FBI and the Stillwater Police Department. We couldn’t rule out the possibility that you might have been one of Grant Becker’s victims.”
Beth took a moment to let that information sink in. “So you’ve been looking for me all this time?”
Laurie nodded. “Almost twelve months. When we didn’t find your body with the others, we put out an alert asking you to come forward.”
“I didn’t see anything.” Beth bit her lip. “I don’t have much time for TV or newspapers.” In a way, it was better that she hadn’t known the police were looking for her. Knowing would have been a dilemma of epic proportions. How could she have ignored that? Yet, at the same time, how could she have responded to it? “How did you find me?”
“Even though you’ve been using an alias, your boss saw your picture in our newspaper advertisement and phoned in.”
And there you have it. It was that easy. If the police could find her that way, anyone else could. Vincente could. Worst of all, he could find her. She always thought of the person who sent the letter and photographs as a “he”, but it could just as easily be a woman.
Her thoughts must have shown on her face because she became aware of Laurie watching her with concern. Leaning across the table, the other woman clasped Beth’s hand. “This is really not a big deal. Now that we know you are alive, I can cross you off our list of possible victims. I just came out here today to ask you a few questions. I hope that’s okay. I certainly didn’t want to worry you.”
Beth forced her features into a smile. It would be very easy to confide in this woman. To go upstairs and get that envelope, lay everything on the table and tell her the whole story. That way she could hand over her cares to someone else. But she didn’t have that luxury.
It’s not just my own safety that’s at stake here.
“Ask away.”
The searching look in Laurie’s eyes was still there as she flipped open her notepad. “I need to know whether you left Stillwater to get away from Grant Becker.”
Beth shook her head. “Apart from the fact that Grant was friends with Vincente, he and I barely knew each other.”
“So why did you leave Stillwater so suddenly?” Laurie asked.
At that moment—and with monumentally bad timing—a soft, demanding cry crackled over the baby monitor.
* * *
Vincente parked his car in a side street at right angles to the little house. From this vantage point, he could watch the front door without being too obvious.
Following Laurie around for the last three days had not been easy. Pursuing a seasoned detective in the small town where everyone knew them both? He had set himself an almost impossible task. But Laurie had said she would be questioning Beth about the Grant Becker case in the next few days. She had specifically said she would be “going to see” Beth. Vincente figured that, sooner or later, Laurie would lead him to Beth.
He decided the only way to check on his sister-in-law’s whereabouts was to make it look like, by some fluke, they kept bumping into each other. At the end of the second day, Laurie was joking that she’d seen more of her brother-in-law lately than she had of her husband.
Chasing around town, getting in Laurie’s way had played hell with Vincente’s work schedule. His younger brother, Bryce, who ran Delaney Transportation with him, had sent him an increasingly frantic series of messages demanding to know why he had abandoned his office. Unable to explain that he was stalking Laurie, Vincente had feigned illness.
“You’re never ill.” Bryce managed to make the statement sound like an accusation.
“First time for everything.” Vincente had done his best to sound feeble.
“Steffi was hoping you’d come over for dinner tonight. Cameron and Laurie will be there.” Knowing how much Vincente enjoyed evenings spent around the table in his brother’s rambling, comfortable home, Bryce had clearly decided to try another approach. Since his recent and blissfully happy marriage, Bryce enjoyed gathering the family together while his wife, Steffi, regaled them with stories of the animal sanctuary she was establishing. They had come a long way from the days when Bryce had been the local stud, and Steffi was a famous Hollywood actress.
“Maybe next week when I’ve shaken off this flu.” Vincente had turned down the invitation with real regret.
His stalking tactics had proved frustratingly unsuccessful. Until today. Today, his patience, or thinly disguised impatience, had finally paid off. Laurie had left home at her usual time this morning, but instead of going into town and making her way to the police headquarters, she had headed south.
After an hour of following her at a discreet distance, Vincente had gained an inkling about her destination. Beth’s parents were dead, and she’d lost touch with most family members over the years. But he remembered that she spoke about friends of her parents who lived nearby in Casper whom she had visited now and then as a child. Although they weren’t relatives, she had called them her aunt and uncle and always regretted losing touch with them. Vincente had forgotten all about them back when he had been searching for her, but he supposed it was possible that, when she left Stillwater, she’d gone to a town she knew. He became increasingly convinced he was right. The police wouldn’t have known about the connection because the people he was thinking of weren’t Beth’s family.
Knowing Laurie would recognize his car, Vincente had rented a nondescript black sedan. Subterfuge really wasn’t his style, but he was determined to find Beth and ask her the questions that refused to go away. Even in his rental car, he had stayed well behind Laurie. He had a healthy respect for his sister-in-law’s powers of observation. The woman who had tracked down the Red Rose Killer was more than capable of recognizing that she was being followed.
Once he was convinced he knew where she was going, Vincente had overtaken her on the freeway. Pulling in at a gas station on the outskirts of Casper, he had waited, hoping his hunch was correct. When Laurie’s car came into view, he had released a long sigh of relief. If he’d been wrong, he wasn’t sure what his next move would have been. All he knew for sure was that giving up wasn’t an option.
Keeping his distance once more, he had followed Laurie to this quiet neighborhood in Casper. She had pulled up outside a house that was set back slightly from the street. Although he hadn’t been able to see too much, he had watched as the door was opened and Laurie went inside. That had been almost an hour ago, and he was going half-crazy with tension, waiting for the opportunity to do something. He had been told more than once, by both of his brothers, that patience was not his best quality.
Finally, he saw a movement over at the house. Tilting the old cowboy hat he’d worn as an additional disguise low over his brow, but peering out from under the brim, he slunk down in his seat. Laurie came out of the house alone. No one accompanied her to the door. There could be any number of reasons why the occupant of the house had chosen not to escort her out. From Vincente’s point of view, it was frustrating. Once again, he was denied the opportunity to get a glimpse of who lived there.
As Laurie made her way to her car, Vincente considered his options. Follow her back to Stillwater? Or stay here and find out if this really was Beth’s hiding place? He almost laughed aloud that he was even asking himself the question.
Once Laurie had driven away, he waited a few minutes to be sure she really had gone before leaving his car and going across to the house she had left. As he approached, he sized up the building. Nothing about it made him think of Beth. It had a slightly neglected air, as if the owner didn’t have the time, energy or money to spend on it. He contrasted that with the Stillwater house she had lived in. That had been as neat as wax. Being organized seemed to come effortlessly to Beth, spilling over into how she dressed, her surroundings and how she dealt with other people. Vincente wondered, not for the first time, if the reason she had struggled with their relationship was because she couldn’t neatly package up her feelings for him. When they were together there was no controlling what they felt. It had always