Low Blow: A Kira Brightwell Novel

Chapter 3

3

Nick Foster rubbed a towel against his closely cropped dark hair and approached Kira warily. He had hesitated to suggest it, but he had clearly been right to invite her to work out at his gym. She seemed to be working off some serious steam. He knew it wasn’t the same as the MMA gym she usually frequented though. He couldn’t exactly blame her for not wanting to go back there—not with the risk of running into Jeff. She had told him about the scene she had walked in on between her ex-boyfriend and her roommate, Rob. He could understand how seeing Jeff again might be awkward after that, but Kira was one of the bravest and most clever people he knew. She had faced or outwitted more than one murderer in the past several months. Surely Jeff was nothing compared to that...

Not that Nick was excited about the idea of her spending time with her ex, but she needed that gym. It was where she had acquired her skills and come into her own. Even if she didn’t have a gaggle of friends there, the other members must respect her. If she didn’t go back, she would have to start all over again somewhere else. He was under no illusion that his own gym would serve her needs on more than a short-term basis. In fact, it looked as if he would be lucky if the heavy bag didn’t need to be replaced after her first session. He had considered offering to spar with her, but he was no trained MMA fighter. He had a cop’s fighting skills, which had been drilled into instinct. The last thing he wanted was for their styles to clash and one—or both of them to get hurt. And by the look of things, the next person who faced Kira in a match would have his work cut out for him.

Of course, she could also be stewing about the ongoing s**t-storm that the members of the media were brewing against her... Nick shook his head. It was crazy to him that anyone would dream up such wild stories that had absolutely no basis in fact. He had been tempted to call up one of the reporters and give them a piece of his mind, but he knew better. Kira fought her own battles. All he could do was support her from the sidelines.

Besides, the papers would probably drag me down with her, which wouldn’t do any good either.

He didn’t particularly care about dragging his name through the mud if it meant sticking up for Kira, but he was also a member of the La Valentia PD. Any negative press he received would also reflect on the rest of the squad, as the captain was always eager to tell them. As much as he hated to admit it, Nick could see his point. It was important that the public trusted them, which meant maintaining a pristine image. Some of his colleagues had raised their eyebrows when he had brought Kira to the gym, but said nothing. He wasn’t sure whether their reactions were curious interest, or concern.

He wished he could do something. Kira was such a private person. He hated to see her dragged down so publicly.

He watched her throw another knee against the bag. Her ponytail was drooping and her hits didn’t seem to have as much power behind them. She was running out of steam. He gauged it was safe to approach.

“I think he’s been pummeled into submission,” he said. Kira whirled toward him, her green eyes widening. Nick jerked his chin toward the swinging heavy bag.

Kira’s face flushed beneath a sheen of sweat. She flicked aside a stray lock of hair. “Oh. Yeah, I guess so.” She held out a gloved hand to steady the bag. “Thanks for letting me come here. I really needed it.”

“No problem.” Nick gave a dismissive wave. “I could tell you’ve been pent up lately. Anything in particular on your mind?”

Kira snorted. “You mean besides my ex sleeping with my best friend, the Procurer being out there somewhere, and the papers ripping me a new one?”

Nick gave her a smile. “You’re not really worried about all that, are you? Jeff is a tool, we’ll find the Procurer, and the papers are full of crap. Anyone who knows you, or who has half a brain should realize that.”

Was there something else? With Kira, there usually was. They had become friends, and he knew she trusted him, but only up to a point. He suspected this was more to do with him being a cop than anything personal. His approach was always to wait for her to open up. She was not the type of person who would respond well to prying, and the last thing he wanted was to do anything that might push her away. Unfortunately, this approach usually required superhuman patience. Nick tried to view it as a personal challenge.

Kira rolled her eyes. “Jeff is a tool, but he was a good sparring partner. I miss training. Why did he have to mess everything up by sleeping with Rob?” Her brow furrowed. “And the Procurer... Really. How close are we to finding him? It’s not exactly like he’s left a lot for us to go on. And now all this nonsense with the papers... Is he behind it, do you think? It doesn’t seem his style, but what better way to convince the world he doesn’t exist?”

Nick shrugged. “I wish I could tell you we’ve uncovered some new lead, but the case is already getting cold again. I’ve been over all the evidence and crime scene photos at least a hundred times. But that doesn’t mean we won’t find something. He has to have made a mistake somewhere. Either that, or he’ll resurface again. A guy who’s been at this kind of thing as long as we suspect he has is bound to get antsy eventually. He’s only gotten away with it until now because no one knew to look for him.”

Kira pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. “I know what you’re saying makes sense, but I don’t want to have to wait for a new batch of victims to track him down...” Her gaze unfocused for a moment before fastening on him. “You said you’ve been looking at the crime scene photos. Does that include the ones from three years ago?”

Nick blinked. “You mean your abduction case?” Kira nodded. “Yeah. I’ve been looking at everything related to the Procurer.”

“Do you think I could have a look at them?”

“They’re on my iPad in my car. Do you mean you want to see them right now?”

She gave him a hopeful smile. “Could I?”

“Well...” Nick pretended to consider. He had no problem with showing her the photos. After all, they were from her own abduction. But he wanted something in return. “I could be persuaded, maybe if we went out for coffee...”

It was their ongoing joke. He was always extorting her to join him at the local diner, where he could try to wear her down and figure out what was going on in that head of hers that she wasn’t telling him—patiently of course.

Kira looked down at her bra top and spandex shorts. Her nose wrinkled. Her taut stomach and lean, muscled limbs were glimmering with sweat. Nick swallowed and said nothing. She looked back up at him with a wry smile.

“Rain check?”

“You know I’ll hold you to it.” He knew better than to push. “Come on.”

They grabbed their bags and he led the way out of the gym to the street outside, where his car was parked in the late morning sun. He popped the trunk to rifle through the satchel he used to carry his work things. He slid out his iPad and turned it on. He typed in his passcode and tapped the screen to open the folder he needed.

Why did Kira suddenly want to see photos of her old abduction crime scene? He wanted to ask, but he suspected she wouldn’t answer. Even though her abduction and escape had made her famous and shaped the woman she had become, he had read her statement. He knew looking at the crime scene photos would not be a fun stroll down memory lane for her.

His Procurer folder held photos and documents from all the relevant cases: the mass abduction Kira had managed to escape; Stephanie Wright’s abduction a few months ago; the Carlo Traversa case, as well as the unsolved murders of two thugs found with their throats slashed in a local hotel around the time of Stephanie’s abduction. There was also a file on Peter Croft, who had been found dead in his jail cell. The police had found no definite link between the hotel murders and the Procurer, but Nick thought it more than a coincidence that the two men were found in the same location he had caught Kira investigating on the security footage. The men had also been killed in the same fashion as Peter Croft, who had been offered a deal in exchange for information on the Procurer. Nick opened the subfolder that contained the crime scene photos from the abandoned farm where Kira and the other women had been found three years ago after Kira had managed to call the police.

“Here.” He handed Kira the iPad.

She angled it away from him against the glare of the sun. He resisted the urge to loom over her shoulder as she swiped from one image to the next. Her lips pursed and her brow furrowed slightly as she stared at the screen. She continued swiping for several minutes in silence. There were quite a few images to go through. But Nick saw her eyes narrow as she paused over one photo in particular. She leaned over the screen and moved her thumb and middle finger against it in a reverse pinch to zoom in on whatever had caught her attention. She zoomed in again. Nick held his breath. Kira wasn’t even blinking.

She shook herself as she seemed to remember she wasn’t alone. She tapped the screen a few times before straightening to hand the iPad back to him. He looked down. She had closed the folder.

“Thanks for letting me look at those,” she said. Her lips tightened in a smile, but there was an unsettled look in her eyes. “I really have to get going.”

Nick suppressed a surge of disappointment. “We’re still on for coffee?”

“Yeah.” She walked a few steps over to where her bike was chained. “I’ll text you.”

She unlocked her bike and climbed on. She moved as if her thoughts were a hundred miles away. She gave him another vague smile and a parting wave before pedaling down the street. Nick watched her retreating figure until it fell out of sight before tapping the screen of the iPad to reopen the file with the photos Kira had been looking at. He flipped from one image to the next with a puzzled frown. He tried zooming in on each one in turn, but nothing seemed to answer the burning question looming in his mind.

What did she see?