Page 96 of A Step You Shouldn't Take

“Her purse is in the living room, and she was meant to be coming over this evening.”

“Shit. And there’s a smear of blood on the doorjamb outside the downstairs half-bath. I’ll call it in.”

The perp had gotten in through the back door. One of the glass panels had a perfect circle cut out of it, right above the handle, and a cold breeze blew through the kitchen as we waited for the cops to arrive. But no chill could have rivalled the ice in my veins.

“Do you think it was the same guy?” Wyatt asked, mirroring my thoughts.

“Either that or it’s one hell of a coincidence. Dammit, I should have suspected he’d come back for her. He had her address. She got away, and I bet he didn’t like that.”

“But he took Katia. He’s already got a K.”

“Maybe he stopped caring about the alphabet and focused on revenge.”

“Or it might not have been him. Coming here would have been a big risk, and a stupid one.”

“Yeah, but we’ve been putting the pressure on,” I said. “Maybe he’s losing his head, and this time, he felt as if he had no choice but to act quickly. Which means we’re getting close.” Close, but at what cost? First Emma, and now Kim. But Kim had only been gone for a few hours, and Annie too. Was there a chance they were still alive? “What do you want to do? Split this? I’ll work the embassy angle and you treat it like a regular kidnapping?”

My gut told me everything was connected, and I’d learned to rely on those feelings in the past. We’d been stirring up a hornet’s nest, and Kim was the one who’d got stung.

“I know we’ve had our differences, personally and at work, but I trust your instincts.” Wyatt gave his head a shake. “Maybe even more than mine.”

“Then we’ve got two suspects left. Kenneth Stern and Hal Bisham, and they’ve both got diplomatic immunity. As soon as the rest of the cops arrive, I vote we take one each and use whatever means necessary to find out where they were this evening.”

“Agreed. Any preferences on who takes which?”

“Give me Bisham. I’ve got an idea for him.”

I pocketed Kim’s necklace because with what that meant to her, there was no way I was letting it go into police custody. Wyatt’s episode with the coke wasn’t the first time vital evidence had disappeared from a supposedly safe place.

A siren sounded in the distance, and I steeled myself for questions from my former colleagues. My explanations would be brief for now. Firstly, I had no way to explain half of the leaps we’d made in the case, from Kim to Georgette to Jacqueline, and secondly, we had no time to lose and following procedures would only slow us down.

When I’d started checking out the embassy staff, I’d followed Bisham to the gym one evening, a twenty-four-hour place on the edge of Chevy Chase. The guy looked as if he worked out regularly—broad chest, narrow waist, tight sleeves. His thighs didn’t match, but perhaps he skipped leg day. While Wyatt dealt with his colleagues and dug into Stern’s life, I put my car into gear and headed for Esprit Health & Fitness.

How to play this… A sob story? The truth? Or I could cut through all the bullshit and commit a Class 1 misdemeanour. What did twelve months in jail and a fine I couldn’t afford to pay matter when Kim and Annie were missing?

At the gym, sorry, thehealth club, I abandoned my SUV in the no-parking zone outside reception, grabbed my fake police badge out of the glove compartment, and jogged towards the doors. At the desk beyond, a young blonde sat playing with her phone.

“Can I help?” she asked as my shadow fell over her.

“Wyatt Banks, Montgomery County PD. I’ve got a few questions about one of your members.”

Her eyes went wide. “I’ll call my manager.”

“No need to wake your manager up at this time of night. This’ll only take a minute.”

“Really?”

“Really. The guy’s name is Hal Bisham.”

“Steroid Hal?” She clapped a hand over her mouth. “I didn’t mean that! We definitely don’t have any steroids here. There’s even a big sign in each locker room saying they’re not allowed.”

“I don’t care about steroids. I just want to know whether Bisham was here earlier this evening.”

“He’s here every evening. Sometimes he just sits in the juice bar to catch up with friends, which is kind of odd because he’s literally the most boring person in the entire world.”

There every night? Didn’t always work out? Steroid Hal? Asshole was probably dealing.

“And tonight, can you see when he swiped in and out?”

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