Chapter 22

Lindsay

Tuesday

Thoughts swirled through Lucas’ mind as he sat in his car at the scene, waiting for Maggie to arrive. How much longer was this going to go on? Was Chelsea a target? To even allow the thought to enter his mind was driving him crazy. It would be too much for his heart to endure if anything were to happen to her.

When Maggie pulled up, he jumped out of his car and they walked towards the back of the warehouse, to the now all too familiar scene. She had been brutalised and discarded identically to the others before her, and the ID confirmed what they’d already assumed.

Once they’d given the unpleasant news to Lindsay’s mother, Lucas told Maggie he was going to Elle’s funeral.

She decided to join him.

* * *

The service was moments away from starting. Chelsea and her family were just about to go in and take their seats in the small, quaint chapel when Lucas and Maggie arrived.

“I’m glad you’re here,” she said, hugging him tightly.

“You need me, I’m here.”

He tried to ignore his rapid beating heart and the lump lodged in his throat. Lucas took her hand once they were seated and wrapped his other arm around her. Glancing around the room and seeing people in various stages of grief sent his already thudding heart into a flurry. He nodded at Maggie who stood at the back of the chapel surveying the mourners. Was the killer there, sitting amongst the family and friends of the girl he mutilated? Could they be that lucky?

Sarah sat beside Chelsea, a comforting hand on her leg while Charlotte’s arm went across their mother’s lap to hold her hand.

The service began and each person took the podium to speak about Elle’s short life. Their faces transformed into the ones who had stood and spoken about his parents. He was there again, the pain acute as he remembered his sister crying beside him, clutching his arm as he’d sat rigid, waiting for it to be over. Although he was aware he should be thinking of Chelsea, his selfish heart and haunting memories refused to allow this to happen.

As though sensing his unease, Chelsea squeezed his hand and guilt became the paramount emotion. He felt weak for allowing his feelings to come before hers. Her compassion for him only exaggerated it further. Disgusted with himself, he drew her close and kissed the top of her head and hoped he was providing her with enough. How, after all these years, could this still affect him and so much? Guilt continued to overwhelm him even after they’d left the chapel.

“Are you going to be alright?” he asked after the service.

“Yes, go to work; find the monster who took my friend away. I have Mum and Charlotte with me. I’ll be fine.”

“I’ll come by later but it might not be until late.”

“I’ll be waiting.” She kissed him before heading to the car with her family.

* * *

Lindsay was moved on the whiteboard from missing to deceased and they noted down the location where she’d been found. There appeared to be no set pattern to the dump sites. They were spread out all over the city. Whilst the girls who were similar to each other were all left behind warehouses, Elle was found behind a shop close to home and they speculated on the relevance of this.

“Wait a minute,” Lucas exclaimed. “Where Elle was dumped is significant, as is her difference in appearance. I think it’s his way of telling us Chelsea really is the target, to mock us again, like the IDs. The scene was right around the corner from their house. He left Elle there to send a message, to show once again he thinks he’s smarter than us. We were right. I’m glad we have someone on Chelsea’s house.”

“You could be onto something, Lucas. The other girls weren’t left near where they lived or nor near where Chelsea lives. Everything about Elle’s murder is different yet it is connected to Chelsea, just like the other girls who resemble her.”

“He seems to know Chelsea’s movements, which suggests he’s either following her or lives close by.”

As they continued to discuss possible places to canvas, one of the lab techs brought the DNA results for Matthews and handed them to Maggie.

She looked over the results and glanced up to see Lucas staring at her impatiently, waiting for the verdict.

“No match.”

“I hoped it would be but my gut told me it wouldn’t.”

“We now have to consider looking closer at this Chad guy when we go and see him tomorrow. He seems to be all we have left.”

“Let’s hope it’s that easy and he’s our man. There’s still Wesley Robinson too. We’re waiting on his file.”

“I’ll head over to the café again and see if anybody recalls seeing this Chad guy. I wish we had a picture of him.”

“While you do that I’ll stay here and go through the notes Peterson and Stewart wrote up regarding their canvassing and the results from the hotline calls.”

Maggie left and Lucas pulled out the file containing the notes taken by the other two detectives over the weekend. Scanning through the document he noticed a trend amongst Chelsea’s neighbours. No-one saw anything the weekend Elle disappeared. They were all devastated that someone in their street had been kidnapped and murdered and most were disappointed they didn’t have any information. No-one noticed a blond man living close by who appeared strange or kept to himself. It was amazing how little people noticed about their surroundings and the people they lived close to.

He observed that there were three houses on Chelsea’s street where, on two separate occasions, at different times and on different days, the detectives' knocks went unanswered. They’d noted down that they should try again the following day. Lucas made a mental note to check their progress as soon as a new report was submitted.

The canvassing around the houses of the other victims was very much the same. No-one really paid any attention to what was happening around them. What he would have given for there to have been a nosy neighbour peeking out their window.

Deciding this wasn’t getting him very far, he grabbed the notes Maggie had taken regarding her interviews with the family members she’d questioned along with her interview with Gavin Morgan.

Lucas had already brought Maggie up-to-date with the interviews he had undertaken the previous day with Mrs. Anderson, Amy Miller and a few of Kate’s friends. The information he’d obtained didn’t helped with their investigation either.

It was all more of the same - none of them had heard of Chad or knew any information about their loved ones' mystery guy. The girls had all been quite secretive about their new romances. It was amazing how he could convince these girls to keep their budding relationship a secret and still gain their trust.

Maggie’s interview with Gavin Morgan had gone as they had both expected. He was a decent family man and didn’t show any recognition when he saw the girls, apart from Elle, and it was a given he would know her from the times she’d worked at Bloom with Chelsea. He wasn’t suspicious in any way and willingly gave a sample for DNA comparison.

Next, Lucas went through the list of hotline tips. Every call had been logged and then followed up. Most of them were the usual crazy calls, confessions and people reporting their neighbours. Nothing substantial came from them either.

He grunted in frustration. They were still getting nowhere. He searched the endless files piled and scattered on his desk to ascertain he’d yet to receive the file on Wesley Robinson. He placed a call, only to be informed he should receive the file in a few days. It was archived and still being retrieved. He shook his head, annoyed at the system for holding things up. They were hitting one dead end after another.

The only thing left to do was check missing persons. Now they’d found Lindsay, it was plausible the killer had kidnapped another girl. There was one hit, a young brunette who’d left her house the previous day and not returned.

Glancing at the time, Lucas discovered he’d spent the entire afternoon reading over the reports, which in the end had been totally unproductive. He would make a detour on the way to Chelsea’s and speak with the latest missing girl’s family.