Page 88 of Killing Me Softly

Jack’s jaw ticked. “Yes. Once we got permission to do so.” He ran a hand over his temple, rubbing at the tension there. “Not everything in the real world works as fast as you see in the movies.”

Fraser set down a mug in front of Aaron.

Aaron grimaced. “Sorry, mate. You got tea?”

Fraser went off to boil the kettle.

“We traced the phone to a location by the river.” Jack took a coffee mug from Fraser and Fraser kissed him as he did so, then handed one to Kenny with less fondling.

“The river?” Kenny questioned as he took a sip of coffee.

“Yes. The memorial.” Jack closed his eyes as he savoured his caffeine.

“Rahul’s?” Aaron clenched his jaw.

“I would hazard a guess she’s taunting us. Or, either of you.” Jack pointed to them both. “She’s not covering her tracks. We’ve got CCTV footage of her near the scene, looking right at it. Officers are collecting doorbell camera footage this morning. She wants us to know it’s her.”

“Yeah, ‘cause she’s fuckingbonkers.”

Kenny’s eyes held his and for a moment, Aaron thought he might correct him. Might offer the insight of an actual diagnosis rather than his flippant slur. And there was a part of Aaron that felt bad. Deep down. When he thought back to that girl being repeatedly hit and degraded. Once, she would have been innocent. Not everyone was born to be evil. Mostly, they were made. And Aaron waited for Kenny to remind him of that.

But he didn’t.

Progress? Or was that the chilling realisation that some people were beyond saving?Hadn’t Dr Pryce said that?

“The phone’s with forensics now.” Jack moved past the tension with practiced ease. “They’ll run a full extraction. Messages. Call logs. GPS history. Best-case scenario, we pull a connection to another number. Worst case, we get nothing, but even then, with that and the doorbell footage we might be able to figure out how she got inside.” He leaned back, crossing his arms. “No signs of forced entry.”

“He was holding viewings for a new housemate.”

Jack exhaled sharply. “Right. Which means she could’ve used that as an opportunity to gain access. And if I had to put money on it, Chong’s tox screen will come back positive. Would explain why he didn’t fight back. Why he was compliant enough to be… restrained.”

“By a woman, yeah.” Aaron closed his eyes, trying to block out the images. “I’ll bet he was roofied.” He then peered up at Jack in afterthought. “If he’s still got those photos of me on his phone, can you get them deleted?”

Fraser slid a cup of tea to him, and he wrapped his hands around it.

“I didn’t consent to him taking them and asked him to delete, but…well, I doubt he did. Was expecting revenge porn at some point.”

Jack exchanged a look with Kenny and Aaron noted the tick in Kenny’s jaw, so thought it was best to move on.

“So what happens now?” he asked.

“Now…I get at least two hours’ shut eye. In my bed. With my husband. Then I’m back at the station figuring out how the fuck this woman ended up here, doing this, in my fucking town.”

Fraser squeezed his shoulder.

“I’m on that one.” Kenny straightened. “Thanks for the suit. Iwillgo into work.”

“What?” Aaron turned to him. “Why?”

“To talk to Dr Pryce.”

“Who’s Dr Pryce?” Jack asked.

“She was the lead clinical psychiatrist at Ravenholm. Where Child A was sent on remand. She would have signed her release. Directly responsible for assessing, diagnosing, and deciding the course of treatment for Child A. That means she was the one who determined whether she was still a risk. Whether she had ‘rehabilitated’ enough to be released into the world.”

Aaron sat rigid, heart pounding.

“You think she could be involved in this?” Jack knitted his brows together, arms crossed. “I had officers pull what records they could, but as you can imagine, with protected status, we’re running into every wall possible. She’s a category one protected witness, which means everything’s buried under judicial orders. We’re talking national security-level clearance. Even if I could get a sniff at her file, I’d have to justify it up the chain, and that’s assuming the Home Office would even consider it. And I don’t think they will. Because all the intel we have is based on information extracted under hypnosis.”

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