Page 14 of Nothing But the Night (Basic Instincts 2)

Marc was frozen for a second, and Jason was about to repeat himself when he nodded. Jason put a hand on his back and encouraged him to the front door. As they moved through the gym, Jason’s eyes searched every corner of the room, behind each piece of equipment as they passed. Dan had not been dead for long, he was certain of that. Just minutes before they had arrived. The floor he’d been mopping was still wet. Either whoever had slaughtered him had fled the scene when they pulled up, or they were still in here. He’d put money on the first option but wasn’t about to take a risk when Marc was with him.

They made it to the car. Jason told Marc to lock the doors then he called the police.

The rain clattered on the roof and obscured the view as they waited.

“He’s…he’s been stabbed.” Marc’s hand was on his face, agitatedly roaming across his chin.

“Almost certainly.” The bloody T-shirt had masked the injuries, but there was no other explanation for such a severe bleed-out. From his appearance alone, Jason guessed he’d been stabbed multiple times. Whoever was responsible for the attack had done it in a frenzy.

“Because of us?” Marc looked at him across the dark interior of the car.

“Not necessarily.”Though it’s a huge coincidence that it happens on the exact same night he chose to talk to us.“There could be all kinds of reasons.”

“Like what?”

“A disgruntled employee or a customer. Jealous partner. Drug dealers. You saw that place. It doesn’t look like the most reputable gym in the city.”

“But Theo was killed. And now the first person prepared to talk about what happened to him is also dead. It’s… There’s a connection… There must be.”

“You’re jumping to conclusions without evidence.”

“But if I hadn’t insisted on digging all of this up…”

“You’re not responsible for this. Get that idea out of your head because it will only fester. Do you hear me? You hired me to find evidence. And right now, I don’t have any. So, we have nothing to connect the two deaths.”

Marc did not reply. They sat in silence.

Jason heard the sirens before the blue lights rounded the corner and two police cars pulled in front of them.

“Stay in the car,” Jason told him. “I’ll talk to them.”

But by the time he’d got out, Marc was beside him on the pavement. Neither of them cared about getting wet and Jason didn’t argue with him.

Four uniformed officers approached. Jason gave them a concise account of what they had found. A moment later, an ambulance arrived.

“You didn’t try to administer first aid?” the lead constable asked.

“There was no point. He was already dead.”

“And how do you know that if you didn’t check?”

“I’m ex Royal Navy Police,” he answered flatly. “He was dead.”

Two of the officers went inside, followed by paramedics. Jason and Marc sheltered in the doorway of the building next door as the inevitable procedure unfolded. A police van arrived, and a barrier waserected in front of the gym. One of the constables, a stout young woman, came over to take their initial statements.

“Why were you here after closing time?” she asked.

There was no point in hiding the truth. They would see soon enough from Dan’s phone records that they had been in touch.

“He agreed to talk to me about a case I’m investigating. It was just a routine interview,” he added. “Dan thought he could help us out.”

“You’d never met him before?”

“No, only on the phone.”

He was aware of Marc beside him, shivering. It could have been from the cold, but he was just as likely to be in shock.

“Do you mind if we wait in the car?” he asked after a giving a very brief summary, leaving out the details of his case. “We won’t go anywhere. Just to get out of the rain.”

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