Chapter 29 Locke
LOCKE
The police station was a dead zone. At least at the front of the building.
Looking a little deeper, I could feel the tension.
Detective Diaz and Stone, fully out of his uniform blues again, were mid-argument.
I checked in at the front desk and got a visitor’s badge.
Stone spotted me with a shake of his head. “I can’t talk to you.”
“I know, but I can talk to you.”
He folded his arms over his chest. “Fine, come on back.”
Diaz followed. “I’m not getting left out of it this time.”
When the door shut, I handed him a folder. “I’m not sure the feds will take my info, so I came to you.”
“What info?” They both asked in unison.
Stone flipped open the folder. I’d given him everything including the physical tracker. We had the details already, but if this guy had killed in more states maybe it could help the feds close cases.
“We just found it on my boat. There were two trackers. One was put into Cilla’s suitcase. That one was a simple AirTag. Not much to go on there since they’re available everywhere.”
I filled them in on the explosion on my boat as well as the tracker details. I was covering all my bases when it came to finding this guy. Every channel that was any use to me.
There wouldn’t be a trial.
This monster was getting put down one way or another.
“Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?”
“I was a little more worried about keeping Cilla safe.”
“The feds have taken over. You can’t be involved anymore.”
“Officially, that’s correct. Cilla would hate that there might be other victims out there. I hope the tracker might be a lead for the feds.”
“What are you doing?” Stone handed the folder to Diaz.
“It’s better that you don’t know.”
“Jordan, you can’t get involved.”
“Thanks for what you did to help her.” I opened the door and strode out.
Diaz followed me. “I can arrest you for interference.”
I kept walking. It was an empty threat. They might have their hands tied by the law, but I didn’t.
I hopped into the SUV I’d borrowed. Instead of heading back to the tower, I went to the wharf. I needed to see the scene one more time. It lived in my head, but my own distortion of emotions was definitely getting in the way.
In the daytime, the wharf was so much different. The sun was high in the sky and the dock’s weather-beaten planks were innocuous instead of foreboding. Foot traffic was heavy thanks to the ferry schedule and the end-of-summer vacationers taking a stroll through Salem.
It wasn’t exactly a summer destination, but a quick half-day trip from Boston brought enough people in.
I retraced the path she likely took that night. My muscles tensed as I envisioned how scared she’d been. In full fight-or-flight, she’d chosen to run.
There were plenty of places for him to hide and pick out his prey.
I shielded my eyes and peered up at the rooftop bar of the hotel. Had he scoped her out there?
Or just found her because she had been alone?
Had he chosen her because of how she looked or just because she was available prey.
I raked my fingers through my hair and pulled at the short strands.
I turned to head back to the parking lot and spotted something shiny near the dry-docked boat. A flash of that night hit me. Where her purse had been found.
In the same spot there was something stuck in between the planks. Almost the exact same canister, but instead of Mace it looked like a case that might hold lipstick or Chapstick.
I picked it up. It had a magnetic clasp. Inside was a blood spattered piece of paper.
My fingers shook a little.
You have to protect her. No matter what.
Milligan’s voice had been so damn quiet, but it was back and echoed my same feelings.
I flicked it open.
She was mine first.
I crinkled it in my hand. My heart hammered in my head so fast that I couldn’t breathe around it at first.
Focus.
He wants to fuck with you. Look around and work the scene.
I blew out a slow breath and tucked the note back into the case and stuffed it in my pocket, then scanned the area. I stayed crouched and swore when I found the camera.
He wanted to see me freak out.
Hoped I would come back here again.
Maybe even put the camera up so he could watch the cops find his handiwork. Sick fucker. I didn’t disturb the camera so I could have one of the teams check it out. Maybe they could get something from the feed or maybe even find a way to trace it back to him.
For the first time, I felt like something might actually be working in our favor.
He was impatient, and impatient people made mistakes.
That’s how we’d find him.
It was always a small thing. Why The Kendrick Group trained us to look for the smallest details.
This fucker wasn’t infallible.
That’s all that mattered.
I dug my phone out of my pocket and texted Dom to ask for a team to come in. He’d know who to use. If anyone could find a way to trace it back to him, it would be them.
I made sure not to look at the camera directly, instead, I went back to my SUV. Before I got inside, my phone rang.
The cars were outfitted with jammers, just like the tower. I doubted this guy was high tech enough to actually have more than a few cameras around to get his rocks off—but I couldn’t trust it.
“Hey, Dom.”
“Are you sure you spotted a camera? Not something just for the wharf?”
Right to it. I did appreciate that about my boss. “No, it was a small camera. I almost missed it, but something told me to look for one when he planted his little clue for me.”
I gave him the rundown from the parallel from the night she was attacked and what I found. “I think I need some of Mason’s geek squad to come down here and see if they can find more cameras. If he wanted to see someone find the note, I bet he wanted to see the cops find his present. Sick fuck.”
“Nyx and Cilla are actually working on a lead too. The tracker from your boat wasn’t your average bug. Maybe we’ll get the same luck with the cameras.” Even the best cameras on the market needed a network to work. Just maybe we’d catch a break.
“I’ll wait here for the team, make sure no one messes with the scene. Should I call Stone?”
Dom was quiet for a beat. “Mason’s gear is well beyond what the feds have at their disposal. Let’s let them do their thing first.”
The coiled snakes in my gut eased. “Good.”
“See you soon.” Dom hung up and I threw my phone on the dash.
Another escalation or a game? Maybe both.
I dug out the note and stared at it again.
The rusty dots on the paper were obviously blood. Was it Cilla’s? Or the latest victim?
The wait for the team felt like six thousand years. I needed to get back to her. Needed to see her with my own two eyes.
By the time the familiar black vehicles rolled in, I was ready to peel out of the parking lot.
The trucks were tricked out with the best equipment as well as Mason’s inventions.
Once I gave them directions to where the crime scene had been and where I found the note, they were able to pinpoint a better plan of attack.
I left them to it, racing back to the tower.
In my head, I knew she was safe. She was with Nyx, and the tower was the next best thing to an embassy. Leo was no joke when it came to security for the building itself.
The need to see her went beyond sense.
I couldn’t regulate my system until I got to the lab.
She was sitting cross-legged in one of Nyx’s fidget chairs.
The queen of the lab was forever in motion and made sure to trick out her space with the same kind of things to embrace that.
Cilla was hunched over a keyboard, a massive screen before her, and she had a pile of. ..was that gummy bears in front of her?
It sure was.
Intermittently she would take only one and chew its head off then eat the rest. Her eyes never left the screen, and her fingers were flying. I’d never actually seen her in her element, only in recovery or survival mode.
I couldn’t stop the quick smack of love.
It almost took me to my knees.
I walked right over to her and spun her in her chair and kissed her breathless.
Her eyes were wide and her mouth swollen when I finally let her up for air.
“Uh, hi.” She laughed and dragged me back down for a softer kiss. “What was that for?”
The hint of sweetness on my tongue made me want to pull her out of the chair and head back to our room. “I couldn’t stop myself.”
She glanced around, then I followed her gaze, and caught Nyx smiling at us like a lunatic. I just rolled my eyes and crouched beside Cilla. “Find anything good?”
“I’m close.”
I stroked my hand down her hair.
She caught it and brought it in front of her. “What happened?”
I shook my head.
“Don’t hide stuff from me.”
I sighed and dug out the case.
With shaking fingers she opened it and took out the small piece of paper.
She set it on the table and smoothed it out, her fingers steadying with each pass. “Of course he probably used the most widely used printer, paper, and font in the history of anything.”
I laid a hand on her shoulder.
“What’s happening?” Nyx appeared at the desk.
Cilla pushed the paper toward her and rose from her seat. She tried to walk away, but I pulled her into my chest.
“That monster.” Nyx’s voice shook. “We need to get this to the authorities.”
“No.” Cilla pushed away from me. “We need to catch him.”
“Cilla.” My voice was cool, and I was anything but inside.
She shook her hair back, her eyes a little shock-y. “I have a list of people. It’s not a small list, but we might be able to whittle it down.”
Nyx turned Cilla’s screen toward her. “What did you find?”
“Mason’s team is working on something from the docks.”
Cilla frowned up at me. “What did you find at the docks?”
I cupped her face. “Cameras. I don’t know how long they were there. It could have been since the beginning.”
She slumped down into the chair. “You think he was filming? Watching?” Her fingers curled into her palms on the desk. “Hunting?”
“Cil, I don’t know anything.”
“That’s what you think though? Right?”
I sighed. “It would fit. He’s getting bolder and he’d probably want to watch whatever game he was playing unfold.”
“I need to get this to Mason so we can cross-reference with whatever he and the team find.”
“It’s my domain since they’d have to run it through a network.” Nyx’s voice was quiet.
The kind of quiet that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
Nyx and Cilla became a united wall. The tech speak was beyond me, but there was one thing that I did understand—Cilla wasn’t going to be put into a protective bubble anymore.
She wanted this done.
And that terrified me.
Mason pulled me away from the lab to talk about what they were able to collect at the docks. They decided to jam the signal enough to gather the information on what kind of cameras they were, and Nyx was able to hack into the network.
But this wasn’t just about Cilla.
This was about all the women he was hunting.
We needed to loop Stone and the feds into this—they just didn’t need to know we had access to the feeds as well.
Because this sick fuck wasn’t the only one who could hunt.
Dom and Leo dealt with the federal side of things. Now that there was the first bit of a break in this damn thing, they could check the other crime scenes to see if cameras were used there as well.
But for now.
It was about the wharf and setting a trap.
And if there was one thing I knew how to do, it was to get on the offense.
I’d been playing defense for far too fucking long.
On every level.
Cilla would be safe, and that was all that mattered.