sooner,” she added, lowering her gaze to the floor. “I was supposed to meet him. Meet him near the Japanese Tea Garden, but I was late.”
“Mary, Ms. Scott told me Nelson was a volunteer here. Did you meet with him often?”
“No. But he said he was doing something near the park. And he promised to show me the Tea Garden.”
“Do you know what he was doing near the park?”
“No. He didn’t tell me.”
“Okay. So you went to meet him. And what happened?”
“I was late. But when I got there, I saw—I saw—”
“What did you see, Mary?”
Mary brought her shoulders in closer together and curled inward. Several minutes of silence ticked by.
Simon started to speak, but silenced himself when he caught sight of Nina’s subtle headshake.
Give the woman space. Distance. Time to pull herself together. Don’t push.
He could practically hear Nina’s unspoken words in his head.
So he waited, watching Mary breathe in and out, in and out, until her shoulders went back to square. She took one last shuddering breath and said, “He had a knife. He carved up poor Nelson. On his back. Initials. It was so bloody.”
This time it was Nina who inhaled sharply and Simon who gave her the “hold back” hand gesture. He heard the murmur of voices in the distance, the squeaky sound of rubber soles on the vinyl and someone’s cell phone ringing, but still he waited.
“Did you see the initials? Can you tell me what they were, Mary?”
“There were four letters.”
Of course, but he had to ask anyway. “What were they?”
“BDSG.”
* * *
SOMETHING WAS WRONG, Nina thought, then cursed herself.
Of course something was wrong. Someone was murdering people and carving them up like woodshop projects. What she meant was something was wrong with Simon. He’d completely withdrawn from her. Holed up inside himself and emotionally retreated from her in a way he never had before. Always before, when something traumatic like this had happened, he’d been there, a rock for her to lean on. Reassuring her that everything was going to be okay. But now that he was dealing with the realization that he might be personally mixed-up with these murders—at least, she assumed that was the case given Mary’s revelation that the initials SG had been carved into Nelson Conrad’s back—he was acting shell-shocked.
It was her turn to be his rock to lean on.
“Simon,” she said gently. “What are you thinking?” She really wanted to ask him further what he was feeling, but she was afraid those loaded words would cause him to retreat even further inside himself.
“What?” he said, looking at her, eyes clearing as if he’d forgotten she was even there, in the car with him. “I’m thinking this has got to stop. Only I’ve been trying to make it stop since before I met you, and this guy has been one step ahead of me the entire time.”
“This guy, meaning Davenport?”
Simon shook his head. “No. It’s not him. He didn’t do this. We’ve had an officer on him ever since he was bailed out. This is pretty much going to clear him for the other two murders, as well.”
“It’s still possible that he hired someone. Or that Hyatt did.”
“Possible, sure. Anything’s possible,” he said gruffly. “But it doesn’t make sense anymore. It doesn’t feel right. Even before we found those other footprints in your house, it never quite did. Aside from the initials that link these crimes, my gut is telling me that Davenport and Hyatt are exactly what they appear to be. They’re pissed at the world because of what happened to their daughters. Maybe my mistake has been in assuming these murders were about you in the first place.”
“You had reason to believe that because of the initials he left behind. On Six. On those men.”
“Yeah, well now he’s left my initials. Given I’m the lead detective on this case, it’s obviously not coincidence. He’s telling me something. And maybe what he’s telling me is that I’ve been the wild card in this all along. That the only reason he dragged you into this in the first place was because of your work with the police. With me.”
He probably didn’t even realize it, but his expression and tone were laced with horror. Lana, she thought. His ex-girlfriend had been killed less than a year ago. He probably viewed this new threat as his nightmare come back to haunt him all over again.
They arrived back at his place and got out of the car. When they got inside, Nina