“It’s bad enough already. I don’t want to see anyone else wind up dead.” Fear laced Jonathon’s brown eyes, his fiancée was the closest person to Naomi, he had to be afraid the stalker would target her next.
“Cause of death exsanguination, Tracey?” Allina asked the medical examiner.
“I would say so,” Tracey agreed.
Allina didn’t see what else it could be. The man lying on the floor had had his neck slit from ear to ear. There was more blood in the huge puddle around him than she had seen in her life, and in her line of work she had seen a lot of blood.
“No signs of a struggle,” Jonathon pointed out. “This guy is young, fit, why didn’t he fight back?”
“Well, he didn’t get taken by surprise. Pretty hard to slit someone’s throat just by coming up behind them. And why would he just be standing in the middle of his living room anyway? He used something to coerce him into compliance,” she said.
Jonathon walked to the kitchen. “From the looks of the kitchen counters and the half-prepared meal, he was in the middle of cooking when the killer approached him.”
“He had to have used …” she was saying when Kane came over. “You find something?” she asked.
“Not here. One of my friends is a fire investigator, he’s at Naomi’s house, he called to tell me what they found.”
Her partner tensed. “Arson?”
“Yes. The window that they found open, someone had thrown petrol inside, then lit a match.”
“So he was there,” Jonathon’s voice vibrated with anger. “Right outside Naomi’s house. He was so close.”
“A big risk to take. He had to know Sam was there. He’s been stalking Naomi, he knew she was friends with the woman from her favorite café. He knew she was friends with her neighbor, so he knows about Sam, otherwise he wouldn’t have come here today. So why risk going there just to start a fire? He had to know Sam could have seen him.”
“He wants Naomi to suffer,” Jonathon reminded her. “What better way than to recreate the fire that killed her brothers? You heard what Sam said, the first thing the fire did was bring back memories of her brothers’ screams. He obviously thought it was a risk worth taking.”
“That wasn't all they found,” Kane said.
“I already know I’m not going to like this,” Jonathon muttered.
“You’re not,” Kane agreed. “They found cameras in Naomi’s room.”
“He’s been watching her,” Jonathon stated rather unnecessarily.
“There’s no way to figure out how long the cameras have been there. They were completely destroyed.”
“Since he’s been sending her threatening letters for months, I think we can assume he’s been watching her for months too,” she said.
“Where is he?”
The roar from outside made her jump. She was a little edgy after Lennox Tyson had managed to get in a swing at her and break her nose.
A blur whizzed past the windows.
Jonathon moved quickly, grabbing hold of Sam before he could enter the house.
“You don’t want to see it,” her partner told Sam.
“He’s my nephew. I need to,” Sam growled, trying desperately to shove Jonathon out of the way.
“You don’t want to remember him like this.” Allina joined them, resting a hand on Sam’s shoulder.
Shrugging her off, he included them both in his glare. “Where is he?”
“Sam,” Jonathon started.
“Don’t. If it were Clara, wouldn’t you want to see her?” Sam demanded.