Page 39 of Roark
“Oh my—” Tamika slapped her hand over her mouth and turned away from Pierce.
Roark, even though he was feeling a little shaky after Cade’s words himself, went to her, putting an arm around her shoulders. She leaned into him, and Roark nodded for Pierce to continue.
“We need to speak to your mother, Tamika. Find out what happened to their group and who could be the one doing this.”
She shook her head but didn’t turn back to face Pierce as he spoke. “You said it was a man, so you can scratch one name off the list from the group.”
“We think it might either be someone who was part of the group or who knew the group while they were in school. But we’re definitely looking at it being someone they all knew very well,” Pierce said.
“Are you sure about this?” Roark asked. “There’s another possibility. Her ex has motive to go after her parents.”
Tamika tensed at his words, but Roark didn’t move his arm from around her shoulders, and so far she hadn’t pushed him away. He’d take that as a good sign.
Pierce didn’t look pleased at this new information. “Is that true?”
She turned around and moved out of Roark’s hold at the same time. “Colin Hopkins. He burned some of my clothes and other stuff in front of my building after I broke up with him.”
“Two weeks before her father was killed,” Roark added. He didn’t know if he wanted it to be Colin so Tamika could get some closure or so Cade would catch him and toss his ass in jail, where he’d be far away from Tamika.
“We did profile this as revenge attacks. The personal connection of the victims led us to that conclusion. It could still work for Colin,” Pierce was saying.
“Except it doesn’t fit for Aunt Max,” Cade said.
Roark had known that was coming. He hadn’t wanted to admit it out loud, but deep down inside, he’d known. “You’re sure these fires are the same?” he asked Cade as if his cousin were standing in that room with them.
“The doctor is doing the tox screen on my mother and Tuppence today. She said she had no need to check for drugs before, because she thought they were both just burn victims, but she’s going to call me with the results.” Tamika didn’t sound hopeful that they weren’t going to come back with the same drug that had been in his mother’s system.
“Ms. Gregory couldn’t have been drugged if she was trying to get your mother out of the house.” Roark tried not to ignore the obvious this time.
“She wasn’t supposed to be there,” Pierce said. “That and the fact that your mother is still alive is probably eating the unsub—that’s what we call the suspect—alive. He’ll be enraged now, and his timeline to kill the others on his revenge list will either move quickly or he’ll circle back to your mother again.”
“I don’t know why this is happening,” Tamika said. “Why kill my father and then come for my mother a year later? Or even come for Roark’s mother a year later? What’s he been doing all this time?”
“We’re tracking the movements of each of the other three names in that group to figure that out,” Cade said. “We just wanted to give you two an update and a warning.”
Roark was already shaking his head. “We’re not the targets. If this is revenge like you said, whatever happened was long before we were born.”
“But you’re here now and because the two of you knew something was off with these fires from the start, you’re in his way,” Pierce said.
“And being in the way of a killer is not a place you want to be, Roark. So I’m gonna tell you now to get some protection around the two of you and be careful.” When Roark began to say something, Cade continued. “Don’t argue with me on this, man. I know what I’m doing here, and I’ve seen these situations take horrible turns. I’m not trying to come back to London to bury you too. Now, either you’re calling Trent to ask him about security, or I’m doing it.”
Roark didn’t like ultimatums and he particularly didn’t like receiving them when he was in a room with people who weren’t his family. His jaw clenched with anger but he waited a beat, measuring his words carefully. “I know how to take care of myself.”
“And I do too,” Tamika chimed in.
Now, Roark felt like an ass because he hadn’t meant his words to reflect that he didn’t give a damn about what happened to her.
Pierce looked as if he were growing impatient with both of them. “We’re still operating outside the lines here, Cade. If we’re going to continue to track this guy and try to stop him, we’re gonna have to pull in local law enforcement.”
“My father was killed in America. Doesn’t that make this guy an international murderer? So that would be over the heads of those two detectives who were here yesterday, correct? Because they were idiots.” Tamika’s voice sounded even steadier now, and if Roark was hearing correctly, it was tinged with a little bit of anger.
“I’ll make some calls and let you know what our next steps are, Pierce,” Cade said. “And you, Roark—”
“I already said I know what to do,” he interrupted. “It’ll be taken care of. Just do your part and find this bastard.”
Seconds later, Cade was off the phone and Pierce was staring pointedly at Roark. “You need somebody here at the house and with you both personally when you go out. It might not be a bad idea to have someone at the hospital too. Pennington and Gibbons are probably already watching you two, but like she said, they’re idiots.”
“Got it,” Roark told him with a curt nod.
