Page 47 of Keeping Collette

What was his end goal?

Or maybe she didn’t know her sister at all. Courtney hadn’t breathed a word of her talking to some guy. Whether she believed him to be her age or not, Courtney had kept it from her.

What would she have done if Courtney had told her about him?

She probably would’ve been happy for her sister. Happy to know that she was having some joy in her life. Except she hadn’t breathed a word of it, and now she was gone.

This guy had to be involved somehow.

“What we’ll also do is see if he had contact with any of the other missing people,” Cass said.

“How is that possible?” Collette pointed at the mound of files on the table, defeat pooling low in her belly. “I’m guessing all of those contain details of the people who’ve gone missing, or who are victims of the serial killer. It’s going to take months to see if he was involved with even half of them.”

Collette liked to believe that Cass was a miracle worker, but that task would be a massive undertaking.

“Hard, but not entirely impossible. The names of the missing and deceased are in a data base I’ve created already,” Cass said. “I just need to search through his messages. I’m not saying it’s not going to take time, but we’ll find something.”

“Alternatively, we bring him in and see if we can get any information out of him,” Deal suggested.

“Possible, but I think it’s probably best we see what Cass can find first.” This came from Ox. “We don’t want to tip our hand with him too soon. Not to mention, I think Julian will be interested in this guy, too.”

What would she do if this Craig Onslow came into the Alliez offices?

Would Deal tell her, or would he keep it to himself?

If he did come in and she found out, there would be no way she’d happily sit in the background. She’d want to get answers from his mouth about why he’d targeted Courtney. She would want him to look her in the eye as she told him, that because of him, she no longer had her sister. That part of her soul was empty.

Anger bloomed deep in her belly, and she clutched her fingers together tightly, willing herself not to slam her hands on the desk and demand they find him now.

As if sensing her swirling emotions, Deal’s hand landed on hers. Immediately soothing her, and a bit of the tension bled out of her.

She looked over at him, and he was watching her intently. “I get it,” he said quietly.

“Get what?”

“The need to demand answers now. To insist we bring him in, so he can see the pain his actions have caused.” His thumb stroked gently over the top of her hand, the motion soothing. “The truth is, it may be better that you don’t see him.”

Collette pulled her hands out from under his. “How can you say that? It’s not your sister he took from you. He targeted her. He may not have been the one to kill her, but he’s complicit in it all. She was only at the shitty strip mall because of him.”

She couldn’t be there. Couldn’t sit in this room a moment longer. It was too much. She needed to get out of there. Pushing back her chair, she stood. “Excuse me.”

Collette rushed out, tears burning the backs of her eyes.

The nightmare would never be over. But worse than that, Collette feared she really didn’t know her sister after all.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Deal got up to go after Collette. The sadness he’d seen on her face gutted him. A hand on his arm stilled his movements.

“Give her some time,” Jag said. “It’s a lot for her to take in. I know you want to go to her, but let her have some space.”

He sat back down, heeding his friend’s words, but his fingers drummed against his leg in a nervous tattoo. He clenched his fist and blew out a breath, rolling his shoulders to pop some of the tension in them.

“I’m sorry.”

Deal’s head snapped up at Cass’s soft words. Were there tears in her eyes? The only time he’d ever seen Cass cry was when Irish had been taken, but considering she loved the man, and he was missing, the tears were understandable. “Sorry for what?”

Irish had pulled his wife into his embrace and was whispering something to her. Deal glanced over at the others in the room. Their expressions showed they were just as surprised by this display as he was.