Afterburn: A Kenzie Gilmore Thriller

by BIBA PEARCE

  “You’ve got to eat,” he said. “I’ll make something. I bought some spaghetti and fresh tomatoes on my way here.”

  “Wow, I’m liking this new side to you. I didn’t realize you were so domesticated.”

  He grinned. “Don’t get too excited. This is the only thing I know how to cook to a reasonably high standard.”

  She laughed. “Well, it sounds great. I forgot all about eating.”

  “We’ve got to keep your strength up. There have been some developments in the case I want to run by you.”

  That piqued her interest. “What developments?”

  “I’ll tell you after dinner.” He ruffled through his sports bag and pulled out a grocery bag.

  “I want to know now.” She followed him as he walked into the kitchen. “You can tell me while we chop tomatoes.”

  He snorted. “Deal.”

  Reid stood in her kitchen, looking around.

  “The pans are in that cupboard to your left, and the utensils in that jar on the counter.”

  He collected what he needed, grabbed a chopping board, and began to slice the tomatoes.

  “Let me help,” she offered.

  He shook his head. “You listen and tell me what you think.”

  She relented. “Okay.”

  “Bella Montague was caught on camera the night of Natalia’s disappearance, driving to the Glades. There was a man in the car with her.”

  Kenzie gaped at him. “Seriously? The same night? After she got home from the launch?”

  “Same night.”

  “Holy crap!”

  “I know.”

  “Who was she with?”

  Reid turned the board around and kept chopping. “That’s the problem. The passenger’s face was dark. Can’t make out who it is.”

  “Could it be Snake?”

  He glanced up at her. “What makes you say that?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. There might be something going on between them. I can't shake the feeling there’s more to their relationship than meets the eye. When I saw them on the beach, they looked so—together. Even though they weren’t.” She shook her head. “I know that makes no sense.”

  “It could have been Snake. I can’t say for sure that it was, though. No jury will convict based on that.”

  “What did Bella say when you questioned her?”

  “Unfortunately, I wasn’t the one to question her, but she had a perfectly rational explanation. She said he was a guy she’d picked up a few days before, they’d had sex, and the night of the launch he showed up at her door for a late-night booty call. He was drunk, so she gave him a ride home.”

  “Really?” Kenzie put her hands on her hips. “She gave a ride to a guy looking for a 2:00 am booty call? I doubt that.”

  “That’s what she said. Can’t prove or disprove it either way.”

  “Did she give a name?”

  “Julian. No last name. No number. She didn’t ask.”

  Kenzie pursed her lips. “I wonder what Dave would say about that.”

  “I doubt there’s anything to tell. I’m betting Bella made the whole thing up. Julian probably doesn’t even exist.”

  “Which brings us back to my original question,” said Kenzie. “Who was in the car with her? Who was her accomplice in Natalia Cruz’s murder?”

  “Jonny’s going to bring in Snake for questioning.”

  “Wasn’t he still at the party?”

  “Not at 2:00 am. The party ended around one-thirty. He and his friends searched the hotel for Natalia but as you know, couldn’t find her. Snake called the police who told him to wait until she’d been missing for 24 hours to call back.”

  “So he could have been in the car with her,” Kenzie mused. Her brain was working overtime, piecing parts of the puzzle together. “What if Natalia was still alive when he got back from the party? What if he killed her, then Bella picked him up, and they took Natalia’s body to the swamp to dump it?”

  “Making it look like the Strangler,” finished Reid. He swept the chopped tomatoes into the pan.

  “No, that doesn’t work,” Kenzie gnawed on her lip. “Snake got his buddies to help search for her. They would have seen if he had her stashed in one of the wardrobes or something.”

  “And I checked the CCTV outside the hotel. Bella didn’t go back there.”

  “She may have parked somewhere else,” she said, as he turned on the stove. The smell of garlic wafted over, making her stomach rumble.

  “It’s possible. I couldn’t check everywhere.”

  The pan sizzled. “Who taught you to cook spaghetti?” She wondered at the practiced way in which he stirred the tomatoes, added some water and herbs, and adjusted the heat.

  “My mother.” A fond smile swept across his face.

  “Oh, is she still alive?”

  “Yeah, I’m not that old.” He laughed.

  “Sorry, it’s just I’ve never heard you mention your parents.”

  “No, well my father died when I was a teenager, but my mother lives in Pennsylvania with my sister.”

  He had a sister, too. She realized she didn’t know much about Reid other than he was a detective. “Do you ever visit them?”

  “Once in a while. I spent some time there after Bianca died, licking my wounds, but it got too claustrophobic. I’m not big on talking about my feelings, which my sister loves to do.”

  Kenzie smiled. “Is that when you bought the place in the Glades?”

  “Yeah, got it from a tour company that went bust.”

  “Why there?” she asked. “It’s so isolated and remote.”

  “Beautiful though,” he said, “and I like the solitude.”

  “Beautiful in a swampy way, I guess.”

  He chuckled and put another pot of water on the stove to boil. The tomato sauce smelled so good it had given her an appetite when she thought she didn’t have one.

  “I was 12 when my mother disappeared,” she said softly. She didn’t know why she suddenly felt the need to mention her mother. Perhaps it was the domestic kitchen scene, the stirring up of old memories. “I remember baking with her. Sifting flour and licking the bowl when we were done.”

  “It must have been hard to lose your mother at that age,” he said.

  “It was.” She took a deep breath. The panic, the fear, the loss had never fully gone away. “The worst part was nobody knew what had happened to her. At least if there’d been a body,” her voice cracked and she swallowed. “I had no closure. I still don’t know what happened to her.”

  Reid had stopped cooking and was watching her closely. “Did you try to find out?”

  “There’s a reason I’m an investigative journalist.”

  He gave a knowing grin. “I thought as much. What did you find?”

  “Nothing much. I raided my father’s files, but it wasn’t his case. Too personal. It was handled by Detective Reynolds.”

  “Captain Reynolds?” asked Reid.

  “Yeah, do you know him?”

  “He’s in charge of my division. He’s my boss's boss.”

  “He was my father’s partner for a long time. When my mother disappeared, he headed up the case. My father wouldn’t let anyone else work on it.”

  “I guess I can understand that. He’d trust his partner more than any other cop.”

  She gave a tiny nod. “He still checks in on me from time to time. He was very sympathetic after I had my accident.” She glanced down at her knee.

  Reid picked up the spaghetti and lowered it into the boiling water. Steam curled up towards the ceiling.

  “That hasn’t stopped you from searching for the truth, though,” he said softly.

  Were they still talking about her mother?

  “No, and I haven’t given up.” She studied his face, so strong and chiseled. A handsome face. It could be hard at times, but now it was relaxed and unguarded. She took a deep breath. “Will you help me?”

  31

  Reid stared back at he
r through a plume of steam. “You want me to help you find out what happened to your mother?”

  “Why not? You have access to the files. You can look into the police investigation.”

  “It was a long time ago, Kenzie.”

  “You have an archive, don't you?”

  They did, but he’d need a good reason to dig around in there. Her eyes pleaded with him.

  “I’ll see what I can do,” he said. “But after we tie up these two cases.”

  She smiled, her dimples flashing. In that moment, he thought how pretty she was, despite her disheveled state. Her blond hair was curling around her face but matted at the back where she’d been hit; her blue eyes were wide and hopeful, and the fine lines she’d acquired from the constant headache gave her a fragility she otherwise wouldn’t have had. A vulnerability he found appealing.

  “Thank you,” she breathed, then she frowned. “Two cases?”

  “Yeah, I don’t believe they're related. Do you?” She opened her mouth to reply, but before she could, he continued. “If Bella was responsible for dumping Natalia’s body, then she’s implicit in her murder. And if that’s the case, there’s no way she’s working with a serial killer.”

  “I agree, it’s a ridiculous notion. It’s just the school thing—”

  “Didn’t pan out,” he interrupted. “I cross-checked every name on that list.”

  “Coincidence, then?”

  “Must be. It’s rare, but it does happen.”

  Kenzie exhaled. “Well, now we’ve got a hypothesis, let’s try to make sense of it. What was Bella doing on that road? Does it lead anywhere else besides to the Glades?”

  “No. The only place she could have been going was the swamp. It tallies with where Natalia’s body was found. She’d been moved by gators or the current, but the drop-off point must have been along Highway Forty-One somewhere.”

  “Have you searched her car?” Kenzie asked.

  “We’re waiting on a warrant. The judge wasn’t forthcoming. Pérez had to argue that the fact her vehicle was caught on camera near the dump site should be enough.”

  “That and she had two public altercations with the victim where she accused Natalia of stealing her boyfriend.”

  “As soon as it comes through, we’ll get it analyzed.”

  “What about her apartment?” Kenzie asked.

  He scoffed. “That’s stretching it.”

  Kenzie rolled her eyeballs. “What if we go to her house and snoop around?”

  “I hope you’re not suggesting we break in?”

  “No, of course not. You could question her. I could make an excuse and go to the bathroom, poke around. You know how it goes.”

  He couldn’t resist a chuckle. He could see her doing that. “After what she went through at the station, I don't think she’ll be too receptive to more questioning.”

  Kenzie sighed. “You’re probably right.”

  “And anyway, if it’s not a sanctioned forensic search, nothing we find is admissible.”

  She snorted. “Ridiculous.”

  “Those are the rules.” He didn’t much like ‘em either.

  “Didn’t stop them ripping our house to shreds when they thought my father had something to do with my mother’s disappearance.”

  Reid focused on stirring the sauce. The pasta was bubbling away like a cauldron. “That’s different. He was her spouse. In most homicide cases, the spouse is the prime suspect.”

  “Not in this case,” she said. “No body. No homicide.”

  Reid had to admit, he was intrigued. When he had more time, he’d retrieve the old case files from the archives and look through them. Perhaps there was something he could do to help Kenzie figure out what had happened to her mother. Or at least find some peace with it.

  Reid finished cooking and strained the pasta. Then he put it in two bowls and spooned the sauce over it. “Voila!”

  “Impressive. I think I’ve got some cheese.” Kenzie opened the fridge.

  They ate their dinner at the dining room table. He was still nursing the same beer, while she’d poured herself a glass of water.

  “I was thinking.” She twirled spaghetti around her fork. “If Bella and her accomplice did attack Natalia in that hotel room. They would have taken her body out via the beach. Right?”

  Reid looked up. “Right. There’s no other way without being seen.”

  “Then her car must have been close by. Where would you park if you were carrying a body?”

  “I don’t know. Close. A body is heavy. Ocean Drive is pedestrian only. The Sand Club has valet, but we checked that out. The only other possibility is Fifteenth Street or one of the parking garages, but again, they’d all have security cameras.”

  “Fifteenth,” she murmured, putting the spaghetti in her mouth. “Damn, this is good.”

  He grinned. “It’s my signature dish.”

  “Mm.” He was glad to see her appetite had returned. She was going to be okay.

  “They’d have had to carry the body a long way down the beach to get anywhere else,” he said. “Very conspicuous.”

  “Unless she was still alive,” Kenzie murmured.

  He paused. “You mean if they’d led her out at gunpoint. In the dark, nobody would know she had a weapon on her. You might have a point there.”

  “They could have walked along the beach to the waiting car.” Kenzie warmed to her idea. “Then strangled her.”

  Reid picked up her train of thought. “They must have killed her before they drove out to the swamp. There wasn’t a third person in the car.”

  Kenzie shivered. “She could have been lying on the back seat or in the trunk by that stage.”

  It was possible. It would explain how he hadn’t seen Bella’s car on any of the security cameras in the area. And how they’d gotten her down to the beach without anyone noticing.

  “It’s even more imperative we search her vehicle,” he muttered.

  “Going back to the Strangler, there’s something that struck me about how he’d scouted all his victims,” Kenzie mused.

  “What's that?”

  “They were all at the north end of the strip. All within close proximity to the outdoor parking garage behind the Royal Palm hotel.”

  He put his fork down. “I’m not sure what you’re getting at?”

  “I’m not either, to be honest, but hear me out. The other day, I checked out all the places the girls had been to on the nights they disappeared. The Ocean Club, Go Social!, and Maxine’s. They’re all within a short distance of each other. I parked in the 15th Street parking lot. It was the nearest place—the only place, in fact, in that area.”

  He put his fork down. “Are you saying that the killer may have parked there too?”

  Her eyes lit up. “It’s a possibility, isn’t it? He would have needed transport. There’s nowhere to park on Ocean Drive, and if he’s anything like me, he’d have used the 15th Street parking lot. It’s outdoor, it’s dark. Sure, there’ll be cameras somewhere, but if his victims went willingly.”

  “It wouldn’t have looked out of place,” finished Reid. “Just a couple going home together.”

  “Exactly.”

  He took a long stare at her. “I think you might be onto something, Kenzie.”

  “You do?”

  “I do. And first thing tomorrow, I’m going to pull up that security footage. If you’re right, we may have caught our serial killer on film.”

  32

  “I know him.” Reid faced Pérez across the desk. “Let me interview him.”

  “The Strangler is Jonny’s case,” his boss pointed out.

  “Snake is not connected to the Strangler,” Reid argued. “I’m interviewing him about his wife’s murder. That’s my case. You put me on it, remember?”

  Pérez ran a hand through his hair. “How do you know he isn’t the Strangler?”

  Reid gave him a look. “Come on. Seriously? With Bella Montague? I don’t think so. The Swamp Strangler is a seria
l offender. He works alone. He rapes and strangles his victims. Bella isn’t part of that. This is an isolated case.”

  Pérez didn’t immediately reply.

  “This is about Natalia Cruz,” Reid insisted. “And no one else.”

  A sigh. Then Pérez nodded. “Okay. He’s yours.”

  “Thanks.”

  Reid shot out of the office and into the interrogation room. Snake was slumped in the chair, his skinny legs out in front of him, his one arm draped over the side and his head back. He looked up as Reid entered.

  “Jesus, Reid. What’s this about, man? Why am I here?”

  Reid took a seat and put a manilla folder on the table in front of him. Snake’s eyes dropped to it.

  “I’ll explain in a minute,” he said. “Do you want something to drink? Water? Coffee?”

  “Nah, I hate police interviews. Tell me what’s going on and get me out of here.”

  “Okay.” Reid leaned back, matching Snake’s casual style. “But before we start, I must tell you that this interview is being recorded. You’re here to answer some questions, but you're not under arrest. You’re free to leave at any time.”

  “I am? That’s not what the dude who picked me up said.”

  “We’d appreciate your cooperation,” Reid added. “It won’t take long.”

  Snake’s eyes narrowed. “This is about Natalia’s murder, isn’t it? You’ve found something.”

  “We have, and we’d like to run it by you.”

  Snake pursed his lips, pleased he’d figured out what this was all about. “Sure, anything to help catch her killer.”

  Reid nodded. He opened the file and took out a photograph, placing it on the table in front of Snake.

  He watched as the disc-jockey’s eyes flickered over it, but he didn’t respond.

  “Do you know who that is?” Reid pointed to the driver.

  “It looks like Bella, but I could be wrong.”

  “It is Miss Montague, yes. This photograph was taken at two in the morning, the night Natalia went missing.”

  Snake frowned. “You’re shitting me.”

  Reid shook his head. “After your launch party at The Sand Club.”

  “But she was wasted. Her date took her home. I saw them leave.”