My Heart Belongs To You: A Psycho Thriller (24 page)

‘
Should have got him years ag
o
,
John, I missed too much, I can’t believe I missed the clue of the fingers.’

‘Wood for trees
,
’ replied Hanson.

‘Buck stops here
,
’ retaliated the unhappy detective.

Hanson could see the self-recrimination, the inner agony the tired detective was going through as he swept his gaze along the photos on the white wall.
  ‘
Would
have
, should
have
, could
have,
doesn’t matter now.
We now work as a team
.’

Turner
sighed heav
i
ly
.  ‘
Thanks
,
John
.’

‘
For what?
’

‘I think you know
,
’ he responded
,
moving away towards the refreshment table.

Hanson watched him go
.
He
knew
that
whatever the outcome
,
Cupid
would
have left his mark on the unhappy detective that could
never be erased.  No argument, no
reasoning could take away the guilt that would remain with the man, every breath of the rest of his life, eating away at him like a cancer.

‘John.’

Hanson turned to his secretary, ‘
How
are we doing
,
Jane?’

‘I thought we might give Donald a little time with Fuller before we all meet up. It would also give you a chance to speak to Stephanie.’  Jane nodded towards the rest area where his sister sat on the edge of a seat
,
her head flicking up and down as she studied her brother
,
waiting for him to acknowledge her.

Hanson’s features soften
ed
immediately
as he paced towards her
, ‘I’ll spend ten minutes with Steph
,
’ he called over his shoulder, ‘
Then
I’ll shower up before the
meeting
.  Can you rustle up some food please Jane
,
I could eat a scabby horse.’

‘Would that be with stirrups or without?’

‘Saddle, the whole works
,
’ he grin
ned
,
as he sat next to Stephanie
,
placing a muscular arm around her shoulders.

‘Can we go now
,
John?’ asked his sister
,
rocking back and forth
,
with
her deep green
eyes flicking nervously between her brother and the other people milling around the large room.

With her warm breath on his cheek, it
was now Hanson’s turn to feel guilty.  Stephanie was clearly agitated at having to spend so long away from her familiar environment, the comfort blanket of her routine dragged from her grasp.  ‘I need to be here a little longer
,
sis
,
’ replied Hanson softly.  ‘We’ve now got some solid leads and thanks to the connection you made with the ring sizes
,
we have something to work with.’

‘Can we get Tom and Karen back now?’
asked
Stephanie
,
rubbing her right temple as if in pain.

Hanson took hold of his sister’s hand, pulling it away from her temple, gripping it between his large hands in a firm protective grip.  ‘I promise you
that
we are going to do everything we can
,
sis, and if we do
,
I’ll tell Tom how much help you’ve been.’

Stephanie visibly relaxed, ‘I like Tom, John.  He’s always nice to me.’

Hanson kissed the back of her hand, ‘
Everyone
likes you
,
sis.’

Stephanie giggled softly and pulled her hand away, ‘
You’re
silly
,
John.’

Hanson stood, more relaxed now that his sister had calmed, ‘
That’s
me
,
sis, your silly big brother.’  He gently lifted her chin
,
so that she was looking up at him
, his heart so
a
ring as she giggled again when he
gav
e her an exaggerated wink.  Hanson
moved away to the small bathroom at the back of the compound, stripped and showered.  He pulled on a
tracksuit that
he kept in a locker in the bathroom and stepped out
feeling refreshed
into the electrified atmosphere of the command centre.  He could feel the optimism cra
ckle like static electricity
.
They
had leads
and
they had the link discovered by Stephanie
.
They
had a chance.  Hanson checked his watch 20.48 p.m., Tom and Karen had 22 hours and twelve minutes of life remaining.

‘Here’s your food
,
John.’

Hanson took the large pl
ate overflowing with chicken
pasta and sat at the large centre table.  ‘Let’s get to it people
,
’ he instructed
,
digging into the heaped plate.  ‘Donald
,
kick us off, give me some glad tidings.’

‘I placed Darren Simpson into a deep hypnotic state earlier
.
I tried
straight forward questioning
,
but
I was convinced he had a block,
and it
proved right.’

Hanson swallowed quickly, ‘
Hope
this is worth indigestion.’

‘If I’m right
,
it will be.  I think Simpson saw Tom and Karen’s abductor.’

‘He saw Cupid?’

Donald sucked in through his teeth.  ‘That’s assuming that the abductor and Cupid are one and the same person.’

‘You think he has an accomplice?’

‘I’m not saying that
,
John
.
What
I am saying is we should not assume anything.  We need to push the fact that this is Tom and Karen to the back of our minds
and
stay objective.’

Hanson knew Donald was right
.
They
had to remain professional,
focused
,
‘
Point
taken
,
Donald
, s
o we have an unknown person sighted by Simpson, who may have been the abductor
,
and may or may not have been Cupid?’

‘Pretty much sums it up.  Simpson saw Tom and Karen walking arm in arm along the driveway leading toward
s the back of the restaurant heading for
the car park.  Shortly afterwards
,
he happened to look up from taking
an order from some clients
and
saw a man walking the same way,
but
only the back of him
,
so no ID
.
But
he did no
te that he was a very large man. L
ess than three or four minutes later
,
a car pulled out from the back of the restaurant and past the window where Simpson was standing.’

‘One car?’

‘Exactly, one car
. H
e was still taking the order from the couple for a full five minut
es after that
.  No other car left the car park area.’

‘Did he get the car model?’

‘We struck lucky when I hypnotised him
.
Turns
out
,
it
was
his dream car, a Jaguar XJ6.’

‘Registration?’

‘Luck ran out there
,
’ sighed
Myers
.

Hanson continued eating as Richard
Turner
joined in.

‘I checked for other businesses in the area for any CCTV coverage that may have picked up the coming and going of vehicles from the restaurant.’

‘And?’
P
ressed Hanson mid
-
chew.

‘There’s a McDonalds burger place at the top of the road leading from the restaurant
.
It’s
a one way system
,
by the way
,
that might have picked up the Jag.’

‘Anyone check it out?’

Turner
shook his head, ‘T
hey’re closed
now
, not open a
gain until tomorrow morning at 8
a.m.’

Hanson made a mental note to call to the burger joint in the morning.  ‘What about Fuller
,
Donald?’

‘Singing like a bird
. It
seems he gets an e
-
mail from Cupid around 9 p.m. every Valentine’s Day.  Tells him where his victims can be found and goes into a
long-winded
explanation as to why he carries out the atrocities.  Fuller said he made an anonymous call each year at 9.15 p.m. to alert the police.
’

‘That’s true
,
’ confirmed
Turner
, ‘
It’s
on record.  The call was always too short to trace.  We assumed it was Cupid.’

‘Doesn’t excuse him
for
withholdi
ng the e
-
mails
,
’ snapped Hanson
.
‘
There
could have been information in them that would have helped you
,
Richard.’

‘I’ve seen the
e
-
mails,
John
,
’ responded
Myers
, ‘
They’re
just the ramblings of a maniac trying to justify his actions, nothing that would lead us to him.  It would have simply created a feeding frenzy among the profilers.’

‘We could have traced the source of the
e
-
mails,’
snapped Hanson.

‘Fuller tried that
,
’ cut in Blue Eagle’s voice over the sound system.  ‘The paper has a hacker they use for this kind of thing.  I had our people check it out, source proved untraceable.  Seems Cupid covered his tracks well
.
He
might be a psychopath
,
but he’s not stupid.’

‘Doesn’t excuse Fuller’s action
,
Sir.’

‘Oh trust me
,
John, Fuller’s not coming out of this with any awards
,
’ confirmed
Turner
.  ‘He’s going to feel the full weight and then some
.’

Hanson pushed away his plate and
with it,
any further thoughts of Fuller.  ‘Right people
,
let’s start combing through what we have.’

‘I can summarise if you like
,
’ offered Jane.

Hanson simply no
dded as
Turner
and
Myers
took a seat
at the large c
entral table
on
either side of him
,
and
facing Jane, who had taken up position at the whiteboard wall now covered in photos and notations.  Behind
them,
the silhouette of Blue Eagle filled the large flat screen
,
facing the whiteboard.

Hanson glanced across to his sister.  Stephanie had fallen asleep in one of the easy chairs in the rest area.  He was relieved.  He was about to trawl through all information they had on Cupid, some of which would cover details about the way Cupid butchered his victims
.
Details
he didn’t want his sister to have to go through again.  He knew she had already read the police reports
,
but he also knew that she would have read those reports with a kind of closed mind,
simply looking for the link, that
thread that joined the victims.  He knew
from experience that
she compartmentalised information that would cause her distress, locking it into a tiny box inside her head, its lid firmly closed shut.  Hearing those details being discussed could
pry
open that lid
.
He
didn’t want that, sleep would protect her, Hanson would protect her.