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Reid wasn’t a police officer anymore, but if anyone was going to know about a missing girl in town, it would be him.
“And what information are you looking for?”
I forced myself to look him straight in the eye, hoping he sensed my seriousness. “Is there really a girl missing?”
My heart dropped as he stiffened. “You heard,” he finally said, his voice flat.
“It is true?” My stomach twisted. “Who is it? Why isn’t this all over the town?”
“I don’t know.”
“What do you mean, you don’t know?” I asked, an edge of hysteria in my tone as I comprehended that there was truth in this. Emersyn was right. “I understand you don’t work for the department anymore, but don’t you have friends there? Can’t you figure out what is going on?”
“Maybe it’s not all over the news because of exactly this reason.” He gestured toward me with a hand. “The public could start to panic.”
I jerked back as though he had slapped me in the face. I drew in a deep, steady breath. “I don’t want to panic,” I said softly.
Reid’s eyes closed as he let out a heavy sigh, his body sagging with it. He dragged a hand through his messy hair, as if he had been doing it often. “No.” He crossed his arms over his broad chest and shook his head. “No, I’m sorry. That was out of line. To be honest, I don’t know why this hasn’t been the first thing on the news. Xander has me on as a consultant on this case, but I feel so damn helpless. I can’t do anything without permission. I can only get the information that the department is willing to give to me.”
I stared at him, my eyes widening. Now that I really looked at him, he seemed…tired. His jaw was covered in at least a couple days’ worth of stubble. There were deep purple smudges under his bloodshot eyes.
“Reid.” I reached for him before I thought better of it. As my hand wrapped around his forearm, something warm bloomed in my chest. “If there’s one thing I know about you, it’s that you’re doing your best. If anyone in this town is going to find her, it’ll be you.”
His eyes darted around my face, as if searching for evidence of a lie. He wouldn’t find any. The muscles in his arm flexed as he clenched his hands.
“I don’t know about that,” he said, his voice a low rumble. “I haven’t been much good to anyone.”
“That’s not true.” I couldn’t count the times Reid had helped someone, even pure strangers. I hadn’t known him as a police officer, but I had no doubt that he’d been amazing at it. Reid did everything with his whole heart.
He didn’t look convinced, though, and I didn’t know what else to say. One of his shoulders lifted in a half shrug. “Doesn’t matter. It doesn’t change anything about the current situation.”
My chest tightened. “Do you think that she was…taken?”
His eyes flashed. “You mean, do I think that this is the work of the Shadow Stalker? I honestly don’t know. I hope not. The only solace, if that’s the case, is that he usually keeps them alive for a while.”
I flinched as the use of that name brought back a memory…the smell of the blood, the sight of my best friend’s room covered in it—it was seared into the very fiber of my being. The sight of that man in black, standing in the doorway…
He hadn’t kept anyone alive that night. No one except for me.
I hadn’t realized I was shaking until Reid’s hand fell over mine, gripping it tight.
“Lark?”
“I’m fine,” I said, almost automatically.
“You sure about that? Because I wouldn’t be.”
I blinked up at him. “What?”
“I’m still not fine most of the time, Lark. This case has already dragged up a lot of crap from the past, and you and me…we have a lot of history that we will never forget.”
I swallowed hard. “No. We never will.”
Reid was the one who found me that morning…who found us. After I saw what had been done to Thea, my brain and body had simply shut down. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t move. I had sunk to my knees, and the next thing I remembered was Reid shaking me and screaming. The terrified and broken look that had been in his eyes was enough to send a cold shiver through me and wake me from my stunned state.
I got a lot of blame for that. There wasn’t a good explanation for why I had discovered Thea’s body sometime in the early morning hours and the police weren’t called until Reid came—over five hours later. Part of me couldn’t fault people for being suspicious, but the rumors that I had something to do with the murders never got easier.
The murders of Thea and Delainey were linked to the Shadow Stalker because of a mark left on the bodies, even though it wasn’t his normal way of operation. When he killed, he usually kidnapped his victims, keeping them alive for multiple days before killing them and disposing of the bodies.
