Page 89 of Nowhere to Hide
“Agreed.”
Nyx grabbed a tablet off her desk. “Now, speaking of this asshole, Bas and I have been working on the files you sent over. We have ideas.”
I glanced at Cilla and held out a hand to her.
She took it and we all walked over to the large screen on the left hand side of the lab.
Jackson frowned at me for a second before I turned away to follow everyone to the big screen.
No matter what, Cilla was the most important thing right now.
Even if everything inside of me wanted to sprint for the exit.
CHAPTER 18
CILLA
The Kendrick Groupwas nothing like I imagined. Especially this...lab? I wasn’t sure what to call it. The minute we got off the elevator it felt like a call center I used to work at when I was twenty. But walking in here was a whole different world.
It was like a Bond movie only Q was a spitfire woman who looked like all of these guys could tuck her into their pockets. But she commanded the room. As she moved through the lab, everyone swiveled to focus on her before going back to their own screens.
Nyx touched my arm. “This might be intense. Are you okay with seeing this? If not, I can settle you in one of our calming rooms.”
“I don’t need a calming room.”
I knew my voice sounded defensive, but I was tired of being sheltered. Officer Stone and Locke had been gatekeeping details about my attack. I had snatches of details, but so much of the man’s face was behind this void of black. A flash of his preternatural eyes followed me into dreams, but that was it. It didn’t make sense and only made my memories more jumbled.
“If one more person pats me on the head and tells me to go rest, I’m going to scream.”
Nyx nodded. “I get that. I’d be pissed off if my brothers kept me in the dark too. But you’ve gone through a trauma and this is heavy.”
Locke stood behind me and placed a hand on my shoulder. “Heavy might be an understatement. I don’t want to scare you any more than you already are.”
“I’d rather know what I’m dealing with.”
Locke nodded to Nyx.
A grid of women in varying poses filled the wall-sized screen. My breath backed up in my lungs. Knowing it and seeing it were far different things.
I stepped forward, out of Locke’s hold. “So, I wasn’t the first.”
There was a distinct scale from simple strangulations to more ceremonial scenes where scarves were used in more intricate knots. All of the women were young—some painfully so, but there was no rhyme or reason to the type of woman, which made me shiver.
A crime of impulse instead of stalking?
So maybe he’d just move on from me?
“This doesn’t exactly say fixation does it?” I glanced over my shoulder at Locke. “I don’t know anything about this, but it looks more...” I was at a loss for words. I huffed out a breath. “Ritualistic?” I moved closer to the screen, my fingers shaking as I touched the knots in the last photo.
Locke rushed forward and drew me back. “That’s what Stone thinks.”
“Serial,” I whispered.
“Yes.” The voice came from behind all of us. Leo Kendrick stood with his fingers in his pockets. “Former Detective Stone was onto something whether his captain wants to own up to it or not. We don’t have any jurisdiction, but we do have former FBI agents on our staff. Why I brought Jackson onto this case.”
Jackson Fox, the one who drove us here from the harbor, was standing along the side with his arms crossed. “I talked to an old buddy who is still at the bureau and this guy wasn’t on their radar. He is now.”
Locke frowned. “Can they do anything if Salem PD doesn’t call them for help?”
