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We’d caught up after he got out of the military, but it’s been a while.
He was usually a good guy to shoot the shit with on a normal basis, but I wasn’t in the mood for that today. I could barely focus on work, and every five seconds, I had to stop myself from calling home and seeing if Lisa was okay. I could tell my constant queries were starting to drive Taylor up the wall, and frankly, I didn’t care. Anxiety crawled in my stomach. I was having the guards watch her every single second of every single day, yet I still couldn’t relax. I was constantly worried someone would slip up or that there was another plot unfolding—something I wasn’t seeing.
And every second that ticked by without apprehending the bastard was another second I felt like I was losing my mind.
Was this what love was? This feeling that wouldn’t let go no matter what, this constant worry, and this tightness that made you feel like you were going to hurl.
This was what it felt like to love someone more than life. And it was absolute bullshit.
Robbie must have noted my mood from the look on my face because his smile died as he took a seat. He avoided my eyes for a few seconds, and I could already tell.
“It’s not good news, is it?”
He pursed his lips as he pondered. “Some of it is good. We were able to get the post taken off the web, at least for now, but we’re still working on tracing where the original post came from. It’s from somewhere in Northern Virginia, but that’s about all we can tell. Our suspect must be at least a little computer savvy because he’s hiding his tracks pretty well.”
“That was the last thing I wanted to hear.”
“It gets worse. Because from everything your fiancée told me, it’s hard to imagine anyone trying to kill her. We’ve dug into any possible suspects right down to the last detail, and none of them fit the MO.”
“What about Mayor King?” I asked. Despite what Carson and Lisa insisted, I wasn’t going to put murder past the man.
“He doesn’t fit either,” Robbie said. “I’ve looked into a lot of his records, public and private. He has no prior history, and there has been no movement of that sum out of any of his accounts, even shell ones. Besides, if the mayor wanted his daughter dead, there are far better and cleaner ways to do it. Ways a man of his means can afford. He wouldn’t do something as crude as putting a bounty on her. It isn’t efficient at all.” He let out a little cough.
With a brief glance at me, he continued, “Our guy has enough money to pay for the bounty, but he’s not super wealthy by any means, nor is he connected. I would say he’s probably a bit introverted and probably seems like a regular guy on the outside who spends a lot of time with computers. He’s a coward who doesn’t have the balls to kill her himself but holds a deep-seated hatred toward her.”
“Maybe someone she rejected in the past?” I suggested.
“That’s what I thought. But as I said, no one she mentioned fits the MO. She’s only had one past lover who is an extroverted professional skydiver, and the other man who asked her out is happily married now.”
She only had one other lover?It might be a little old-fashioned of me, but I was pleased with the thought.
“How are you so sure it’s a man?” I asked, another idea suddenly occurring to me.
Robbie shrugged. “I’m not. We only have the suspect’s word that it was a man.” He cocked his head. “There is a chance this might be a woman too. After all, it would fit. A woman is less likely to use more upfront means of murder and is more likely to either hire someone to do the job or use things like poison.”
“Huh.”
“Why? Do you have a woman in mind?”
I thought about any woman who may want to hurt Lisa. I didn’t think it was her mother since the woman was way too out of control for a premeditated act such as this. Plus, she wouldn’t have that kind of money lying around. But then, what about…
A sudden sick feeling filled my stomach.
“I have a lot of enemies of the female variety,” I informed Robbie. “A few weeks ago, a couple of my exes got together and wrote several articles about how pissed off they were at me. Do you think one of them could be doing this?”
At this, Robbie’s eyebrows flew up, and he whistled. “Damn, hotshot, I told you that your whorish ways would get you in trouble someday, but I didn’t think it would happen quite like this.” He leaned back in his chair as he mused on it a little. “It’s possible. Writing multiple articles about you speaks of a kind of obsession that could translate to unhinged. They might be going after her to get back at you or because they see her as the enemy for stealing your affection.”
“Exactly.” That was precisely along the same wavelength I was thinking, even though I was hoping it wasn’t the case. I hated to think that my past selfish acts were putting Lisa in danger.
But at the same time, I was looking forward to catching this man or woman once and for all, so it was better to follow every lead.
“Let’s go,” I said. “I have a list of names we can look into, and I know the ones who were intimately involved in the article. We can go look into them one by one and start seeing who we can cross off the list.”
“Wouldn’t it be better if I went alone?” Robbie suggested, seeming amused.
“No,” I said with a shake of my head. I could give him information about each woman on the way there, and we could work together to come up with who would be most likely to do this.
Besides, I couldn’t just sit in my office anymore. I would drive myself insane.
