He certainly didn’t need telling that their suspect for the Highgate rapes had walked already. That was fine, as he’d already checked out and dismissed the man, William Sefton Smith, from his list of concerns. The fellow was unexceptional in every respect. Besides which, his wife and his neighbor—who was irritated by the practice—had already vouched for the fact that opera-loving Sefton Smith walked his dog, then returned and played Wagner, at the same ridiculous hours, every night.
Mari reopened the backdoor access to Holmes 2, the Home Office Large Major Enquiry System, a shared casebook of ongoing national police investigations. They’d changed the passwords again but it didn’t take him long to crack those. Mari didn’t even need to interface with the system for that. He’d set up a netbook specially to access Holmes. If the worst-case scenario became reality and he was caught, he could easily get rid of the physical evidence, but Mari was not desperately worried about that eventuality.
Jake admonished him regularly about his hacking habit but it was just because Jake liked to worry. Three attempts on the final password saw him into the system and he navigated his way through the case files until he found what he was after, Natalie’s file.
The investigating officer had already checked out her social media profile, which was reassuring. Sapphire, the unit responsible for victim support where there had been a sexual assault, was in full possession of her contact details so he was able to find out her mobile provider and her home ISP by tracking the numbers backward from calls they had made to her.
He closed his eyes and touched the screen, letting his Elemental senses loose to roam the network of her mobile phone company. The sensation was liberating. Mari could never deny it. He loved to slip out of the constraints of his all-too-mortal body and run free in the ether, surging like electricity from one system to another, using the points of contact between service users as his nexus points. He hopped in and out of people’s private communications as easily as commuters hopped in and out of tube trains. If he had access to a person’s phone line, he could use it as an access point for anyone that had been in telephone or Internet contact with his source number. The communication potential was infinite.
Mari’s health was not, though. His main restriction when interfacing like this was the body he left behind. He wasn’t invulnerable to the stresses it put on his less-than-substantial frame and the questionably brilliant mind it housed. During the previous quarter, his beloved Jake had even gone so far as to ban him from interfacing completely for weeks at a time.
The thought of not being able to do this still haunted him and left him sick and empty inside. He could not deny it. He was an interface junkie. But it was a gift that was rarely given. He needed to use it wisely.
Hunting for a rapist and potential killer was wise, wasn’t it?
He had to have picked Natalie out from somewhere. The most likely sources were to be found in the circles of her work and social life. Her attacker didn’t necessarily hang around with her, but there was a school of thought that suggested the majority of victims knew, or were known to, their attackers in some way.
What he needed to do was to analyze the circles that the three victims moved in and see if there were any overlaps. Jake would doubtless tell him that the police were already doing this, but the police weren’t able to access the levels of communication technology that he could. Mari swam deeper, trusting his memory to take notes.
He had to do this here. It was more private in some ways than interfacing at home. Mama could intrude on him at the house and Jake might call him and disrupt his concentration. Here, everyone knew what he was and why MI5 employed him. He would not be interrupted unless it was clear that he was not working.
It was his interfacing safe haven.
By the time he logged his tech out and shut down for the night, it was nearly eight-thirty and he was nursing a slight headache. Even so, he messaged Jake as he was leaving to see if he wanted to grab something to eat. Jake responded and they arranged to meet at a delicious Thai place close to his apartment that they both loved.
He knew that Jake had been to the gym as soon as he stepped through the door and the maître d’ showed him to the table where his love was waiting already. There was a glow to Jake when he’d been working out. His dark curls were damp and sexily tousled and he exuded a delicious, healthy vibe that never failed to get Mari hot for him.
He bent to kiss Jake softly on the mouth before taking his seat. “Good evening, hot stuff. I hope you’ve worked up an appetite.”
Jake nodded with enthusiasm. “A bit, yeah. I ordered some spring rolls as a starter for us. How was your day?”
“This is why I love you.” Mari snared a bite-sized roll of crispy pastry and vegetables, wolfing it whole as he settled into his seat. “I’ve been busy. But I did get time to look at the records on the girls that your stalker’s psychopath has been inhuming, he’ll be pleased to hear. Tell him that their security patches still aren’t up to scratch, by the way. A ten-year-old could have hacked them easily.”
Jake sighed and ate a spring roll. “He’s not my stalker, and you can tell him yourself. Did you find anything interesting in your search?”
Mari reached over and stole another roll. “The girls are all of an age, early twenties. They live within three miles of one another. No work in common, though. They don’t seem to hang out in the same areas, so our psycho has his work cut out selecting them, or he likes to change his locale regularly. One had just left work and blacked out before she got home. One was waiting for the bus and doesn’t remember getting on it. The first one had been out with friends at a club and left alone. I can’t find any friends in common and I spent a long time on their Internet histories. He’s random, this one.”
Jake didn’t bother to feign surprise. “That’s pretty much what was in the files from Cordiline that I’ve already seen.” He paused for a moment and added, “Speaking of, I ran into him at the gym. He’d already told me they cut their perp loose and don’t have any new leads.”
Mari nodded again, still chewing. He swallowed and poured some water into the glass by his place setting.
“He walked this morning. Case notes hint that the psych evaluation found him a shade on the eccentric side, but there wasn’t any physical evidence to suggest he’d even picked up a trowel, let alone dug a grave recently. The girl he stumbled across did some volunteer work locally and she’d been to a funeral at Highgate in the past three weeks, which was kind of spooky.” He took a sip of his drink and made a cursory scan of the menu, even though they both knew what he would select. “Not stalking you, huh?”
Jake rolled his eyes. “We go to the same gym. It’s not like I see him there every time I go.”
The conversation was put on hold for a moment while the server came and took their orders.
“Even though we haven’t found anything yet, John asked me to stick with the case. I’m going to interview some of the victims,” Jake said when their waiter returned to the pass.
“Uh-huh, John now, is it?” Mari winked as Jake narrowed his eyes. “Oh, calm down. I don’t mind. I think it’s funny, if you must know. And a bit sad.” He helped himself to the last spring roll and gestured with it as he added, “You should start with the first girl, Emily Redbridge. She seemed to remember more than the other two. Funny thing that she works at the Bun Shop, the café near Waterstones on Torrington Place. I must have seen her before but I can’t visualize her.”
“Would you like to go with me?” Jake asked.
“Will there be free almond croissants?” Mari asked, popping the roll into his mouth and managing a dignified grin with his lips pressed shut as he consumed it.
Jake gave him a raised eyebrow. “She’s a rape victim, Mari. We’re not going to talk to her where she works. Besides, I don’t think we’ll find out much that she didn’t already tell the cops just from talking to her. Since they weren’t left with any of their possessions, my best hope is to pick up a memory with a handsha
ke. It doesn’t happen all the time, but it’s worth a shot.”
“Then I’m surplus to your requirements,” Mari said, and wiped his hands on his napkin. “I’m not good with emotional women. Unless she lets me play with her phone, I can’t do anything more by being there than I could remotely.”
Jake turned those big brown eyes on him like a puppy-dog. “C’mon, please? I can’t just knock on her door, ask to shake her hand and leave. If you could just talk to her for a minute?”
Mari fired him a skeptical look. “Jake, the last time you asked me to come to a potential murder victim’s final stop and keep people talking, we got arrested. Is that wise?”
“That was your plan, if you remember,” Jake told him. “This is a totally different situation. We’re not talking to suspects for one thing, and we’re not doing anything even remotely pushing the boundaries of legality. I don’t get why you always say you don’t do well talking to people. I’ve never seen you have any trouble. You have a talent for it.”
“Flattery will get you nowhere, Chivis.” Mari rolled his eyes. “I talk to people because it’s the only way to get them to do what I want. I don’t do it because I get a kick out of it.”
Jake sighed dramatically. “Well, I guess I can always ask Cordiline to go with me instead.”
“You know, he’d love that.” Mari exhaled, laughing under his breath at Jake’s bald-faced cheek. Honestly, if he didn’t love this man so much, there would be no putting up with him. “If you’re that desperate not to go alone, I suppose I will have to come and hold your hand.”
Jake leaned closer to kiss him. Their meals came shortly after and they spent the rest of the evening talking of more pleasant subjects. Mari drank more wine than he’d intended, but Jake kept ordering another glass for him every time it looked low. When they left the restaurant, Jake put his arm around him as they walked toward the apartment.
“There was something else I kinda wanted to talk to you about,” Jake said. “Cordiline suggested he would like me, possibly us, to take on more consulting work for the police.”
The space between Mari’s eyebrows contracted and he made a conscious effort not to frown.
“That ‘possibly’ hints at conditions he knows I’m not going to like. What does he mean, exactly?”
“Well, mainly that you’d have to play by their rules. And, uh, ‘do what you’re told’. Although I’d take that with a grain of salt because consultants are usually given a lot of leeway, as long as they’re working within the law. Anyway, I told him I already had a job but he asked that I at least think about it.”
Mari considered this for a moment, enjoying the warmth of Jake’s arm around his waist as they walked. Less than a year ago, he’d have laughed at the idea of such a silly thing meaning so much to him, but Jake had changed so many of his old opinions in that short space of time.
“Have you? Thought about it, I mean?” he asked, curious about what his partner in love and crime was thinking.
Jake shrugged. “It would be doing the work I was trained to do. And it’s why I agreed to join the university program to begin with, so that we are treated legitimately by the legal system on a global level. Having our work be recognized this way would be a big step in the right direction.”
Mari turned his head to one side, taking in Jake’s handsome, earnest features as he listened to his words. He experienced a small glow of heat and pride in his man as Jake gave voice to his deliberations. They had argued before about how best to use the gifts they had been born with, and though they had differences of opinion on that matter, he knew in his heart that Jake shared his belief that Elemental resources should not be wasted.
“It would be,” he agreed, slipping one arm around Jake and letting his hand rest on the man’s hip as they walked. “I have a job, too, and I have to be careful how the other things I do impact on that work. Let me talk to Ashcroft. If he agrees, I will help.”
Jake offered him a tender smile. “Your boss seems determined to keep you happy. I’m sure they won’t mind you moonlighting occasionally with the local cops. I’m not sure it would be as easy for me, though.”
“The university are pretty flexible, on the whole. As long as you don’t do anything to bring them into disrepute, I think they would let you take on consulting work. And if you get Weston to okay it and start feeding the results into the Program, the world’s your oyster, frankly.” Mari stopped and pulled Jake around to face him as they reached the front door to his apartment building. Impulsively, he touched his mouth to Jake’s lips in the softest kiss.
When their lips parted, Jake didn’t pull away, hovering his mouth close before he returned a tender kiss of his own, whispering into Mari’s mouth, “As much as I’m sure Weston would love the prestige of one of his guinea pigs working for the police, I can’t do both, Mari. Even just two or three cases at a time is a full-time job.”
As Jake turned to unlock the door and Mari followed him into the hallway and up the stairs, he was mulling over this admission. When they were snug in the warmth of his lover’s tiny flat, he rested his hands on Jake’s hips and drew him in closer again, touching his nose to Jake’s as he gave voice to his thoughts.
“You want to take this on as a career? To quit the university completely? That’s a big step. Your permission to stay hinges on the job you already have, and this would be freelance, right? You’d need some extra support to live in London, unless they were paying you top dollar, which I can’t imagine.”
“It wasn’t a serious job offer, babe. The police are always dealing with cutbacks. They can’t afford to pay most of their consultants much, if anything. That’s what they have ‘real’ detectives for.” He paused again before saying, “It’s private work that actually pays. If I wanted to take on more work from the police, that’s what I’d have to do, unless I suddenly become independently wealthy.”
Mari touched his cheek tenderly. “You’d need somewhere to live. I can’t see the university letting you stay here if you bailed on them. London is expensive, Chivis.”
“It is. Which is pretty much what I told Cordiline. At the moment, it’s not feasible, to think of trying to build a PI practice here.”
“But you could do it, if you didn’t have to worry about that,” Mari breathed, leaning in to touch his forehead to Jake’s. “If it was somehow feasible, would you take that chance?”
“I don’t know. It’s a big risk.”
The hesitancy in his voice, and the sudden vulnerability of his expression, tugged at something in Mari’s chest. He was abruptly short of breath.
“Do you want to take the chance?” he asked. “Would you want to stay here, under your own steam, I mean? If there was a way of doing it?”
“Mari…what is going on in that head of yours?”
He cupped Jake’s face in both hands. “Just answer the question, then I’ll tell you.”
Jake pulled Mari closer. “I went to school for law enforcement and worked my ass off to make detective. It’s what I’ve always wanted to do. The thought of being able to do it again is a big carrot dangling in front of my face. So yes… If I can’t have my old career, this would be the next best thing.”
“Then tell him ‘yes’,” Mari said, kissing the tip of his nose and letting him go. “Tell him you’ll do it.”
Jake laughed. “It’s not that easy. Were you not listening to the ‘why it’s not possible’ part?”
Mari nodded, taking a deep breath. His heart was racing and he willed it to slow down so that he could say the next words without sounding like a love-struck schoolgirl meeting her idol.
“You can live with me. I have a house and everything.”
“Babe…I would love to live with you, but you have a housemate, remember? She might not like the idea of sharing her digs.”
“Don’t be a fool. My mother adores you.” Mari shook his head at that argument. “She would be the first to insist you move in.”
And I could wake up with you in my arms
every day, he thought, warmed by the idea of it.
“Even if she did, it takes a lot of money to start a business, probably most of what I have put away. I can’t just move in and live off you.”
“Why not?” Mari asked him. “One more mouth to feed isn’t going to break us. I earn a good living. And if you’re keeping me warm, we will save money on the heating bills.” He winked at Jake. “You know it makes sense.”
Jake took his hand and led him over to the sofa, sitting him down. “Let’s talk to Anni first. If she’s not comfortable with this, it’s a no go, okay? And if I leave the college, I’ll still find a way to make a paycheck. I’m not going to expect you to support me.”
Mari drew Jake down with him, sliding his arms around him enticingly. “Okay, but let me help you get there. I want to do this for you. I want to give you something in return for all you’ve done for me, something meaningful.”
“You do that every day.” Jake kissed him. “You don’t have to do this, but…thank you.”
“I never do things because I have to.” Mari let his lips linger on Jake’s for a few moments longer. “And I meant something more than just sex. I would be dead of frustration if it weren’t for you.” He touched a fingertip to Jake’s nose, tracing his profile intently. “I owe you so much, Jake Chivis.”
“You don’t owe me anything, Mari.”
Mari knew at once he’d said the wrong thing. Jake didn’t exactly close down but the thumbnail crease he got between his eyebrows when he was worried had suddenly appeared.
“I don’t want to move in together because you feel like you owe me something, Mari.”
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
Jake looked at him hard for a moment, searching his eyes, then he sighed and raked his fingers through his hair. The frown line smoothed and Jake took his hand. “I know you didn’t. Listen. I love you and there’s nothing I want more than to be with you every night, but the idea of being dependent is kinda freaking me out. I’m not saying no, but just…be patient while I get used to the idea, okay?”
Digging Deeper Page 8