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“Not really. Is it urgent? Maybe I can⁠—”

“No!” I said, far more abruptly than I should have. I had to talk to Roy and Roy alone. The fewer people who knew about my fears, the better. I didn’t need the county rumor mill churning about Lock and me. Not yet. “He’ll be back tomorrow?”

“Yep.”

“Thanks,” I said. Then I left without really saying goodbye. I knew Amanda would find me rude. But I couldn’t bring myself to chit-chat.

Tomorrow. Roy would be back. I pulled out my phone and texted him.

Get ahold of me the minute you get back to the office. I need to talk to you about something.

A moment later, Roy texted back. Perfect. We should hopefully have most of this wrapped up by tonight. I’ll need to bring you up to speed. We’ve also got more lab results back. Too much to text. I’ll get in early tomorrow. Swing by my office.

I sucked in a deep breath and texted back a thumbs up. I hoped I wouldn’t lose my nerve by then. I couldn’t keep my secrets from Roy Dennison any longer. They were tearing me apart.

I couldn’t talk to Lock. The only time I could think straight now was without him. When he was near… when he touched me… it was as if he could block out the sun. I needed him. Maybe too much. Did he know that? Had he played into it to make me doubt myself? Was he the man I thought he was? I’d always felt so safe with him. Could that be the thing that made him the most dangerous all along?

TWENTY-NINE

Roy wore a T-shirt and jeans when I found him in his office the next morning. Agitated, he bounced on his heels, waiting for me to come in so he could shut the door.

“I don’t have a lot of time,” he said. “They need me back out at the site.”

“The site?”

“Palicki’s property. It’s a full-scale search over about twenty acres of property. We’re hitting two adjoining wooded parcels as well. We’re trying to keep this from hitting the internet until we’re ready to write another arrest warrant. But we’ve got an ID on the body under the floorboards. Her name was Fiona McBride. She disappeared almost six years ago. She had an apartment in town. So it looks like Gilchrist might get his wish. Her case could be charged in Benton County.”

I took a beat, waiting for that to sink in. Fiona McBride. It was hard to reconcile the photographs of the bones I saw with a real human being. And she was one of our own?

“I don’t remember a missing persons case like that,” I said.

“It would have been before you got here,” he said. “She was never reported missing. Estranged from her parents for at least a decade. I talked to her sister though. They were on the outs as well. But we know who she is.”

“Six years ago?”

“Give or take. We’re going by the last known contact her sister had with her. Plus an address. Fiona was renting a duplex a few miles from here. I’m trying to find her landlord. The property has been sold twice. Plus, Fiona was unemployed. Her sister said she was working on getting her real estate license. But with no boss or co-workers to check with, it’s going to take longer to pinpoint a tighter window of when she was abducted.”

“No cause of death yet?” I asked.

“Not officially,” he said. “But the back of her skull was caved in.”

“Oh, Roy,” I said. “Do you think he could have buried her alive?”

“My instinct says no, but she’s nothing but bones. Not enough soft tissue. I can’t tell if there was dirt under her fingernails or in her lungs. All we know is her approximate window of death.”

I had to come clean. I had to tell him about Lock and all of my suspicions. Roy kept talking but I couldn’t follow what he was saying. His words were drowned out by the hammering of my own heartbeat.

“Roy,” I started, my throat feeling like sandpaper. “There’s something⁠—”

“This could be far bigger than anything we realized. There could be so many more victims. That’s what haunts me,” he said. Roy’s words flew out of him in an unbroken stream. I couldn’t get a word in edgewise. It was like I wasn’t even in the room. “When will we know whether the court will grant an injunction against WhisprMatch? The sooner that app is taken down, the better.”

It took me a split second to realize he’d asked me a question. “Um, probably a month or so,” I said. “Everything we have has been forwarded to the Feds. They’ve asked me to file an amicus brief in support. Is there any way to establish that Palicki solicited Fiona McBride through the app too?”

“Still working on it. The sister said Fiona used dating apps in general though. If I hear anything before you do, I’ll let you know.”

“I’ll talk to the US attorney’s office. They’ve been shot down every time they tried to subpoena user data on WhisprMatch. Maybe this will change things. But listen, Roy⁠—”

“I’d like five minutes alone in a room with the owners of that app,” he cut me off.