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The one Francesca thought Vaughn had killed. “April Bonner.”
“That’s her.”
“Are there any witnesses who can tell us what happened?”
“None that I’ve heard about. It’s a ranching community, so not a highly populated area. There’s a general store and a gas station, a café, an auto repair shop. That’s it. But I’ll be able to tell you more once I get there. Are you coming yourself?”
“I’m coming, but…I’m two hours away.”
“I thought you had a motel here in Prescott.”
“I’ll explain when I see you.”
“Hurry,” he said.
Jonah punched the end button and let himself out of the laundry room. Francesca had only been sleeping for two and a half hours. But he was confident that she’d want to visit the scene. In any case, he wasn’t going to leave her behind. The timing and placement of the body made him far too nervous that it was connected to the man who’d visited her last night.
CHAPTER 7
Francesca rolled over to escape the hand that was shaking her shoulder, but the persistence of the person trying to wake her eventually pulled her through the dense fog of unconsciousness.
“Hmm…what?” Opening her heavy eyelids, she blinked at the blurry face above her, recognized Jonah and smiled. He was so handsome. The strength of his arms and the warmth of his body made her eager for his touch, so eager that she took his hand and pressed it to her cheek. It’d been so long….
Then she remembered what he’d done. They weren’t lovers anymore. They weren’t even friends.
Pushing his hand away, she scrambled up against the headboard, out of reach, and tried to collect her muddled thoughts. The salvage yard. Jonah striding toward her. The mannequin. Investigator Finch’s anger. Butch by her pool. Those weren’t easy memories to confront but they were what reality had waiting for her. Rested or not, she had to deal with the situation she’d fallen into yesterday and find a way out before it was too late.
“It’s time to wake up already?” she mumbled to cover her lapse in judgment.
When he didn’t answer right away, she checked to see if he was gloating over that moment of weakness. But he didn’t seem to be. A stark expression appeared on his face—until he realized she was watching. Then the mask of indifference he’d worn ever since she’d learned about Adriana fell into place. “We’ve got work to do,” he said. “Do you need a shower?”
“Shower?” She yawned. “Wasn’t it you who said I should sleep while I can?”
“That was before Investigator Finch called to tell me there’s been another murder.”
Those words dispelled her fatigue. “Do we know the victim?”
“We don’t have a name yet. But, from the description, it could be April Bonner.”
April’s death was nothing more than Francesca had expected, and yet she didn’t want to believe it. “No…”
“I’m afraid so.”
“And all because she was lonely. All because she took a chance on the wrong guy.”
He said nothing. In a way, Francesca had taken a chance on the wrong guy, too. Him.
“Was it Butch?”
“Might’ve been. The body was found in Skull Valley, which is only fifteen minutes from Prescott, even closer to his place. And we both know he was active last night.”
“How does he do it? How does he slip out of his house without anyone noticing? He’s got a wife, a family. Don’t they wonder where he goes at night?”
“Maybe they’re too afraid to face what he might be.”
“Skull Valley’s near the location of the burial site you’ve been working on, too, isn’t it?” she said. “Don’t tell me he dumped her in Dead Mule Canyon.”
“Not quite. She was discovered on the sidewalk in front of a shop.”
