Tag: suspense

Suspicious Syringe Found.

But would it lead anywhere, Garret thought bitterly as he looked over at his couch where Calico was curled up under a mound of blankets.

She’d been different since he’d asked her if she believed her ex and the killer were one and the same. Quieter. More withdrawn. Missing the spark that had drawn him to her in the first place.

Filled with an overwhelming need to comfort her in whatever small ways he could, Garret headed over to the couch. Tony and Natasha had left after Calico had woodenly told them everything she knew about her ex, so it was just the two of them, and he wanted her to know he was there for her.

Sitting on the couch beside her, he picked her up, blankets and all, and settled her on his lap. It wasn’t until she gave a small sigh and snuggled closer, resting her cheek on his shoulder that he realised he’d been afraid of being rebuffed. They didn’t know each other that well yet so he’d wondered if she would even want his comfort.

Seemed he shouldn’t have worried.

“Do you really think it could be him?” she asked after sitting in silence for several minutes while he just held her and stroked her hair, trying to let her know with each touch that he wasn’t going anywhere.

“I don’t know enough about the case to answer that.” Although he’d asked Tony to speak with the lead detectives on the case and see what they thought.

“If … if it is my ex, then … does that make all of this … all those nurses who lost their lives … is it my fault?” Calico asked, looking up at him with wide green eyes so full of fear, and guilt that he wanted to do whatever it took to make her smile again, to put the sparkle back in those pretty eyes.

“Absolutely not,” he growled, harsher than he’d intended, but he wasn’t going to allow her to blame herself for someone else’s actions. Actions that she had zero control over.

“But-“

“No buts,” he said as he placed a finger on her lips. “If it is him that does not make any of this your fault. You were allowed to end a relationship you were no longer happy in. That did not give him a reason to take you and hold you against your will. And it certainly was not a reason for him to hurt other people. If this is him it’s not on you.”

“I want to believe that,” she whispered forlornly.

“I’ll keep saying it until it sinks in,” he promised. Before he could say more his phone, which was sitting on the coffee table in front of them, began to ring. It was Tony’s name on the screen so he leaned over to scoop it up. “What’s up?”

“Spoke with the lead detectives working the case, they asked if you could bring Calico in so they could speak with her,” Tony told him.

Obviously overhearing, Calico nodded. There was still fear and guilt in her eyes but there was determination too. This woman was too strong for anything to break her. And he’d be right there beside her every step of the way.

“We’ll be right there,” he told his partner. Regardless if the killer was her ex or not Calico wasn’t safe, no nurse would be until this man was off the streets.

Suspicion that the nurse killer already has next victim in his sights.

Calico dragged her attention away from the newest headline, insides churning as she realised this man was escalating. He’d just taken another victim and now he was already hunting his next.

When would it stop?

And was it the killer or her ex who was stalking her now?

Garret hadn’t returned so she stood on shaky legs and went looking for him. Finding him, another man, and a woman standing just inside the front door, the looks on their faces put her even more on edge.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, walking straight over to Garret and into his arm. It felt like the most natural thing in the world to rest her cheek on his shoulder and have his arms wrap around her. “I remember you. I saw you at the hospital a few times,” she said to the man.

“I’m Garret’s partner, Tony,” he said, holding out his hand which she shook. “And this is my girlfriend, Natasha.”

Although Natasha smiled there was a haunted look in the woman’s eyes that Calico recognised all too well. The same look she’d seen in her own eyes so many times over the last year.

“Nice to meet you, Natasha,” she said, offering as warm a smile as she could muster, which was returned by the other woman. “Did something happen?”

“Your car was stolen,” Garret told her, his hand stroking the length of her spine.

“Like by random thieves?” she asked, somewhat lamely. From the looks on their faces she knew who the guys thought had taken her car. It wasn’t the fact that her car that had been taken that had her feeling like her blood had been turned to ice, it was knowing that she had likely been followed.

Someone had been watching her?

The killer or her ex?

“Calico, I hate to ask this, but I think we have to,” Tony said, but looked to Garret with an arched brow.

Garret sighed but he captured her chin between her thumb and forefinger, the pad of his thumb gently caressing her skin. “Do you think it’s possible that your ex could be the one killing nurses?”

How many more will die before this ends!

Garret stared at the headline, his head spinning with everything that he’d learned from Calico. Those eyes he’d felt watching them when he picked her up for her date, were those the eyes of the man hunting nurses, or her ex? The person who had broken into her home was that the killer or her ex?

The thought of this woman, he was falling for a little more each day, being in danger, being hurt, felt like a thousand knives plunging into his body. How was he supposed to keep her safe from not one but two predators when he wasn’t even one hundred percent recovered from being shot?

Tightening his grip on her, his heart fluttered when she reached out and began to stroke his arm. Comforting and reassuring him when he should be the one to be taking care of her right now. She’d had a terrible scare this morning and while she was safe he knew she was struggling to keep it together.

“It’s going to be okay, Garret,” Calico whispered.

“Isn’t that supposed to be my line?” he joked half heartedly.

“Somehow we’ll get this mess sorted out. All of it.”

“Oh we will, I will not let anyone hurt you again,” he vowed, making her smile. One of those real, heart warming, soul touching ones that he was coming to love

“I believe you,” she said, no idea how much those words meant to him.

When there was a knock on his front door they both jumped even though they knew it was going to be his partner Tony and Tony’s new girlfriend Natasha.

“Hold on, I’ll be right back.” Giving the top of Calico’s head a kiss he left her on the couch and headed for the door.

As soon as he opened it he knew something was wrong. Tony and Natasha were supposed to pick up Calico’s keys from the gas station attendant and then drive her car over to his place

“What’s wrong?” he asked without preamble.

“Someone stole her car,” Tony informed him. “When we went to pick it up it was gone.”

If someone had taken her car then it meant someone had been following her, it wouldn’t just be randomly stolen from a busy gas station in the space of thirty minutes or less.

Another nurse abducted from her home.

The news headline made her blood run cold and she squirmed anxiously in her seat. Another victim. Calico knew no one expected this nurse to survive.

It seemed to take forever but finally Calico spotted Garret’s car turning into the gas station.

She didn’t even wait for him to park, she was already jumping out of her car and hurrying towards his. The second he was out of it she was throwing herself into his arms.

Too late she realised she was going to hurt his injured leg jumping at him that way but he caught her easily and seemed to need the contact as much as she did.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt?” Garret demanded when he finally set her on her feet and scanned her body as though he suspected there was a chance it was covered in blood.

“I’m okay,” she assured him, feeling better now he was here with her. No one could hurt her while Garret was here, that she was absolutely certain of.

“I’m going to need you to talk me through what happened,” he told her as he guided her over to his car.

“I don’t know what happened. I got home last night, I put my clothes in the hamper, PJs on, brushed my teeth, went to the bathroom, then got into bed. I slept amazingly well. Woke up this morning, had my shower, went to get dressed and found … you know, the drawer empty. Wait what about my car?” she asked when she realised she was sitting in the passenger seat of his and he was leaning over to buckle her in.

“Called a friend on the way here, my partner, he’s going to get your car then meet me at my place.” Dragging in a deep breath he crouched beside her. “Calico, we need to consider the possibility that you might be the killer’s next target.”

For some reason that hadn’t really occurred to her. The serial killer after nurses was real to her, obviously, given her profession, but there was a much more personal danger that her mind immediately went to.

“Garret … maybe I should have told you earlier but … I had an ex who wouldn’t take me breaking things off with him seriously. He kidnapped me, held me prisoner for over a week before I was rescued. They said … they said he’d taken his own life and told the cops where I was but … I never believed it. He’s still out there, I know he is. What if it’s him coming after me again?

Feeling of being watched.

Garret was staring at the newspaper on his kitchen table as he thought about the feeling he’d gotten last night when he picked Calico up for their date.

Was it possible …?

No.

He couldn’t allow himself to think that she could be in the killer’s sights. Not his sweet, bubbly, sunshiny Calico.

His phone sat beside the newspaper and he’d been wanting to pick it up and call her. It had only been a few hours since he’d seen her but he missed her already. If he didn’t know that she was getting ready for work he’d call.

As if on cue the phone began to ring, Calico’s name on the screen. Smiling he picked it up and accepted the call.

“Hey, I was just thinking about you, wanting to call.”

“Garret.” Her voice came out in a whimper and immediately he was on edge. He might have been off work for a few months now but he’d been a cop for years and those instincts were ingrained. Something was wrong.

“What happened?”

“I … I was … was getting dressed and … and when I went to get … to get clothes after my shower, I found … my … Garret, my underwear drawer is empty.”

Empty?

There was no way she would accidentally remove all her underwear from the drawer and then forget.

Which meant someone had to have been in her house.

In her room.

Touching her things.

Were they still here?

Had they been watching her while she slept?

Panic thrummed to life inside him as he jumped up from his chair. “Calico, I want you to listen to me. Throw on the first clothes you can find, get your keys and go downstairs. Get into your car and drive somewhere public. The closest gas station, I’ll meet you there.”

“Garret, I’m scared,” she whimpered in a small voice that was nothing like the sweet, sunshiny voice he was used to.

“I know, sweetheart, but I’m coming.”