Chapter 27
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Tristan
I raced up the stairs to Parker’s flat. Now I knew she was safe with Sergei, all I could focus on was finding out who was trying to send her a message and what exactly they were trying to say.
If Parker refused to call the police, I couldn’t make her, which meant I had to take matters into my own hands.
In my gut, I knew the payments and the break-ins were connected.
I just didn’t have any evidence. And now, the rose?
That was a message loud and clear. Whoever it was wanted to draw attention to themselves.
I just wasn’t sure what they were communicating or how dangerous they might be.
As I walked up the corridor to her flat, I glanced at the ceiling. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for but I’d know it when I saw it.
Nothing seemed odd in the corridor so I took a close look at the front door. I pulled up the torch on my phone and peered into the lock. It didn’t look like it had been forced. How had someone got in?
I let myself in with the key and shut the door behind me.
I shrugged off the backpack I’d grabbed on my way out.
It had a laptop in it and some equipment still good to have on hand in a security emergency like this.
First thing was first, I pulled the rose out of the mug and put it in the bin.
We had a photo. It was the cup I was interested in.
Was it Parker’s? Or had someone brought it in?
There was no water in it—it was completely dry.
But had someone brought a rose in bloom and put it on the table only for it to die before Parker had a chance to see it, or had someone put a dead rose in a cup?
Both were sinister. I couldn’t decide which would be worse.
I took some more photos of the cup, then rummaged around in a couple of drawers before pulling out a plastic sandwich bag. I slipped the cup inside, sealed the bag, and put it in my backpack.
If someone wanted to watch someone, where would they . . .
I stood and turned three hundred sixty degrees in the small kitchen, looking at the ceiling to see if there had been any disturbances.
It would be too obvious in such a small space.
I scanned the top of the kitchen cupboards and then ran my hand along them to see if anything had been left, but there was nothing.
I checked under the kitchen table. Still nothing.
As I stood, something caught my eye but when I looked back, I couldn’t see anything.
What was it that had stood out to me? I took a step toward the toaster, which was plugged into a double socket.
A phone charger was plugged in next to the toaster, then next to it a pile of socks sat on top of what looked like a biscuit tin.
God, she needed to tidy up or get a storage unit or something.
I opened the tin. I wasn’t sure what I expected to see, but other than a single digestive biscuit, it was empty.
I slid the lid back on and paused, glancing back to the phone charger.
Had that been there when she’d been sick?
It was just a phone charger, but the cable seemed a little too short.
I looked more closely and found a small hole in the base of the plug.
That couldn’t be right. I flipped it over, took a screwdriver out of my bag and opened the back.
It was a camera. Whoever the fucker was that was messing with my wife had been watching her. Or had been planning to.
Working quickly, I pulled out some tools and set a tracer onto the counter underneath the camera device. I was going to try to hack into the feed from the camera and work out where it was going. Hopefully, I’d trace them before they saw me on the feed.
I checked all the other plug sockets but didn’t find anything else.
I ran my hand around window sills and the top of bookcases, but came up empty.
In the hallway leading to Parker’s bedroom and the half bath, I felt around every doorframe and decorative arch.
When my hand hit something the size of a pencil sharpener tucked above Parker’s bedroom door, I knew what it was even before I pulled it down. Another camera. I left another tracer.
In Parker’s bedroom, a mark on the carpet caught my attention immediately and my heartbeat cranked up a gear.
The carpet was cream, but just below the picture opposite her bed was a white mark.
If I hadn’t spent so long in this room while Parker was sick, I may not have noticed it.
I’d had far too long in here. I’d taken in every detail, wondering how it was possible to fit so many things into one room.
She’d clearly moved from a bigger place after her engagement failed and tried to fit everything—was it her ex-fiancé doing this?
An ex would be a likely suspect, especially since the rose had been left, but Parker had said that he was living in Monaco.
Maybe something had brought him back to London?
What had she said his name was? Details on his whereabouts couldn’t be more than a Google search away.
The white mark was plaster dust. I took the picture from the wall to find someone had drilled a hole for another hidden camera.
I taped another tracer onto the back of the picture and replaced it as if nothing had happened.
Someone so lacking in attention to detail as to leave a pile of dust on the carpet just below where they’d drilled a hole to place a surveillance camera wasn’t going to notice my thumbnail-sized tracer taped to the back of the picture.
I took a breath and scanned the bedroom.
What else was I looking for? Ultimately, I just wanted to find out who was trying to terrorize my wife and bring them to justice.
I didn’t need anything more—I now had a link to them and I just needed to be back in front of my computer and figure this the fuck out.
For the sake of thoroughness, though, I was going to put up some cameras of my own, just in case the fucker came back.
I had a couple in my bag. If I set up one in the kitchen and one in the bedroom and pointed them both toward the hallway, no one would be able to move through the apartment without being caught on tape.
I worked quickly, at the same time, trying to figure out what I was going to tell Parker.
Honesty was the only possible answer. I’d get the ex’s name and then I’d get to work.
We were due to go to New York the day after tomorrow for Andrew and Sofia’s wedding.
It would get us out of town, put some distance between us and whoever was so keen to keep an eye on Parker.
By the time we were back, hopefully, I’d have traced the culprit.