CHAPTER TEN

“Stop staring at me,” Olivia said the next morning as she was getting dressed.

“I can’t help it,” Nate protested. While he normally never missed an opportunity to ogle a half-naked Olivia, he had additional cause to be enamored today. “You’re carrying our baby, Liv.”

“If you’re going to do this every morning, it’s going to be a long nine months,” she grumbled through a smile. “Of course, in a few months I’ll be so big you won’t want to stare at me like that. Guess I should enjoy it while it lasts.”

Nate finished straightening his tie and stepped up behind Olivia, putting his arms around her still flat waistline. “I can guarantee you that won’t be a problem.”

She groaned slightly as his hand slipped even lower. “You’re already late for work,” she said. “Stop distracting me so I can finish getting dressed.”

“Fine.” He kissed her neck and stepped away. “Five minutes, Thompson.”

They were late because Olivia had been sick when she woke up. Nate only found out when he went to take a leak and found Olivia with her head in the toilet. She wasn’t a complainer. When she was done, she simply brushed her teeth and shrugged off Nate’s concern.

On the drive to the station, Olivia took Nate’s hand like she always did. This time, Nate wondered whether they would still have moments like this after they became parents. He loved having Olivia all to himself. That was certainly going to change.

“What’s with the look?” she said when she caught him staring.

“Just enjoying the moment,” he said, squeezing her hand. “We might not have many quiet ones like this left.”

“Starting to have regrets?” she teased.

Nate didn’t regret their baby, but he did wish they’d had more time to enjoy each other. So much of their relationship so far had been built around stress. “We never did take that trip.”

“It’s not too late. Solve this case quickly and we can be on the next flight out.” Olivia put her other hand on her stomach. “I don’t have too many more beach-body days ahead of me. You’ll have to drink all the cervezas, of course.”

As he pulled into the lot behind the station, a familiar sense of dread returned. He missed the days when his work life and personal life had been completely separate.

“I really can’t keep coming to work with you every day, Nate,” Olivia said as they walked through the station. More than a few eyes were following their progress.

“We’ll worry about tomorrow tomorrow,” Nate said, putting a hand on Olivia’s back. He felt even more protective of her today than he usually did. “Go find Vince. I’ll get your coffee.”

“Better make it decaf,” Olivia said with a small smile. Nate smiled, too, letting his hand slowly travel from her back to her hip to her stomach.

“Liv! Get over here. I want to run something past you,” Vince called from his desk. He was completely oblivious to the intimate moment he had just interrupted.

Olivia winked at Nate and hurried away. He ignored the curious stares of his colleagues and grabbed two cups of coffee, one of them decaf. When he joined Olivia at Vince’s desk, they were already deep into the case.

“That’s an interesting theory, Liv,” Vince said. “But if it’s true, why did our guy turn on Emily?”

“Because he doesn’t need her anymore,” Nate said without waiting for Olivia. “These other women were substitutes for the real thing. Now that Olivia is back in town, he doesn’t have to settle for imposters.”

“Thanks for sugar-coating it, dear,” Olivia said.

Vince said, “Shouldn’t this make it easier for us to solve? If it all ties back to Olivia, we just have to figure out who would want to hurt her.”

“You would think that would be easy, but Olivia has even more enemies than me,” Nate said with a grimace.

“I like to think of them as overly-excited friends.” Olivia took a long drink from the coffee mug Nate had handed her. “Ugh. Decaf.”

Nate squeezed her shoulder, but it was too late.

“Since when do you drink decaf?” Vince said, eyeing her suspiciously.

“She doesn’t. I must have grabbed the wrong coffee pot,” Nate said quickly. “Should we start working through your list of admirers?”

“Maybe… can I use your computer for a sec?” She wheeled over to Nate’s desk before he could reply.

“Sure, help yourself. Just don’t check my browser history,” he joked.

“I already know about your secret love of cat videos,” she replied as she started typing into the search engine. “You send them to me all the time.”

“Even you have to admit that the one with the cat walking the bird was adorable.” Nate ignored Vince’s rolling eyes. Some people just didn’t have feelings.

Olivia muttered to herself as she clicked a link. “I can’t believe I didn’t put this together sooner.”

“We can’t read your mind, Liv. Use your out loud voice.” Nate tried to read over her shoulder and Vince crowded in next to him.

“I kept trying to remember how I could recall those weird facts about Emily. She was a lot younger than me, so there’s no reason for me to remember that she was so good at tennis.” Olivia tapped the screen. “But that’s not why I remember her. I remember her because of Rosie.”

“Explain.” Vince leaned on the corner of Nate’s desk, squinting harder at the screen. “What does this old newspaper article have to do with anything?”

“Rosie used to volunteer at a tennis camp over the summer. Emily was one of her students. She used to worship Rosie, following her around everywhere. This is a picture of them that was in the paper talking about the end of summer tournament that the camp hosted.” Olivia paused. “Tim was the director of the camp.”

“Tim McCaffery?” Nate’s hand instantly clenched into a fist.

Vince looked at Olivia. “Who the hell is Tim?”

“He was the man my sister was planning to kill before she died,” Olivia said quietly. “He was also a pedophile and a rapist.”

“Sounds like our kind of guy,” Vince said, turning to Nate. “But why is he in Chicago obsession over Liv and messing with you?”

“Because I threatened to kill him.” Nate could perfectly remember the look in Tim’s eye when Nate had told him to stay away from Olivia. It hadn’t been fear– Tim had been angry. If he hadn’t already set his eye on Olivia during their brief discussion, Nate’s behavior had likely sealed the deal. A man like Tim would need to prove that he wasn’t intimidated by any other male. The best way for him to do that was to come after Nate’s girlfriend.

“Okay, I really have to agree with Liv. You need to work on your interpersonal skills.” Vince looked at the picture on the screen again. “This is little Emily holding the tennis racquet that’s almost the same size as her?”

“That’s her. She would’ve been maybe 12 when Rosie died. I remember her crying at the funeral.” Olivia bit down on her lip. “Could she really be involved with a serial killer?”

Nate leaned over Olivia and began typing. Everything was coming together at once. Not only was he certain that Emily was involved, he also knew that Tim was going to be the key to solving the case. “We need to find McCaffery.”

“You think Tim might know something?” Olivia said.

“I’m certain of it.” Nate found an address. “Anyone up for a road trip?”

“Where to?” Vince said, sounding skeptical.

He glanced at Olivia. “Mercy, Ohio.”

For the first twelve years that Nate had known Olivia, he had never once been to her hometown. It was when she finally agreed to let him attend her cousin’s wedding that Nate finally saw the place where Olivia had spent the first eighteen years of her life. It was also where Nate first realized he was in love with her, making a move on Olivia in a strip club, of all places. That had turned out to be one of the best decisions Nate had ever made.

It was during that trip that Nate had met Tim McCaffery. A man nearly ten years older than Nate, Tim had instantly rubbed Nate the wrong way. Probably because Nate knew he liked to rub teenage girls the wrong way. When Tim had brushed a hand against Olivia’s leg, Nate’s blood had boiled. It had taken all his self-control not to pull his gun on Tim.

“Do you really think you’re going to knock on his door and he’s going to confess to everything?” Olivia said when they were just a few miles from Mercy.

They hadn’t been back to Mercy since Ed’s funeral and Olivia had grown more anxious with each passing mile. She kept holding her stomach, seemingly unconsciously.

“You alright?” Nate asked, eyeing her carefully. They had waited until morning to leave town and had been delayed by Olivia’s morning sickness. Nate was trying hard not to worry that something might be wrong with Olivia or the baby. He tried to convince himself that it was just normal pregnancy sickness. “You were booting pretty bad this morning.”

“I’m fine,” she answered automatically. “I’m just nervous about going back to Mercy. I don’t want us being back here to change anything about us.”

Nate knew what she meant. Things had been good between them since her return and it seemed like she had really moved past her conflicted feelings. There was a strong possibility that returning to Mercy would open old wounds.

“It’s not just about us anymore, Liv.” Nate put his hand on top of hers, just over the center of her flat stomach.

Olivia smiled sadly. “Rosie would have loved being an aunt. I wouldn’t have been able to keep this secret from her. She would’ve guessed it right away.”

For the first time, Nate realized that besides missing an aunt, their child would also grow up without any grandparents. He returned his hand to the wheel and said, “You’re going to be an amazing mother, Olivia. This child is so lucky to have you.”

“I feel like a fraud,” Olivia said. “I never even thought I wanted children until you and I got together and even then, I wasn’t sure. Up until the moment that doctor opened his mouth, I never really thought I would bring a child into this world.”

“That doesn’t make you a fraud, Liv. It just makes you human.” Nate took the exit to Mercy without being prompted. It was strange how comfortable he was making this drive now. “Did I ever tell you that I was born six months before my parents got married?”

“How scandalous,” Olivia said with a grin. “And you dare show your face in public?”

Nate turned the car down a familiar road. The last known address he had for Tim was just a few blocks away from Olivia’s childhood home. “I’m just saying that given how perfectly I turned out, I have no concerns that our baby wasn’t planned.”

“Perfect, huh?” Olivia gave him a surprisingly serious look. “You might be right about that.”

When Olivia looked at Nate that way, he was certain he didn’t deserve the love he found in her eyes. “Are you sure you want to come with me? I can drop you off and Brian’s and you can spend the day with the kids.”

“I’m going with you,” she said firmly. “Don’t even think about dumping me off somewhere, Tucker.”

“I really think we’ll get more information from this guy if you aren’t there,” Nate said, repeating something he had already said a dozen times.

“Yes, because you speaking alone with him last time really worked out well,” she said with more than a hint of sass.

It was a good thing Nate has always been an admirer of her sass. “Just don’t get too close to this creep, okay? We have no way to predict how he is going to react when he sees you.”

“I’m guessing a big hug and kiss on the cheek.” Olivia’s face darkened as she studied the house looming in front of them. “Are you sure this is the address?”

“He renewed his license at this address six months ago,” Nate said, parking across the street from the old colonial. It was perched in the center of about three acres of land. Just a block away, the street would begin to fill with more modern homes. “Tim must like his privacy.”

“I’m sure he does,” Olivia muttered through clenched teeth.

Nate led the way across a lawn that was badly in need of mowing. He had tried to stick to the rocky driveway, but it was so overgrown with weeds that it was virtually indistinguishable from the lawn. “Tim needs to invest in a mower.”

“He has other priorities,” Olivia said. She growled as her ankle turned, catching herself by grabbing Nate’s arm. “I should’ve worn my hiking boots.”

“Suck it up, Thompson. This is part of the job.” He put a hand around her arm just in case. Nate wasn’t about to let his pregnant fiancé take a spill in a pedophile’s overrun lawn. He paused in front of the dilapidated porch. “That doesn’t look entirely safe.”

“That’s strange,” Olivia said, eyes drifting to an overflowing mailbox. “Poor lawn care is one thing, but even the laziest people get their mail.”

A breeze rustled the air and Nate’s nose wrinkled. “Do you smell that?”

“Decay,” Olivia said, nodding.

“Stay here.” It was a smell that was all-too-familiar to Nate. In his line of work, a decomposing body was a regular occurrence.

The porch screeched loudly in protest with each step he took. There would be no element of surprise, but Nate already knew that didn’t matter. He wasn’t surprised to see that the front door was open a fraction of an inch. Using his toe, he nudged it open far enough for him to slip inside.

The rotten smell was even stronger now and his eyes began to water. He followed it like a beacon to the bedroom where he found the source. Tim McCaffery lay spread naked over the mattress on his back, glassy eyes staring up at the ceiling. A pool of blood had dried on the white sheet beneath him. The cause of death was obvious due to the gaping bullet hole through the center of his chest.

Nate couldn’t feel bad about the death of a known rapist, but Tim’s death was going to make it a whole lot harder to find out who was stalking Olivia. Nate had just lost his number one suspect.