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“Cooking shows.” She returned the smile. “I know. Go figure. But you can learn just about anything you want to on the internet when you can’t sleep at three o’clock in the morning.”
“I’m surprised you have any time after hearing about your dedication to your job last night,” he said.
“A girl has to eat,” she said explained. “My mom was a good cook and takeout gets old.” She shrugged. “I found a couple of shows that I liked and, more importantly, could pause as I followed along. Turns out, cooking isn’t as awful or hard as I thought it would be. And I have a lot of satisfaction in knowing I can take care of myself.”
“So-o-o-o-o.” He drew out the word. “Just the omelets then.”
“How did you know?” she asked.
“You overexplained your answer. It’s always a sign someone is lying,” he teased.
“Good to know,” she replied. “I’ll make sure to give short answers the next time I lie.” Reese laughed and so did Darren. It felt good to laugh again. There hadn’t been much laughter in her life since she left Cider Creek, and him. He’d always had a way of pulling a smile out of her. Good to know some things didn’t change.
The plates were empty too soon, as were the cups. They needed to talk.
“Did you find anything last night in your research?” she asked.
He brought her up to speed.
“That makes five victims that we know about if they’re all linked,” she said.
“And gives us a trail to work with,” he said. “We have two names to start with and we can track them down to figure out if they have jobs that travel, for instance.”
It sounded like a good place to start. “If we can figure out where they work, we might be able to get a hold of their vacation schedule.” Hearing the words made her think differently. “Actually, I think this guy knows his targets. He would have to have a job that put him in those places long enough to find his target. The fact all the parents were in the middle of fighting and facing divorce means he had some kind of inside knowledge into their personal lives.”
“Which could mean he contacted them on their computers, or via an app,” he deduced as he tapped his finger on the table.
“Wouldn’t that leave a cyber trial?” she asked.
“Yes, but these kids are classified as runaways, so no one is investigating too deeply. There are probably programs that can hide online activity,” he informed her. “The crimes are occurring around Texas, so no link has been made up until now and we’re just guessing here.”
She nodded. “True enough. We are just going on flimsy information. We don’t have evidence and, based on what you read, no bodies have ever been recovered.”
“I imagine it’s difficult to prove a murder case without a dead body.”
Reese sighed. “This guy moves around to different locations. It’s possibly Phillip Rhodes or Aiden Archer. Could be someone else, though.”
“I take an accusation like this one very seriously,” he said. “No one deserves to have their privacy invaded without clear evidence against them and we can’t even prove any of these disappearances are linked.”
She didn’t want to be pessimistic about their amateur investigation, but they needed to be honest and face facts. “The cases are cold, too.” And they might be grasping at straws.
Darren studied the rim of his coffee cup for a long moment before lifting his gaze to meet hers. “All we’re doing is asking questions.”
She nodded.
“I thought we might want to start with my in-laws and then move to your family,” he explained. “We have the best chance of someone remembering or having suspicions if we talk to the people who were closest to Camree Lynn’s disappearance. Your family would have followed the story. Your mother, knowing how she is, probably brought meals to Camree Lynn’s mother. At the very least, she would have dropped something off at her doorstep.”
Why was it so easy to forget the good qualities in family members and focus on the bad stuff that happened? Reese was beginning to realize how shortsighted she’d been with her mother. In fact, she was starting to feel like a brat for punishing the woman for the behavior of Duncan Hayes. Rather than ask about the circumstances, Reese had made judgments about her mother being too weak to take on Duncan.
It might even be true. But her weak spot had been needing to provide for her children. Food and a roof over their heads cost money—money Duncan had but used to keep his daughter-in-law under his thumb after her husband, who was his son, had died. So, no, she wouldn’t mourn a man who could be such a bastard to everyone around him.
But she didn’t get off scot-free, either. The day she became independent was the moment she became responsible for her actions. She owed her mother an apology and a conversation.
Calling her couldn’t be put off any longer.
DARRENMOVEDINTOthe bedroom to make the call he needed.
“How are my girls?” he asked the minute his former mother-in-law picked up.
