Xion Island Zero: Chapter 34

Nash stabbed his salmon with more force than necessary. The dinner plate clinked against the oak table, and Kelvin raised an eyebrow.

‘I think it’s dead, Silas.’

Nash grunted. ‘Sorry. It’s good, but my head’s all over the place. We’re eating this beautiful Scottish salmon, surrounded by Christmas decorations, and Taylor could be dying at this very second.’

Kelvin looked at his fish with mournful longing and put his knife and fork down. ‘When you put it like that,’ he said.

The domestic quiet held for a few minutes, and Kelvin knew not to ask questions about the case that Nash wasn’t allowed to answer. Nash’s phone buzzed against the table. He ignored it. It buzzed again. He picked it up, and his face tightened.

Kelvin pulled a face. ‘Work?’

Nash laughed, but there was no humour in it. ‘It looks as though I’ve got an admirer.’

‘Should I be worried?’

Nash didn’t smile. He turned the phone so Kelvin could see the message.

You want me, darling? I’m yours, xxx

It was immediately followed by a second message, My roots are showing. You need to dig deeper. Come on, big man, I’m not that hard to find. —T

‘There’s only one person this can be from,’ Nash said. He stared at his phone. ‘If he knows my number, we have to assume that he may have access to other personal details—like our address.’

As if on cue, another message came through. You have a pretty house there, inspector. The round towers are a tad pretentious, though.

Nash clicked on the attachment, already knowing what it would be. He was right; it was a picture of their house. What he didn’t expect was the image of Zola’s girls in the garden. He could pinpoint it to two days earlier when he’d bought them some sweet peas to plant in the back garden. It was secluded with no access, yet it showed the girls’ faces. Bernstein had climbed one of the large trees in the orchard at the bottom of their property line to get that shot.

‘Shit,’ Kelvin said as Nash showed him the picture. Kelvin rarely swore.  

The air chilled. ‘How the hell did he get our address?’

‘He might have followed us, or used a tracker. Maybe he hacked the station database. Hell, maybe he just looked it up. If he wants to find somebody badly enough, he’ll find a way to do it. And he’s far from stupid. Sorry, babe, dinner was great, but I need to make some calls. The main thing is keeping those girls safe.’

Kelvin pushed his plate away. They’d both lost their appetites. ‘We need extra security,’ he said, scraping his chair back and swearing again. ‘I’d better ring the kids.’ He picked up his phone and called his children to warn them that they were in danger. Although Kelvin knew that risk rode alongside Nash’s job, and indeed, as a criminal lawyer, his own sometimes, he must have been annoyed. If he was, he didn’t show it. He looked at Nash across the table and smiled. ‘It’ll be okay, he said.’

Nash felt the sting of responsibility.

Kelvin spoke to Taraji, then Zola. His daughter was warm, understanding, even, but cautious. ‘Dad, I love Si. You know I do. But I’ve got two girls to think about. If anything happens to them, I’ll never forgive him for bringing this to our door.’

‘The world is full of unknowns, love, trouble is never far away, but this is just for a little while. Si’s going to make sure that the children are safe, until this man’s locked up.’

If Zola was playing the blame game, Nash dreaded to think what Imani’s reaction would be. She didn’t answer, and Nash saw relief all over Kelvin’s face as he left a message for her. It was careful and light, just enough to warn her to be on her guard.

‘Coward,’ Nash smiled.

‘You bet.’ Kelvin put his phone on the table and exhaled with relief at not having to speak to her about this.

The measures put in place were immediate. Two plainclothes officers, rotated at Nash’s house and Zola’s every eight hours. They had intermittent patrols keeping an eye on Taraji and Imani’s places, as Bronwyn saw no need for scare tactics at this point. ‘We have no reason to assume that Bernstein knows about them.’ She held her hand up before Nash could protest, ‘But because of the photograph, it’s better to be safe than sorry, and I’ve permitted Zola to have her 24/7 security in the short term.’

The guards weren’t members of Nash’s team. His people were busy catching a killer, and he didn’t want them to be distracted or compromised. However, Nash handpicked the officers he wanted on guard duty.

Motion sensors were hidden in the rear garden, and the windows were double-bolted. Additional cameras had to be installed. One was fixed at the end of the drive, another above the garage and two more were added to cover the rear garden.

The biggest insult to Nash was when they discovered that Travis had made a personal appearance. He was caught on the Ring camera, as bold as you please, on the doorstep. He didn’t speak. He just smiled and gave a slow, deliberate wave. Nash watched it on playback.

‘He wanted us to see him,’ he muttered.

Kelvin’s calm while Nash felt out of his depth was a lifeline, but Nash saw the worry on his face. Kelvin over-stirred his tea and then didn’t drink it. ‘He’s not afraid of getting caught, and that makes him dangerous,’ he said.

‘He wants us rattled.’

‘He’s got it.’

‘Will you be okay when I go to work?’ Nash asked.

‘Will you?’ Kelvin replied.

The next day, the station was busy, and the mood was tense.

Nash was in his office. He’d just walked Conrad Snow to his door and was about to leave himself when he saw Norton and Bowes together in the side corridor. They weren’t doing anything out of place, but something in the way Keeley leaned against the wall and touched Jay’s face made him stop.

Jay grinned at something she said and nudged her shoulder with practised familiarity. She rolled her eyes and gave him a smirk.

Nash changed his mind about leaving the office and closed his door. But he saw the growing affection between them. He watched them laugh and thought—God help us if they ever team up. It would be like the TV Show Piglets meeting Lara Croft.

Later, he was reading in a corner of the breakroom. Bowes was showing Norton something on his phone, and she actually laughed. Not just a polite chuckle. A real laugh that wrinkled her nose and brought colour to her cheeks.

‘I can see you falling for me,’ Jay said. ‘You’re trying to hide it, but I can tell. You’re smart, gorgeous, and completely in denial.’

‘Don’t you ever shut up?’ she asked.

‘You could kiss me. That would do it,’ Bowes shot back.

Keeley snorted. ‘Not even in your little wet dreams. I’ve told you, not at work.’ She cast a glance at Nash, who’d heard, but he kept his nose buried in his book. He had a lot on his mind with Bernstein looming nearer, but watching these two clearly falling for each other was warming. Nash was hard. He walked with a straight-back and governed his team for optimum results, but inside he was a sucker for a love story. He watched over the top of Foucault’s Pendulum as Bowes stood to get back to work, and before Norton could stop him, he bent and planted a kiss on the top of her head.

Norton swiped at her hair. ‘For God’s sake, stop being a moron.’

Brown came by with two coffees and plonked herself in Bowes’ seat without asking if it was okay. She handed one to Keeley. ‘You did well in the briefing,’ she said.

Keeley looked over, surprised. ‘Thanks.’

‘It means nothing if you cock up the next one, though.’

Keeley laughed. ‘That sounds more like you.’

‘I’ve got a reputation as a bad ass to maintain.’

They drank coffee over station gossip, and the frost between them cracked.

Nash folded his book and left the room, stopping by the girls as he passed. ‘Any news on Taylor?’

‘Nothing yet, boss.’ Norton said.

He checked his watch, ‘Five minutes, ladies.’

He heard them laughing at some quip of Brown’s as he left.

When he got home, Nash checked in with the street patrol. Everything had been quiet, back and front. He watched the CCTV feeds again. Travis hadn’t been back, but Nash couldn’t shake the feeling that they were playing catch-up again.

He turned off the monitor and went to find his boyfriend, who he’d left stirring Christmas cake batter with enough booze in it to floor a nation. The kitchen was spotless, and the cake was starting to smell delicious in the oven. Kelvin had nodded off under a blanket in the lounge. Nash loved the round tower with almost panoramic views of the ocean, but tonight it made him uncomfortable. He went around the room pulling the blinds, something they rarely did. Then he crawled under the blanket with Kelvin and felt reassured in his arms, but he couldn’t settle.

The week wound down with the Rotary club sending Santa around town on his sleigh—and no news on Alan Taylor. It was the evening of the third day since his kidnapping. Search teams had been out all over Barrow, Dalton and Ulverston and stretched beyond to Askam and the outlying villages when that didn’t bear fruit. Bernstein and Taylor had vanished. Nash kept expecting a body to wash up on the shore, and as every day passed, it was less likely that Alan was still alive. He waited for every call to start with, ‘We’ve found a body.’

Keeley was finishing up with Nash when Jay appeared at the incident room door.

‘You ready for home?’ he asked.

‘Just about.’

‘Can I walk you to your bike?’

She raised her eyebrow in a question, and even Nash was struck by her dark beauty under the Christmas lights. She had pale skin, blue eyes, and jet-black hair, a rare combination that she worked effortlessly. ‘Why?’ she said. ‘Are there elves lurking in the shadows?’

‘I’m not taking any chances until Bernstein’s caught.’

‘Ah, my knight in a Christmas jumper,’ she grinned at him.

‘Well, you’ve got that wrong straight away. I’m terrified of Bernstein, and I’m relying on you to protect me. One kick in the balls from those boots and he’s toast. But mostly, I just like walking with you.’

‘I charge for protection.’

 ‘You have a choice, I’ve got 50p on me, or I can shout you a Chinese at mine tonight?’

‘And a bottle of wine?’

‘You strike a hard bargain.’

She smirked and zipped her leather jacket. Nash locked the incident room behind them and followed them out. They walked to the car park with their breath clouding in the cold.

Bowes couldn’t be quiet for long. ‘Hey, I wrote a song about a tortilla.’

‘Oh yeah?’ He had that tone to his voice, and she waited for the punchline.

‘Actually, it was more of a wrap.’

Nash saw her trying not to laugh, but she couldn’t help it when he flung himself into the most god-awful rap, complete with dance moves. And then he cracked up laughing at his joke and her stern face. By the time he got to the part about neon green guac and pica-picca-lilli, they were both in hysterics.

 ‘You know we’re completely incompatible, don’t you?’ she said.

‘But isn’t that what makes us perfect?’

‘You’re not bad, Jay,’ she said.

‘I’m better than that.’

‘Don’t say any more.’

Nash felt like an eavesdropper and fumbled for his car key.

‘I just need to say it once.’ Bowes lowered his voice, but the breeze carried his words over Nash’s car roof to him.  

‘I love you, Keeley. No games. I know I’m not your usual type, and I’m not what you would have chosen. But I love you anyway.’

She stared at him.

He smiled, small and sad. ‘See you tomorrow, kidda.’

Bowes turned and walked away before she could answer. He didn’t see what Nash could. Despite herself, Keeley was falling for his charm. Nash got in his car and waved to them as he drove out of the carpark.

‘Guac and pica-pica-lilly,’ he sang. And then he cursed Jay Bowes.

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