Page 1 of Night Moves
1
Sympathize with a serial killer? No way. Natalie Dunn could never tolerate one, much less empathize with him. Especially not with the man she suspected of killing her sister. Her sister, for goodness’ sake! But when Kirk Gentry was released from the hospital and walked through his front door, dredging up her usual professional smile was the only way she might escape his house alive. If he had even a hint of the fact that she suspected him, he could end her life too.
“Please don’t tell.” His eight-year-old daughter, Willow, leaned back against her headboard in her frilly bedroom and splayed out her fingers. Her brown eyes darkened with fear as she stared at the polished nails. She’d just shared a horrifying tale.
One that Natalie was struggling to comprehend.
Natalie swallowed. Once. Twice. Dug deep for a smile for this curly redhead with apple cheeks, a pudgy nose covered in freckles, and a gap in her upper teeth. The child had no idea what her father might have done, even considering his bizarre behavior.
Could be because he was a police officer. Sure, she would trust him as her father, but as an officer, she probably held additional respect for him, and it would be hard to believe someone in law enforcement could be a serial killer.
Willow locked eyes with Natalie. “Dad will be mad that I told you he paints my nails. He said not to. I didn’t mean to tell you.”
Willow tucked her arms under her pajamaed legs as if hiding them could change the fact that she’d blurted out that her dad got his kicks from polishing her nails.
“It just came out. Honest.” She lifted her face to Natalie. “You said you’re safe to tell my secrets to, and you won’t tell anyone else. That’s what you told me. That social workers want to help kids, not hurt them.”
“And I meant that.” Natalie rested her hand on Willow’s knee, thankful her younger siblings were tucked into their beds and not listening to this conversation. “It’s safe to talk to me. But sometimes I have to put things in my reports for my supervisors because it’s my job to make sure you and your little brother and sister are safe and that your dad is providing you with a stable home.”
“But you won’t have to say about the fingernails, right? They don’t have anything to do with stable or safe.”
“Probably not,” Natalie said, knowing she was lying to this poor child.
Not that the manicuring of a child’s nails by her father didn’t happen in other households. But behaving as if the act turned him on while doing it was unusual. And disturbing.
Very.
Especially when Kirk’s wife, Tracey, had gone missing under suspicious circumstances just over a month ago. A neighbor called the police to report Tracey as a missing person. The neighbor said Kirk and Tracey had been fighting like crazy for days. Then it suddenly stopped, and Tracey hadn’t been seen since then. The police had found a bloody blouse in Kirk’s closet, but he explained it away, and they found no evidence of foul play on his part. Natalie wondered if the detective gave Kirk the benefit of the doubt because he was a fellow officer.
Still, in the absence of the mother, Natalie had been assigned to the family to be sure Willow and her siblings were safe and cared for. Natalie had been monitoring them for over a month, and little hints and actions by Kirk led her to question if he’d killed his wife. Nothing overt. The guy was charming and personable. It was just a gut feeling on Natalie’s part.
And now this? Polishing his daughter’s nails and acting weird in doing so? Forbidding her to mention it?
Too freaky, especially with law enforcement hunting a local serial killer who manicured his victims’ nails after he killed them. The lunatic who had murdered Natalie’s sister. The press had nicknamed him The Clipper. Now it was looking like Kirk not only could have killed his wife but Natalie’s sister and three other women.
Natalie had nothing concrete to go on and needed additional information, but she couldn’t alert Willow to the problem. Natalie would do everything within her power to protect this child from harm and mental distress.
Natalie leaned back, trying to act casual, but her heart was thumping hard. “Does your dad do Sadie’s nails too?”
“Nuh-uh. She’s only a baby.” Willow lifted her chin. “’Sides, she wouldn’t sit still. She wiggles too much, and Dad gets mad when you wiggle.”
“What does he do when he gets mad?”
Willow grimaced. “He pinches my fingers hard, just to keep me still. But it hurts.”
Natalie swallowed down her anger over this man’s actions. “Do you and your dad spend a lot of time together doing other things?”
Willow shook her head. “He likes to be by himself. Says he has to be kind to people all day at work and it’s hard. So he has to ’cuperate.”
“You mean recuperate?”
“Yeah. He said he used to be able to go out at night ’cause Mom watched us. But now he makes me watch Sadie and Logan, and he fixes up the house. He calls it remodeling.”
“What has he fixed up?” Natalie asked, curious now because she’d seen no signs of recent renovation.
“He got rid of the basement. He said we didn’t need it anymore so he closed up the window and door.”
He what? He’d recently inherited family money, and unless he’d blown all of it already, he could easily have afforded to hire a contractor to do the work. Could he have killed his wife and closed off the basement to hide her body?
