Page 48 of Three for a Girl

“Half the CCTV was out on that street for the repairs.” Ally said.

“We’ve increased the radius to five miles.”

“That’s a lot of CCTV to look through.”

“And a lot of white vans to investigate.” Josh added.

The DI pushed through the doors to the incident room. A file was clutched to his chest, and he slapped it down on Faye’s desk.

“Gary Vulux.”

Josh tightened his face. “Who’s that?”

“Gary Vulux was charged with a robbery six months ago, his father’s jewelry shop. He cut himself on a display case at the scene, his blood helped with the conviction, but his father took pity on him. He was lucky, only got community service. Blood type, DNA markers … both match the sample taken from the top-box.”

“So let’s bring him in.”

“He was reported a month ago.”

Chad frowned. “He’s missing?”

“Missing and his blood’s all over Kerion’s bike. Gary’s father is coming in to help with the investigation. We need to find out the relationship between Gary and Kerion.”

“We got a shit load of questions, but hardly any answers.” Josh said.

The DI nodded. “Sums it up perfectly.”

****

Despite marching the length of the station to find a quiet coffee machine so he could take a moment, voices closed in on Chad’s position. Two officers were talking, and Chad was intent on ignoring them, grabbing his coffee, and moving on, but then he heard the word killed, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. He grabbed his coffee, sidestepped away from the machine, and got out his phone as he listened.

“She was in here yesterday, complaining about the power cut.”

Change clunked as one of the officers pushed it into the machine.

“I can’t believe it. Dead, strangled in her bed.”

The corridor warped around Chad, he backed away, until he was pressed against the wall. The tightness to his throat intensified, as if Romeo’s hand were still on him, squeezing the life out of him.

He saw the eyes, the eyes that were all monster.

Romeo had gone off into the night with murderous lust pumping in his veins. It was inevitable, Chad had let the monster go free.

“There you are.”

Chad jumped at Ally’s voice, spilling coffee on the floor. He blinked, trying his best to pull his spinning thoughts together, but he knew he was rambling from Ally’s frown. He didn’t know what was coming out of his mouth, but could feel vibrations throbbing in his throat, and his tongue and lips moving.

“Wow, slow down. It’s fine,” she said. “There’s no need to apologize quite so frantically.”

Chad didn’t even know what he’d said, but Ally squeezed his shoulder. Her eyes were on him, but they weren’t the only ones. The two officers by the coffee machine were also staring, Chad didn’t have the energy to confront them, but Ally took offence to their gawping.

She took the coffee from Chad’s hand, and turned on them. “Why don’t you clear off before I throw this at ya?”

They backed away fast, and by their wide eyes and skittish movements, Chad suspected Ally might have thrown coffee at someone before. She relaxed when they disappeared down the corridor, and passed the cup back to Chad.

Someone had died, someone had been strangled.

Ally snapped her fingers in Chad’s face. “Hey, drink it.”

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