Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 107766 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107766 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
“No. Is it relevant? She’d dropped the classes long before she disappeared. And she was on her way home from work in Hyde Park when she…before she was taken.”
“It might not be. I’m just trying to get a full picture of Aria’s life.” Zach already knew from the missing person file that the boyfriend had been questioned extensively, but he’d had an alibi. He’d been visiting an ailing grandmother who subsequently passed away the week Aria had disappeared. He hadn’t even been in the same city. And regardless, from all accounts, they were a happy couple. At least, that’s what the file said. “Who was the person she was dating before Chad? About eight months before you said?”
“I don’t know. She was dismissive about it. And I don’t think dating is the right word. I thought it was mostly a booty-call situation. She’d leave all dolled up, but she was always home a few hours later. I thought she was just hooking up with some random.”
Zach made a mental note to see if Aria’s cell phone records from the phone that had disappeared along with her had been pulled from that far back. He figured they hadn’t been. But they might be able to figure out who the “booty call” was, based on her call logs. “Someone she may have met at work?” Zach asked.
Tessa shook her head. “We both have”—her eyes widened and she flinched—“had a no-dating policy as far as customers. Too messy.”
“Is there anything else, Tessa?” he asked gently.
Tessa folded the tissue once and then again. “Well, I mean…”
“Anything,” he prompted again. “No matter how small.”
She paused but then nodded. “She might have gotten an abortion during that rough patch.” She looked down, her eyes still on the tissue as she folded it into smaller and smaller pieces. “I’m not positive, and I didn’t want her parents to know if I was wrong. They’re real religious.” She dabbed at her nose. “I heard her on the phone one day when I was getting home. It sounded like she was making an appointment and from the questions she was answering, I got the idea she was pregnant. But then I asked her about it, and she brushed me off. She seemed kind of…I don’t know, off, maybe a couple of weeks later, and that’s when she got that tattoo. I’d see her touch it sometimes and get this sad look on her face. I had this thought…”
“Tessa, whatever it was, no matter how vague, it might help.”
“Well, after I heard her scheduling that appointment, and then when she came home with the daisy tattoo, I wondered if it was in memory of that baby she didn’t keep.” She took a deep breath, meeting Zach’s gaze. “But then she went back to being her old self, she met Chad, and things seemed good. Just a little blip on the radar, you know? Something that was totally in the past.”
“Thank you for telling me that. It might help.”
“She was my best friend, Detective,” Tessa said, her eyes filling with tears again. “I’d never want to tell anyone things she wouldn’t want told, but if it helps you find who did this to her, I know she’d understand.”
Chapter Thirteen
Before
Despite the irregular meals, Josie’s stomach began to swell with the evidence of her pregnancy. She could see the tiny bump under her shirt, and she longed to run her hand over her skin, to feel the roundness, the subtle change in her body from the outside. It was an instinct, she supposed, a pregnant woman’s need to reach for her own child. But she couldn’t. Her hands were still bound in chains.
As fall’s blustery winds whipped past Josie’s prison window, Marshall discovered her secret, his body stilling on top of hers as his hand reached down to touch what Josie herself could not. He moved away quickly, his masked face turned toward her bared skin, staring. She saw his throat move. He looked away, up to the small patch of light on the wall. “You’ve been keeping secrets from me, Josie.”
“I don’t have any secrets.” How could she? She was laid bare in every single way. She’d known it was only a matter of time until he figured out that she carried his child.
He stood, making a scoffing sound, though there was something different in his movement. The knowledge of her pregnancy had shaken him. She pulled herself to a sitting position. “This is your baby too.” He stilled further, and she swallowed, tears threatening. She felt so afraid, so alone, the emotions she’d stifled beneath the cradle of continuous sleep slipping free and wrapping around her. Would he kill her now? Her and the life within her? Sweeping away all evidence of his crime? Maybe he’d leave for good now, let her starve.