What Burns Within (49 page)

Now he realized his purpose was to help others, just not in the way he’d thought.

Aaron glanced at his watch. It was almost time.

Time to save another girl.

Craig jumped in the back of the truck, wondering if the crash course he’d had really was going to be enough for him to handle himself in a real fire.

Quinlan jumped in beside him. “Usually, I wouldn’t be here, but I thought you should know. This one fits the pattern.”

“Shit. I don’t have any way of getting a message to Ashlyn.”

“I thought she was being watched.”

“She is, but…”

“Look, I’m going to hold you back, make sure you don’t get put in over your head here. And I’ll radio out a call so your sergeant knows.”

Craig nodded. “Thanks.”

Ashlyn glanced through the peephole and then unbolted the door.

“Alex Wilson is behind bars.”

She saw the gleam in Tain’s eye, the hint that there was much more to tell.

“Come on, don’t hold back now.” He followed her inside and the phone rang. “Just a second. I’d better get that.”

“Craig’s personal secretary, huh?”

“Hardly. Most likely it’s him, checking up on me.”

Once she was finished on the phone, she hung up, exhaled and leaned against the hall wall. “It’s another arson fire.”

Tain frowned. “These guys watching you, are they checking license plates of vehicles around the area, just in case?”

Ashlyn blinked. “Uh, I haven’t a clue. To be honest, they were so concerned about making this a complete safe house, I tuned out most of the techo-stuff after a while.”

“Ashlyn, really.”

“Do you have any idea what it’s like, Tain, to know you put yourself at risk and have everyone harping on you twenty-four seven about how dangerous something is? Like you all think I’m completely fearless and the best thing for me would be if I was shaking in my boots, scared out of my mind?”

“That’s not our point, and you know it.”

“But it wears you down, you know what I mean?”

He sighed. “Still, I wouldn’t mind talking to those guys….”

His cell phone cut in then, and he answered it. After a moment he said, “Okay, I’ll bring her with me,” and hung up.

“Tain, seriously, I’m fine.”

He shook his head. “It’s not that, Ashlyn. Another girl’s gone missing.”

TUESDAY

It was hours later, just before dawn, when Tain and Ashlyn arrived in Daly’s office to brief him.

“Tell me we have a lead,” Daly said.

Tain shook his head. “Nobody saw anything. She went outside to draw in her sketchbook. Her parents didn’t notice anything until she was late for dinner.”

“Of course not. Why should parents pay attention to their children?” Daly looked up at Ashlyn. “Sorry. So we have another girl missing, and we’re no further ahead with this case?”

Ashlyn set a drawing down in front of him. “Composite sketch of a possible suspect.”

He frowned. “If nobody saw anything, where’d you get this?”

“I tracked those crosses to a cash purchase made in New Westminster, and I sent the sketch artist over this afternoon to get a description.”

Hawkins walked in then. “We have a description? Why the hell haven’t we released it to the media?”

“It’s tentative. What we need to do is see if the clown and the jewelry vendor from the fair can ID this as the guy who was seen with Taylor Brennen just before she disappeared.”

Hawkins pointed a finger at her. “I don’t give a shit about it being tentative. The public is outraged. We look like we’re getting nowhere, and we need to reassure local residents that our streets are safe and we’re making progress.”

“For Chr—”

“Tain, shut up.” Daly glared at him for a moment before looking at Hawkins. “It’s too late now for the newspapers anyway, but I agree the picture shouldn’t be released yet.”

“And why the hell not?”

“We expect him to kill another girl.”

“Which is a hell of a good reason to ask every citizen to be looking for him, if you ask me. Maybe the stress of this is clouding your judgment.”

Daly’s eyes narrowed. “If he wakes up in the morning and sees his picture on the news, what do you think he’ll do? He was going to kill one of them already. Why not kill them all and take off?”

Hawkins swallowed. “This isn’t my call, and it sure as hell isn’t yours.”

“Tain, Ashlyn, go home. Sleep. I’ll have officers track down the ID on this guy. Tain, come back at noon. Ashlyn, don’t come back at all, unless we call you in.”

“If you get a lead on this guy, I want to be there.”

Daly held up his hand. “One step at a time. And close the door.”

As soon as they left, Daly looked up at Hawkins, his eyes burning.

“You are dangerously close to being written up, Daly. I’m warning you—”

“No, Dennis, I’m warning you.” Daly pulled a file from the top drawer of his desk and handed it to Hawkins. “Right now, I’m not inclined to hang you out to dry on this. My officers are working from behind because they’re cleaning up your old messes.”

He watched Dennis’s eyes scan the papers, the rows of wrinkles that emerged seeming to age him ten years in less than two minutes.

“Steve, I—”

“Right now, Dennis, I only care about one thing. Closing these cases without any more of my people getting hurt. Now, you either support my call on this, or you pull me off. But don’t expect me to keep my mouth shut.”

Dennis turned and yanked the door open, slamming it behind him as he left.

When Craig dragged himself up to the front step of his house, a shot of adrenaline surged through him. He reached for his gun instinctively and then cursed.

It was the one thing he couldn’t risk taking to the fire department.

Craig set his bag down on the steps. The door was open, and he entered cautiously. Then he checked each room on the main floor, stopping at the safe long enough to reclaim a weapon.

There’d been no sound from the rooms above him while he’d been moving through the ground floor, but he cautiously started up the stairs, gun ready, moving slowly and making sure he avoided the creaky spots.

When he’d checked all the rooms, he felt as though something had reached inside his heart and squeezed it, pushing all the air out of his lungs in the same instant.

He walked back downstairs and heard movement from the doorway. Ashlyn looked at the door and then him.

“Geez, I thought somebody had broken in.”

He closed his eyes and exhaled. Then he glared at her. “Where the hell have you been? And don’t touch that door. Unless you left it open when you went out, someone did break in.”

“I left you a note, Craig.”

“Where?”

“On the fridge, on your memo board. There was another abduction last night.” She wrinkled her nose as she walked past him, eyes sagging. “I don’t have to ask what you were doing.”

Craig picked up the phone, and after a moment he followed her into the kitchen.

“Did they have a good explanation?” she asked.

He shook his head, his mouth twisting into a wry smile. “Since you were out, they shut off the alarm monitoring.”

“Can’t wait to see how they explain that in their reports.”

“Someone’s going to come over, use the patio door to come in and dust the front door. We can leave it open so it’s not as easy to see them check for prints and then they’ll lock up on their way out.”

“We going somewhere?”

“Bed. You look as tired as I feel.”

She glanced at her watch. “For a few hours, but then I have to get back on this.”

“I talked to my dad. He said he ordered you to come home and rest and that Sims can handle it from here.”

Ashlyn sighed. “Fine. We got a composite sketch of our suspect.”

“That’s great.”

She started to climb the stairs. “Unbelievable. I’d planned on making you breakfast this morning.”

“Don’t worry about it. You can make me lunch later.”

Sims glanced at his watch. “You’re early.”

“Any other case, Daly wouldn’t have dreamed of sending us home. We go at these like sprints.”

“This one’s more of a marathon.”

“And I damn well hope we’re in the home stretch. What have you got for me?” Tain asked.

“I tracked down your clown and the vendor from the fair. They both gave me a positive ID on our composite sketch. This is definitely the guy who was spreading his version of good news on the fairgrounds.”

Tain skimmed through his messages. “Damn.” He glanced up at Sims. “Not about that. There are two guys we have to track down who might be able to give us an ID on the suspect.”

“The merry-go-round guy who’s working out in Alder-grove.”

Tain’s eyes narrowed. “How did…?”

“I asked Bert and Lex. Surprisingly helpful for guys with records. I’ve already been to Aldergrove.”

“I don’t like the sound of that.”

“Hey, I tried. He couldn’t tell me any more than the other two did. Well, other than a bit more of the twisted doctrine this guy was spewing about being cleansed in the baptism of death and purged by fire.”

“Cleansed in the…” Tain covered his face. “Shit. Right in front of our fucking eyes and we couldn’t see it.”

“See what?”

“The girls had drowned.”

“He baptized them and held them down?” Sims asked, his jaw dropping. “Jesus.”

“It’s as good a guess as any. We’d better hope that security guy is in today. He’s been on holidays, which is why I still don’t have a message from him. He was supposed to be back on the job yesterday.”

“Let’s go, then.”

“Just give me a second. I have to make a call.”

Tain dialed and then tossed Sims a coin. “Can you get me a soda? I’m going to need the caffeine. Thanks.” He heard a quiet voice on the other end of the line answer. “Craig, thank God you answered.”

The voice on the other end of the line sounded groggy. “Why? What’s up?”

“Nothing, it’s just…Look, are the officers watching your place noting license plate numbers?”

“They’re supposed to be. Well, I think photographing all cars and then getting the prints developed.”

“I think you should get them on that right away.”

Silence. “Okay. Why?”

“Just a feeling I had last night when I was talking to Ashlyn. There was this car. Did Ashlyn tell you?”

Craig groaned. “Be serious, Tain. Look, it’s just as well you had her with you last night. Someone broke in here.”

“You’re on night shift again to night, aren’t you? What are you going to do?”

“Hope like hell you’re ready to bring in your suspect so she’s at work.”

“Look, I’ve got to go. I’ve got my cell. Call me before you leave for the fire hall and we’ll come up with a plan.”

Tain hung up and swore beneath his breath. Then he grabbed the information he needed and went to meet Sims.

“There’s nothing more I can do,” Hawkins said.

“That isn’t good enough. There must be something,” Lori argued.

“Well, there isn’t. You’re going to have to deal with that.”

“You said if I was ready to make a change we’d have a future.”

“That was before.”

“Before what? Before the rape?”

“That has nothing to do with it, Lori, and you know it.”

“So this has all been for what? Stroking your ego?”

“That wasn’t it.”

“Really. Prove it.”

“Lori, damn it, there’s nothing more I can do. Nothing. Now just let it go.”

“You don’t get it. I’ve got nothing left to lose on this.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. How about Vish? What about your career?”

“If they don’t put
me
back on the rape case, my career will be as good as dead and you know it.”

“No, that’s not true. Daly, he’s right to make that call. You shouldn’t even be back at work, and if it wasn’t for your constant abuse—”

“You’re accusing me of abuse? How’s this going to look when it comes out? Just another sorry old bastard abusing his position for sexual favors.”

He shook his head and laughed, a hollow staccato laugh. “Jesus. How could I be so fucking blind? And I thought I loved you. Prepared to piss it all away if you’d just snap your fingers—”

“I’m here knocking on your door and you tell me to leave. Don’t you dare tell me you were ready to put it all on the line.”