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“Lauren’s friends,” says Jane. “We managed to get all five of them in tonight. They all say the same thing. Lauren was splitting up with Conrad, so there was that sort of uncertainty about what happens next in your life. But she was anxious to move on. And get this, she told one of her friends last Thursday, when they all went out downtown, that she ‘missed sex.’”
“She missed sex?”
“Right, I know,” says Andy Tate. “You read those text messages—she and her secret guy were screwing their eyeballs out. But she didn’t mention a boyfriend, an affair, a special someone—she didn’t mention anything like that to her friends. For all they knew, she’d been faithful to Conrad.”
“So put that together with other stuff we’ve found,” says Jane. “She’s keeping her affair secret from her closest friends. And we know she wasn’t honest on those text messages with her boyfriend, at least in that one text where she talks about Conrad still sleeping at home and snoring, when we know he’d moved out by then.”
“She kept her cards close to the vest.” The chief screws up his face. “Sounds like a woman with a plan.”
Jane nods. “Right. The secret life of Lauren Betancourt keeps getting odder and odder.”
—
As Jane and Andy leave the chief’s office, Sergeant Matthew Mooney is walking up with a purpose, holding a paper in his hand.
“Hey, Matt.”
“You wanted any records on our victim.”
“Yeah. Lauren had a sheet?”
“Well, sort of. Take a look at this.”
Jane takes the paper, a PDF copy of an old police report, with Andy Tate reading over her shoulder.
“Holy shit,” Jane mumbles.
“This could have legs,” says Andy. “But this is from so long ago. Who knows if this guy even still lives around here?”
“He does,” says Jane. “Last I saw him, at least.”
“Last you— You know this guy, Janey?”
Jane looks up at the ceiling. “Personally, not that well. Class of ’03, Grace Consolidated. He was the valedictorian of our class. Quiet, shy, kept to himself. I do remember he was a really good runner, too—really good. I saw him at the fifteenth reunion a few years back, but I don’t think we said more than two words to each other.”
Andy takes the report from Jane and reads it again. “Well, Sergeant Burke, looks like you might be having another ‘reunion’ with Simon Dobias very soon.”
BEFORE HALLOWEEN
October
51
Saturday, October 22, 2022
You wanted the weekend to think, Lauren, and I’ve been doing some thinking, too. I’ve decided to show you how important you are to me. I’m going to do as you ask. I’m going to file for divorce now, before November 3. It will cut off Vicky’s marital right to the money.
I can’t wait to tell you. I wish I could do it now. But I know you went up to Wisconsin this weekend, and I know you wouldn’t have brought your pink phone. So I’ll have to wait until Monday. I can’t wait to start a life with you!
Sunday, October 23, 2022
I can’t do it. Whatever I tell myself, I picture telling Vicky, and I picture the look on her face, and I can’t betray her like that. The symbolism alone, that I made a point of getting that divorce petition filed just under the deadline. It sounds so diabolical and spiteful. I can’t do it. I can’t crush Vicky like that.
I know you’ll understand. I hope you’ll understand. You’ll understand. Or you’re not the person I thought you were.
Monday, October 24, 2022
You wanted to meet on neutral ground, the south end of the parking lot at the Grace Country Club, which I took as a bad sign.
