Page 96 of Nowhere Good

“Nope.”

“Do you know where your wife’s body is?”

At that, Ron gave him an incredulous look. “No, Detective, I most certainly do not. And Trevor didn’t either. ’Cause my wife’s body’s never been found.” His posture suddenly went lax, and he let out a long-winded breath as he dug something out of the front pocket of his shirt. “If Trevor was killin’ those girls ’cause they resembled my Celine, ’cause he was tryin’ to get to me, it must’ve been ’cause he knew how much I loved that woman.”

He stared down at something in his wide hand before he softly dropped it on the table. A silver chain with a butterfly pendant on it.

“She left the house without it that day,” Ron mused. “She always wore this thing, said it’d been a gift from her birth mother. Celine was in the foster system too—maybe that was why she had such a soft spot for Trevor. Anyhow, she’d take it off every now an’ then to go swimmin’ or do whatever, and she’d usually need help puttin’ it back on. Guess I was tendin’ to the fields that day, so she left it. I found it on the dresser in our bedroom. Told myself I’d help put it back on when she got home.” He chuckled sadly and fidgeted with the clasp. “I had a hell of a time doin’ it with these fat fingers of mine, but I’d do it for her. Now I usually don’t leave the house without it.”

Seth didn’t know what to say. His brain was being ripped in half, torn between the honesty Ron seemed to exude and the terror he’d seen in Claire when she told him about this very necklace. Had she truly misread the situation? Had she not known her dad carried this necklace with him for the past twenty years?

While Seth had never been one to ignore his gut, he’d also been trained to follow the evidence. Everything Ron had said made perfect sense. It was almost too perfect. Maybe that was why he couldn’t accept this.

“I don’t buy it.” He gathered up the manila folder.

Ron scowled. “Excuse me?”

Seth looked him dead in the eye. “I said I don’t buy it. You’re free to go.”

He left the room before he could dig himself into a deeper hole.

TWENTY-EIGHT

If Seth’s tension headache had been bad earlier, it was ten times worse now; his skull felt like it was being compressed by a giant elastic. He pinched the bridge of his nose to help alleviate the pain as he leaned his elbows over the railing on the second floor of the motel, looking over the empty parking lot, topped by the murky night sky.

“So there’s nothing I can do,” he spoke into his phone.

“It’s not up to me,” Lieutenant Delaney said. “This is Roslyn’s jurisdiction. Your part of this job is finished, Winslow. You can wrap things up tomorrow and be back in Kansas City by night. We could use you back in the office.”

“I don’t want to leave until Sloane’s autopsy comes back. It could’ve been a homicide.”

“If that happens, we can offer you to help again, but the autopsy could take a few days—it’s a low priority for the morgue at the moment. In the meantime, there’s no reason for you to be hunkering down at a motel there. Come home.”

“But this is still my case, Lieutenant.”

“Your job was to stop the man who killed Eliza Johnson, Kelsey Campbell, and Melissa Starr. You identified him in time to prevent there from being a fourth victim. Not to mention the evidence you uncovered against that serial rapist for the damn feds. You’ve given more than enough of yourself to Fairview.”

Seth was quiet. She was right—he had won. So why didn’t it feel that way? None of his previous cases had left him so hollow.

“This can be a hard lesson to learn, Winslow,” Delaney continued, her voice sympathetic. “Working in a small community like that, it’s easy to get… involved. But you have to accept when your part is over.”

Over. None of this felt over.

There were still too many questions. He wasn’t ready to walk away.

“The best you can do is leave all the information with Roslyn and let her take the reins. If it turns out Trevor Sloane’s death was a homicide, I’ll see if she wants you back on board.”

If. “Chief Wells is planning to retire soon.”

“I know, but she won’t until this is dealt with. She shared some of your theories with me about the possible corruption within her force. She’s launching an internal investigation. The officer who abandoned his post will be questioned and dealt with. It’s a start, but these things take time. You know that.”

He did know that. It just wasn’t what he wanted to hear. It wasn’t what he wanted to tell Claire.

Trevor Sloane’s tremoring voice slinked into his mind.

“He’ll get away with it. He gets away with everything.”

“Get some rest, Winslow. And good work.”