Sarah started to pluck the ring and attached note from the flowers, but she paused and put on latex gloves. Her hands shook as she opened the small card. The words, “you are the one,” taunted her. The paper slipped from her fingers and fell at her feet. She stared at the ring stolen from her fifteen years ago.
The sound of Hunter snapping on latex gloves yanked her from her trance. He stooped, carefully picked up the note, read the message aloud, then looked up at Sarah. “He took your engagement ring?”
She nodded. “I didn’t even realize it at first.”
Hunter slid the card and ring into an evidence bag then put it in his suit coat pocket. When he stood, he placed his finger under her chin and lifted her head.
Thrust back to the morning she’d realized what happened to her, she couldn’t hold back the tears she’d kept bottled up inside her. They ran down her cheeks as he cradled her face, their gazes locked in an embrace.
He wrapped his arms around her and pressed her against his chest. “I’m so sorry you went through that. We’re going to find this man. I won’t rest until I do.” The lethal tone of his voice reinforced what he declared. “He won’t win.”
“He has Alicia. She’s expendable and a pawn to him. He really wants me.”
“Leaving these flowers here could have led to his capture. He’s become bold. That’ll bring his downfall. When he gets cocky, he’ll make mistakes, and I’ll be there to get him.”
In time to save Alicia—if she was still alive? She shuddered and nestled closer to Hunter.
“Let’s take the vase inside. There may be evidence on it we can use.”
She hoped so. She stepped away to allow Hunter to pick up the flowers while she unlocked the back door. After entering, she waited for Hunter to come inside then turned the bolt in place. Any police officer would have to knock from now on.
At the entrance into the rec room, Hunter glanced over his shoulder. “I need to make sure the whole house is locked down. A lot of people are going in and out. Not good right now. I’ll check with the neighbors who have outside cameras to see if there’s any tapes showing someone coming into the backyard.”
“There probably won’t be anything. The backyard is open to the park. Easy to get in and out that way.” As he set the vase on the pool table, Sarah continued, “I’m going upstairs and see if Rebecca and Nana are doing all right and suggest keeping the flow of guests down to a trickle.”
“I need to bring Mark in on your tie to this case. There’s no doubt now that the guy who raped you is our killer.”
“I want to be here when you talk to Mark. I’ll say something to him after I check on my sister and grandmother.”
“What about your dad? It’ll be hard to keep this from him. He’s been helping Mark.”
“I don’t want to deal with Dad right now on top of everything else. My focus has to be on getting Alicia back.”
“But your dad was police chief at that time. I wasn’t on the force. What if there were other rapes back then after you left?”
“Mark will know since he was on the force at that time. I don’t want Dad involved.” His disappointment and anger at her choice years ago would totally destroy their fragile relationship. At least they were talking, and her sister didn’t need any more stress.
She left the rec room while Hunter made a call to the police station to come pick up the evidence that needed to be processed.
As she mounted the stairs to the ground floor, Sarah’s hands still trembled. She’d never wanted anyone but Rebecca and Nana to know about the rape. She’d gone over that night so many times, trying to figure out what she’d done wrong besides going to the lake party in the first place. Why had the guy picked her?
When she entered the living room, she discovered all the chairs and seats on the couch were taken, and a few guests along with her father were standing. A couple guests were neighbors. Some she didn’t know, and Emily Allen and her husband, Carey, were there, and Ben and his mother sat next to Mark.
Sarah came up to Nana, who sat in a wingback, squatted next to her and whispered, “Where’s Rebecca?”
“She’s in the kitchen on a pretense she needed to make more coffee.”
“How are you doing?”
Nana turned to her and whispered into her ear, “Ready for everyone to leave, so I can take a nap.”
“I’ll check on Rebecca. Then I’ll be back.”
Sarah hurried to the kitchen and found Rebecca standing at the counter, staring at the coffeepot while it percolated, the brew’s aroma scenting the air. She crossed to her sister. “I can take care of this if you want.”
Rebecca gasped. She twisted around, her eyes widening, her hand on her chest. “Oh, you scared me. I didn’t hear you come in.”
“Sorry about that. I tend to walk softly. How long have all these people been here?”
“It’s been a steady stream for the past few hours. You just missed our pastor and our new neighbors across the street who live next door to Dad.”
“Who are they?”
“The Overstreets. Very nice couple. Mary and Gerald.”
Although she remembered Hunter talking about the Overstreets’ broken security camera, she didn’t realize they were new neighbors. “When did they move here?”
“Three months ago. I’ve enjoyed getting to know them. They used to live here years ago and are so happy to be back in Cimarron City. Good neighbors.”
“How are you doing?”
“Numb. I feel like I’m living someone else’s life, that Alicia will come through the door any second.” Rebecca’s shoulder sagged. “But she isn’t going to.”
“I have a suggestion. Politely ask your guests to leave. Then don’t answer the door for the rest of the day. I need Mark to come downstairs.”
Rebecca straightened. “You have a lead.”
“Yes and no. You can come too, but not Dad.”
“Why not?”
Sarah moved in closer, lowered her voice, and told her what they’d found on the patio.
Rebecca’s pale cheeks lost even more color. “I’ll have the guests leave while y’all talk with Mark. I’ll send Dad on an errand.”
“Thanks.”
Sarah returned to the entrance into the living room and signaled for Mark to join her while Rebecca came in and stood next to Nana’s chair.
As Rebecca told her guests how much she appreciated their support, Mark moved into the hallway.
“What’s up?”
“Hunter needs to talk to you downstairs.”
Mark made his way to the rec room while the guests began to leave.
Before she could escape, Emily stepped into the foyer. “Sarah, I wish you were here under different circumstances. I have no idea why you left Hunter at the altar and disappeared from Cimarron City. I missed you. Your sister would never tell me where you were. Did something happen? Is there any way I can help you?”
“I have one question. Why did you leave me at the party? My car was still there.”
Emily’s eyes widened. “What happened?”
“I was your ride home. You didn’t think to look for me or tell me you were leaving?”
“I couldn’t find you. The last time I saw you was when you were sitting on the ground leaning back against a tree trunk.”
The urge to tell Emily her secret flooded Sarah, but she couldn’t get the words out. They lodged in her throat. “I wasn’t feeling well.”
“I’m sorry. Later, someone told me you’d left the party.”
“Who?”
Emily stared at a spot on the wall behind Sarah, her brow knitted. Her friend returned her gaze to Sarah. “I can’t remember.”
Sarah spied Emily’s husband heading toward them. “We’ll talk later. I have to get back downstairs.” Before her friend could stop her, Sarah swung around and hurried down the steps.
She’d almost told Emily everything, but she he couldn’t. She wasn’t ready to do that, but it was nice to hear Emily hadn’t left her on purpose.
When she entered the rec room, Hunter wrapped up, telling Mark what was going on with the flowers.
Mark bridged the distance between them and gave her hug. “Does my wife know?”
Her throat tightened. She nodded and swallowed several times. “I made her promise not to tell anyone, especially our father.”
“Why didn’t you tell him?”
“I couldn’t deal with him on top of everything else. Nana helped me leave Cimarron City. I went to stay with her. I should have spoken up all those years ago. Now I know that, but I wasn’t in a good place. And I certainly wasn’t thinking rationally.”
“Hunter said you don’t want your father to know.”
“Not at the moment. I don’t want any drama. Knowing my dad, there would be drama.”
Hunter cleared his throat a second before a voice behind Sarah said, “What drama am I accused of?”
Sarah closed her eyes and inhaled a calming breath. The secret was out, and there was no way she could control who knew anymore.
Hunter approached Sarah, leaned toward her ear and whispered, “I’m here with you.” He held his hand out to her.
She clasped it and slowly faced her father in the doorway. “The night before my wedding I went with my girlfriends to a party at the lake. Someone spiked my soft drink. The last thing I remember until I woke up hours later was sitting by a tree, trying to keep the world from spinning out of control. A guy said he could help me.” A faint vision of the man wavered in her mind. She gasped. Then everything went black. “I saw him. Not his face but he had a medium build and—” The image hovered just out of sight, and no matter what she did, she couldn’t bring it forth.
“What?” her dad asked in a tight voice.
“I can’t remember.” She looked her father square in the eye. “When I woke up early the next morning, I knew that I had been raped. I—I was lying where Terri’s body was found at the dumpsite.”
The color washed from her father’s face. He grabbed the doorframe and steadied himself.
“Then today, Sarah received flowers with a note and the engagement ring I gave her attached to the bouquet.” Hunter pointed to the vase behind him. “Our conclusion is that the guy who killed Terri also assaulted Sarah years ago.”
“And now he has Alicia,” her dad said in monotone.
She squeezed Hunter’s hand. “I became pregnant and had a son. David died six years ago from juvenile Huntington’s. It’s a genetic disease. I had myself checked to see if I carried the gene, but I don’t. David got it from the man who raped me—a man who has a fifty-fifty chance of developing the disease. Usually it begins to appear after age thirty. It’s possible he has it and is seeing a doctor about it, but people who get it have relatives who’ve come down with it. It runs in families. It’s a long shot, but we might be able to track the killer using that information. There isn’t any cure for it. If he develops the disease, he’ll slowly die from complications, from not being able to walk to losing his memory.”
“But he might only be a carrier?” Mark asked.
“Yes, but there will be evidence of it in his family lineage. He might not even know he has the gene.” Sarah watched the play of emotions flash across her father’s face from shock to anger, which finally won out in the end.
“You were raped. You had a son, and you kept that from me.” He clenched his hands at his side. “Did everyone know but me?”
“Nana and Rebecca and later Alicia knew. David loved having Alicia come visit.”
Her father opened his mouth but snapped it closed without saying anything. He pivoted and charged up the stairs. Seconds later, the front door slammed shut, the sound so loud it reverberated through the house.
Sarah blew out a loud breath. “My decisions when I was nineteen weren’t always the best ones. I can’t change the past. Believe me. I would if I could. I have to live with my choices. David was a special kid, and I wish he was here today.” The memory of the last time she held him inundated her. David died in her arms. Tears of sorrow and regret welled into her throat, threatening to be released. She couldn’t now. Alicia’s life depended on her finding the killer.
Hunter slipped his arm over her shoulders and drew her close. “I’m sorry he isn’t.”
Mark walked to the whiteboard, flipped it over, and wrote, “possible Huntington connection,” at the bottom of the short list of clues they had on the killer. “I’m going to study the disease and see how we can use it. Without a court order, we can’t get medical records, but possibly we can start by looking into any suspect’s family. That disease will be hard to keep quiet for long.”
Hunter pressed her even closer to him. “The problem is, we don’t have any good suspects. We thought we did, but the guy was in jail when Alicia was taken. Sarah and I will go and interview Richard and Nora Bennett again. Maybe they’ve remembered something about their daughter’s movements in the last day or so before she was taken. We’ll also talk with her best friend, Rhonda.”
Sarah crossed the room and added Donna Conroy’s name to the clue side. “I think she was a would-be victim, but the killer was interrupted while taking her. We have video of people who were at the library when she was. Her drink was spiked, and when she walked to her car in the parking lot, she went down. Two young men helped her and possibly saved her life.”
Mark frowned, emphasizing the tired lines on his face. “I want those men interviewed. Maybe one or both is our killer. They could have gotten cold feet and didn’t go through with it.”
“I don’t think so. They both would have been a young child when I was attacked. We’re looking for someone around my age or older.”
Mark walked toward the exit. “Still check them out. I’ll look into the Huntington’s angle. Time is running out.”
Officer Harris passed Mark as he left. When she came into the rec room, she waited until Mark had climbed the steps. “The lab is rushing the DNA analysis on the gum you found in the yard.”
“Let the lab know we’re under a deadline. I need to know if the gene that causes Huntington’s Disease is in the DNA,” Hunter said.
“Will do, and I’m here to collect the flower vase.”
“Did Mark agree to put an officer on Donna?” Sarah asked as Officer Harris left with the bouquet.
“Yes. He called the station and had one sent to her house.”
“I’m going to call her and let her know. I’m not sure if she would answer the door otherwise even with the officer wearing a uniform. I wouldn’t.” Sarah had put Donna in her contact list when she left the young woman’s house. She tapped Donna’s name and listened as the phone rang. Finally, it went to voicemail. “Let’s swing by her place. She didn’t answer. I’ll feel better knowing everything’s okay, and I’d like to introduce her to the officer. Then we can go see the Bennetts.”
On the short drive to Donna’s house, Sarah tried to tamp down the pounding of her heartbeat. She didn’t have a good feeling about this. What if the killer found out they’d interviewed Donna? Maybe she’d seen more than she realized. When Sarah talked to her dad, she’d remembered the medium-build guy clearer. As he held his hand out to her, he’d been wearing a long sleeve shirt. Donna could have seen the man who is the rapist, and she didn’t remember. Sarah wouldn’t be surprised because the mind often tried to protect a person from a traumatic experience by blocking it. She’d dealt with witnesses who’d seen a perpetrator and couldn’t actually describe him.
Hunter pulled into the driveway while Officer Martin parked at the curb. The second Sarah climbed from the SUV, she ran toward the porch with Hunter right behind her.
Please, Lord, let Donna be safe. But a couple of minutes later, Donna still hadn’t answered the door.
Sarah peeked into the living room window. The curtains were drawn although there was a small opening. What little she spied didn’t tell her anything. “We need to check all the windows and any other doors into the place.”
“Officer Martin, stay here. Continue to knock and ring the bell while we go around back.” Hunter started toward the side of the house, a few steps behind Sarah, each one putting on latex gloves.
When she reached the back door, she tried the knob. It turned. A chill streaked down her spine.