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He promised he wouldn’t hurt me.
Back when they’d been profiling the killer, he and Pederson had decided that even if the suspect had been a local, he’d never have been stupid enough to carry out the murders in the same town where he lived.It was like shitting in your own nest.They’d decided it was more likely the killer was a drifter, moving around from place to place.And while they’d been correct on part of their analysis, they’d been so very, very wrong about his not lingering in the vicinity of his murderous spree.Serge had been here all along, right under their noses.
Earlier, Nico had been so blinded by the idea that Serge had been in the neighborhood all along and they’d been completely unaware that he’d barely concentrated on any of the other words in her note.Apart from her last sentence, where he promised he wouldn’t hurt her.The mere idea of what his father could be doing to Lacey right now made his chest ache, like someone had stabbed him with a butcher’s knife.How stupid could she be to believe that?What had Serge said to her to make her think he’d keep his word?
Pushing those thoughts aside, he concentrated on her second sentence.Talk to Pacca, it said.Another interview with the old farmer had always been on his list, at least back when he’d been in charge of the investigation.Now, he had no idea what Pederson was planning to do.
Police had already thoroughly searched the farmhouse and all the outbuildings.Pacca couldn’t possibly be hiding anything out there.And Serge would’ve known the place would be searched, and that they’d be keeping an eye on it, so there was no way he’d be stupid enough to want to use it as a base, or even take Lacey there now.Would he?
With Pederson and Saito probably already gone, there was no way Shadbolt would allow Nico to go out and interview Pacca again on his own.So how was he supposed to find out what else the old man knew?He could ask Linc to do him a favor and drive out there for him.Linc was off duty right now, after spending all night out searching for Lacey, but he would do it, especially if he thought it might help to find her.But would Linc know what to look for?What questions to ask?Nico barely knew himself, and if he were to go, he’d work the questions out as he went, using Pacca’s answers to drive him forward.
As he pondered this question, his phone rang, shocking him out of his reverie.He almost didn’t answer, but then saw the caller ID and swiped with a grimace.“McTernan,” he said roughly.The private investigator hadn’t contacted him in over a week.McTernan was supposed to be tracking down Serge.Fat lot of good that’d done, the fucker had kidnapped two girls, killed one of them and now had Lacey in his clutches.So, with everything that’d happened, Nico was no longer in need of his services.
The guy was a failure in Nico’s eyes and he was about to give him a piece of his mind, when the investigator exclaimed, “I know, I know.You don’t need to say anything.Your father got the drop on me, and I lost the trail.I’m sorry.”
“No shit,” Nico growled, low and dangerous.He conveniently forgot that his father was a smart fucker and had got the drop on him as well, because he needed something to take his frustration out on, and this guy was gonna be it.Just as he opened his mouth to give McTernan an earful, the other man spoke down the phone.
“But I just heard something real interesting from a mate down in Canberra.”That stopped Nico midway through drawing in breath.“They got an ID on the body they exhumed from your father’s grave.”
“Who was it?”he asked, forgetting his anger in a heartbeat.If they could find out who had been buried instead of Serge, it might give them a tenuous link, another clue to follow.
“A guy by the name of Alexander Gillies,” McTernan said, his tone tinged with excitement.
Nico’s mind raced, but he came up blank.“Doesn’t mean anything to me,” he replied.
“It didn’t to me either,” McTernan admitted.“Until I did a little digging.This guy owned property in the Burnie area.”
Nico sat up straighter, his gut clenching, suddenly knowing this might be something big.
“And his property was adjacent to Vincent Mcmillan’s.”
It took a few seconds for Nico to dredge the name up from the dungeons of his mind.That was Pacca’s given name.The tingling in Nico’s belly became gut clenching pains.Of anticipation or dread, he wasn’t sure which.
“He was Vincent’s son, but he took the mother’s last name.Owned a house just down the road.But as far as I can tell, that house has been empty for a very long time.In fact, the guy seems to have dropped off the face of the earth around seventeen years ago.”
What the fuck… Nico could hardly believe what he was hearing.
“But he was never reported missing,” McTernan continued.“And as far as I know, his property is still sitting vacant and decaying.Alexander was Vincent’s only child, and the wife died twenty years ago, so he would’ve stood to inherit everything.”
So old Pacca had a son.Now that Nico thought about it, he remembered the man mentioning a son in passing, but the reference had been vague and Nico had never followed it up.How had this guy, Alexander, got from Burnie to end up dead in a fiery car crash in Canberra?And what was the possible connection between Serge and Pacca?
“How come the Canberra office hasn’t alerted us?”Nico barked, wondering what those guys were doing up there—sitting on their hands by the sounds of it.
“The results only came through yesterday.I don’t think they’ve made the connection yet,” McTernan said simply.
“How do you know all this?”Nico quizzed the investigator.
“I have my contacts,” McTernan replied simply.“And I wanted to make up for letting you down this week.”Of course McTernan would be up to date on all the pertinent information on the murder case so far; it was his job to stay abreast of everything that happened on this and every other case he was being paid to look into.Nico just wished he’d had the peace of mind to do the same.
“Right.Thanks.”Nico’s mind was already off on a tangent, analyzing and sorting through the tiny details in his head.When McTernan cleared his throat on the other end of the line, Nico said.“You’ve done good.Anything else I need to know?”
“Not yet, but I’m still working on it.Trying to find the connection between Alexander and Serge.”
“Great.Let me know if you do.”He rang off without another word, too busy with the roller coaster in his mind to worry about formalities.McTernan had just redeemed himself.More than redeemed, he might just have given Nico the clue he needed.The man would get an extra fat pay packet at the end of this month.
Nico wasn’t going to wait for McTernan to come up with the answers.He was going straight out to the horse’s mouth and ask the old guy directly.But he needed to tread carefully.
Nico did what he always did when trying to solve a problem.He got up and paced.The office was small, so he did laps around his desk.Should he take this new information to Shadbolt?Someone needed to go back out and reinterview Pacca.The old farmer knew something; it was clear he wasn’t telling them everything.Perhaps withholding information that could be vital to finding Lacey.Pederson and Saito had just left to catch a plane to Hobart.The only other person he truly trusted was Tyrell, who was still down in Strahan, wrapping up the investigation into the abandoned campsite.Linc would be here in a heartbeat if Nico called him in, and he would be out there shaking down the old farmer if Nico asked him to, but even though Linc was a good cop, he wasn’t as experienced as Tyrell or Nico.If Linc got it wrong and the old man clammed up, he could risk screwing this whole thing up.
