Page 50 of Dead Pretty

I swallow down. “Hayes. Audrey Hayes.”

He nods, as though he expected me to say that name all along. “A question, Miss Hayes … how did you know we were police officers?”

My eyes go to Detective Peters, who is standing where he stopped, and then back to Detective Sparks. I notice how dark and scarily intense his eyes are. “I’m sorry?” I respond, a little confused.

He smiles that awful smile again, a bemused look on his face. “When we first arrived, you greeted us by saying officers. Neither of us is uniformed or wearing badges.” He shrugs. “Curious, I’m just wondering how you knew we were police.”

He’s trying to put the question off as nothing. Just mere curiosity. But I know better.

I swallow again. It’s a nervous tell, but I can’t stop myself from doing it.

I shrug and smile the best I can. “A lucky guess.”

Detective Sparks stares at me a moment. “Most people would say it’s unlucky when we come calling.” He taps his fingers on the wooden desktop with finality. “Have a good day, Miss Hayes.”

And then they’re both gone, and I let out a breath that feels like it was trapped in my lungs for hours.

I’ve been distracted all day. Ever since that visit from the police and that detective’s parting words to me. He knows I have a past with the police, all because of my stupidity.

It will undoubtedly make him curious about me. And when he looks into my name and comes up dry, that will make him even more curious.

Because Hayes was my first surname. Before it was changed to Irwin when I was adopted.

When I moved here, I just went back to my old surname.

Audrey Irwin was the name that was in the news for months.

It was the name linked to the killings.

But it won’t be hard for a police officer to trace Audrey Hayes to Audrey Irwin.

Fucking. Fuck.

And even worse, Margaret shared information with me that she’d discovered not long after the police left—that Sarah Greenwood, the woman who had been murdered, was Mike’s girlfriend.

And now, he’s missing.

The assumption is that he killed her and is now on the run. But Margaret finds it hard to believe. She said Mike isn’t a killer. I don’t know the guy well enough to form an opinion.

The one thing I do know is, it’s always hard for people to accept that someone they know and care about are not who they thought them to be.

I know that Tobias’s family, to this day, believes that he’s innocent. Even with all the physical evidence against him and after a jury of his peers deemed him to be guilty, they still refuse to accept it.

I’ve learned from my experiences that nothing is ever as it really seems.

People only allow you to see what they want you to.

You never really know anyone. No matter what you think.

The closest person to you could be hiding all kinds of things.

So, it would be no surprise to me if Mike did murder his girlfriend.

The one thing for me is that Sarah’s murder is not connected to the other two unsolved murders, meaning there is no copycat killer in this town.

I do have to wonder what it is about me that seems to attract murderers. I left town to get away from one murderer, only to start working at a job with another murderer.

I don’t believe in coincidences. Maybe you could call it bad luck, but I wasn’t his victim.