Page 99 of Healed Heart
Blake nods.“And this old boyfriend?”
“Apparently he stalked her pretty badly.Her family had to get a restraining order, and after graduation they moved from New Jersey to Colorado.The whole family up and moved.Lindsay’s two older siblings were already out of the house, so they weren’t uprooting anyone else at that point.”
“And what made you think that this old boyfriend might’ve had something to do with her death?”
“He’s the only logical suspect.He was obsessed with her.”
“Yes, I understand that, but he had left her alone for years.”
“Maybe he didn’t know where she was.Her family left town, after all.”
He strokes his chin.“In this day and age, unless you completely change your identity… Lindsay is her real name, right?”
I nod.“Yeah, they didn’t go that far.”
“Then with the internet at everyone’s disposal—social media and the like—it’s pretty easy to find anyone you want to find.”
Blake’s not wrong.
“Is there anything else that made you suspect the old boyfriend?”
“Yeah.I hadn’t looked at Lindsay’s Facebook memorial in years, but I pulled it up the other day, and I saw a post from a year ago.And it was just signed R.Lyon.”
“R.Lyon?”
“Yeah, and her old boyfriend’s name was Ronny Burgundy.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“No, that’s his name.He was born before that movie.”
“Right.He would’ve had to have been.”
“And now… Damn.”I bury my head in my hands.
“So this Ralph Normandy fellow?—”
“Oh my God…” It hits me all at once—sharp, sudden, electric.Like a switch flipping inside my brain.Everything I didn’t understand a second ago slams into focus, perfectly aligned, like it was never scattered at all.No build-up, no warning.Just that rush of clarity, like cold air to the lungs.It’s so obvious now, so painfully simple.The truth doesn’t creep in—it crashes, full force, and leaves no room for doubt.
When I first learned about the trip to Switzerland, I cracked open an old atlas that had been gathering dust for the better part of a decade.I wanted to get a good lay of the land.I’m not sure why I didn’t do a Google search.The information would have been more up to date.
But Lindsay and I bought that atlas after we got married.We had this idea that one day, after our kids were grown and out of the house and we had some expendable income, we would turn to a random page and buy a plane ticket there, no questions asked.
Of course, it never happened.
But before I opened the Switzerland map, I turned to a random page, just like Lindsay and I were going to do.
And I landed on a map of France.
Lindsay always wanted to go.Not just to Paris, but to the outlying regions as well.The places where there would be fewer tourists, where we could truly soak in the culture.
I sadly traced my fingers over those areas on the map—mourning the memories that were never created—before finally turning to the map of Switzerland.
“Jason?”Blake asks.
I snap out of my thoughts.“Sorry.”
“What is it?”
