Page 9 of Girl Long Gone

“It wasn’t a date.” Evelyn rolled her eyes.

Lacey grabbed her hand and tugged her toward the round table in the eat-in kitchen. “Oh no. You’re not getting away with staying all quiet and mysterious. I want details.” Pushing her toward one of the tufted chairs, Lacey sat across from her, placed her elbows on the table, and leaned forward as if Evelyn were about to spill the secrets of the universe.

Evelyn mimicked her posture but rested her head in her hands and swallowed a sigh. Where should she start? With the panicked phone call from a stranger, the uneasy feeling she got when Gabriel had touched her hand, or the avalanche of desire that had crushed her when she’d spotted Detective Mitchel?

A sliver of guilt burrowed into her gut. Detective Mitchel’s sister was missing, and all she could think about was the bolt of electricity he’d inflicted on her with his touch...and his words of warning against a man who could finally free her from her demons.

“Coffee was good. Things took a weird turn, though, and I can’t wrap my mind around it.”

“I’m not surprised.” Lacey raised her brows and fell back into her chair.

Goose bumps puckered Evelyn’s skin, and she straightened. “What do you mean?” She kept her words steady, even though her heart rate kicked into high gear.

“He was always a little strange in school. Always kept to himself and never wanted any part of...well, anything.”

A tiny prick of defensiveness stung Evelyn’s throat. “I always kept to myself in school. Did that make me weird?”

Pity swam in Lacey’s sea green irises, and Evelyn fought the urge to cringe. “We both know why you kept to yourself. Gabriel was...different. All the girls fell at his feet in a heap, and I always thought he’d rather kick his way through them than be flattered by their attention. And don’t you remember what happened to that one kid he used to hang with? What was his name? Sam? Scott?”

“Oh my God, Simon! I completely forgot about that. But he never came out and said Gabriel had anything to do with his accident.”

“He didn’t get the chance. His parents pulled him out of school before he was even out of the hospital, and Gabriel just laughed about it. I remember him joking at lunch about how Simon was an idiot who deserved what he got.”

The police never found who had been responsible for the hit-and-run that almost cost the teenager his life. But Evelyn knew enough about how the law really worked to know money could buy an awful lot of silence.

A chill swept down her spine, and Evelyn crossed the room to the window, surprised to find it firmly shut. The goose bumps on the back of her neck intensified, and she wrapped her arms around her waist. Detective Mitchel asked about Gabriel’s behavior in school, but surely one incident that hadn’t been proven didn’t count. Hell, she’d never imagined Gabriel was responsible for his friend’s accident before Lacey mentioned it. The power of suggestion wasn’t enough to implicate an innocent man in a hit-and-run from years ago, let alone in a kidnapping.

A text alert buzzed from her phone, and Evelyn put a pause on the gears spinning in her head to retrieve her phone from her desk. A text from Gabriel filled her screen.

Great catching up. How about dinner tomorrow night?

Her mouth fell open, and she stared at the words. Excitement bubbled up and swallowed the growing doubt and suspicion.

Gabriel had been the odd man out in school, but so had she. She wouldn’t condemn him based on assumptions. Besides, what harm could come from dinner?

Connor leaned against the rough brick of his apartment building and tightened his hold on Porkchop’s leash. The dog curled at his feet, the warmth of his fur chasing away the chill of the setting sun. The coroner’s van pulled away from the curb, taking with it the hand that would be forever branded in his brain.

At least it wasn’t Monica’s.

On closer inspection, Connor had spotted the black edge of a tattoo on the inside of what was left of the wrist. Monica didn’t have any tattoos, and relief had brought tears to his eyes. Followed by guilt. The hand belonged to someone, and he could only pray she was still alive to see justice served.

“The police are almost done combing your apartment.” Ben stepped in front of him on the cracked sidewalk. Connor had called the PI as soon as he’d stumbled out of his apartment. Purple clouds battled against the orange glow of the sky, but enough light peeked through to highlight his lifelong genetic tan and too-long hair that never seemed combed. Dark stubble covered his oval face, and he pushed back a stray curl so his green eyes could relay the anger simmering under his calm veneer.

Connor ran a hand over his head, and stray pricks of hair tickled his palm. He needed to shave but couldn’t find the motivation. “Shit keeps getting worse. That asshole was in my apartment. He walked right in and left me a hand, for fuck’s sake. Tell me he was stupid enough to also leave trace evidence. Anything to nail his ass to the wall.”

Ben’s jaw tightened. “Nothing so far. But the sick sonofabitch had balls to do this. The ones who get cocky are the ones who usually make mistakes.”

A strangled sob closed his throat. “You mean like cutting off a hand and leaving it in my bathroom for my dog to eat?”

Ben stiffened and shoved his long fingers in the pockets of his jeans. “The hand isn’t Monica’s. I understand it scared the shit out of you, but he didn’t make sure to cut above the tattoo.”

“It might not be Monica’s hand, but it belonged to someone. And if he’s sick enough to do it once, you and I both know he won’t hesitate to do it again.”

“Then we just have to find him before he does. It shouldn’t take much longer to ID the prints if they match a woman already registered in the missing person’s database. At least not if her family supplied prints to the authorities. And when we know her identity, it gives us another thread to pull.”

“Or another false lead to follow.” Desperation clawed at his psyche, making it harder to have hope of finding his sister before it was too late.

“No such thing as a false lead, just another eliminated possibility. By the way, I ran a search on Evelyn Price.”