Page 93 of Hard Heart

“Who’s Miss Scarlett?” I asked Heidi.

“You know, the true-crime podcaster?”

“That doesn’t narrow it down much.”

“You know—she hosts Unbalanced.”

Okay, that did ring a bell. She often interviewed relatives of the victims, and there was a lot of crying. And although she stayed anonymous, she’d once confessed to a more personal involvement—her own father had been run over and killed by a scumbag fleeing from the police.

“What did she post?”

“There’s a woman missing in Virginia, and the police are searching for a body.”

“Near here?”

“Near Manassas. Do you want to know the interesting part?”

“Duh, of course.”

“The woman’s boss is Justin Norquist.”

Now she had my attention. “What, the Justin Norquist?”

“Uh-huh. He hasn’t been arrested or anything, but he’s been questioned. And ‘anonymous sources’”—she used little finger quotes around the words—“have apparently dropped hints that he’s involved.”

“Holy shit.”

Our prime suspect was now somebody else’s prime suspect?

“I know, right? Finally some good news.”

“Good news? Damn, Heidi. A woman’s missing.”

“That part’s awful, obviously, but at least the police are investigating him again.”

That was a positive, but it shouldn’t have taken a woman’s disappearance to get them to do their jobs properly.

“How long has she been missing?”

“A week.”

“A week, and it’s only just made the news?”

“He probably tried to cover it up. Check out BuzzHub—Cary Donaldson is live-streaming the search from behind the police cordon.”

“I’d better call Raelene.”

And I needed to tell Levi, but I couldn’t call him; he’d have to call me. And since we’d already spoken this afternoon, that wouldn’t happen until tomorrow.

“You think we should drive up there?”

“To Manassas? To gawk at a crime scene?”

“To get front-row seats if they walk Justin out of his house in handcuffs.”

Okay, that was tempting, but I had work in the morning.

“Let’s monitor the situation for now. It might all come to nothing.”