Beyond the Shadows (21 page)

Noting the gray pall to his skin and his stiff movements, Kelly realized he’d pushed himself too far.
Damned stubborn man. Still trying to prove he was superman.
He needed to get home to rest. Kelly turned towards Chris who hovered in the doorway. “If you see this man again, whatever the time of day or night, I want you to call me immediately.” She pressed her business card into his hand. “Here is my number. This guy is dangerous and is not to be trifled with, got it?”

The kid nodded—his eyes wide. Satisfied the message had gotten through, she thanked him and walked towards the car. She heard Nate follow, but also the question Chris fired after him.

“Hey, mate—are you two together?”

“No. We’re work partners—that’s all.” His voice sounded cold and distant.

“Huh. If I had a chick like that say she loved me in front of the world, I’d be a happy man. Mind if I ask her out then?”

Kelly pushed the glass doors open and marched out to the car not wanting to hear his answer. She blinked furiously to keep the tears at bay. She’d known it might be like this and she’d promised herself not to get too hopeful after the amazing lovemaking they’d shared. He was a man after all and she had thrown herself at him. What man in his right mind turned down uncomplicated sex?

God, her heart hurt. She put a hand to her chest and massaged the spot, but the pain was buried deep. Seating herself in the driver’s seat, she spotted Nate coming towards her and quickly slid on a pair of sunglasses.

“All right?” he asked.

“Fine,” she answered in a clipped voice and put the car into gear. She looked over her shoulder to check the traffic and pulled out, avoiding the intent look he gave her.

“I’ve asked the kid to hold onto the tape and keep it safe. Said I’d have a warrant tomorrow to seize it for evidence.”

She swung her head around. “I thought we agreed to do this on the quiet. Just us—to keep you out of trouble.”

“We were,” he agreed. “Then it started getting too dangerous. You were targeted. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”

The fleeting relief at the thought of more manpower to help them with this nightmare was quickly overcome with concern for Nate. “But how do we explain how we narrowed it down without letting on how much we know?”

“Easy. We tell a little of the truth.” At her raised brow, he explained. “We just happened to be at the beach and saw the woman and her boy. Got a shock when we saw her photograph as the next victim and started doing a little investigating of our own. They know I’m a sucker for punishment and wouldn’t be surprised to hear I’ve been getting itchy feet.”

Kelly nodded slowly and thought it through. She couldn’t see anything to trip them up. “That sounds plausible. Reece at the station already thinks that’s the case. I got to admit, it will be a relief to have more men on the ground looking for this guy.”

Nate’s hand covered hers on the gearstick. “I promised I won’t let anything happen to you, Kelly and I meant it. Yeah, it will be good to have them, but I’m going to be sticking to your side like glue.”

She slipped her hand out from under his and returned it to the steering wheel with a strained smile. It felt too good, too easy to lean on him. If she let herself, when it came time to say goodbye, she would be destroyed. She’d lived her life relying on no one but herself for so long, the thought of having someone protecting her back was alien. The thought of having Nate at her side warmed her blood, even though she knew exactly how dangerous it would ultimately be to her peace of mind to rely on him being there.

The trip to the station was completed in near silence, each wrapped up in their own thoughts. She pulled into an available space, cut the engine and took a deep cleansing breath. “We ready?” She smiled, the expression stretching like drying plastic on her face. And it felt just as fake.

“Ready,” he affirmed, his voice calm. “Relax,” he smiled and stroked her cheek. She fought the urge to grab his hand and keep it there. “It will all go well and we’ll have that bastard behind bars before you know it.”

As she unbuckled her belt, her arm brushed over the unfamiliar bulk of the gun at her side. God, she’d almost forgotten about it
.
How would she have explained to the boss why she was armed? “We’d better lock these in the glove compartment while we’re inside,” she suggested to Nate. He already had his unbuckled, a hand reaching for hers—as always, one step ahead.

She slapped her weapon into his hand, pushed out of the car and waited for him to follow suit. They entered the building together. Shouts and wolf whistles came like a wave, thick and fast when Nate pushed open the office door. Colleagues leapt up and clapped him on the back, congratulations and jubilation making her grin. This level of comradeship was exclusive to people in service for their country and never failed to awe her. They were a family. You were never truly alone and for the first time, she felt the stress she’d carried since Nate’s shooting fall from her shoulders.

“How’s the patient been?” an officer asked as she stood back and watched the melee surrounding Nate. Kelly rolled her eyes and got a laugh in response.

“Do you really have to ask? He’s been like a caged lion the last couple of days. It’s so good to be here.” She didn’t realize Sergeant Blackwood was behind her until he spoke, his deep bass voice cutting through the conversation in the room like a jackhammer through concrete.

“Why
are
you here?”

Silence descended and all eyes turned to them.

She took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and turned to face him. “We’ve got a solid lead on the copycat and need a warrant to secure a video tape which shows his face.”

The Sergeant stared down at her, his immense bulk intimidating to those who didn’t know it was mainly for show. “How good is the evidence? Enough for a conviction?”

Kelly inclined her head. “Combined with the service station attendant’s statement, it’s certainly a step in the right direction, sir.”

“You two are meant to be off duty. What are you doing investigating in your spare time?” he barked, a frown heavy on his brows. “I want O’Leary back fully fit as soon as possible which means
resting
him. He’s one of our best. Look at him. He looks close to collapse.”

Kelly’s cheeks heated at his rebuke and her tone sharpened. “I understand that, sir. We
were
at the beach resting. Once we got home, I received an update on the case with a photo of the latest victim. Nate—O’Leary and I recognized her instantly as one of the citizens on the beach. Her death was recorded as not long after we’d seen her there,” she explained concisely. “From there, we phoned all available businesses hoping to find footage of the area and struck it lucky with one in particular.”

“Why didn’t you call us then?”

Kelly hesitated and found Nate’s eyes on hers. His subtle nod of approval gave her confidence to carry on. “It felt personal.” Her voice came out softer than she’d intended, and she cleared her throat. “Only hours before, she’d been a vibrant mother playing in the sand with her little boy. She deserved someone who’d seen her before she was nothing more than another dead body, someone who would try to find her killer and bring him to justice.”

Blackwood nodded and the audible sound of sighs reverberated around the office as people released their pent-up breath. He motioned for Nate to join them. “All right guys show me what you’ve got—and then you,” he jabbed a thick finger at Nate’s chest as he joined them. “You will be going home to
rest.
That’s an order.”

Chapter Eleven

The man paced the small lounge, frustration growing with every passing minute.

“Where is she?”

With the working day over, people had returned home in a steady stream. As the sun set behind the neighboring low-level buildings, the streetlights winked on. Curtains closed as residents shut the world out, wrapping themselves in the comfort of their box-shaped cocoons for the night.

Out of sight from prying eyes, he’d watched the activity with mindless fascination. He couldn’t understand the need to immerse oneself in career and family. The endless rushing about to meet schedules. The stress and noise of a busy household was maddening. He shuddered. It was nothing short of chaos, and his idea of hell.

When the shadows stole the last bit of light from the room, he blinked and peered out into the darkened street. Empty. He gritted his teeth. She wasn’t coming home.

With nerves strung as tight as the shoelace he’d placed around the last whore’s neck, he fell to his knees and prayed.

“God. What do I do now? Show me.”

There was nothing. He strained his ears, hoping to hear a whisper in his head. But it had gone silent. God had deserted him right when he needed him the most. Now he knew how Jesus had felt.

He screwed his eyes shut tight and pleaded from the depths of his soul, his throat rasping the words. “Talk to me,
please
. I am your willing servant, and I need you to show me the way!”

Still nothing. His mind remained clear and too quiet. He’d never felt so alone. Lurching to his feet, he picked up a vase from the mantelpiece wanting nothing more than to shatter the silence. As he raised it above his head, his eyes caught on a captioned photograph, picked out as if in spotlight from the light of the moon.

Gently placing the vase back to its original position, he picked up the photograph and smiled. He drew it closer and laughed aloud. God hadn’t abandoned him. He offered a prayer for forgiveness to the Holy Father for doubting him and promised him another lashing in punishment when he returned home. The meager light winked off the glass, but even in the near dark, there was no mistaking Constable O’Leary’s direct glare. The news footage of Kelly holding her dying partner, pleading with him to hold on and telling him she loved him, replayed in his head. Suddenly, he knew exactly where Kelly would be.

He wandered over to the beam of moonlight slanting in through the window to read the printing under the image. Constable O’Leary and his inexperienced partner were being lauded for their diligent work in unearthing the crucial evidence that caught the serial killer. Thanks to the duo, the city and their vulnerable women could stop looking over their shoulders and actually sleep at night.

He sneered. Or so they thought. How could such supposedly intelligent people get it so wrong?

Yeah, he’d help lay the trail. By now, he thought they would have seen through it. He shrugged his shoulders. People see what they want to see. It gave him added time to rid his city of sinners before he dealt with his current assignment. It would be more difficult with O’Leary in the picture but not impossible. And anyway, he thrived on challenges.

Energized by the new plan, he strode purposefully into Kelly’s office and flicked on the light, no longer concerned about being noticed by the neighbors. God watched over him. The familiar feeling of right burned like a flame in his belly. He sat down at her desk and flicked through the address book beside the phone. His thumb trapped the pages on the letter,
O,
and he grinned
.

“Nathaniel O’Leary. I’ll be seeing you soon.”

Rising from the chair, he walked through the house to make sure everything was as he’d found it, and let himself out into the night.

“Ready or not—here I come.”

****

Nate felt a great sense of relief as they drove home from the station. Soon, this nightmare would be over. The photo he’d taken of the killer’s face from the video footage hadn’t come up with a match on the face recognition program, but there was still manpower on their side. Copies had been made for every officer. They would all be on the lookout for him. Auckland city wasn’t the easiest place to disappear in.

“Want to stop and get some Thai takeaway for dinner?”

Kelly glanced over. “Sounds good, but I like it hot,” she warned with a smile. “Think you can handle that?”

Nate’s brows rose. Was she flirting with him? Her smile turned feline the second before she turned her attention back to the road. Oh, yeah. She was all right. The fatigue that had settled heavily on his shoulders over the past couple of hours magically lifted as images roared through his brain. “Honey, I’ll happily give you all the hot you can handle.”

Kelly slid a teasing glance at him. As her mouth opened to answer him, her face wavered and morphed before his eyes. He blinked and shook his head. What the hell was going on? Was he relapsing?

No sooner had the thought flashed through his mind, than Kelly’s face transformed into that of the woman from the beach. He pressed himself back against his seat—horrified—but transfixed by the sight. And then she spoke. Like a child, he clapped his hands over his ears to block out what she had to say, but her voice was in his head, penetrating his flimsy attempts.

You can’t save her. She’s already dead. Just like me
—
like all of us.

“No!” he roared, “I won’t let that happen! I can’t.” He punched the door and her image flickered.

The car screeched to a stop and he jerked forward, his seatbelt cutting across his chest, grating against the still raw wound. Hissing in pain, he closed his eyes and let his head fall back against the head support. He felt her lean over him but kept his eyes closed. The familiar vanilla scent he now associated with Kelly teased his nostrils, but he couldn’t bear facing any more ghosts of the women he should have saved. He was too exhausted, his soul too close to shattering as it was.

“Nate! What the hell? What happened? Answer me. Where are you, damn it!”

Warily, he cracked open one eye and encountered Kelly’s familiar features. Right now, they were tight with alarm. Her hands bracketed his jaw, the warmth of her palms lending strength and forcing his attention. Her clear, blue gaze held his fiercely.

“It’s okay. I’m back.”