Page 8 of Rain Washed

“It’ll be okay,” Nico soothed. “Linc’s tough. We’ll get him to hospital, and he’ll be fine.” Lacey was glad to have the concerned, compassionate Nico back. The one she could relate to.

CHAPTER FOUR

NICO GRITTED HIS teeth and told himself to concentrate for the hundredth time that afternoon. He was supposed to be studying the crime scene, inspecting the body still floating in the water below him. But his mind refused to cooperate, drifting off at random intervals to Lacey. Where was she? What was she doing now? The last he’d seen, she’d jumped in the back of the ambulance to be with Linc, who was still unconscious.

He understood Lacey was annoyed with him, and he could guess why. He rewound back to their conversation right before she left.

“Where are you going?” he’d asked a little confused as she’d turned to climb into the ambulance. He’d wanted Lacey to stay here with him. “I need to debrief you,” Nico had said.

“And you can do that when I get back to the station. Once I know Linc is going to be okay. Something you don’t seem to be that worried about.” She’d glared at him then, amber eyes sparking with flecks of gold, her mouth set in a hard line. That’s when he understood she was mad at him. He probably should’ve seen it earlier, but he’d been so damn worried about her. When he’d heard her voice on the radio, urgent and shaken, saying that Linc had been hurt and she thought the perp might still be in the area, adrenaline had spiked through him as a rush of pure fear took over. Lacey could be in danger. All he was worried about was getting to her as fast as he could, and Lawson had struggled to keep up with him. Nothing else mattered. It was only once he was sure Lacey was safe and his crime scene secure, that he’d turned his attention to Linc. He wasn’t very proud of his reaction, but at the time, it was all he’d been capable of.

Lacey was deeply compassionate; it was one of the special traits he loved about her. Of course she was more worried about Linc’s welfare than anything else. She wouldn’t be Lacey if she wasn’t. But as she turned her back on him and sat next to Linc, her hand on his shoulder, a flicker of jealousy had spiked in his gut. Rationally, he knew there wasn’t anything going on between them. Lacey was in love with him, and he trusted her implicitly.

He needed to get this irrational fear out of his system. It was making him second-guess himself. Driving him slowly and quietly insane. Lacey was a police officer, her job required she be put into dangerous situations sometimes. The logical side of him understood that. He just needed to get the message through to his heart, but it didn’t seem to want to listen.

Who knew love could be this complicated, turning him into a bowl of emotional mush? Nico needed to be strong, needed to be rid of all distractions so he could do his job properly. He had to find a way to make this work. To reconcile his love for Lacey, along with his need to protect her at any cost. And balance that with doing a good job. Somehow he needed to learn to separate his love life from his professional life. Back when he and Lacey had first started living together, Nico had thought it’d be easy. But if anything it was getting harder and harder to see Lacey off to work every day and not worry about her constantly.

“Forensics just arrived,” Lawson called from her position fifty feet away, where she waited at the trail junction, breaking Nico out of his reverie.

“Right.” Nico just had time to compose himself before the team from Devonport walked single file down the trail. Harry McCormick was head of the Forensic Science Service of Tasmania, a group of civilian scientists who leant their expertise to a lot of Tasmanian police precincts. Burnie—along with many other smaller police stations—didn’t have the resources to employ their own team, so they outsourced to a couple of reliable companies. Nico had gotten to know Harry well over the past few years and he greeted him with a warm handshake.

“Wow, you guys are keeping us busy,” Harry commented. Then he introduced Nico to his two assistants, neither of whom Nico had met before. A petite brunette with glasses, and a tall, gangly guy with a spotty face who looked no older than a teenager. Nico hoped they knew their stuff. Harry wouldn’t have brought them otherwise, he surmised.

“What a mess.” Harry grimaced as he snapped on a pair of latex gloves and leaned in to study the body.

“Yes,” Nico agreed. This second body had been here much longer than the first and had been compromised by local fauna. “I’m hoping you can tell me what animal made the teeth marks in her face. My bet is that a family of Tasmanian Devils had a good feed.” Nico stood back to make room for Harry and his assistants.

“Can’t give you a definite until I get her back to the lab.” That was Harry’s catch phrase. He never gave away anything until he was one hundred percent certain. “Is this body related to the one you found yesterday?” Harry queried.

“We don’t know yet, but it seems likely,” Nico acknowledged. “Both found so close together. Both females of a similar age. Both with ligature marks around their neck and wrists. No ID or anything that can identify this victim on the body either.” Nico ticked the pertinent points off on his fingers. The one niggling difference was that this victim looked to be of Asian descent, while the first was definitely Caucasian. “I’m still waiting to hear back from Dr. Lagos about the cause of death on the first one,” Nico admitted. The local forensic pathologist carried out all the autopsies for Burnie and surrounding areas, and Nico hoped and prayed that the doctor had no other murdered bodies on his list of this week; otherwise, it could take days or weeks to get the results he needed.

* * *

Nico stared at the evidence board stuck to the wall. He’d commandeered the same meeting room he’d used to solve Rania’s murder from which to run his operations for this new crime. It was large enough to house four or five desks, had a big whiteboard at one end where he could set up his evidence board, or murder map as they liked to call it, and large expanses of wall where they could pin up other photos of the crime scene, maps, or any other reference material they might need. A junior officer was setting up a couple of computers and a printer on the rear desk, but otherwise, the room was empty. They really needed a dedicated room—or better yet, a suite of offices—that could be used specifically to run his investigations from. Until now, Shadbolt had refused Nico’s request for an exclusive area assigned to his use, but if this investigation got any bigger, he might well have to admit defeat and stop complaining about his budget.

Nico dragged a hand through his hair. It was after five in the evening and he’d just returned to the station after leaving the crime scene. Dr. Lagos had retrieved the body, and it was now on its way to the local morgue for autopsy. Harry and his forensics team were still at the site, but Nico had decided he’d seen enough and wanted to return to HQ because he had a lot on his mind.

There was still no word from Lacey, and Nico jiggled his phone in the palm of his hand, wondering if he should contact her. If there was anything to update him on about Linc’s condition, surely she would have messaged him by now. Lacey had said she’d come back to the station and give him her account of what’d happened later. But Nico had no clear idea of when that might be. She was still technically on shift till eight tonight, but no one at the station would begrudge the fact she wanted to be by her partner’s side. He fretted over his decision for a few more moments, and then finally tapped out a message, asking if she had any news on Linc.

There was no reply, and Nico began to pace in front of the whiteboard. Should he go to the hospital and see for himself? Linc was made of tough stuff, but if he died… Nico didn’t even want to entertain the idea. Lacey would be a complete mess if that happened. As would Tyrell. The senior constable had taken great delight and all the credit when his nephew had requested an internship in Burnie. And knowing Tyrell, he’d probably be taking all the blame for Linc now ending up in hospital. He made a decision, if he still hadn’t heard from her in half an hour, he’d drive over to the hospital.

But for now, he had a murder to solve. Well, two murders. A second dead body, found only a day after the first. It was almost unheard of, especially in Burnie. Nico considered the photos of the two dead women he’d pinned to the board. Like he’d said to Harry, there were a lot of striking similarities about the girls, including the fact the girls were around the same age. But also some differences. The first girl was clearly blonde and of Caucasian descent. But this new girl had long dark hair and was perhaps Chinese, if he had to guess. The different ethnicity had him stumped. And without any form of ID found on the girls, this case was proving tougher to solve by the minute.

Of course, the specter of the possible serial killer had raised its head as soon as the first girl was found. But his female victims of choice seemed to be slightly older, and they’d all worked in the sex industry. These two new victims looked too wholesome to be mixed up in that trade. But Nico had learned to be cautious before jumping to conclusions. Just because these girls’ clothes, hair and makeup were more of your girl-next-door variety, it didn’t mean they weren’t still prostitutes.

To their knowledge, the serial killer had not struck again. The trail had gone cold since the third victim had been found over near Zeehan. Hobart detectives had flooded into the small town and had gone over the evidence for months. But they’d not been able to uncover anything conclusive. And they were still in the dark about his methods and motivations. A profiler had come up with a vague description of the perp they were looking for but there wasn’t a lot to go on. Male, probably not a local, more likely a drifter. Had perhaps killed before, as he seemed experienced with killing, and the crime scenes were always left spotless—the killer careful not to leave anything behind that might give him away. And perhaps this man had a military background, because of the spotless conditions of the crime scene and when the bodies were found they were laid out neatly on their backs, hands folded onto their chests above their hearts. But these two new murders seemed to scream of a lack of finesse, the bodies just dumped in the nearest river. And why were they left where anyone could find them? Unless this killer didn’t understand how a dead body behaved once it’d been submerged. Or they wanted the bodies to be found.

As he pondered a possible link to the serial killer, Sally-Ann poked her head around the doorframe. “Oh, good, you’re here.” His friend came all the way into the room. “I think I might have some information on the dead girl from yesterday.”

Nico lifted his head and motioned Sally-Ann over. He needed some good news. An ID on the victim would be a good start.

“A woman came into the station just after lunch wanting to file a missing persons report,” Sally-Ann started. “The junior officer at the front desk took down the information, but didn’t twig that it could be related to our case, and I only found out about it ten minutes ago when I overhead the junior officer briefing her superior. The woman who filed the missing person report is named Anastasia Kibel, I think that’s Russian, and she said her twenty-one-year-old daughter hasn’t been seen for at least three days. The daughter’s name isZoya Kibel. Her description fits with our first vic.” Sally-Ann looked up, a gleam in her eye.

“Great catch,” Nico congratulated. “That’d fit the time frame,” he continued thoughtfully. They still didn’t have the official autopsy report, but Nico had enough expertise to realize the body hadn’t been left for more than two or three days in the water. “Could you take Hickey over and talk to this lady?” Nico would like to do it himself, but he still hadn’t heard from Lacey. He trusted Sally-Ann to get it right, she was a great officer with good instincts, and had earned her promotion to senior constable after she’d been instrumental in helping to catch Gabriel. If this missing girl was their victim, it’d really help kick-start the investigation. Normally, he’d send Tyrell and Sally-Ann together, they worked great as a team. But Tyrell was sitting by his nephew’s bedside in hospital.

“Sure, boss.” Sally-Ann grinned, looking like a bloodhound on the trail.

“Call me when you’ve finished,” Nico instructed. “I’m going to pop over to the hospital and check on our courageous officer.”

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