I’m watching my husband working at the laptop, typing in a message, and I study his profile, wondering how soon I can tell if I’m pregnant. His eyes blink up to mine, and when he catches my gaze, they grow warm.
“What’s on your mind, beautiful?”
“Happier things,” I say.
Rowan is sending a message to Dwayne about their meeting, and my fleeting, blissful memory of last night is immediately replaced with the heaviness of what’s looming ahead.
He covers my hand with his. “I’m taking care of it.”
I press my lips together. I have to get the slate clean. “One last thing I never had a chance to tell you,” I start.
His brow lines, and he scoots the chair back from the desk. “Go ahead.”
“You know what happened to Ramona, the first girl?”
His brow furrows, but he nods. “The police guessed she caught an intruder and whoever it was panicked into murdering her.”
“That’s right,” I say slowly. Inhaling a shaky breath, I tell him my deepest fear. “I think Dwayne did it.”
Rowan is quiet, evaluating my words. “Why do you think that?”
My chin drops, and heaviness invades our personal space. I hate this burden I’ve brought into our lives, but I’m committed to finishing it, getting rid of it. I want it behind us before we move into what’s next for us. I want my past dead and buried before we start our family.
“I was watching all of them. Remember?”
“Yes…”
“The second one, Grace… the one who lived in London… she suffered the same fate.”
He’s out of his seat and coming to me. I hadn’t intended to cry, but a hot tear rolls down my cheek. He’s holding me, rubbing my back.
“It was the exact same scenario,” I hiccup. “A robbery gone wrong. Her flat was ransacked, and they think she startled the intruder.” Swallowing the knot of fear in my throat, I say it. “She was strangled to death.”
“Ava,” my husband whispers. “Why didn’t you tell me about this?”
“I was going to. So many things came up and Cal and Zelda arrived and I never seemed to have the chance to speak to you alone.”
“I have a confession.” He hugs me briefly before stepping back and meeting my eyes. “I had a feeling he was behind what happened to the first girl. Now that it’s happened again, we need to alert the authorities, INTERPOL, let them know the crimes are possibly related. We could be the only ones able to establish a link between the victims.”
“You’re meeting him. You can ask him if he did it. Wear a wire or a recording device. Then you’ll have a way to arrest him and put him behind bars forever.”
He shakes his head, pacing the carpet. “Such things are not always admissible in court.”
An urgent knock on the door interrupts our discussion. “Come in,” Rowan calls, and the door opens slowly.
André peeks into the small office. “I’m sorry to intrude. I thought you needed to know this, sir.”
Rowan and I exchange a glance. “Go ahead?”
“Monagasco police are investigating a rape and murder in the Avenue Varavilla.”
“What?” We both step forward.
“It was outside an apartment building. The alley is practically hidden by overgrown palms, and the lighting is poor. They’re still establishing time of death and attempting to be sure the body wasn’t dumped. It’s under the highway.”
“Do they have any leads?” Rowan’s low voice has a tone as if he already knows the answer.
“They think a transient is responsible… or it could be an act of terrorism.”