Garrett hadn’t kept trophies either—not in his apartment, at least. Catherine believed Clara had chosen the targets, or heavily influenced Garrett’s choices.
Leaning back in her chair, Catherine closed her eyes. Though exhausted, she didn’t need sleep—just five minutes to think. She’d focused so much on profiling Garrett Reid; now it was clear Clara Dolan was the key—possibly even the mastermind.
Clara came from wealth and intellect. Her parents were older when they had her—Piper was forty when she gave birth. Established professionals. Their Bel-Air home was likely worth millions. Piper had sounded like old money—probably went into academia out of genuine interest and intelligence.
Clara, though beautiful, wasn’t academically inclined. Catherine suspected she lacked aptitude and rebelled early. She was likely very normal, but with academically focused parents who prided themselves on their intellect. Clara’s normal achievements wouldn’t have been celebrated. If something didn’t come easy, Clara wouldn’t bother. Over time, that became her norm. She leaned on her looks and craved attention for who she was, not who her parents wanted her to be.
Seducing Emily Masters’s father to sabotage her wedding showed emotional manipulation and keen insight into human behavior. Clara knew how to read people and exploit their weaknesses. But if the goal had been to ruin Emily’s wedding—and it worked—why kill her years later?
Was it revenge? Or was Clara simply continuing a pattern? Were she and Garrett at the resort to run a scam, and seeing Emily was just a coincidence? Or did they choose Sapphire Shoals because Emily would be there?
Catherine had told her team the victims were likely chosen for their appearance and success—things Clara lacked or resented. Yet Clara was objectively a beautiful woman, so it was who these women represented: successful in their fields, newly married and ostensibly in love, and—the key point—they all looked at least marginally like Becca McCarthy.
Was that Clara’s hang-up... or Garrett’s? Catherine honestly didn’t know, and she could go either way—depending on if Garrett was involved in Becca’s disappearance.
But Emily was the first victim here, in Florida.
Catherine sat up. “Ryder, I need Emily’s background. She wasn’t a lawyer when she knew Clara. They must have met at work, since Clara’s mother said Emily was her co-worker, someone promoted over her. Where was that?”
Ryder replied, “Emily went to UCLA, majored in Englishlit, received a master’s in communication. Worked in Marketing for a publisher in New York, then came back to LA and went to law school while working for a major hotel chain in Orange County. That could be the connection.” Before Catherine could respond, he added, “I’ll get you their contact info.”
“No,” she said. “You contact them. Find out everything you can—confirm Clara’s employment, timeline, if she and Emily knew each other there. Her mother said they were friends, but I don’t know how much Piper Dolan paid attention to Clara’s life. We’ll get a warrant, but see what you can get now without one. I’m going to talk to the ex-boyfriends.”
Donovan Prince worked in New York City for a financial services company and wouldn’t take her call. Catherine left a message. If he didn’t call back in an hour, she’d ask someone from the New York field office to visit him in person.
Charlie Rowe lived in Huntington Beach, California. He was a computer programmer who worked from home and answered the phone on the second ring.
Time wasn’t on their side, so Catherine was blunter than she normally would have been. After a brief introduction, she asked, “Mr. Rowe, were you aware that your ex-wife Emily was killed seven months ago?”
“Yeah, her mom called me. Em and her new husband were both killed while on their honeymoon. I didn’t know the FBI was investigating the murders.”
“We are assisting local law enforcement,” Catherine said.
“What do you need from me? We’ve been divorced for five years. I was happy she found someone. I even met Josh a couple of times, before they moved to Florida—he was a nice guy. I didn’t harbor any bad wishes or anything.”
“Why did you get divorced?”
“That’s really not any of your business, is it?” He sounded only mildly irritated.
“I’m a forensic psychiatrist and putting together a comprehensive timeline of Emily’s life. It’s important that I understand her psychology because that helps me understand the killer’s psychology.”
“Oh. Well, there was a lot of stuff going on in her life. I’m pretty laid-back. Maybe too laid-back. When we got married, her parents had just split, she was a mess, and she said more than once that our marriage was cursed. I tried to let it go, but it bugged me. I loved Emily.”
“Do you know why her parents split up?”
“Sure, that really has nothing—”
“I know why,” Catherine said.
“You do?” He sounded surprised.
“Clara Dolan had an affair with Emily’s father.”
“What a mess that was.”
“You also went out with Clara?”
“Yeah, but that was ages ago. We went to the same community college. Clara’s boyfriend had gone to college on the East Coast, my high school girlfriend had dumped me, we hung out. And it kind of developed into friends with benefits. But it was never serious.”
