Page 97 of Three for a Girl

“You don’t even know me.”

She shot him a glare. “I know you’ve been through absolute hell the past few years, maybe longer than that, and you still came back to work. That says a lot about you.”

“It says I’m stupid to think I could.”

“You’re not stupid, you’re determined, and brave.”

He laughed. It ached his throat. “I’m not.”

“Sure, you are, and I also know what it feels like when the weight of your memories crushes you. When you need to keep busy to keep going. We’ll catch the killer because it’s what people like us need to do.”

“People like us? You meangoodpeople?”

He couldn’t stop bitterness leaking into his tone, but Ally didn’t seem to care.

“No, not good people. People who need this job to feel alive. People who need distraction, and purpose, and to atone for our pasts. I know you’re like me, I knew it the second I saw you, Chad.”

The door clipped the side of the road, scrapping on dirt. Chad gripped onto the seat, desperately trying to get his seatbelt around his body.

“You mean crazy?”

Ally tipped her head back and laughed. “Yeah, crazy. We’re both different levels of crazy, partner. We’re both detectives for our own selfish agendas, and that’s okay as long as we catch the bad guys, and right now I need you to focus on Ellen and Kerion and the guy that killed them.”

She stabbed her forefinger on the screen in the car, taking it off mute.

“Where’s he heading?” she asked.

“Why the hell haven’t you been responding?” The DI shouted. Ally winced, then adjusted the volume, until it no longer sounded like he was seething.

“No reception where Chad lives.”

“Suspect was last seen driving down Limes Street.”

“Close to St Johns. Got it.”

Curiosity picked at Chad. “Who—who is he?”

“Andrew Flint. The girl in the photograph wearing the Scottsdale’s t-shirt, hat, and scarf is fourteen-year-old Zara Flint, his daughter. That was last picture taken of her outside the Scottsdale stadium. Her father was a season ticket holder, they went to all the home games together.”

“Last picture, what happened to her?”

“Like another ten people following Ellen’s account, she went missing. Three years ago, she vanishes with no trace. Her father searched for her relentlessly, he sold his house, hired a private detective, Eric Halt.”

“The van we singled out on the CCTV?”

“Andrew has no fixed address, lives in his van. Eric Halt doesn’t come cheap apparently, and he sold everything he had to pay for him. When Faye and the DI spoke to Eric, he told us Andrew became more and more obsessed with Ellen and Kerion. He was convinced they had something to do with her disappearance.”

“Looks like he was right.”

“Yeah, and he took matters into his own hands, and killed them. We picked his van registration up on CCTV two hours ago, but so far, he’s been evasive. The DI wants to keep it quiet, catch him unaware. There will be no public appeal for information on his whereabouts. He’s not deemed a danger, he got who he was after.”

“What did Ellen and Kerion do with all these people?”

“Current theory, they sold them into trafficking.”

“But what about Gary?”

“Men and boys are bought and sold, too. All the missing people were under sixteen, easier to subdue. We think Ellen and Kerion tied them up, injected them so they were immobile and transported them. Would explain why they’re all underage, and the hefty pay outs.”

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