Page 46 of Absent Remorse

It didn’t even slow the fleeing form of Adam Trench. Amber sprinted after him, trying to beat him to the door of the house. She was too slow, though, and Trench was through the door before Amber could stop him. He tried to slam it after himself, but Amber managed to block it with a foot, kicking it back open. She and Simon ran after him as Trench headed for his SUV.

He was quicker than he looked, leaping into the driver’s seat before either of them could get a hand on him. He threw the SUV into reverse, barreling out of his driveway and starting to speed off along the street where he lived.

“The car, quick!” Simon called out.

Amber was already running for it, jumping into the passenger seat even as Simon leapt into the driver’s seat. They set off at full speed, lights on and siren blaring, chasing after the fleeing SUV.

Amber could see it ahead now. Adam Trench was driving erratically, weaving in and out of traffic at full speed, obviously trying to find a way to lose them. He took a left turn, tires screeching with the effort of it. Amber lurched in her seat as Simon threw the car into a skid to follow him.

They kept going, cars moving out of their way thanks to the siren, not that it made things simpler. Some started to move too late, just as Simon had clearly decided to drive around them, meaning that he had to take evasive action. Others didn’t seem to have anywhere to go.

Slowly though, they were closing on the SUV. It just didn’t have the speed to keep ahead of them. They closed in, and Amber saw Simon move the car into position just off the rear bumper of the other vehicle as they came to a relatively deserted section of street. She realized what he was about to do only moments before he did it.

She braced herself as Simon shoved the car into the rear right corner of the SUV in a classic PIT maneuver that sent the SUV into a spin as Adam Trench struggled to regain control of it. For a second, it was going backwards, and then it skidded to a halt, stalling only a couple of feet from a streetlight.

Amber leapt from the car with Simon, her borrowed gun ready in her hands. She levelled it at the windshield while Simon moved around to the driver’s side, dragging Adam Trench bodily out of the driver’s seat. Simon threw him down on the sidewalk, standing over him with his gun covering him.

“Hands where I can see them, Trench. No sudden movements!”

Trench stared up at him as if he couldn’t quite believe what had just happened to him. Slowly, carefully, he raised his hands.

Amber moved to where Simon was, taking over the job of covering their suspect while Simon closed in with his handcuffs ready. Amber heard him close them around Trench’s wrists with a reassuring snap of metal on metal.

“Adam Trench, you’re under arrest.”

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

Amber stood in the interrogation room a little behind Simon, watching as he started to interrogate Adam Trench. He had a lawyer in there with him, a dark-haired man in his thirties, wearing a sharp suit and with a briefcase open on the table.

“Do the names Amy Rose Ferne, Amanda Grieder, Alicia Greening, or Aiden Merr mean anything to you?” Simon asked.

“My client won’t be answering questions,” the lawyer said. “He denies all wrongdoing.”

Simon didn’t give up there, though. Amber knew from her training that at this stage, the key was to find a way to get the suspect talking about anything, whether it was by engaging in meaningless conversation or simply trying to shock or pressure them into a response.

“Of course you know those names,” Simon said. “You’ll have seen them on the news.”

“They were all killed. So what?”

“So, the killer left us a puzzle to solve to unravel his identity, and the key to your storage locker at the station was at its heart.”

Amber saw the shock then on Adam Trench’s face.

“What?”

He looked genuinely surprised that they had found the key there. Could that just be an act, though? Amber had heard from Simon that he was a con artist. Maybe this surprise was all a part of the con.

“I didn’t have anything to do with that!” Trench insisted, his former composure gone.

The lawyer cut in then. “My client won’t be answering any of your questions.”

“If he doesn’t, then this is going to go badly for him. We have evidence linking him to the crimes, evidence he sent, evidence that he thought his puzzle was too clever for us to get to.”

“No, I never did that,” Trench said. “I don’t know anything about that.”

“So, why was your key in the middle of the puzzle?” Simon demanded.

“I don’t know.”

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