Page 20 of Vanishing Point
He was going to be sure of it.
“I want to listen to those voicemails. Read those emails. From the beginning.”
“I deleted them,” she said, with a bit of a wince again. Like she expected him to explode. “I think Rosalie made copies, though.”
“I’m going to drive you back to the ranch. We’re going to tell everyone there what happened. I’m going to take a statementfrom Audra. I’m going to see what Rosalie has on the past threats—no doubt her own case file.”
“But…” She looked around his office. “You’re working.”
“Yes, I am working. This is my case now.”
“Thomas, you can’t—”
“I can. I’m going to.” On that, he wouldn’t take no for an answer. “I’m going to need to bring in Laurel or Copeland. Do you have a preference? Some women prefer to work with Laurel.”
“Can’t it just be you? I…” She looked at the door that Laurel had closed behind her when she left. “I don’t know these people. I can’t…”
“For a lot of reasons, I need more hands and eyes than mine.” He stood behind her, wrapped his arms around her and held on. Because he needed to, and when she leaned into him, relaxed her shoulders a bit, he knew she needed it too. “But the main reason is I want someone else’s opinion. I want to make sure I’m not missing anything.”
“I guess, whichever one you trust the most then.”
“I trust them both, Vi. I need you to know that. I won’t put your case in anyone’s hands I don’t trust with my own life.”
She’d stiffened a little but didn’t pull away. She just nodded. He gave her one last squeeze, released her. “Give me a few minutes, then we’ll head back to the ranch.”
“Okay.”
He left her in his office, but he closed the door so she could feel like she had some privacy. He found Laurel alone in an interrogation room, going over some paperwork. She looked up when he came in, and he saw sympathy in her gaze.
“You looked at the pictures.”
“Yeah. I assume she knows the asshole who did that to her?”
“Ex-husband. Some SWAT guy in Virginia who basically had his whole precinct eating out of his hand and not believing her. Ihave a bad feeling we’re not going to be able to find proof he sent those pictures, but it’s a starting point to end this for her. I’m going to the Young Ranch to get official statements from Audra Young. I’m also going to talk to all the other residents. I want your help on this, but more on the periphery. She doesn’t trust cops, and who could blame her?”
Laurel nodded. “Okay, I’ll let you know when we get the results on the envelope and pictures. Any other cases you want to hand off to me or Copeland, just say the word. Focus on this one for right now.”
There’d been no doubt Laurel would understand, that she’d have his back and give him what he needed. And still, he was just…relieved. At anything that went right, he was going to be grateful.
“Keep me updated, and let us know if you need anything else,” she said.
“Yeah. Thanks.”
“We’ll get to the bottom of it,” Laurel said, reassuringly. “We’ve always got your back, Hart.”
He knew they did, particularly Laurel who’d been his first training officer. She was the one who’d recommended him to take over as detective when she’d been on her first maternity leave. She’d been a mentor from day one, and she’d become as close as a sister to him.
But with Vi and Magnolia’s safety on the line, her words didn’t reassure.
No one’s could.
THOMAS DROVEVIback to the ranch in her car. When she asked how he’d get back to Bent, he told her he’d handle it.
She believed he would and could, even with fear and nerves and embarrassment and a hundred other terrible feelingsbattling it out inside of her. She knew that Thomas was more than capable of handling all this.
It was strange. So strange it almost feltwrong. Because she’d spent her whole life being the one who figured out how to handle it. While her parents had been acting like spoiled children when she was a kid—using her like some kind of bargaining chip in a failing marriage. When she’d gone off to Clemson thinking she knew how the world worked and how her future would pan out. Even when she’d been married to Eric, who’d been controlling in a way that at first had almost made her feel safe and protected and not the one who had todoeverything, eventually she’d started to feel like the only one who could hold it all together. Like the fate of her life rested on every single minute decision she made.
Her cousins, Franny, they had all been amazing since she’d made it out here. They’d helped so much, especially when Mags had been in the NICU, but even then, Vi had insisted on handling as much as she could on her own. Only in the past few months had she really started to relent. To Audra and Rosalie, to Franny, to Thomas.
