Page 94 of What She Saw
“Were you drinking more?”
“A little. Like I said, my stomach was messed up.”
“What about Kevin? Did you see him?”
Her face crumpled into a grimace. “No. I didn’t see Mr. Weird.”
“Why do you call him that?”
“Because he’s odd. He thought of Debra as a wife. He had their whole future mapped out. He even had names for their kids.”
“Kevin said he and Debra wanted different lives. That’s why they broke up in January.”
Bailey laughed. “That’s true. But there was nothing mutual about it. Debra broke it off. He wasn’t happy about the split.”
“Has he had contact with Debra?”
“Not that I know of.” Her head cocked. “Do you think he hurt her?”
“I don’t know. I’m just asking questions so I can find Debra.”
“If she calls me, I’ll let you know.”
A silver Ford Taurus pulled into the driveway alongside his car. The mayor, dressed in a charcoal-gray suit, rose out of the car. His serious gaze settled on Taggart.
“That’s my dad,” Bailey whispered. “Don’t tell him what I just told you, okay?”
Taggart didn’t make any promises as Mayor Briggs approached him. “Good afternoon, Mayor.”
His quizzical gaze turned suspicious. “Sheriff. Can I help you?”
“I’m trying to find Debra. From what I understand, she’s a friend of your daughter’s.”
Mayor Briggs frowned. “Bailey, I thought we agreed you would hang out with different people.”
Bailey’s smile straddled humor and contrition. “I am, Dad. I told you: Sheila and I were going to the festival. I just ran into Debra there.”
Mayor Briggs’s jaw tensed. “You were back at Sheila’s home by one a.m., correct?”
Logistically, there was no way she could have gotten off the mountain at midnight and made it back to Dawson in an hour unless she had wings.
“Yeah,” Bailey said. “I didn’t want to wake you and Mom.”
Taggart watched the girl. She was lying to her father. “We left way before it started raining.”
Bailey was full of secrets. But that wasn’t a shock with teenagers. “Mayor Briggs, I’m contacting all of Debra’s acquaintances. Bailey is just one of many names on my list.”
Briggs glanced at his daughter as if searching for the telltale signs of a lie. The girl’s face was unreadable. “If my daughter hears from this girl, I’ll have her contact you.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Sloane
Monday, August 18, 2025, 5:00 p.m.
I liked cemeteries. I didn’t have a lot of bandwidth for the living, but the dead were okay. They were quiet, undemanding, and patient. The four women I was searching for weren’t pestering me or calling out for help. My driving force was me. But it always had been.
As I walked the rows of tombstones, I inhaled the scent of cut grass. The land stretched out over the rolling hills toward the mountains in the distance. I guessed if you cared about where you ended up, this place was okay. Me, I didn’t want to be in the ground. Who wants to be locked in the same space forever? Nope. Burn me and sprinkle my ashes.
