“It seemed like you’d be a natural DJ.”
She bent down to give him a kiss on the cheek, then dropped into the chair next to him. They were taking it slow to keep things steady for Everett, but after three months of dating, they weren’t actually hiding things from anyone.
“Any trouble with that scar lately?” she asked when his hand settled on his stomach.
“No, that last surgery made a huge difference. I’m right as rain.” He wasn’t right as rain; he’d never grow back the missing lobe of his right lung, and he’d never get his cousin back either, but he was starting to seem more like his old self.
His uncle, thankfully, often forgot that his only child had died. Lily hoped that made it easier for him. The rest of the town was reeling from losing two people who’d grown up there, and they wrestled with the truth of who’d done it. And still, there was no sign of the long-missing girls lost to so many families.
Lily tipped her head back to stare up through the swaying leaves of her new backyard tree. “How’s the book research coming?”
“There’s a lot to dig into. I leave for Omaha in eight days, and I don’t feel close to ready.”
“Maybe that’s because you’re barely recovered, and you shouldn’t be traveling this soon.”
“I think it’s because I just started a book that will take me at least a year to finish, and I’m feeling a lot of pressure.”
“Good thing they paid you six figures.” She reached over to take his hand, letting her head fall to the side so she could study him and the new frown lines that seemed permanently etched between his brows. “You’ll be ready for Omaha.”
“Maybe,” he said softly. “They think they’ve identified nine now.”
Nine. Not bodies. Just missing women.
None of the bodies had been found in either state. Their killer was a cop, so he’d known exactly how to hide a victim so well they might never be found. And Mendelson wasn’t talking.
Maybe that was Lily’s fault. His attorneys claimed he had brain damage and couldn’t recall his crimes, and perhaps that was true. But she felt only an intellectual level of regret over that. She would’ve killed him a hundred times over to save her son, the investigation be damned. She frankly regretted that she could claim only to have massacred half the bones in his face. She wished she’d gotten all of them.
Alex’s working theory was that Mendelson had left Herriman to join the Omaha Police Department because Marti Herrera’s family had forced an actual investigation. His game of hunting local women had suddenly become dangerous. He’d needed more anonymity, a larger territory to stalk, and Omaha had provided that.
He’d risen to detective there. He’d even been assigned to investigate several of the disappearances he was suspected of causing. Then he’d met his “angel,” Amber, and he’d brought her back to Herriman to start over, to raise a family.
Lily still shivered every time she considered that strange parallel in their lives. It had to be a coincidence, but it felt dirty, like something stuck to her, somehow. Like she’d caused it.
“Amber wrote to say she’s back with her mom in Nebraska,” Lily said softly. “She hasn’t responded to you?”
“No. Not yet. I told her I’d be in touch and ready to talk whenever she wants. But I think she’s still afraid of him. She probably always will be.”
“Me too,” she whispered.
“He’ll never get out.”
“I know.” Yes, she knew it, but she didn’t feel it. Everything was still too raw, the fear too huge to work around. Amber had to be experiencing that a thousand times over. And Mendelson had left her with another, much more horrifying legacy.
It was her fault he’d lost control, Amber had written to Lily. He’d always told her that she kept his monsters at bay. That he’d done terrible things before he’d met her five years earlier. Her virginity, her innocence, had cleansed him on their wedding night, and now she feared she’d let the monster loose when she’d left him. It was exactly what he’d told her would happen.
And now she had his son.
Lily felt like she would need a PhD in psychology to respond adequately to this poor woman’s request for forgiveness, but she planned to take her time and do her best. And she would honor the one request Amber had made of her.
When her phone buzzed, she glanced at it with a sigh. “Everett is now texting me from his bedroom. Which is twenty feet away. I never should have gotten him a phone.”