Page 42 of Hard Game

“As I was saying, Detective, the latest victim didn’t fit their profile, if you will.”

I stare at her, my heart in my throat.

“This woman was older. She was in her thirties, and she wasn’t missing for long. She was abducted last night—reported missing by Tassa Charlize at around nine p.m..”

Tassa. The name rings a bell, but I can’t place it.

I sit up straight and ask, “So what makes you think it’s connected to the other murders?”

Carmen gives me a thin smile. “Because she had her tongue cut out.”

Oh. I close my eyes and drop my head into my hands, wondering how I will be able to stop these guys. They are killing too often. If they are doing it out of anger, maybe they will make a mistake, and we’ll catch them.

“And her eyes were removed.”

“Jesus,” I mutter, finally looking up when the door boomed open behind me.

Two officers stood there, both of them as white as sheets. The one at the front swallowed and glanced at me before saying to Carmen, “Ma’am. It’s bad. Real bad.”

I look back to see Carmen close her eyes, pushing her shoulders back like she was bracing herself before she nodded.

“Leave us, Detective Diess. Go to the scene—Detective Jonewood is already on his way.”

I nod and leave the room, clawing at my pocket for my phone. Why hadn’t Elijah called me, dammit? The blank screen stares back at me as I jab at it, pressing the power button repeatedly. My phone is dead. Jesus Christ. Some detective I am—I can’t even charge a fucking phone. I bet Elijah has been going crazy trying to get hold of me.

Fuck, fuck, triple fuck!

I half run to my car, jamming my phone in to charge before gunning the engine, waiting for the phone to come to life so I can go and meet Elijah. My mind drifts back to what Carmen said—how the latest victim didn’t fit the bill.

Why an older woman this time? Why remove her eyes and her tongue? The tongue was self-explanatory—stop talking. But the eyes? So she couldn’t see? Why, what was she seeing?! I dread to think what she saw in her final moments, but that couldn’t have been the root cause of her death.

She knew something; the question was, what?

Finally, my phone shows the Apple symbol, and I urge it to hurry, watching it like it will help somehow. A watched kettle never boils, and all that jazz, but I can’t help myself. My mind drifts to Taron, then Maddox, and my phone trills before I can think anymore. It’s Elijah. I brace myself for the torrent of frustration he’ll undoubtedly throw at me and answer the call with a sheepish, “Hello?”

“Where the fuck are you? I’ve been calling you all morning!” As predicted, he sounds like a bear with a sore head, and I punch the destination he mutters to me into the sat nav, wondering if things can get any worse.

FYI. It can, and it did.

22

MADDOX

“Tassa?” I rasp groggily into the phone. The meds the doctor gave me last night were strong, and I could barely feel the hole in my leg. I blink and pull the phone away to see the time, groaning when I see it is only eight in the morning. “Who died?”

The sobbing on the other end snaps me out of my tiredness, and I sit up, ignoring the pain in my thigh that’s back with a vengeance when I move.

“Zia…”

What? Zia? Who the fuck is Zia?

“Tassa, calm down!” I command, hissing as I pull myself to my feet. “Who’s Zia? What happened?”

Tassa sucks in a breath before whispering, “My girlfriend. They killed her.”

I still, letting her words wash over me. “Who did?” I ask, knowing her answer before she has to scream it down the phone.

Them. The Lockwood Ring. Alastor and his cronies.

---