Exit Wounds by Aaron Fisher Read Free Book Online Page A

the security guard to his devices and jumped back in his car. It hadn’t taken him long to power up North Road and over the Gabalfa flyover, as the commuters slowly crawled to gridlock on the other side of the road.
    He had telephoned Denise Sanders’ mother en route to tell her he was on his way round, the possibility that she might still be asleep only entering his mind after he had finished the call.
    Now as he pulled up alongside her house, Tony couldn’t hide his surprise at seeing Craig Hughes leant against his M.I.T . licensed, black Ford Kuga. Tony parked up his own Audi TT in front of his colleague’s car and did his best to regain his composure.
    “Craig, what are you doing here?” Tony asked, walking towards him.
    Craig chuckled, “I could ask you the same thing. Where’d you get to? Sneaking off and leaving me to do all the work.”
    “Colgan wanted to see me on my own about something,” Tony said, trying to give as little away as possible.
    “And that something led you here? Small world...”
    Tony was irritated. Craig obviously had something but just like himself, he was keeping his cards firmly to his chest. The only difference was Craig seemed to be loving every minute of it. He sighed, impatiently, “You first. What do you have?”
    “I did just what I was told to do. I checked Lucy Green’s background against the other victims. The local police took statements off all Lucy’s friends and families when she went missing. What she was doing in the days before her abduction. Who she was with, where she went, all that stuff. Luckily for me, the old coppers had the good sense to type the statements up. After obtaining the digital copies I ran a scan checking for any common keywords and phrases. There was a lot of crap came up, even with the filters on, but amongst it all something sparked my interest,” Craig paused, with a smile. The next two words he pronounced slowly, as if savouring their taste. “Camouflage jacket.”
    Tony forbid his face to react.
    Craig continued, “Lucy Green’s friend said that a man in a camouflage jacket bought them ice cream before she went missing and Denise Sander’s mother had also said she noticed a man in a camouflage jacket watching her daughter at her birthday party.” He stopped, waiting for a response. None came. “Oh come on! It’s a stretch I know, but it’s something! I was going to speak to Lucy’s friend, Becky first but when I phoned Mrs. Sanders to see when she’d be in, she told me that you were already on your way round. Now you must be here for a reason.”
    “I am,” Tony said.
    “Yeah? Care to share what that reason is?”
    Tony made for the Sander’s house, “Go back to the office, Craig. I’ll update you when I get back.”
    “Oh no you don’t!” Craig said, following Tony down the garden path.
    Tony sighed under his breath, as he knocked on the front door. He could order Craig back to the office but that would upset Craig and make him suspicious, and he didn’t want that. Besides Denise’s mother was already expecting him anyway.
    When the door opened Tony was shocked by the sight that faced him. He had spoken to Lorna Sanders before, when it had been confirmed that her daughter was a victim of the “Blind Lover”. A lovely little nickname the papers had come up with for the killer around the time of the eighth victim.
    She had been a state then. Her eyes red, swollen and sore from the prolonged crying that he had seen with every mother who had been touched by these murders. Now, almost three months later, she had worsened. She had the appearance of a living corpse.
    Forty-three going on Sixty-three.
    Her skin, tired and uncaring, hung from her weary frame as loose as her clothes. Whilst her face remained puffy her eyes themselves were no longer bloodshot and strained but just empty.
    So much for time being a healer.
    Keen to get to the task at hand, Tony quickly refused the offer of a cup of tea or coffee and felt an