What Burns Within (16 page)

Ashlyn groaned. “That should be fun.”

Daly glared at Ashlyn. “They weren’t too happy we went ahead and informed the family about Isabella Bertini without contacting them. I know,” he said as Tain threw his hands in the air, looking as though he was about to protest. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“But we can’t look a gift horse in the mouth either, right?” Tain scowled.

“At the end of the day, there’ll be some hard questions about our inability to stop someone from preying on young girls in this area. This guy started off on Burnaby’s patch. Now he’s on ours. We’re not going to let him go any further, but we’re also not going to let people point fingers at us. If more headway had been made on the disappearance of Julie and Isabella before, we might not even have two more missing girls to look for now.”

Tain shook his head. “They’ll be quick to remind you that you only assigned one officer from the Tri-Cities to work the case with them, despite the apparent connection between jurisdictions.”

“You let me worry about that, Tain. Until two days ago, this was still a Burnaby case. Now it’s ours. We can’t cut it in two like Solomon’s baby and each take half. We have to look at the whole thing together and find out how this guy is working. And fast. And that’s why I want you both to go home, have a shower and go to bed.”

“Let’s go, Tain. Before he offers to come tuck us in.”

“Ashlyn.” Daly practically growled her name.

She smiled back. “Don’t worry. We’ll be ready tomorrow.”

“Nine AM. Don’t be late.”

Lori’s planned glass of wine had turned into a full bottle retrieved from the kitchen and ready to be discarded into the recycling bin. The water had long since lost its warmth. She pulled the plug and started the shower, felt the tension in her muscles ease with the pulse of the spray against her back.

After she finished she walked into the bedroom and pulled a towel over her arms.

The bedroom was filled with shadows, from the dresser and wardrobe, the floor lamps in the corners. The curtains were thick enough to shield those inside from view but not so dense that they masked the external light completely. She couldn’t see clearly outside, but she could hear the patter of raindrops against the roof.

It must be later than she’d realized. Lori turned to toss the towel back through the doorway, onto the closet floor, and felt the movement before she saw it. For a second it seemed as though her heart had stopped beating, and then it kicked into overdrive. A black form had sprung forward and grabbed her hard by the forearms. Now she was being twisted around, but not before she’d glimpsed the unconcealed portion of the face, the hard, angry line of the mouth, the way the eyes bulged.

Whatever strength she thought she possessed until that moment was proven useless within a matter of seconds. Her body was contorted, her torso twisted away from the intruder, her legs still facing the direction of the closet. She kicked at him and heard a groan. He let go of her arms, and then she felt the sharp pain of impact against the side of her head.

“Bitch,” the voice hissed. This time, he grabbed her by the hips and forced her down against the bed. She tried to reach up behind her to claw at his skin. The click of a blade being popped open echoed in her ears, and she put her arms down as the blindfold was pushed over her head.

MONDAY

“You’re late.”

“Some of us were working last night.”

Craig felt his eyes widen. “Why? Isn’t that what you have subordinates for?”

Daly sank into his chair, collapsing against the structure. “I can’t expect them to work forty-eight hours without sleep.”

The skin between Craig’s brows puckered, and then he nodded. “The child abductions. I thought that Burnaby—”

“The last two kids went missing here in Coquitlam. We can’t tell those parents that just because this guy started on the other side of city lines that we’re going to let them handle it.”

“No, of course not. Two kids in one weekend. Whoever’s working that case has their hands full.”

“Speaking of having your hands full, what about your cases?”

“Nationwide reports of unsolved rapes are starting to come in, as well as anything that looks similar to our guy’s method.”

“Right. Lori told me she’d made a call asking for that material yesterday. I told you she’s sharp.”

Craig glanced away, at the bookshelf behind Daly. He could feel his jaw clench.

“Your face always twists like that when you’re angry.”

“What difference does it make? All that matters is that we solve this.”

“But it still pisses you off that she wants to take your credit.”

“You’re the one who told me I needed to work on being a team player. It doesn’t seem to me like I’m the one who has a problem with that in this partnership. The pull down is always stronger. Don’t you think you should give me a partner who’s going to make me work with them?”

“Like I don’t have enough problems already. Talk about mission impossible.”

“I’m not that bad.”

Daly leaned back, rubbing his forehead, eyes closed. “Name one partner you’ve had that you’d like to work with again.”

“Ashlyn.”

The bit of color exhaustion hadn’t claimed already started to ebb. “Have you two kept in touch?”

Craig opened his mouth to speak and then drew a deep breath. “No.”

“So what makes you think she’d like to work with you again?”

Craig shrugged. “I didn’t say she would. The question was which partner would I like to work with again, and I’d like to work with her.”

Daly glanced down at his desk for a moment, his face unreadable, even to Craig’s experienced eye. “I imagine that case must bring up a lot of painful memories for all of you.”

“It wasn’t all bad.” Craig forced himself not to look away, to block out the memories.

“Good Lord, that’s like the equivalent of you saying you had a good time.”

Craig frowned. “Getting back to Lori, though, she’s late.”

Daly glanced at the clock on the wall. “And I have a meeting to get ready for. Surely you didn’t come in here to tattle on her?”

“No, that wasn’t the point.” Craig sighed, lifted his tall frame up from the chair, pushing his tousled hair back from his face. “But I’m not happy to be working with someone who knocks off early, shows up late and wants to take all the credit when they do decide to come to work.”

“Noted. I want a progress report by noon.”

“You mean you’ll be out of your meeting by then?”

Daly closed his eyes and rubbed his temples as he leaned back in his chair. “If I’m still in one piece, yes.”

“Okay. Noon it is. Are you buying?”

“Breakfast wasn’t enough? And you need a haircut, Craig,” Daly called after him.

Craig smiled as he walked away.

Ashlyn and Tain sat down across from their counterparts from Burnaby. She noticed they barely glanced at Tain, but she felt eyes lingering on her as she sat down and tried hard not to scrutinize them back.

Of course, they would have already met Tain. She glanced up with a polite, fleeting smile and turned her attention to the end of the table.

“Tain, have you met Sergeant Quinlan?” Sergeant Daly asked.

“Yes, sir.”

“Good. Then I think I just need to introduce Constable Hart. Ash—”

“Constable Ashlyn Hart?” Sergeant Quinlan asked her, a warm smile spreading across his face. Fit, short brown hair, she guessed about twenty years older than she was, but nothing about him that really stood out, other than that he was the mirror image of the fire chief.

“That’s right, sir.”

“I’ve heard good things about you.”

Ashlyn quickly averted her glance from Daly’s face. “You must be Chief Quinlan’s brother.”

“That’s right. He’s been very impressed with your work on the arson investigation.”

Ashlyn forced herself to avoid looking at Tain. “Thank you, sir.”

“And this is Constable Urquhart and Constable Mullins,” Sergeant Quinlan said. Both constables nodded at her.

The woman, Mullins, had short dirty-blond hair and dark eyes. She frowned. “Have you been reassigned from the arson investigations?” she asked Ashlyn.

Urquhart, who looked every bit the average guy with absolutely nothing unique about his features, from his regulation-length brown hair to his average height and brown eyes, said nothing.

Ashlyn looked at Daly, who cleared his throat. “That’s part of what we’d like to address here. Ashlyn was already on the scene of the arson fire on Saturday when Isabella’s body was recovered. It may seem tenuous as this point, but both Julie Darrens and Isabella Bertini were recovered from the scene of arson fires that have been linked. One of the things we want to look at is a connection between the arsons and the abductions.”

Mullins’s eyes narrowed. “I thought there were now six arsons that were linked.”

Ashlyn nodded. “That’s right.”

“But we’ve only recovered two children, and two more are missing. The numbers don’t exactly add up.”

“Let’s not be so quick to jump to negative conclusions.” Sergeant Quinlan held up his hand. “It’s definitely worth checking to see if there’s a connection.”

Mullins arched an eyebrow and stared down at the table, her grip on her pen tightening as her jaw clenched.

Ashlyn pretended to scratch her neck and took the opportunity to pull her shirt up slightly. She could feel Quinlan’s eyes lingering on her and was fighting the urge to squirm in her chair.

This was going to be a long meeting. She reached for a glass of water.

Craig tossed another folder on the negative file and rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. A quick visual survey convinced him he hadn’t yet covered a tenth of the reports he had to wade through.

A glance at his watch told him it was already half past ten. He didn’t know what was worse, being stuck with a partner you had little use for, or relying on her to help do the leg work only to have them fall short.

He started reviewing the files with a different system. Anyone with a connection to the lower mainland or something in their MO that correlated to the current crimes was flagged. Everyone else was tossed aside.

It wasn’t the type of methodical background he normally went for. He remembered going over files with Ashlyn, watching her work a hunch, seeing her take the initiative on a case.

There’d been other partners he’d respected. Other partners he’d crossed the lines with, he reminded himself. Ashlyn had always been different. Maybe it was because she knew more about him than any of the other women ever had, and they’d still been able to work together, to even forge a bit of trust.

He’d meant to call her. Every time he picked up the phone…He sighed as he flipped open another file.

There was no sense beating himself up about it now. Not with a ton of work and a deadline.

And a deadbeat partner, he thought as he looked at the empty desk across from him.

“Constable Nolan?”

Craig spun in his chair. “Yes. What can I do for you?”

“I’m Constable Sims. I was supposed to look into some information for Constable Tain. Have you seen him?”

Craig opened his mouth to speak and then realized he didn’t have a clue what to say. “Ah, sorry. No.”

Sims glanced at his watch. “He must still be in his meeting with Sergeant Daly. If you see him, could you tell him I was looking for him?”

“Sure.”

Craig stared at the straight back as it moved away. Could there be another Tain working for the RCMP? Something in Craig’s gut told him he already knew the answer, leaving him to wonder what the hell Tain was doing meeting with Daly.

And why his dad had failed to mention that Tain was working in the Tri-Cities.

“This is what we do know. Julie Darrens was abducted on June fourteenth. That’s the date of the first arson we have in this particular set. Isabella Bertini was abducted July eighth. That was the date of the second arson we’ve definitely linked. Julie Darrens’s body was found at the fire on July twenty-fifth. I have another fire on July eighteenth, which doesn’t seem to tie in at this point. Isabella’s body was found at a fire on August eighteenth, and we were at the scene of the sixth fire yesterday when we got the call about Lindsay Eckert. I wouldn’t exactly call that a thin link.”

The dark eyes narrowed and Zoe Mullins turned her glare away from Ashlyn to the end of the table.

“But how does this help us with the case? As far as I can tell, we have no more leads now than we did a week ago, and yet we’ve recovered another body and have two more children missing.”

“We do have evidence to review from last night,” Ashlyn said. “There’s a security tape from the hallway and we’ve reconstructed the abduction. A necklace Lindsay was wearing was recovered, which gives us a clear route to work with, something we don’t have for Taylor Brennen. We’re confident that whoever took Lindsay was familiar with Southside Recreation and Fitness Center. They used a fire door with a broken alarm, which meant nobody would notice when it was opened. Our guy waited in a secondary corridor that clientele had no reason for using. He parked in a secluded area around the back, near some trees. He didn’t just get lucky. He knew what he was doing.”

“We’re still waiting on fingerprint results from where we believe the perp was hiding,” Tain added. “It’s the best lead we have so far.”

“Do any of the members have records?”

“That’s next on the list. Tain and Ashlyn are going to have their hands full reviewing the material we have so far,” Daly said. “We’ll let you know if there are any leads that come up as a result of the information we have.”

Zoe’s eyes narrowed again. “You mean none of this material has been reviewed? It’s been about fifteen hours since Lindsay Eckert went missing, and with every second the trail is getting colder. What has your staff been doing?”