Chapter Six
Lestrade was startled to see Donovan sitting at her desk when he returned to the Yard. "What are you doing here?" He asked her. "I mean, not that I'm not glad to see you. Are you alright?"
Donovan rolled her eyes. "You said to 'take some time off'. I took some time off."
"I didn't mean that short of a time." Lestrade said.
"Well tough." Both coppers knew that Lestrade had the authority to order Donovan to go back home... both also knew that if Donovan felt she was ready for this, Lestrade would trust her judgement.
"Alright, so where are we?" Lestrade sighed at his stubborn sergeant.
"I questioned the first victim - Lucy Spring's - family before I ran into our guy with a gun. They said that Lucy had came out of Central London to visit them. That was the first time that they heard she had broken up with her long-standing boyfriend, Scott Hector, our ex-cop. She didn't say why they broke up, only that they had. And... you'll never guess who showed up a few hours after Lucy got to the parent's house."
Lestrade sat down at his desk and propped his head up on one hand. "Scott Hector?" he hazarded.
"Right on." Donovan nodded. "He showed up at the house, uninvited, and caused a ruckus. He called Lucy a 'lying, murdering bitch', according to eye witnesses."
Lestrade raised his eyebrows. "And I assume you asked what that was all about?"
"I did." Donovan nodded. "But, the thing is... Lucy didn't want to talk about it." Lestrade groaned and rolled his eyes. "Her family tried to coax the story out of her but..."
"... The killer got to her before they did?" Lestrade finished her sentence.
"Just our luck, right?"
"Alright." Lestrade slapped his hand down on his desk and pushed himself up. "I'm going over to Lucy Spring's house to see if I can find something that will tell us what happened."
"If you're thinking of leaving me here to handle the easy jobs and paperwork..." Donovan narrowed her eyes. "... I will serve you decaf."
Lestrade looked at her in horror. "Dear God, not the decaf!"
"Clothes folded neatly away, food stocked up - well - rotting now... " Donovan turned in a circle in Lucy Spring's sitting room and turned her palms up. "Nothing to indicate a struggle of any sort. She's just a normal girl living a normal life."
"Unlike someone else who has rotten food in her fridge." Lestrade teased back.
"Alright, so I'm not kitchen goddess material." Donovan groused back. "But, seriously..."
"Two toothbrushes in the sink." Lestrade called out from the bathroom. "Two different shampoos, body soap, men's clothing in the closet..."
"So, they lived together."
"Pretty happy too, looks like." Lestrade said, walking into the kitchen and seeing a collage of pictures of Lucy Spring and Scott Hector pasted on the fridge.
"What happened?" Donovan wondered. "What did Lucy do?"
Lestrade caught sight of something he hadn't expected to see on the floor behind the fridge. It had probably fallen there and hadn't been spotted by the police officers who had been through here previously.
He dropped to his knees and reached behind the fridge to grab the object. He felt his fingers close around the item and he pulled it out. He paled when he realized what he was holding.
"Oh, shit. That explains things." he murmured, stunned.
"What does?" Donovan asked, poking her head into the kitchen.
Lestrade held the object up for her inspection. "This. It explains why Lucy was a 'lying, murdering bitch' and why they broke up." He tossed it onto the island table in the kitchen.
"It also gives Scott Hector one Hell of a motive if he didn't know about it." Donovan agreed.
They both stood in the kitchen, hovering over Lucy Spring's pregnancy test indicating a positive result.
"He probably didn't know about it." Lestrade said.
"Lucy might not have been ready for a baby." Donovan suggested.
"She lied about the pregnancy test. She probably thought she could get away with telling Hector she wasn't pregnant." Lestrade ran his hand through his hair.
"Taking what Hector said to her at her parent's house, she probably got an abortion without his knowledge." Donovan said grimly.
"And maybe he found the pregnancy test and realized she had lied to him and got an abortion."
"From his point of view, she had killed their child."
"That would definitely be motive to break up and kill her." Lestrade said.
"I'll check up on the other victims. Maybe they were in similar positions." Donovan said. "This might be what ties the victims together."
"Mary, Mary, quite contrary." Lestrade murmured thoughtfully.
"Sir?"
"Lucy Spring was a kindergarten teacher, that must've been one of her favorite rhymes." Lestrade shook his head. "Anyway, get investigating on that abortion lead."
"Yes, Sir."
Lestrade had not expected to run headfirst into Mycroft Holmes when he returned to Scotland Yard, but here he was.
Mycroft didn't look in the least happy. "Gregory." He greeted in clipped tones.
"Hey, Mycroft." Lestrade grimaced. "Sorry about your security breach."
Mycroft opened his mouth, and then closed it. Then, he turned and shut the door to Lestrade's office and lowered the shades to make sure they were not observed in any way.
When he was satisfied, he turned back to Lestrade and let out a breath. "Gregory, sometimes you drive me mad."
Lestrade quirked a wry smile. "As always, a pleasure, I'm sure."
"I wasn't worried about the security breach."
Lestrade's shoulders fell and he sighed. "I know. I'm sorry, Mycroft."
Mycroft crossed the room and gently took Lestrade into his arms. It took a moment or two for Lestrade to relax and melt against him. "How is Darren?"
"Okay, I guess." Lestrade murmured. "Eva's scared, as she should be. And she's more than angry. First she divorces me because I spend too little time with the family, and even when we're divorced, serial killers are stalking her and our son."
"It's not your fault." Mycroft told him soothingly.
"Sorry Mycroft, but it kind of is." Lestrade said, mouth half pressed against Mycroft's shoulder.
"You're only doing you job." Mycroft said. "And this kind of response merely means that you're doing it well."
Lestrade's eyes softened. "Darren's my son, Mycroft." he said. "I think I'm entitled to completely lose my shit about things like this."
"I'm not saying you shouldn't." Mycroft snorted. "I'm just saying I'm slightly upset that you didn't tell me about it. I heard about it from Anthea."
"I thought that was kind of a given."
"She says you may know your serial killer?"
"Maybe. We have suspicions, but no solid proof. We're kind of waiting on the grill Sherlock and John found for us. Hopefully, some evidence will tie Hector to the killings."
"You'll get him." Mycroft encouraged.
"He might be killing people for aborting their children." Lestrade told him.
"Then, I presume he would not physically harm Darren?" Mycroft asked hopefully.
Lestrade thought about it as they sat down. "I don't know for sure. Hector was always unpredictable. And we didn't exactly get along when we knew each other."
"Oh?" Mycroft raised his eyebrows.
"Yeah. Hector was sergeant, and I was just a PC when we met. And on one case, Hector was late to respond to a crime scene and DI Meadows just gave up waiting on him and started investigating without him. This sort of worked as a catalyst which opened up many fights between them, apparently they didn't work so well together and Hector stormed off. DI Meadows just shrugged it off and continued on the case without him and I was assigned to fill in for Hector.
"After the case was closed, DI Meadows suggested I try out for position of sergeant... Hector happened to overhear him and that started a one-sided rivalry between us. A while later, Hector was reassigned to work with another DI and I began working with DI Meadows. Then, I turned sergeant and our rivalry continued.
"After a few months, it became evident that my and DI Meadows's arrest rates were higher than Hector's and he began straining to keep up and started messing up on the job. A little while after that, it became apparent that he had problems, which exposed his hidden drug addiction and he was discharged from the force. Somehow, he blamed me for it and I haven't heard of him since."
Lestrade turned his palms upward to the ceiling. "I wouldn't be surprised if he still resents me after all these years. That man could hold a grudge like nobody's business."
"It's hardly your fault." Mycroft furrowed his brow.
"Tell that to him." Lestrade said dryly.
"And you believe that he is behind all this?" Mycroft asked.
"Yeah, I think so." Lestrade sighed. "I mean, even when we worked together, he'd always set 'pranks' that sometimes bordered on threatening... kind of like the card on my doorstep. He'd try to make me slip up and get scared. He..." Lestrade trailed off. "... There was just something... not right about him."
"Do you think he is capable of all this?" Mycroft asked next.
Lestrade thought about it long and hard. "I think so."
Mycroft let out a breath. "Very well. I will have men keep an eye on this Scott Hector."
Lestrade let out a breath and nodded. It was nice to have Mycroft around sometimes. Usually, when he was on cases, he had subordinates like Donovan always looking to him for answers and orders. It was just sort of relieving to have someone sometimes take the reins from him.
"Thanks, Mycroft." Then, Lestrade thought about Mycroft's presence for a moment. "Hey, wait a moment, weren't you overseas on some job?"
Mycroft coughed. "Well..." he shrugged. "I was worried, so I came back."
"Just like that?" Lestrade asked incredulously.
"Temporarily." Mycroft sighed. "Unfortunately, I will have to go back and resume my work."
Lestrade let out a laugh. "Well, don't let me keep you!"
Mycroft nodded and kissed Lestrade first on the forehead, and then on the lips.
"Thanks for checking up on me." Lestrade smiled gratefully.
"I'll be back soon. Be safe." Mycroft replied.
"Sergeant Donovan, I am surprised to see you here." Mycroft said as he was leaving Lestrade's office.
"One of the downsides of working with governors like Lestrade." Donovan shrugged. "You start picking up their bad habits."
Mycroft raised his eyebrows.
Donovan smiled a little. "One thing I learned early on from Lestrade, one thing he always tells the boys is 'It's okay to be scared of the monsters out there.'" A slight glint of determination sparked in Donovan's eye. "'But it's not okay to let them see that you are.'" She looked over at Lestrade's office, jaw tightening. "He's really more shaken up about the pictures of Darren than he let's on." She shook her head. "He's just too stubborn to let our killer win."
Mycroft let out a sigh. "A most tenacious man."
"He'll out-stubborn a mule one day." Donovan joked. "But that's one of the things that makes him so good at what he does."
Mycroft nodded with a slight smile. "I know Sergeant, I know."
And he walked out.