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Are you coming?Taylor is waiting for an answer.
God this man was calculating.
Yes, I’m coming.Will be there in ten minutes.
She’d probably better get going, before Nico came home and found her dithering and then her chance to save Taylor’s life—and possibly his as well—would be gone.Lacey thought about her police service weapon stored in the safe in the kitchen cupboard.Should she take that along?After weighing up her options, she unlocked the safe and tucked it into the waistband of her shorts.If she got any opportunity to use it, she wouldn’t hesitate.But she also needed to make sure Taylor was safe, and she’d only use it if the circumstances allowed.
Then she scanned the kitchen… Searching for what?There was nothing else she needed to take.Her wits were going to be her most important weapon this time.The jean shorts, T-shirt, and runners she’d donned when she’d arrived home while she was waiting for the phone to charge were both practical and no-nonsense, and it wasn’t cold enough to require a sweater.
At the last moment, she turned back to the kitchen and grabbed the notepad and pen they used to make their shopping lists stuck to the refrigerator.She owed Nico something.He’d probably never forgive her anyway, but she couldn’t leave him completely in the dark.
By the time you read this, Taylor should be safe.
She wavered over her next few words.How much should she tell him?If he came home too soon and read this, then he might ruin everything, especially if she gave him the exact address and he rushed over and busted the door down and then ended up dead with a bullet through the chest, shot by his own father.But she wanted him to know she was close.
He’s in Boat Harbour.
She touched the tip of the pen to her chin as she considered her next words.
Talk to Pacca, he knows more than he’s letting on.
That last part was true.The old man had practically confessed that he knew Serge somehow when he’d given her the box.Pacca was tied up in this by fair means or foul, she just wasn’t sure what the connection was.
Her last line said,He promised he wouldn’t hurt me.
It would probably be of little comfort to Nico, but she needed to give him something.Some hope.Something to keep him from going crazy.And she also hoped that he trusted her enough to know what she was doing.Yes, it might be foolhardy and rash, but she was doing this to save his life.To save Taylor’s life.
She laid the pen on the table next to the note, picked up the burner phone, patted Smudge on the head and told him to stay, then walked out through the back door.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
NICO DROVE HIS motorbike up the driveway and into the shared garage.The Jeep was parked up in its normal spot next to Dotti and the kitchen light was on in the house, so he knew Lacey was home.Removing his helmet, he released the tie holding back his hair and shook it free.Hopefully, the Chinese takeout in his side pannier was still warm enough to eat when he got inside.He’d stopped at their favorite place on the way home to pick it up on the off chance that Lacey probably wouldn’t feel like cooking.He knew her; she’d be too consumed with worry about Taylor.
Lacey had a connection with the girl, an unhealthy one, if you asked him.She had a habit of getting too close to some of the victims in the cases she encountered.And this one had really drawn Lacey in; she’d become attached to Taylor more than anyone before her.Perhaps it had something to do with pregnancy hormones, although he dare not mention that around her.Compassion was always a strong emotion in Lacey, but maybe she was feeling extra solicitous toward anyone who needed mothering right now.And Taylor had been through a harrowing experience, it was only natural for Lacey to want to protect her, offer her comfort.
He unpacked the Chinese food from the pannier and then closed up the garage, making sure to check his surroundings first.As part of the new security system, he’d also installed a series of bright floodlights that were motion sensitive; he’d be able to see a gnat flying at twenty paces, it was that bright.All clear.So he strode across the lawn toward the house, his mind turning to the interesting events of this afternoon at the station.
His interview with Taylor’s mother hadn’t turned up any more pertinent information; the poor woman was almost hysterical, and he didn’t blame her.Neither she nor Taylor had noticed anything or anyone untoward, either last night or this morning.Although she had questioned that young detective as to why he thought they no longer required a police guard, but she’d taken him at his word that Taylor was no longer in danger.Now she wished she’d demanded the guard stay.Poor woman swore black and blue that after this nightmare, when Taylor came home, she was never letting her daughter out of her sight again.Nico assured her they were doing everything in their power to locate Taylor and kept his dark thoughts on whether she would be alive or dead when they eventually found her firmly to himself.
His chat with Mary hadn’t revealed much more of interest either.Mary was adamant that Taylor wasn’t suicidal.Confused and traumatized, yes, but not so much so that she’d take her own life.Mary divulged that Taylor had mentioned in one of her many sessions that she owed it to Danika to keep on living.She was immensely conflicted that she’d survived and her friend hadn’t—survivor’s guilt, Mary called it.Danika’s life had been cut so terribly short, and Taylor wanted to honor her best friend by keeping her memory alive, and by doing all that she could with this future she’d been given.
Nico had gone back and reported all this to Shadbolt, and then, begrudgingly, and under Shadbolt’s direction, to Pederson as well.The other detective hadn’t seemed to have taken umbrage to anything they’d said earlier; it was like he had the thick hide of an elephant.He’d received the news with the cool detachment Nico was becoming used to.But Nico couldn’t bring himself to sit and chat with the other man, just filing his report and then getting out of the ops room as fast as he could.
On his way back to his office, Nico decided to call in on Sally-Ann, and it was a damn good thing he had.Because she had some mammoth news.Instead of joining the task force in Strahan, Sally-Ann had stayed behind to continue to investigate the cold case murder in Canberra that was possibly linked to Serge.
But even better—or worse, depending on your point of view—she’d found another case in Aireys Inlet, a small town only half an hour’s drive from Lorne in Victoria that seemed to match their serial killer’s MO.Young, pretty, hitchhiking out of town.She’d been strangled to death too.Lorne was where his father had supposedly spent years hiding out, using a different alias before he finally got spooked and moved to Tasmania.If his mother’s old friends Marco and Priscilla Normandy hadn’t spotted him and then passed on the information, they may never have known where he’d been all this time, let alone that he was still alive.
Sally-Anne told him that more things about the case in Canberra were starting to match up.The girl had been found lying in a shallow grave, hands crossed over her heart in a ritual position, the crime scene cleaned and left sterile.Police had been stumped right from the beginning, unable to even find a single POI on which to concentrate their efforts, and the case had been shelved after less than a year, with no new leads or clues.The homicide detective in charge of the case seventeen years ago had since been promoted to detective inspector, but when Sally-Ann had contacted him he was astounded to learn there might be fresh leads, and keen to reopen the cold case file as soon as possible.
It wasn’t concrete proof that Serge had been the killer, but Nico’s gut told him it was true.He wondered if they’d find any more bodies that matched his style in Canberra.Or perhaps that was his first kill and then he’d quashed his urges until he’d made his escape to Victoria, where he’d started again.
Sally-Ann was yet to hear back from the cops in Lorne, but Nico had no doubt that when she did, the details would be chillingly familiar.
One question that still stumped him—one of the many—was why his father had moved on from fresh young girls to killing sex workers.What did he have against them?From all accounts, as much as his mother would talk to him aboutthat, anyway, his father had normal sexual urges and appetites.If anything, he may have had a slightly lower libido if he was reading his mother’s hints and innuendos correctly.Men often chose women in that profession because of their own failures in the bedroom.Either that or to fulfill some sort of sick fantasy.It could be either of these or something completely different driving Serge, and it bugged Nico to no end that he knew so little about his father that he couldn’t even guess at his motivation.And now he seemed to have digressed back to his old fondness for sweet young things.But why?Was it simply that his tastes had changed?Or was it because he wanted to send Nico some sort of particular message?One that he currently had no idea how to decipher.
Serge had come back damaged when he returned from the Gulf.Looking at it now, he probably had some form of PTSD.But Nico didn’t know enough about that to guess at how or why it might have changed him, and even if it was the reason he’d become a killer.Or had Serge always had the capacity to be a killer, and that’s why he’d joined the military?So he could kill and maim with impunity in the name of his country.Their usual police psych, Imran, might be able to shed some light on that subject, and Nico made a mental note to ask him if he had time to pop down to the station tomorrow for a chat.
As Nico got closer to the house, he could hear Smudge barking inside.A little odd, Smudge would normally know it was his master coming home and be waiting at the door with a wagging tail and a doggy smile, but not barking.Vaguely, he wondered why Lacey didn’t hush the dog.
