Lynn barely blinked. “I…not that I recall right now, but I will go through his file and all my notes and look, of course.”
They stood. Fraser handed her a card. “And then, we’d, of course, ask you to let us know if he shows his face here again. If he shows up to his next appointment, then please call this number. Keep him here until we can get here.”
Lynn nodded nervously while images of them on her patio table rushed through her mind—his hands on her breasts, his lips on her neck. She could still hear his heavy breathing in her ear, and it made her shiver.
“N-naturally, of course.”
Chapter 62
“I can’t really think of what exactly could have made her leave,” Bryan said and leaned back on the couch in his living room. We had been through all her childhood, her school friends, then later her co-workers from the hardware store where she worked, and all her close friends. Nothing seemed to stand out, and now the coffee pot was empty.
I leaned forward, rubbing my forehead while looking at my notes. “Wasn’t there anything that would give her a reason to want to disappear—anything at all? Did something happen to her? Her boyfriend Tommy died, but that wasn’t until after she had left, right?”
“It was six months after, actually.”
“I just have this feeling that it is somehow related to him,” I said, knowing we had been down this path before. “What’s happening now—I just can’t seem to connect the dots.”
Bryan’s gaze became distant, and he turned his head away. “There were days when I wondered if she had killed him. If she had come back to do it, or maybe stayed close by all the time.”
“Would Sarah be capable of something like that?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Not the Sarah I knew, but…”
“But what?”
“She wasn’t completely herself before she disappeared. I got the feeling she wasn’t well.”
“And why do you think you had that feeling?”
He shrugged, then lowered his head. “No reason. It’s just a feeling; that’s all. She was different somehow.”
“How so?”
“She became introverted, pulled back and into herself. She wouldn’t talk to me or Tommy about it. Tommy came to me and said he was worried too.”
“Okay, okay, this is good,” I said. “Why didn’t you mention this earlier?”
He looked at me. “As I said, it was just a feeling. I wasn’t even sure it was important, or if I just imagined things.”
“Was there anything else different about her?” I asked.
“She seemed angrier. She got upset easier, and she spent a lot of time on her phone, texting. Tommy feared she was seeing someone else, but that isn’t like my sister. She’s very loyal. Our dad cheated on our mom, and she hated him for it. But Tommy did say they never had sex anymore, that she didn’t want to. He also said she was often awake at night, unable to sleep.”
“She had a lot on her mind, maybe,” I said.
I wondered for a minute if she had already met Scott at this point and just didn’t know how to tell Tommy. Had Scott then persuaded her to leave everyone behind and then killed Tommy? He could be very charming and charismatic when he wanted to. I had felt how persuasive he was on myself lately. And then, when Sarah wanted to leave Scott, he locked her up and made up the story of her disappearing because he thought it would be believable since she had done so before? He alerted the police, filled out a missing person’s report. Then he came to me to make sure it seemed legit? He engaged me in finding her so it would seem like he was truly looking for her and help him get the police off his back? But then, things didn’t entirely go as planned. Sarah escaped somehow, and he didn’t know where she was? Was that why I didn’t hear from him for quite some time? Because he was looking for her? And then, I helped him find her again? Had I helped him do that? The thought was devastating. But it would explain why she stuck the gun in our faces.
“Did she know this guy?” I asked. I found a picture I had kept from my research online. It was taken from his Instagram account. “His name is Jeffrey Johnson.”
Bryan looked at it, then shook his head. “I don’t think so. I’ve never seen him before.”
I put the phone back. “Okay. And you have no idea if she was seeing someone else then, or who it was?”
Bryan shook his head. “I just don’t get it, though. She would never betray Tommy. It simply wasn’t her.”
Chapter 63
She snuck around the house and found the back door. She grabbed the handle and pulled it, but it was locked. Gun clutched in hand, Sarah turned to the window next to the door and realized it was unlocked. She pulled it open, then slid inside on the floor, landing with a thud, making too much noise for her liking.
She hurried to her feet, then rushed to the kitchen, where she found her target sitting in a chair, back turned to her. Holding her breath, tiptoeing closer, sweat springing to her forehead, Sarah crept closer until she could almost smell this person. She placed the gun on their neck.
“Took you long enough,” the voice said.
The person spun their head like an owl and looked directly at her. Hands shaking, Sarah placed the gun on the person’s forehead and cocked it.
“Don’t you dare move. I will shoot.”
A smile spread across the target’s face. Sarah shivered when seeing it. So many times, she had looked at that smile while in the hole.
“No, you won’t, Sarah.” A hand was reached out toward her and caressed her cheek gently. The hand was placed on her neck, and her head pulled closer, so she could smell the breath of the person speaking. “You want to know why you won’t?”
Their eyes locked, and Sarah felt herself soften. She exhaled and bit her lip. Then she shook her head, pulling back.
“I don’t want you to speak at all.”
The person sighed. “You won’t kill me, Sarah, because you love me. Do you remember that? Do you recall how much you love me?”
Sarah felt her heart rate go up as she pressed the gun against the person’s forehead. “I will kill you if I have to.”
That made the person smile.
“Really?”
“Really. I don’t love you anymore.”
“Is that what you’ve been telling yourself? You don’t know yourself very well, Sarah. I do. I knew you’d come back. That’s how well I know you.”
“You don’t know me at all.”
A patronizing head tilt made Sarah almost lose it in anger. She pressed the gun hard into the skin and panted as she considered pulling the trigger.
“I would have done anything for you,” the voice said. “But you hurt me.”
“I hate you,” Sarah said, spitting the words. “I hate you so much!”
“Tsk, tsk, Sarah. Just put the gun down, and let’s have a real talk. I know you’re angry that I trapped you in the basement, but what did you want me to do? You were going to run away again. I couldn’t let you run. You need to learn how to face your demons. You can’t run every time anything gets tough.”