“We’ve found Beth Wade.”
Vincente Delaney had been waiting to hear those words for the last twelve months. Waiting and dreading. Now they had finally been spoken, it was as if his mind wasn’t sure how to process them and his emotions didn’t know how to react. He’d imagined that, as soon as he was told, he would be torn apart by anger and pain. Instead, all he felt was a curious detachment, as though he was viewing the scene as an outsider.
“Why wasn’t her body with those of the other women Grant Becker murdered?”
He was pleased to find his voice sounded normal. That he could ask the question without crumbling. He supposed it was because there had been plenty of time to prepare for this moment. Twelve months ago, the police had told him that Beth fitted the profile of those killed by the murderer known as the Red Rose Killer and she was likely to have been one of his victims. Ever since then, this situation had been at the back of his mind. He hadn’t thought about it every minute of every day. Not quite that often.
Of course, it had been made worse because the man responsible for the deaths of all those women had been someone Vincente had known most of his life. Grant Becker had been his brother Cameron’s best friend. Vincente and Grant had gone hunting and drinking together. To learn that Grant, the sheriff of West County, was not only a serial killer, but that he could have been responsible for killing Beth... Vincente shook his head. He still struggled to come to grips with the reality of what had happened in his hometown. Grant was dead now, but the legacy of his crimes had rocked the city of Stillwater, Wyoming, to its core.
“Oh, dear Lord, Vincente. I’m so sorry. That came out all wrong.” Laurie, Cameron’s wife, was a detective in the Stillwater police. She moved swiftly across the room to place her hand on his arm. “Beth isn’t dead. What I came here to tell you was that we’ve finally found out where she’s been living since she left Stillwater.”
The emotion did kick in then, so hard and fast he felt light-headed with it. Relief hit him first. She’s not dead! The long, anguished months of picturing her murder, of wondering if there was anything he could have done to save her, of thinking about all the might-have-beens... And all that time Beth had been alive.
“Where is she?” His initial relief was followed by something colder and harder. Beth was alive. Questions began to form. Dozens of them. Why had she left? And why so suddenly? What was her life like now? Was she single? Married? In a relationship? Why did those things matter? She had walked out on him without an explanation. If not in the middle of the night, near enough. It wasn’t the action of someone who wanted to be with him. Nevertheless, she owed him some explanations.
Laurie shook her head regretfully. “I can’t tell you that. If someone disappears the way Beth did, they do it for a reason. They don’t do it because they want to be found. We have to respect her privacy.” She gathered up her jacket and keys. “I wanted to come and tell you as soon as I found out because I knew what it would mean to you to know that she’s alive. I’ll be going to see her to question her about the Grant Becker case in the next few days. I’ll let you know how she is, but that’s all I can do.”
Vincente didn’t reply. Instead, he watched Laurie go, his body tense and his emotions raging. Beth didn’t want to be found. He’d got that message loud and clear sixteen months ago when he tried searching for her. At that time, it looked like Beth had walked out of Stillwater without a backward glance. The clients in the legal practice where she worked as a lawyer had been less than happy at her departure. Her boss didn’t have a clue where she’d gone. The landlord of the neat little house she’d rented out on the lake road had been bemused. She’d left most of her belongings and had paid her rent for the next quarter. When Vincente spoke to her friends they appeared genuinely bewildered...either that, or they were putting on a good performance for his benefit.
Then, four months after he had last seen her, the devastating news had emerged that Beth could have been one of Grant Becker’s victims. She had the same physical characteristics as the other women Grant had murdered. Beth had dark, wavy hair, blue eyes and the sort of smile that could knock a man sideways. Her looks made her the ideal candidate to attract attention from Grant, to get his token gift of red roses...and then be brutally murdered by him.
Vincente thought back to the last time he had seen her, seeking new clues to her disappearance in light of Laurie’s visit today. Beth had turned up at his apartment after more or less ignoring him for a month. The silent treatment had followed one of their fiery clashes. Theirs had always been a stormy relationship, filled with wild fights, frequent breakups and passionate makeups. Even though sex with Beth had always been explosive, that night had been one
