AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She returned her attention to the case notes open in front of her. “Kiera went to the same school as Jessica—not surprising, as there’s only one school in Redwater. I wonder if they were friends, though?” she asked, more to herself than to Lachlan. She did this often when she worked a case—she stated the facts aloud. For some reason, it seemed to help her organize her mind.
She quickly flicked through Jessica’s file, noting the year she graduated.
Same school. Same year.
Bethenny opened an internet browser and searched for their social media sites, looking through their photos. Her energy quickly faded when she didn’t see a photo of them together, not even in a group setting.
As she continued to look through photos for a connection, she considered that maybe they hadn’t connected at school. Bethenny had never really made friends at school either; in fact, she’d always been kind of a loner. She had a few good friends from work in Los Angeles, but that was it. To say she kept a tight circle was an understatement. But even if she wanted a larger circle, her career didn’t allow for it. She was permanently on call, and she’d found from past experience it was hard to come home from a long day, unable to talk about what she’d seen that day, and be expected to act happy and not-in-a-mood for whoever was waiting for her there. It might seem like a relationship where the other half knew nothing would make it easier to have some sense of normalcy—but Bethenny found the opposite to be true. And, in her last relationship, she’d eventually ended up resenting her boyfriend because he didn’t understand. It was an irrational resentment; how was he supposed to understand when he didn’t know of the horrors she’d witnessed during the day? But the resentment crept in anyway.
She sighed heavily, the failure of that last relationship still weighing on her chest. For a while she’d really believed they could make it work. She had wanted it to. But when the resentment and frustration set in, Bethenny quickly realized they were growing apart—in every facet of their lives. She liked to live a simple life: quiet weekends filled with good food, chilling with a movie, and relaxing at home. But her boyfriend had loved to go out with friends and live an expensive, flashy life. They had been about as well paired as candy on a pizza.
She felt eyes on her and looked up to see Lachlan studying her. He was doing that a lot today.
She raised an eyebrow, smiling. “Thoughts?” she asked, turning the question on him.
“You look troubled,” he said, then looked down at the notes. “I can’t tell if it’s the cases or something else.”
She gave a strained laugh. “It’s nothing. This just got me thinking about my school days and that I keep in touch with so few people. I have a small circle. It looks like Jessica did too. Kiera, however, seemed to be with a different group of people every weekend.”
A hint of a smile graced Lachlan’s lips. “Small circles are best.”
Bethenny smiled. She went through Kiera’s photos again, taking a second look at the people in the photographs and checking if they were tagged.
She paused when she noticed the upload date of the most recent photograph.
It was four weeks ago.
Bethenny looked down at the case notes, hurriedly flipping through the pages until she found the missing person’s report.
The photograph was uploaded the day she was reported missing. But she hadn’t been seen for three days prior to the missing-person call.
“We need our computer team to look at an IP address,” she said, thinking aloud again. “Kiera uploaded a photo three days after she’d last been seen. That’s weird, don’t you think?”
His eyebrows lifted. “Very. If she’d run away, it’s unlikely she’d upload a photo. And if she’d been taken captive, it’s unlikely she would’ve had access to a computer.”
Lachlan reached for his cell phone and came to stand behind her.
“Hey, it’s Detective Taylor. I need an IP trace. Can you tell where a Facebook account was last logged into from?”
Bethenny inhaled, a soft leather and amber scent filling her nose. There was something sensual about cologne, and Lachlan’s was both sensual and masculine.
He came around behind her desk and leaned forward, viewing her computer screen. As he did, the scent of his cologne increased in intensity and she was hyperaware of how close he was. He gave the account name, photo upload date and time, and then thanked them before hanging up. “Let’s see what comes of that,” he said, returning to his desk.
She nodded, relieved he’d stepped away from her. She could only hold her breath so long.
LACHLAN
He tried his best to ignore the tightness wrapping around his chest like invisible chains. It had been there this morning when he’d woken up, and now the chains were tightening. He’d dealt with enough anxiety to know it could be crippling.
His eyes dropped to the folder on his desk—a duplicate of the folder Bethenny had.
He’d never discussed Eden’s death with anyone. He’d refused counseling and had done his best to forget.
Forget his failings as a husband.
Forget that he hadn’t been there for her when she’d needed him most.
Forget that instead of hunting down her killer, he’d run.
