“Could be.”
Alena frowned at Kara’s photo on the screen. “But it could also be the other way around. Kara might not want Arneson around. She might want Dexter all to herself.”
The idea settled heavy between them. Alena felt the hairs lift on the back of her neck.
Alena pulled up the next set of searches. “I’ll check what else Noah and Isla dug up on Dexter’s friends.” She scrolled through the list. “One of them is married now, and his wife just had a baby. Doesn’t look like he’s leaving her side anytime soon.”
Cal leaned over her shoulder. “Another one’s flat broke. Hard to bankroll a fugitive when you can’t even keep your lights on.”
She tapped to the next entry. “And this one’s serving time for burglary in Dallas. Not much help from behind bars.”
Cal grunted. “So far, they’re looking like dead ends.”
“Not completely,” Alena said. “Isla flagged them. Raines’s deputies are going to interview everyone, no matter how unlikely.” She sat back, letting the screen glow across her face. “At this point, anybody with a tie to Dexter is under the microscope.”
Cal made a sound of agreement, his gaze flicking to the digital board again. “Good. That’s where he belongs.”
Alena clicked into the next file, Melissa’s background. “Let’s see if she left any kind of trail that Dexter might’ve followed,” she murmured, pulling the laptop closer.
Cal slid the plate of cheese and crackers between them, and she took one without looking away from the screen. It struck her, the ease of it. The two of them bent over a case, eating whatever was handy, bouncing theories back and forth. It felt a little like old times, back when they were a team. Back before everything shattered.
She shook the thought off and kept scrolling. Melissa’s work history, her addresses, her phone and email records. “Hmm,” Alena said, narrowing her eyes. “That’s odd.”
Cal leaned closer. “What is it?”
“It’s not just one thing. It’s a lot of things,” Alena said, her pulse ticking up. Her finger hovered over the trackpad, ready to point them out.
Alena’s brows pulled tight as she scrolled. “Melissa’s bitter. Look at this. She’s been trying to stir things up, probably just to get under Dexter’s skin.”
Cal leaned closer. “Show me.”
“Melissa filed a harassment complaint against him, which got tossed out but still made it into the system. She called his parole officer multiple times in the past year to report bogus threats. And get this—she’s been posting on social media about him, making sure his name stays tied to every bad headline she can find.”
Cal’s jaw tightened. “She wanted him cornered. Punished. Maybe she’s even provoking him, trying to push some buttons to get him to do something stupid. Something that’ll add time to his sentence.”
“Sure seems that way,” Alena muttered. And she couldn’t really blame the woman. Dexter had kidnapped her and tried to kill her. Hard to forgive and forget something like that.
Alena kept on reading, and her stomach flipped as she clicked to the most recent entry. “Melissa bought a burner phone within hours after the escape. And now we’ve got a call that supposedly came from her, with Dexter’s script behind it.”
She looked at Cal, the weight of it sinking in. “What if Dexter doesn’t have her at all? What if Melissa wants people to believe he does?”
Chapter Six
Cal sat at his desk, scrolling through the latest updates on his laptop. The smell of coffee lingered in the air, mixing with the faint spice of the breakfast tacos they’d just finished. Across the room, Alena sat curled on the sofa, her own laptop balanced on her knees, eyes fixed on the screen.
She’d showered earlier while he’d thrown the tacos together, and the sound of her moving around in his cabin had kept him aware of every second. Now she looked focused, all business, but his thoughts refused to stay neat and compartmentalized.
He rubbed at the back of his neck, fatigue dragging on him. He hadn’t slept worth a damn. The investigation had kept him wired, every detail turning over in his mind like a puzzle he couldn’t quite solve. And then there was Alena.
Three years of marriage, a bond forged in sweat and fire, then fractured. Before the split, they’d been inseparable, except when his combat rescue unit pulled him away. Last night, knowing she was just across the hall in his cabin, had left him restless. He couldn’t shut it off. Couldn’t stop remembering.
He pushed his empty coffee mug aside and forced his attention back to the report glowing on his screen.
Alena looked up from her screen. “Did you see Isla’s latest email?”
Cal nodded. “Yeah. More footage of Dexter’s escape. They tracked him on cam feed nearly every mile until he ditched the stolen car.” He tapped his keyboard and pulled the video into view. “But none of it takes him anywhere near Melissa’s place. Just the opposite. Every step of that trail runs toward Arneson.”
He leaned back in his chair, the doubt pressing harder. “That doesn’t prove Melissa faked her abduction. He could’ve backtracked, gone to her house later, or used a backroad without cameras. But with everything we learned about her stirring up trouble for him… it makes me wonder.”
