Page 51 of Nowhere Good

Norm scratched the back of his head. “You know, the kids do whatever they want with these things.”

“Yeah, forget it.” Seth swiped the remote off the edge of the cabinet with his free hand. “Let’s just watch and see.”

He went to turn on the TV, but Norm went to dash right at him. Seth straightened up, his hand automatically moving toward his weapon, which turned Norm to stone. Norm glanced back at Chief Wells, who guarded the staircase with the same warning.

“Whoa, whoa, okay,” Norm said, laughing. “Let’s cool it for a second. A man is entitled to his privacy, all right? Besides, I am pretty sure you need a warrant to look through my things… right, Ros?”

“Why would we need a warrant to watch The Lion King, Norm?” Seth asked, emboldened. “Unless that’s not what’s on the tape.”

Norm’s hands trembled. He glanced back at Chief Wells, whose face had gone cold with the same realization Seth had.

“Roslyn, what is this?” Norm stammered. “We’re friends, I invited you into my home…”

“What’s on the tape, Norm?” Chief Wells asked, dead-pan.

“Okay, okay, fine! Fine, it’s—it’s a sex thing. But it’s all legal. You don’t want to see that, do you?”

“Norm,” Wells warned, and Seth could see the hurt on her—the disappointment, the heartbreak of watching someone you know die right in front of you, while still breathing.

And Norm must have seen it too—because he dashed toward the staircase and shoved Chief Wells into a pile of boxes.

“Son of a bitch,” Seth said, drawing his gun. He ran past Chief Wells, who clambered to her feet, clearly shaken, but fine. Seth charged up the stairs after Norm, who made a mad dash to the front door. He raised his gun. “Norm! Don’t move!”

Norm slammed the front door open anyway, not realizing there was a gun on him. Damn it. Seth chased him outside, onto the driveway as Norm scrambled toward his van. Seth pointed his gun right at Norm and cocked it. The click registered, and that finally turned Norm to stone.

At the same time, a family walking past on the sidewalk stopped to look over in shock.

“It’s over, Norm,” Seth said. “On your knees. Hands behind your head.”

Slowly, Norm dropped down to his knees. Seth moved toward him with cuffs. They had him.

Outside, for all the neighbors to see.

SIXTEEN

Seth watched Norm through the double-sided glass as he sat alone inside the interrogation room. He’d asked for a lawyer right away, so they couldn’t speak to him yet, which left Seth in a frustrating state of limbo. But patience was a good eighty-percent of this job.

After calling for backup earlier, an officer had shown up to take Norm into holding. Seth had gone back inside the house, where he’d found Chief Wells in the basement, sitting on the loveseat across from the tube TV. She hadn’t brought herself to watch what was on the tape, and Seth had encouraged her not to. They already had enough to hold Norm, since he tried to run from questioning.

They just needed to figure out what they actually had him for.

No one had looked at the tapes yet; they were still being processed through evidence. Maybe it was a sex thing—“legal,” as Norm said—but if that were true, he wouldn’t have fled like that. He wouldn’t have asked for a lawyer right away. He wouldn’t have dropped the whole sickening happy-go-lucky act because he knew he was fucked.

Whatever sick shit was on there, Seth had to be ready for it.

Finally, Pereira came in. “We got some equipment to view all the tapes. They’re bagged up in evidence, no one’s touched ’em since.”

“Good. We need to know if Eliza or Kelsey are on any of them. I don’t suppose anyone around here is trained to view this kind of thing.”

Pereira was pale. “They don’t exactly cover that in basic training…”

Seth tensed, though he tried not to show it. He’d expected this, but it still didn’t make the task any less daunting.

Back in the city, Sex Crimes handled material like this and passed on what was relevant—only what the detectives needed to see. He’d been trained to handle sensitive evidence of all natures; he’d seen horrific videos recorded on cell phones, murders captured on street cameras. Many—most—cases he’d worked had a sexually violent nature, but he’d primarily dealt with the homicide aspect of it. This, whatever Norman had recorded, might be more than what he could bargain for.

But it had to be done. The sooner they knew they had the right guy, the sooner the town could be safe.

“We can’t afford to wait,” Seth said. “I’ll do it.”