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What the hell did that mean?She stilled as she considered his words.This man was a serial killer.His son was a homicide detective.There wasn’t going to be any happy family reunions when they finally met.Nico wasn’t going to greet his long-lost father with open arms.But the outcome Serge had in mind still wasn’t clear to her.Did he want Nico dead, or not?If she were to help Nico, she needed more information.
“Don’t hold your breath.”Her voice was full of mockery.“I’m not sure why you think he’ll find us so easily.Nico is good, but not even he is that good.And even if he does, he won’t fall for your tricks.”
“I have laid a trail of breadcrumbs.Only the smartest detective will be able to work it out.But I think Nicolas is that smart,” Serge said with the hint of a smile.
“A trail of breadcrumbs?”she repeated.What kind of clues had he left?Because up until now, he’d been exemplary at leaving almost no traces, as if he prided himself at staying ten steps ahead of the police.So, what had changed?Her mind began to churn through the possibilities.What was so significant about this house?Why had Serge chosen this place to forge his final stand?
“What does this cottage have to do with it all?”she asked.“Why did you bring me here?”
“Ah ha, at last you are beginning to think like a detective.”He gave that ghastly smile again.“That is the brilliant part.Once Nicolas figures that out, the rest will fall into place.”
The man was talking in riddles, and it was pissing Lacey off.“Why don’t you just stop all these games and tell me where we are?”she spat.Enough was enough.“I’m not about to go blabbing it to anyone now, am I?”She indicated her bound hands as evidence she was going nowhere.
Serge lifted one eyebrow and considered her for a moment.“This property once belonged to Vincent’s son,” he replied, surprising her with his direct answer.
Vincent?Who was Vincent?Then it came to her.That was the old farmer; Pacca’s given name.But what did he have to do with anything?He’d been the one to report the screams in the night.Then Danika’s body had been found on Cutter’s Road, the old track traversing his farm, and Taylor had clearly been set free in the same place.Was he complicit in the murders somehow?An accomplice to the crimes?Or merely covering up evidence?But what was his motivation?What was Serge holding over Pacca’s head to make him do such a thing?Clearly something to do with his son.But as far as she knew, Pacca had said he hadn’t talked to his son in years.
“So, it wasn’t a coincidence you dumped the body of that poor girl on his property then?”
“I don’t like the worddumped.”Serge’s face crumpled into what could only be called a pout.“It was her place of rest.I treated her with nothing but respect.She is free from the mortal coils of this world now.”
Lacey’s anger surged hot and intense and she wanted to spit in his face.“Respect!She was a young girl in the prime of her life, with everything left to live for.You didn’t treat her with respect.You murdered her.”Lacey was shaking with rage.How could this terrible excuse for a human being think he was doing that young girl a favor?She didn’t care that his mind was so twisted he probably had no concept of the horror of his crime.She was going to speak her truth.
Serge’s face crumpled again, but this time it wasn’t pouting, this time he was angry.“Murder is such a crass word.”A flush spread up his neck.
Yes, but that’s exactly what you did, she wanted to yell at him, but something stopped her, maybe the fact his face was now suffused with red, his eyes going so hard they could be made from obsidian.This guy was clearly messed up, delusional, and unable to separate reality from fantasy.So instead of confronting him, she changed tack again, going back to why he’d chosen this place as his dumping ground.
“Okay.”She drew in a deep breath, then another.“So tell me, why is Vincent’s son’s property so important?”As she spoke, she twisted her wrists, trying to ease the spasm that threatened to shoot up her arm at being held in one position for so long.
“Because I did a favor for Vincent a while ago, and now it’s time he paid me back.”
Okaaayy.Serge was nothing if not cryptic, but Lacey decided to persevere.Even if this conversation was making her physically ill, she knew any information she could garner might be helpful later on.
“What sort of favor?”
“I put out the trash for him.”
Lacey almost rolled her eyes.Why did he have to talk in riddles?But she’d keep playing along.Serge liked games, it seemed.She’d take a leaf out of Nico’s detective playbook, and keep it cool and professional.
“What do you mean bytrash?”
Before Serge answered her, he lifted his eyes above the windowsill to peer outside and she followed suit.Nothing moved, there wasn’t even a breath of wind to rattle the gum leaves in the branches.It was becoming stifling in here.
When Serge was satisfied nothing and no one was out there, he said, “Vincent killed his son, Alexander.He asked me to get rid of the body for him.”
What the…?This revelation posed so many more questions than it answered.Why had Vincent killed his son?How had he killed him?And how had he known to ask Serge to hide the body for him?Was Serge in the business of cleaning up other people’s messes?And what had Serge done with the body?A cold shiver walked over her skin, despite the closed heat of this room.
“It was good timing, actually.I needed a body double to make people think it was me who died in the car that day,” Serge continued, oblivious to the range of emotions coursing through Lacey.
Oh, God.Serge had used Vincent’s dead son to help him fake his own death.
Serge got a faraway look in his eyes.“I did a good job of ramming the car into that tree, got the angle right and everything, then jumped free right before it hit.But the damn thing wouldn’t ignite.There was plenty of gas leaking everywhere, but no spark to set it off.So I gave it a helping hand.”
By all accounts, the body in the car had been burnt beyond recognition.And because all the evidence pointed that way, the coroner assumed it was Serge in the vehicle and it was decided no autopsy was needed, and therefore, no DNA evidence was collected.But even if they had run a postmortem, any signs of how Vincent’s son had really died would’ve most likely been wiped from the body.
This sounded like the storyline to some multi-million-dollar thriller movie she might see at the box office.Serge had just admitted not only to faking his own death, but to committing arson to cover up his tracks.And he’d done it with such cool calculation, like it meant nothing to him.Nothing to his family.
Almost as if reading her mind, he added, “They were better off without me, you know.I knew what I was becoming.I needed to get away.It was the best solution all around.”
