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“Here.”He thrust a small package into her hands.It was wrapped like a present, in birthday paper.A square box, small enough to fit in the palm of her hand.“I don’t know what’s in there, and I don’t know nothin’ about that girl’s murder either.He said you’d know what to do with this, but to keep it to yourself.Please, just go away now,” he pleaded.
She studied the package, noticed the words printed in bold handwriting on the front.
DON’T TELL ANYONE OR HER LIFE WILL BE FORFEIT
What did that mean?Who’s life?Lacey’s?She was about to ask who gave him this box, what did these words mean, and how long he’d had it, when Lawson’s voice echoed across the dirt, loud and insistent.
“Lacey, we’ve got to go.”She was beckoning her over, arm waving wildly in the air, already halfway into the driver’s seat.“It’s important,” she called again when Lacey hesitated.Lacey could see the young constable holding back, not wanting to say what’d whipped the police radio into such a frenzy in front of the old man.
Before she could question the sanity of her actions, Lacey glanced once more at the box, then quickly tucked it into a pocket on her vest and turned on her heel.She didn’t know who the statement was referring to, but the words—a clear warning—sent a chill down her spine.She’d play along and keep this to herself.For now.The wordsher life will be forfeithad her worried that the killer—Serge—may have yet another victim.And if he did, her safety may depend on Lacey’s silence.
“You stay away from me from now on, you hear,” Pacca whined at her as she took the steps two at a time.“You got what you came for, now leave me alone.”Lacey tuned out the old man’s words as she jumped into the passenger seat.Dawn already had the engine started and was headed down the dirt driveway almost before Lacey had her seat belt fastened.
“What’s going on?”she inquired above the chatter still coming over the radio.
“Taylor has been reported missing.They want all units on it ASAP.”Dawn came to the junction of the driveway and the main highway and flicked on the police lights, then took off at speed back toward town.
“What?”Lacey was almost too stunned to speak.
“She and her mother checked in to a hotel last night before they were supposed to take the ferry home this afternoon.But Taylor was gone when the mother checked on her this morning.”
“Oh, shit.”Was it too much of a coincidence that the girl who’d got away once from the serial killer was now missing again?Lacey didn’t think so.And now she thought she knew who those words on the box were referring to.A cold sweat broke out along her backbone, and her hands became clammy.Shit, what was she doing?Should she keep the box a secret?Or not?
“They want us searching down along The Esplanade, near the hotel where they were staying.Just in case she went out for a walk and didn’t tell her mother.”
“That seems unlikely,” Lacey muttered, her mind a jumble of racing thoughts.
“I agree.We also need to be on the lookout for our POI, in case he’s no longer in Strahan.”
“Oh, shit,” Lacey repeated.Had Serge managed to evade the cordon of police searching for him, made it undetected to Burnie, then taken Taylor?To what end?To finish the job he’d started?But why?The police were crawling all over the place.It was only a matter of time before they caught him.Why was he staying in the area, rather than beating a hasty retreat?
“Did the old man have anything to show you?”Lawson asked, taking a corner at high speed that had Lacey grabbing for the bar above her head.
“What?”
“The guy on the phone said he had something to show you.The whole reason we went out there in the first place.”Dawn didn’t take her eyes off the road, but Lacey could hear the irritation in her voice.
“Oh, no.There was nothing.”Lacey pretended nonchalance, her heart racing like she was running the hundred-meter sprint.Whatever was in that box weighed like a heavy stone in the chest pocket of her vest.Why she didn’t reveal that Pacca had given her a parcel, she couldn’t rightly say.But something about the clandestine way it’d been delivered and the fact those words warned her not to tell anyone, made her hesitate.She wanted a peek at what was inside.Just one little peek.Once she knew for certain what it contained and if it were relevant to the case, then she’d disclose the truth.
This was a breach of protocol.She was required to divulge any clue or piece of evidence she found, even if she was unsure it related to a case.There was a resonance about the package, however; a tickle that swam in her gut.Backed up by those ominous words.This was meant for her eyes only.There was danger if she revealed its existence.To her and to Taylor.And it was this that kept her mouth shut, even though her cop brain was telling her in no uncertain terms that she needed to come clean with Constable Lawson, sooner rather than later.
All she needed was a few moments alone with the parcel to divulge its secrets.That was all.Then she’d tell her.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“HOW DID YOU let this happen?She was supposed to be under police guard,” Nico roared, throwing his hands in the air.Pederson merely lifted his chin an inch higher and eyed Nico coldly.“How did you let the star witness disappear?”Nico asked, this time getting right up in Pederson’s face.“She was a poor traumatized girl who escaped the clutches of a killer and you were supposed to be taking care of her.It’s our duty to take care of her.”
“I’d like to remind you that this is no longer your case,” Pederson replied calmly, not backing down an inch, and not letting his hard gaze leave Nico’s face.
A certain grudging respect blossomed in Nico’s chest.Most people wouldn’t stand their ground under one of his heated tirades.This man must have an ego the size of an elephant.And balls of steel.But Nico wasn’t backing down either.“They took me off this case because I was too close to the POI, and they said it might impair my decision making.But I tell you what, my decision making would’ve been a hell of a lot better than yours today.How could you take away her guard?”
The young detective glowered at him for a second.“She was due to head home today.She’s told us everything she knows.I needed the manpower down in Strahan, hunting the killer,” Pederson explained.
“Yeah, well, now you need to recall all that bloody manpower to find the missing girl you were supposed to be protecting,” Nico spat.And bloody Serge wasn’t in Strahan any longer, why wouldn’t Pederson accept that fact?The abandoned campsite pointed to the fact he had been there, perhaps for a while, but he wasn’t stupid enough to hang around once the police had swarmed the place.If they hadn’t found him by now, nearly forty-eight hours after Lacey had spotted him, then they weren’t going to find him at all.Serge might even have something to do with why Taylor was missing, which was the scariest part.Nico assumed Pederson had taken that into account, but he was done arguing with this man.
Pederson gave a one-shoulder shrug, but Nico was already out the door on his way to give Shadbolt a piece of his mind.He needed to take himself out of that room; otherwise he was likely to do Pederson a permanent injury.If that girl was harmed in any way because of Pederson’s incompetence… Nico tensed his shoulders and rolled his neck trying to stem his rising anger.
The second he’d heard about Taylor going missing over the radio, he’d dropped everything and raced back to Burnie, even though he knew he was off the case and wouldn’t be allowed to help in the search.Nico knocked roughly on Shadbolt’s door, barely waiting for permission to enter before bursting through.
