing like a little child.He could do that later.Now was the time to act like the cop he was supposed to be.He gritted his teeth and nodded his head, not trusting himself to speak.
“At least now you know your hunch was correct.Coming to Strahan helped us to stumble across the killer,” she said, a hint of a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.
That much was true.His gut hadn’t let him down on that count at least.He nodded his assent, beginning to feel a little more in control.
“Let’s work this out logically,” Lacey offered, her gaze still fixed on his, almost as if by sheer will she could pull him out of that dark place he’d been headed.“Try and work out a timeline of his movements.Okay?”
“Yep.”He sat a little straighter, brushing his hair back into some semblance of order.He decided the most pressing question centered around the time Serge had first come back into his life.“Let’s start when Serge broke into our house,” he said.It made no sense as to why Serge would try to rekindle contact after so long, even if it was in a completely random way.His skin crawled at the idea that his father had been slinking through his house in the dead of night, pawing through his things.
“Right.We need to know why he did that.”Lacey sat back on her haunches, narrowing her eyes and staring out the window, but leaving one hand comfortingly on his knee.
Why indeed?At first, Nico hadn’t been sure the burglar was even his father, it’d just been an intuition.But then Serge had made that disturbing phone call, giving details that cemented the fact it had been him in the house that night.Nico had been quick to update his security afterward, not wanting a repeat event.But neither he nor Lacey could come up with a reason why, apart from Lacey deciding that his father was lonely and wanted to have a peek into Nico’s life, no matter how small or insignificant.
But after Serge’s attempt to make contact with Lacey this morning, that break-in took on a more sinister feel.He’d made veiled threats against Lacey in his call.Had Serge been after Lacey all along, and Nico had been slow to see it?
“What if his presence in our house was something more than just voyeurism?”he asked slowly.“What if he had a more nefarious goal?”
“Like what?”Lacey questioned.
“Like, what if he’d found you asleep in the house alone when he’d broken in?”Lacey had been late arriving home that night.Had Serge been hoping to catch her unawares?Or had he actually been lying in wait for her?
“But we know…” Lacey tapered off, considering his question.
Smudge had alerted as soon as she had entered the house, telling her someone had recently been inside.And then when she’d looked out the front door, Serge had been standing a little way down the road staring back at her.The part that scared him the most was how she’d taken off after him in only her bare feet.
“And what if I hadn’t come home at that particular moment?”
“You think he was after me?”she asked.Getting to her feet, she began to pace across the small living room, and his gaze snagged for a second on her shapely, long legs, beneath the hems of her rather brief jean shorts.
Nico’s mind was buzzing now, pulling together everything he knew about his father’s interactions with them over the past few months.“Then there’s the way he left his recent kill so close to Burnie, where we’d be sure to find her; to be the first on the scene.Add to that, the fact that Taylor knew your name.She’d been told to look out for you.Serge was sending us another message.”
“Why?”
“As a way to get to you.And by getting to you, he’d get back at me.”
“But again, why?”It was a valid question.Why would Serge want to get back at him?He had no idea if his father held some kind of twisted grudge against him, and if he did, what the reasons behind it were.And why had Serge chosen Nico to be the target?Why not Brice or Gaëlle?
“Because of what you do for a living?”Lacey theorized.“You’re a homicide detective.He’s a serial killer.”It made a certain kind of perverted sense.And Serge was nothing if not perverted.
“Maybe it’s his way of warning me to stay away.He’s threatening you to make sure I back off.”
“Or pull you in closer,” Lacey said darkly.“You know the saying, keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”
“That would be suicide,” Nico snorted.“Even Serge isn’t that crazy.”But one thing was becoming crystal clear.Serge was targeting Lacey.For whatever debased reason his sick mind had come up with.Nico thought back to how Lacey had described Serge as beckoning her over to him from across the road.Had his intention been to abduct her in broad daylight?Nico licked his suddenly dry lips.
One thing Nico knew with absolute clarity.If Serge so much as harmed one hair on Lacey’s head, he wouldn’t stop until he’d hunted him down.Killed him, if that’s what it took.A son should never have to consider taking the life of his own father.But Nico was prepared to do it, if it came to that.
“We need to keep you safe,” he said, surging to his feet and heading for the bedroom.“We’re going back to Burnie right now.”
“What?We can’t leave.We’re so close to him.He might still be in town.”Lacey put her hands on her hips in a now-familiar stance.But he was having none of her stubborn denial.Not now.
