Virtual Justice (15 page)

“That was my first thought,” Katy admitted.

“Did the staff get a good description of the woman he met?” Lorne’s brain kicked into gear.

“I’m going down there today to question them properly. I’ll let you know on that one.”

“Don’t forget to look into the ISP address on that guy Karen met. Any chance you can send the victim’s photo over? I could do some digging into the agency files, see what we can glean from those?”

“Will do it ASAP. Lorne, do you think we’re looking at a couple doing this?”

“A serial duo? Highly unlikely. Nevertheless, anything is possible. I suppose it’s too early for a forensic report?”

“Yeah. Patti’s carrying it out today. I’ve told her I want the report as soon as she can get it to me.”

“You’ve probably thought of this already, but I’m going to say it anyway. Hang on, how was the victim murdered?”

“He has several knife wounds to the stomach. He bled out. Whoever did this left him to die a painful death. We think, had he been found earlier, that he would have survived—with a whole lot of surgery, of course.”

“Jesus, how awful. It should be easier to work out if the murderer was male or female. Ask Patti to take special note at what angle the knife or weapon of choice entered the body. In my experience, that’ll be a good indication if you’re after a male or female culprit.”

“I’ll make sure that Patti looks at that side of things. I’m sure she will anyway. I’ll give you a ring later. Thought I’d let you know first thing. I’ll send the pic through now.”

Lorne rushed downstairs, almost tripping over Henry, who was lying on the landing right outside the bedroom door, in the process. “Come on, boy, in the garden.”

She opened the back door to let the dog out, then went into the lounge and booted up her computer. True to her word, Katy had sent the e-mail. After opening it, Lorne stared at the man’s face. He had a distant familiarity about him. Could he be a member of one of the agencies they had visited? In all probability, she feared that would be the case.

Tony brought in a mug of coffee and joined her on the sofa. “Any luck?”

She showed him the man’s picture and watched his reaction. “We know him, don’t we?”

“Yeah, from one of the agencies, right?”

“I think so. Can’t remember which one, though.”

Lorne took a sip of coffee. “Damn. Guess what I’ll be tied up doing this morning?”

“Needs must. I’ll do the chores. Well, Charlie will clean the kennels out as normal, but I can handle the other things that need doing. You concentrate on this.”

“Thanks, love. I think I can narrow it down to maybe three or four agencies. I might need to go and see them again. Do you want to stay here? You look a little peaky.”

“Yeah, the pain is niggling today. Like I said, you do what you have to do, and I’ll handle things here.”

“I’ll get dressed in a minute and make a start. That way, if I manage to locate the guy, I can dash out and see the agency without delay.”

•\ \ \ \ \ •\ \ \ \ \ •

Searching frantically through the files, Lorne finally managed to find Richard Lowe’s profile. She rang the agency concerned, Love Conquers All, and made arrangements to meet with agency owner, Lucy Williams, at midday.

Once Lorne had fully explained the situation to Lucy, she willingly agreed to help Lorne.

“Can you bring up Richard’s file for me?”

Lucy gasped and opened his file, then angled the computer in Lorne’s direction. “That poor man. He’s been with us for a while now. Very inoffensive and very keen to find a woman to settle down with, at least he
was
.”

“Can you go into his personal file and bring up the interaction between him and his latest contact?”

Lucy tapped the keys, and another screen appeared. “That’s strange.”

“What is?”

“We have no picture ID for the woman. What on earth is going on with this system? Could someone be tampering with the program? Once is a coincidence, twice is a little suspect. Don’t you agree?”

“Maybe I’ll get my contact in the police to look into that. I agree. It does seem a little suspicious. What do we know about this woman?”

Lucy’s face coloured up as she read out the woman’s particulars. “Nothing much. I know that the account was only recently created. What if she made up several fake accounts? I’m not liking the look of this.”

“That’s what we need to know, Lucy. Please try not to take all this personally.”

“It’s hard not to when people are intent on using your site to target innocent people. I’m shutting this down today.”

“Please don’t. Don’t jump the gun like that. We could maybe use your site to trap these people come the end.”

Lucy turned sharply to face Lorne. “You think there’s more than one killer out there?”

What had she done? Trying to alleviate the woman’s fears, she said, “To be honest, we’re not entirely sure. I’m imploring you not to do anything drastic just yet.”

“I can’t live with the guilt of knowing my agency was at the heart of these deaths. You can understand that, can’t you, Lorne?”

“I can. However, we could utilise your site to entice the killers out.”

Lucy shook her head in disbelief. “I can’t allow innocent people to be used as bait. I won’t allow it.” Then Lucy did something that could mean disaster to the case—she pulled the plug out of the socket, and the site crashed instantly.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

W
hen Bella arrived at Morris’s flat at six that evening, as he’d instructed, he was pacing the floor. His face was set like stone, his cheeks blazing an unhealthy shade of red. She swallowed hard before speaking to him. “Everything all right, Morris?”

At first, he didn’t appear to notice her presence or hear her call out his name. It wasn’t until she laid a concerned hand on his forearm that he realised he wasn’t alone.

“It’s all gone pear shaped. All those plans we made for this evening have all disintegrated.”

Stepping back, Bella smiled and asked tentatively, “What do you mean?”

He was on her in a flash, backing her against the wall, his forehead pinned against hers. “You heard me. Everything has been
fucked
up.”

Bella said nothing and stood rigid on the spot, his angry glare fixing her in place.

“This is your fault. All
your
fault.”

She frowned but still didn’t say a word, which appeared to anger more.

His fist connected with her stomach. She cried out in pain, unable to move because his head was still pinning her in place. Tears of pain and frustration spilled from her stinging eyes. She couldn’t stop them. He hated any form of weakness.

Snarling, he repeated, “This is all
your
fault, you slag. You incompetent slag. I took you from the gutter. You better not forget that, bitch.”

“I—”

“Shut up! Only speak when I tell you to. You hear me?”

She tried to nod but couldn’t. “Yes,” she whispered.

“I told you not to speak.” He punched her repeatedly in the stomach. Left, right, then left again.

Her teeth bit into her lip and cheek, and the taste of iron filled her mouth as she tried her hardest not to cry out in pain. Still, his fists connected with her stomach, until finally darkness descended upon her.

•\ \ \ \ \ •\ \ \ \ \ •

She woke up, naked, in his luxurious bed. Startled, she turned to look beside her to find him sitting up reading a book.

“Ah, you’re awake, darling.”

Scared, she pulled the quilt up under her chin but remained quiet. He was like a different guy. The loving man she’d fallen in love with had returned, pushing aside the evil character who had punished her by knocking seven bells out of her. Confused, she glanced around the room for her clothes. They had been neatly folded into a pile and were sitting on a chair in the corner. She was desperate for a wee but far too terrified to move. The clock showed that it was ten o’clock.
Is that in the evening or the morning?

Morris smiled down at her and gently brushed the hair away from her forehead. “You’ve been asleep for a couple of hours. Are you hungry? I’m ravenous. I wanted to wait until you woke up before I ate. You went out just like that.” He snapped his fingers to emphasise his point.

“I’m not sure.”

He laughed and pinched her cheek as if she were a child. “You are funny. What does your tummy say?” He pulled back the quilt and rubbed her stomach soothingly.

Bella wanted to cry out in pain because even though his touch was gentle, her bruises still felt tender beneath his fingers. She looked down cautiously, fearful of what she might find and of openly showing how much pain she was in. Her stomach was a mix of pale shades of black and blue, which was a surprise. Did that mean the beating she’d taken hadn’t been so bad, or was her skin slow to show the evidence behind the ferociousness of his attack?

His face showed no sign of remorse when she looked at him. That actually hurt her more than the bruises did. She flinched and sank deeper into the pillow when he threw back the quilt and hopped out of bed.

“I won’t be long. Will cheese on toast do?”

Dumbfounded, she nodded. The second he stepped out of the bedroom, Bella gingerly got out of bed and ran into the bathroom. The first thing she noticed when she saw herself in the bathroom mirror was that her face showed absolutely no sign of being assaulted.
That’s a good thing, right? It wouldn’t be in his best interest to pummel my face, would it?
She sat on the loo and contemplated going home. Would her attempt to leave incite another thrashing from the man whom she thought she was in love with and supposedly loved her? How could she stay? Deep down, she no longer had the desire to be near him, and who could blame her? Who would want to be in her shoes? No one else would consider being in the same flat as this Jekyll-and-Hyde character she’d fallen for out of blind stupidity and foolish frustration.

She flushed the loo and went back to the sink to wash her hands and study the extent of her injuries in the mirror. “You idiot! How could you let him do this to you?” she said quietly before a sob caught in her throat.

“Darling, are you all right?”

His voice stirred up a nervous reaction, and she found herself covering her head and cowering behind the door. He knocked and then entered. She was afraid to look at him. He wrapped his arms around her. She started to cry, and he rocked her like a baby until her tears subsided. How could she not love him? How could she even consider leaving him and going back to her own dingy flat?

“Come now, stop this, you silly girl. Your supper will get cold.” He linked hands with her and led the way back into the bedroom. On the bed was a tray with a small vase holding a single fresh red rose and a plate of delicious-looking toast dressed with melted cheese and a sprinkle of Worcester sauce.

How could she not want to be part of this? She still didn’t have a clue why he’d beaten her, but she knew that she’d forgive him, how could she not?

•\ \ \ \ \ •\ \ \ \ \ •

Lorne had been on tenterhooks since getting back from the agency. Tony realised how livid she was and had given her a wide berth since her return. She heard him behind her in the doorway to the kitchen.

“Come on, love. Come to bed. You’ve been going over that paperwork for hours.”

“I can’t. I won’t let what Lucy did today ruin this case. How could she pull the plug like that?”

He sighed for the umpteenth time that evening. “The trouble is, we never know how people will react to news like that. To be honest, I’m not sure I wouldn’t have done the same thing if I was put in her position. Guilt is a very heavy burden for some people to carry around for the rest of their lives.”

“I hear what you’re saying. I’m not sure I would have reacted the way she did, though. I would do everything I could to bring the bastard—bastards—to justice. She’s destroyed what possible leads we had on this case.”

“Not everyone thinks like a copper, Lorne. She did the only thing she felt was left open to her. To cut her association to the victims and the culprits like that would no doubt, in her eyes at least, go a long way to repairing the damage her agency had caused.”

“It’s still hard to take.”

“I know it is. What did Katy say about it?”

“She was understandably angry and threatened to do all sorts to Lucy Williams. I managed to talk her out of it. The frustrating part is that we were so close, and now we have to start all over again, from scratch.”

“Maybe we can go back to the other agencies. I wouldn’t necessarily tell them what happened at Lucy’s office. These guys are bound to slip up somewhere along the line, love.”

“Yeah, but how many more victims will need to lose their lives before we catch up with the bastards? How could people prey on people like that?”

“It’s not the people they’re preying on as such in question here. It’s their desperation. I still maintain that individuals who sign up to these dating sites are crying out to be loved, desperate to find someone to share their lives with. Come to bed, eh?”

Lorne gathered her papers together and stuffed them back in the file. They walked up the stairs with their arms around each other’s waists. Despite talking to Tony for another hour once they’d gone to bed, Lorne lay awake long into the night, trawling through her brain for a possible lead they might have missed, her frustrations going up a notch.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

A
t her daughter’s insistence, Lorne accompanied Tony to his appointment with the specialist at ten. She was thankful for her daughter and the way she was managing the kennels. At least that side of things didn’t cause her extra worry nowadays.

Lorne rang Katy first thing. “Katy, any news?”

“Nothing. No new leads or victims to report as yet. I’ve had a thought about Lucy Williams.”

“What’s that?”

“I could get a court order. Confiscate her computer.”

“That’s a great idea. I can’t see her offering much resistance. I think, deep down, she wants to help, but right now, she’s more than a little shell-shocked by the events.”

“I better go. I’ll ring you later when I have any news about the ISP address.”