Page 47 of Three for a Girl

Josh peeked out of the incident room door, and when he saw Chad coming up the steps, he raised his eyebrows and beckoned him to hurry. He was grinning, but Chad didn’t even attempt to smile back, not that Josh seemed to notice.

The door swung shut behind Chad. He cast his gaze over Ally and Faye, already hard at work. Chad had turned up on time, but had sat in his car for thirty minutes, pulling himself together.

“What is it?” he asked.

Josh frowned, he gave Chad a quick look up and down. “Wow, late night?”

“Huh?”

“The voice, the eyes.”

“I’ve caught something.”

“No shit, don’t give it to me.”

Chad’s throat ached, his words came out wheezy, and he swallowed excessively, but they were nothing he couldn’t blame on a common cold.

“What about the blood?”

“Well, it wasn’t Kerion’s.”

“Then whose?”

Josh shrugged. “Wasn’t Ellen’s either. We don’t know who it belongs to, but it is human, and it’s old. It’s being run through the system, luckily there was quite a bit to work with.”

Chad massaged his throat, pressing against the pain.

“You all right?” Ally asked. “Can’t have my new partner croaking it before he’s caught himself a killer.”

“I’ve caught killers before.”

“Not here, though. You got to prove your worth.” She winked. “Not pull a sicky.”

“It’s only a cold.”

“Better be, we’re working a case, you need to be superhuman.”

“I’ll try my best.”

Chad resisted the urge to keep rubbing. He picked up a file on the table to stop himself from holding his throat and flipped the page to find a picture of Kerion.

Kerion wearing denim shorts and a vest top, laying across the hood of an Aston Martin. He grinned, and had one of his eyes shut as if he was winking.

“As you do.” Ally smirked.

“If I had one of them, I’d be rolling all over it.” Josh said.

“Probably with two women in bikinis and a load of whipped cream.”

“Wilma Fields says she saw Kerion talking to a man in a van next to the parking lot.” Faye said.

“Did he get in the van?” Chad asked.

“She doesn’t know.”

“Description? Number plate?”

“She said the man was wearing shades, it was dark in the van. We’re searching through the CCTV of the area, we should be able to find whoever Kerion was speaking with.”

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