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This time he turned red. “That’s not what I meant. I just…well this is an expensive sport, I just…” He trailed off. “Sorry.”
She gave him a break and decided to answer. “I worked two jobs, one from home where I could be with Bethany and then the graphics design one. With both of those, I could make ends meet and have a little left over for Bethany and I to do some fun things. Like road trips for karate competitions.”
A look she thought she recognized as admiration shone briefly in his eyes. “You’re an amazing mom.”
Embarrassed at the unexpected praise, mostly because no one had ever told her that before, she simply gaped at him them mumbled, “Well, I don’t know about that.”
Mason simply smiled and moved on.
Pulling open the long thin drawer on the desk, he looked inside. Lacey looked over his shoulder. She’d already been through it and could tell him what it contained. A stack of papers, a few pens, a math book. Lacey reached around him and picked up the papers. Catelyn had finished in the closet and Daniel stood looking at the edge of the window. Absently, she wondered what he was looking at.
With a sigh, she flipped through the first few sheets. School-related announcements, one for a summer camp held in Colorado. Lacey almost chuckled. The girl had big dreams. “She wants to go to camp in Colorado,” she murmured. “Why would she willingly disappear when she’s dreaming about the future?”
She wouldn’t.
And then the next one made her gasp.
Mason glanced at her and asked, “What is it?”
His words barely registered in the rushing roar of her fear. Hands trembling, she held out the picture.
She heard his swiftly indrawn breath as he saw it. “It’s another picture from the yearbook.”
A younger version of Mason and Lacey grinned back at them. A bull’s-eye had been drawn over each of their faces.
At the bottom of the picture someone had taped a picture of Bethany. A full-body shot taken while Bethany lay sprawled on a bench outside the school. Her lunch tray lay on the ground beside her and it looked like she had fallen asleep. The picture itself would have been cute had it not been for the red slash someone had drawn across Bethany’s throat.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Mason felt his skin crawl. His stomach tied itself in knots and he thought if he didn’t find out who was behind all this, he might just snap.
Staring down at the picture, he felt slightly nauseous. Who would do this? What kind of enemy had Lacey made? And how? What could she have done during the short time she’d been home?
Or had someone followed her home?
He looked at Lacey as he passed the picture over to Catelyn and Daniel. “Is there anyone from the home or where you worked before you moved here that would be mad at you about something? Could someone have followed you here?”
Her mouth worked and she gulped. “Um. No. Not that I know of. I mean I generally just kept to myself.” She flushed. “It’s hard to make friends with a big old chip on your shoulder.” Her words came slow as though she was embarrassed to admit it. “Unless…” She bit her lip and looked away.
“What?”
“There was this boy. Bethany’s age. He was crazy about her back in North Carolina.”
Mason narrowed his eyes. “Let me guess. You weren’t crazy about him.”
She gave a negative shake of her head. “I thought he was too sophisticated for her. Too mature. Too…everything. I came home early from one work one day and I caught them making out on the couch.” Anger glittered in her eyes. “I said a few things I shouldn’t have, really laid into both of them, but mostly him.” She shrugged. “But we moved here the next week and Bethany hasn’t heard from him since.”
“That you know of,” Mason muttered. Already he wanted to wrap his hands around the young man’s throat. His emotion shocked him. Was this what being a father of a teenage girl felt like?
Exchanging a glance with Daniel and Catelyn, Mason asked, “What’s his name?”
“Austin Howard.”
Catelyn wrote it down. “I’ll check this out and get back to you.”
Daniel had already bagged the picture. He nodded to the window. “Looks like the window’s been jimmied.”
Lacey let out another gasp. “Is that how someone got in? Bethany said someone was in her room one night….”
