“It’s okay,” Liam assured him. “You can talk about her. She is part of this too. And yes, Lexi got away, and I dread to think what would have happened if she hadn’t.”
“But she did,” Matt replied. “Now we need to catch this asshole before he actually kills someone.”
“I know,” Liam sighed, giving his partner a worried look. “We need to get to the hospital and talk to the latest victim as soon as she wakes. Hopefully, she saw something to help us ID this scumbag.”
Liam headed for the door, followed closely by Matt, his mind full of Lexi, and what could have happened to her. He knew she was beyond lucky. Now he needed to stop this piece of shit before he hurt anyone else.
Chapter 17
Lexi
Lexi stood and stared down the dark corridor as a shiver ran down her spine.
“Hello!” she called out into the darkness, but there was no response.
She took a couple of tentative steps forward; the wooden floor felt cold beneath her bare feet. Another sound came from somewhere in the darkness of the apartment.
“Hello!” She repeated once more, as the sound of her heart beating in her ears was almost deafening. Suddenly a dark figure stepped out of the shadows, at the far end of the hallway.
Lexi stopped dead in her tracks.
“What do you want?” Lexi asked taking a tentative step backward, but as she did, a sharp pain shot from her foot, up through her leg. She glanced down and was stunned to see she was standing in a sea of broken glass.
Looking up once more, the figure squared his shoulders, before he lunged at her, running in her direction with great speed. Lexi turned and began to run too, but it was so hard to move on the broken glass.
“HELP ME!” She cried out as she tried to reach the door at the far end of the hallway. She just reached it, when an arm wrapped around her body, pulling her back before they both crashed to the floor.
Lexi struggled to get up from the floor, but before she could, the figure in black grabbed her once more. This time he pushed her to the ground, climbing over her.
“NO!” She cried out, trying to push him off her “NO! GET OFF ME!”
“LEXI!” He shouted down into her face.
“NO!” She cried once more, as she continued to fight.
“LEXI!” Liam’s voice crashed into her head, pulling her from her dream. She opened her eyes, looking up into his face, as the terror she felt moments before, gave way to relief, then to tears. Liam quickly wrapped her in his arms. “It’s okay; you’re safe. It was just a dream.”
Lexi didn’t reply. Instead, she let Liam hold her close. Her heart was still pounding fast in her chest. She hated this. She hated feeling so scared and helpless.
“I’ve got you,” Liam breathed against her head. “You’re okay.”
Lexi didn’t know why, but his words just made her cry harder. She knew she was safe, just like she knew Liam would have done anything to protect her, but right at that moment, she felt so vulnerable.
She knew she was being completely irrational. She had nothing to be frightened of right at that moment, but she felt terrified.
When Liam had arrived home earlier that evening, Lexi knew just by the look on his face that the latest robbery was bad. At first, when he came home, he couldn’t seem to let his eyes meet hers for more than a couple of moments. When Dylan asked how the latest victim was, once more Liam couldn’t meet her gaze. Lexi knew Liam had chosen his words carefully when answering Dylan.
Lexi decided she needed a little space to clear her mind, so she excused herself, quickly heading to the bathroom to try and collect her thoughts. She knew there was something more he wasn’t saying, and she knew he wasn’t saying it because of her.
After a few minutes, she splashed some water on to her face before she left the bathroom, walking quietly back down the hallway towards the living room, but she stopped when she heard Dylan and Liam talking.
“You should have seen her,” Liam was saying. “Her face was completely unrecognisable because of the bruising. Her nose is broken, so is her eye socket. She had three broken ribs and a punctured lung. Whoever this asshole is, he is now completely out of control.”
“Jesus,” Dylan sighed, and Lexi could hear the worry in his voice. “What are you going to tell Lexi?”
“As little as possible,” Liam replied. “She is already so afraid, if I tell her this, it will just make her more worried than she already is, and I don’t want that for her.”
“She’s not stupid, Liam,” Dylan said, and his words made Lexi smile. “She is going to figure this out. Besides, if the papers get details…”
“Well, I am doing everything I can to stop that,” Liam replied. He was worried too, Lexi could hear it in his voice just like in Dylan’s. “She is afraid he will come looking for her, and I don’t want to give her more to worry about.”
“Do you think he will come looking for her again?” Dylan asked as Lexi held her breath, waiting for the answer.
“Honestly,” Liam sighed, releasing a long breath. “I don’t know. I mean, there is no reason to believe he would…”
“But?” Dylan asked, sensing there was a but coming.
“But,” Liam continued. “Nothing about this is normal. He started out simply robbing people, but the last few break-ins, something has changed. The woman before Lexi was an older lady. Same age as mom. He broke her nose, cracked a couple of ribs. The girl before her was younger, he roughed her up a little. I can’t even imagine what he would have done to Lexi if she hadn’t got away. Now this girl. None of it makes sense.”
“Jesus,” Dylan said once more, but Lexi had heard enough. She turned and walked back down to the bedroom. She was suddenly beyond tired. Kicking off her shoes, she climbed onto the bed without even taking off her clothes and pinched her eyes shut. She just wanted this all to be over, for life to be normal once more.
“Lex,” Liam whispered, still holding her tightly. “Talk to me.”
“What is there to say?” She asked without lifting up her head. “The reasonable side of my brain tells me that everything is going to be fine. He has no idea where I live now, nor do I have any reason to think he would come looking for me…but… but the other side, that side tells me that he needs to finish what he started. I guess I’m just waiting for him to come and…. I don’t know. Pay me back for getting away the last time.”
“Lexi, I will never let that happen to you, I give you my word,” Liam assured her, but Lexi was far from convinced.
“Liam, they said on the news, every girl that was attacked was either living alone,” Lexi said, as the thought occurred to her. “Or they were home alone at the time. That’s not a coincidence. He knew them. He knew they were alone, which means that he is watching them. He was watching me.”
Liam didn’t respond, and Lexi knew that he couldn’t tell her that what she said wasn’t true.
“He was watching me, Liam,” she repeated, with a sad smile, as tears spilled down her face. “And I am so scared that if I go out there, go back to work that he will find me again, and come finish what he started.”
“I promise, I will never let him hurt you like that again,” Liam assured her, but his words offered little comfort. She knew he meant them, and that he would do everything in his power to keep her safe, but until this asshole was caught, Lexi knew she would never feel safe again.
The following afternoon, Lexi sat in Liam’s apartment, staring at the camera equipment she’d left sitting on the coffee table. She had assignments to do, and she knew she needed to get back out there as soon as she could, or she never would.
She told herself that there was nothing for her to worry about, that the chances of him finding her once again in a big city like San Francisco were almost non-existent. Lexi knew she was just overthinking everything, just like she always did.
When Liam had left for work an hour earlier, she promised him that she was fine, even though she knew deep down inside she wasn’t. But sh
e also knew she needed him to go and catch that guy, so life could really return to normal for the whole city.
Pushing up from the sofa, she walked to the bag of camera stuff and grabbed the long leather strap, then, before she could change her mind, she headed for the door.
Ten minutes later, she was sitting on a bench overlooking Washington Square Park, watching people hurrying about their daily lives, as the summer sun washed over her face. It was a place she came to often, somewhere that she loved and had always felt safe.
Lexi was glad she had decided to come out. It was a beautiful day, and the atmosphere in the park was a happy one. She pulled her camera from her bag, deciding to take a few random shots before she got down to some serious shots.
She started with a snapshot of an older couple sitting side by side on a bench. The man was lost in his newspaper, while the old woman rested her head against his shoulder, just happy to be in his company.
Next, she took a shot of a little girl sitting with her back to Lexi, a scruffy little dog sitting next to her, watching the little girl closely as she ate a hotdog. Lexi smiled as the little girl broke off a piece and gave it to the little dog.
She spent the next thirty minutes snapping anything and everything. She was happy with some of the shots she got. But then, as she scanned the park taking random shots of people as they went about their day, someone walked across the front of her lens in the distance and Lexi’s heart almost stopped when she recognised a mark on his arm. Without thinking, she clicked the camera, before she raised the camera higher and clicked again. She knew the focus was blurry, so she tried to focus it again, but before she got a clearer image, the person was obscured but a group of giggling teenagers.
Lexi stood to get a clearer image, but it was no good. The guy had vanished behind a hotdog vending cart, then behind some trees.
Sitting back down, Lexi lifted her camera once more, this time scanning through the photos she had already taken. When she found the one of the arm with the mark on it, she zoomed in, and sure enough, it was the same tattoo that was on the guy’s arm who had broken into her apartment.
“Oh my, God,” she whispered as she suddenly gasped for breath as her heart hammered faster and faster in her chest. She pushed up from the bench, gathering her things, summoning every ounce of strength inside her not to fall apart.
You’re okay! She chanted in her mind over and over, and she tried desperately to control her breathing. You’re okay! You’re okay!
Hot tears burned her eyes, but she refused to let them win. She was not going to cry, not this time.
Grabbing her bag from the bench, she stumbled onto the street, stopping a passing cab.
“Where to miss?” The driver asked as she climbed into the back of the car.
“Police,” was all she managed to say before she buried her face in her hands and gasped for air.
She knew she was coming undone. It was a feeling she was all too familiar with.
The first time it had happened was shortly after the crash five years earlier. She hadn’t known what had triggered it that day, but after that, it became an almost daily occurrence for almost two years. But over time, they had become fewer and further apart. It had been months since her last episode.
“Miss, are you okay?” The driver asked glancing at Lexi in his rear-view mirror.
“Po… Police station,” she gasped, trying desperately not to fall apart completely. “D…Detective M…M… Murphy.”
“You want to go to the precinct?” He asked, glancing at her once more. Lexi nodded her response before she pinched her eyes closed and tried to breathe.
You’re okay! You’re okay! She chanted in her mind once more.
Lexi barely remembered the journey, nor did she even notice when the car came to a stop. Instead, she kept her eyes closed, her hands over her ears, and repeated her chant over and over in her head. You’re okay!
“Lexi,” Liam’s voice suddenly crashed into her thoughts. “Baby, what is it? What’s happened?”
Lexi opened her eyes and looked up at Liam. The moment her eyes met his, a sob escaped from deep inside her, as tears trickled down her face.
“Lex, you’re scaring me,” Liam said, his voice filled with panic. “Has something happened? Has someone hurt you?”
“I… I saw him,” she whispered as she reached up and wrapped her arms around Liam. “I saw him.”
“Let’s get you inside,” Liam said, almost lifting her from the car. Before Lexi knew where she was, she was sitting in an office inside the police department, feeling like every pair of eyes in the precinct was staring at her through the glass window that divided her from the rest of the squad room.
“Here,” Liam said as he came rushing back into the room, carrying a cup of hot tea. “It’s sweet. You’ve had a fright, so it will help.”
Lexi took the cup from him, as Liam took the seat in front of her. Bringing it to her lips, she took a sip and almost gagged.
“It’s full of sugar!” She exclaimed, looking up at Liam.
“It will do you good,” Liam assured her, as he guided her hand back to her mouth, for her to take another sip. She did what he wanted and gagged once more. She hated sweet tea.
“So,” Liam said, his eyes fixed on her like he had so many questions, but he didn’t know where to start. “You think you saw the burglar?”
“Yes,” she replied, her breathing finally starting to return to normal. “I was in the park, and he was there.”
“Lexi, Sweetheart,” Liam said taking the cup from her hand, setting it down, before he took hold of her hands. “It’s very normal for victims to believe that they see the person that hurt them everywhere they go. You’ve had such a scare…”
“No,” Lexi sighed, cutting him off, before pulling her hands from his. “I did see him, and I can prove it.”
She stood up and walked to her bag that was sitting on top of a filing cabinet on the far side of the room. She reached in and pulled out her camera. Turning it on, she pulled up the picture of the tattoo on the arm.
“See!” she said, handing the camera to Liam. “That is the same tattoo, in the same place, just like I saw the other night. That is the guy.”
“You got a picture of his arm?” Liam said standing up too, sounding almost excited. “I can’t believe it.”
“I tried to get a picture of his face,” Lexi said, wishing she could say she had, but she knew she had failed. “But it was blurry, and then he was gone.”
She flicked over to the blurry image she had on her camera, handing it to Liam once more.
“I’m sorry,” Lexi sighed, knowing that the photo wouldn’t be much help.
“You’ve nothing to be sorry for,” Liam said, giving her a broad smile. “You did amazing. I can have our computer techs try to sharpen that image up a little. Who knows, we might even get a hit.”
Lexi smiled, but she knew there was no way they could fix that image. If she knew anything, she knew about photography, and there was no way to enhance that image to a clearer one.
“You never said you were going out today,” Liam said, giving her a worried look as he set the camera down on the desk.
“Honestly, I hadn’t planned on it,” Lexi replied, knowing Liam wasn’t thrilled she’d gone out alone as she had. “But I was sitting there thinking, and I knew the longer I left it to get back out there, the harder it would be.”
“You’re right, I guess,” he sighed, giving a smile. “I just wish that I had been there to protect you.”
“You were when I needed it,” Lexi replied, leaning forward to kiss him. As their lips parted, Liam smiled, but he didn’t respond to her comment. Instead, he reached for the camera and picked it up.
“I just need to take this to have the pictures from your memory card pulled off,” he said waving the camera before he stepped around her. “Then you can have your camera back.”
“Good,” Lexi replied as she took her seat once more. “Because I think I got some
really good shots in the park today. Maybe more than a dozen.”
“You took other photos?” Liam asked as he stopped and turned back to Lexi.
“Yeah,” Lexi replied, giving Liam a strange took. “I took a few of different angles of the park. Why?”
“Because maybe you caught this asshole on camera after all,” Liam replied, with the biggest smile on his face. “Can I hold on to this for now? I need to make sure I do everything by the book; I’m giving this guy no excuses to get away with this once we bust his stupid ass.”
“Sure,” Lexi replied, just as there was a knock on the door. Liam quickly opened the door, and Lexi was surprised to see Nell standing there.”
“Mom,” he said, giving his mother a hug. “Thank you for coming down.”
“Of course,” Nell said, before she turned to Lexi, giving her a worried smile. “Lexi, Sweetheart, I’ve been so worried about you. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Lexi replied, feeling a little thrown to see Liam’s mother standing there.
“I asked Mom if she’d come to get you,” Liam explained as if reading Lexi’s mind. “She is going to take you back to the house until I am finished here.”
“There is no need…” Lexi began to protest, but Liam quickly kissed her, stopping her mid-sentence.
“There is every need,” Liam insisted when his lips finally parted from hers. “Please don’t fight me on this, Lex. I need to know you’re safe.”
She stared at him for a moment. She wanted to protest. She wanted to insist that she would be fine back at his place, but deep down, Lexi was almost relieved. She was scared. It was that simple.
“Okay,” she finally replied with a nod, before she gave him a smile.
“Thank you,” Liam said, giving her a grateful smile before he turned to his mother. “And thank you, Mom, for coming down here so quickly.”
“It’s my pleasure, Son,” Nell said, kissing Liam on the cheek before she turned and smiled at Lexi. “Let’s get you home, Sweetheart.”
Lexi said her goodbyes to Liam, then followed Nell out of the precinct, praying to God that Liam would find something on her camera to put an end to this whole nightmare.
Liam (The Murphy Boys Series Book 4) Page 17