Page 62 of Playing With Temptation

Shit. Fuck. And damn.

“I’m just along for the ride. Unofficially, of course.”

Ethan chuckled.

Whitty waved us on.

“We need to shift gears from a missing person to a possible serial homicide.”

I didn’t have to explain that both the dumpsites being bodies of water was too big of a coincidence to disregard.

“As soon as we get back, we’ll check for crossover,” Ethan confirmed.

I went over what I knew about Samantha Williams. Thirty-one, single, no kids, and she worked at the Stewart-Hunter Family Center on the Army Base as a relocation coordinator. All of her co-workers and her boss had nothing but good things to say about her.

“Right before Samantha was reported missing, she broke up with Tate Hendrix,” I reminded Ethan.

“Tate is very dead so we can’t ask him his whereabouts, and depending on how long Samantha’s been dead, he might be ruled out completely.”

He wasn’t wrong.

But something about two females being murdered shortly after breaking up with longish term boyfriends felt off.

Unlike Ashley Monroe, Samantha Williams was in active decay, and I didn’t need to get up close to make that call. The smell was such I was still a good fifty feet away from the water’s edge when I turned back around to get a jar of Vicks VapoRub out of the glovebox of the car.

I slathered a glob under my nose and tossed the jar to Ethan. He did the same as we walked back over.

I knew by the look on Wendy’s face whatever we’d find was worse than the smell. The officer looked like she was ready to vomit. She stepped to the side and I physically recoiled at the sight.

“Jesus,” I muttered.

Captain Anderson turned my way and frowned, but before I could speak, she beat me to it.

“Your head okay?”

“As good as new.”

She waved us closer.

And that was when I got a good look at the damage done to Samantha.

The bruising around her neck was unmistakable.

The rest of her was nearly at the stage where her skin would melt away.

“Who found her?” Ethan asked.

“A crane operator named Ches Lowen,” Captain Anderson said. “Every Monday he does a walk around the ponds and dig sites. He saw something on the bank, got closer, saw it was long hair, and pulled her out. He said just her head and shoulders on the bank, rest of her was in the water.”

Ches hadn’t pulled Samantha out very far; mid-thigh down was still in the water.

I looked around and asked, “Where is he now?”

“I had Everette and Cody take him to Liberty County Hospital. He was in shock.”

I bet he was.

And I understood why she had two officers take him in rather than calling an ambo—the less foot traffic and tire tracks the better.