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ABBY:That’s ridiculous.
CONCERNED:maybe but he will kill you to keep feeding his addiction to the spotlight
The words flashed in her mind. Elisa took a long sip of tea, hoping to drown them all out. Concerned issued the warning and Abby disappeared a month later.
Ten completely awake minutes later Elisa knew sleep wasn’t going to happen tonight. Her mind refused to shut off. She could see the blood. Imagine Abby’s body, broken and still. Buried. Burned. Forgotten.
Actually, not forgotten. Elisa wouldn’t let that happen.
The personal items and the messages on the laptop, all those Internet searches that led nowhere, and Meredith. Elisa had uncovered pieces that didn’t quite fit together. Unearthed secrets that pointed to more danger. She needed to keep digging. Hunt for answers and then get those answers in front of law enforcement before her entire life blew apart.
It had been more than a week since she found Abby’s duffel bag and cracked her computer password and Elisa could feel the clock ticking down in her head. Every step she had taken so far had put her farther away from finding her emotional footing again. Doubts threatened to drown her. Things she knew to be true got hazier the more Josh hammered on her being wrong.
She needed help. Rachel had offered, but after the conversation Elisa overheard . . . no way. Rachel might claim to be an ally but she’d sounded all too willing to join Josh’s gaslighting campaign when she didn’t know anyone was listening.
Harris had made his position clear—Josh first, always.
That left her. Only her.
Well, maybe not just her. The one thing she’d been avoiding might be the one way to get the answers she needed.
Maybe she wasn’t alone after all.
Chapter Thirty-Two
By the time Elisa dropped Nathan off at school later that morning, she knew she had one more lead she needed to follow. Maybe not so much a lead as an instinct. She’d been assuming that Rachel could end up another one of Josh’s victims. That one day soon she’d get a call about Rachel tripping off a cliff while hiking or “accidentally” falling out of her office window. Some nonsense that should once again point the suspicion at Josh and make it impossible for him to slither away... though he likely would.
A bit of eavesdropping had skewed Elisa’s perspective. She’d spent her entire life trying not to get dragged into other people’s mess. To recognize and honor boundaries. The one time she snuck into a place she shouldn’t have been and overheard a conversation not meant for her, everything changed. Now instead of viewing Rachel as someone to protect, Elisa saw her as a potential adversary. Rachel certainly had made it sound like she’d not only teamed up with Josh, but that she’d found new ways to make Elisa’s life difficult.
Lesson learned. Wariness fully engaged.
But the mistrust ran deeper than a few harsh words in Josh’s kitchen. Elisa still didn’t know anything about this woman who’d popped up and taken a seat at the family dinner table without really being asked. The only way to look into Rachel was to know more about her. Even if she burned through the morning doing it.
With Nathan and Harris out of the house, Elisa had gotten the laptop out. She’d tried looking up the license plate number on Rachel’s car. That sounded easier in theory than it was in practice. The guy at the DMV refused to tell her anything, which was probably a good response for a government agency. Privacy and all that.
With that option closed, Elisa expected to find a “free” website that would give her the basic information, like the name and address for the car registration or license, which hopefully would belong to Rachel. All she found were paid sites, and she didn’t trust those.
Trailing Rachel to her office seemed like a dramatic alternative, but the only decent one... but so far, nothing. Elisa thought ahead and picked up a rental car, leaving hers in the rental lot for now. The idea was to make Rachel spotting her less likely, but that didn’t seem all that necessary since Rachel didn’t really go anywhere.
She’d mentioned having a big presentation this afternoon. Elisa rushed around to get to Josh’s house before Rachel left for it. Right after Elisa parked down the street, she spotted Rachel, dressed impeccably, as usual, in a black dress and heels, leaving the house. Instead of heading to an office, she went straight to a coffee shop, and not the one close to Josh’shouse. Miles out and seemingly inconvenient to most obvious convention spaces and office parks.
Rachel looked at her phone and read off her laptop. She didn’t talk to anyone or even write down a note. She sat there... for more than an hour.
When Rachel finally got up and gathered her things, Elisa was ready. She didn’t think she knew anyone who lived in the neighborhood, but with her luck she probably did, so she’d slouched down in the car seat to prevent ruining her covert operation. But now they were on the road, Rachel driving and Elisa a safe distance behind.
Whatever Rachel was going to do, she needed to do it. All Elisa needed was a business name. She’d take it from there, or hand the information to someone who would know how to spin that into more.
Rachel drove another few miles, getting farther away from Philadelphia and deeper into the suburbs, and turned into a motel parking lot. Not a fancy hotel with convention space. Literally, a one-level motel with tiny rooms and peeling beige paint. Kind of a dump.
Elisa parked across the street at a fast food burger place and watched. When Rachel fiddled with her rearview mirror, Elisa ducked. She counted to ten, then ten again. With her heart pounding, and half expecting Rachel to appear at the car window, Elisa sat up again, but Rachel wasn’t looming there.
Rachel hadn’t even left the car, but she did now. Got out, taking her bag and computer. With keys in her hand, she approached room 9, opened the door, and slipped inside.
What the hell?
She had Josh’s house and wherever she lived. Her office. Yet, Rachel was staying in a motel? Elisa couldn’t find any logic in it. Having learned a few confusing and random things, Elisa wanted to know more.
She’d pushed her luck right to the edge, but went a few more inches. Feet, actually. She started the car and drove across the street to the motel. Parked as far as possible from room 9. Sat there with the car running, debating if she should get out and take a closer look or just take off.
