Stalked

“He might worry we’re going to start focusing on people Haley knows, and that could make him act.”

“Yeah. If Haley didn’t predict her own death before, whoever leaked that note might have just caused it.”

3 (#uff73b27f-3bc6-5509-ba49-ffaaf7eedc7b)

“He’s lying.” Linda Varner stood in the doorway of her house, arms crossed over her chest. Her husband stood behind her, peering over her shoulder.

While Linda was an odd mixture of pissed off and frayed nerves, Pete Varner just glared suspiciously. Evelyn pegged Linda as being in her midfifties, but Pete had to be a decade younger. He had a weight lifter’s build, and his long, thin face seemed mismatched to his body. He stuck close to Linda, as though he was trying to protect her.

Still, he seemed oddly at ease. After less than thirty seconds in Linda’s presence, Evelyn felt the woman’s twitchy nerves transferring to her, but Pete was calm.

Sophia visibly tensed and Evelyn could tell she was working hard to stay composed. “Who’s lying?”

“My ex-husband,” Linda said. “He called here, made a big fuss about you visiting him. He obviously thought we sent you, which—”

“We know what that bastard said,” Pete Varner interrupted his wife.

“He’s been claiming from the start that Haley ran away from home.” Linda opened the door wide for them. “If you’d believed his lies about Haley running away and he’d prevented the police from investigating, I would have killed him.”

“I’m not sure you want to say that to a police detective,” Sophia muttered, stepping inside and adding, “This is FBI profiler Evelyn Baine. She’s consulting on your daughter’s case.”

Linda’s wide eyes darted to Evelyn and she gripped Evelyn’s outstretched hand with both of hers. In contrast to Bill Cooke’s rough, strong grip, Linda’s freezing-cold hands felt desperate and shaky.

Evelyn studied her closely, taking in the bloodshot eyes Linda had tried to disguise with heavy coats of mascara.

Pete wrapped his arms around his wife from behind, making Linda drop Evelyn’s hand.

The move was somehow both protective and aggressive, and Evelyn hid a frown. Could there be merit to Bill Cooke’s claim? Was Pete just watching out for a wife who’d been thrust into the spotlight after personal tragedy? Or was he keeping her within sight at all times to make sure she didn’t spill a secret he wanted to keep hidden?

“Did you find something?” Linda asked frantically, bringing Evelyn’s attention back to her. She clutched her husband’s arm, her fingernails biting into his skin. “Did you make a profile we can see? Of the person who took her?”

“Actually,” Sophia said, “we’re here to talk about how one or both of you is hindering our investigation, and could be hurting our chances of bringing Haley safely home.”

Evelyn tried not to grimace at the harsh tactic, especially since Haley could already be dead, but she knew how badly media leaks could damage a case.

“Wh-what?” Linda stuttered, leaning backward, even though there was nowhere to go, with her husband pressed against her back.

“Someone released a picture of the note from Haley’s notebook onto the web this afternoon,” Sophia continued, moving closer until she was practically in Linda’s face. “Between that and your little stunt on the news, you’re putting our investigation—and possibly your daughter—at risk.”

“I—I...” Linda’s face went so pale that Evelyn actually stepped forward to catch her if she fell.

Not that it would be necessary, since her husband practically had a death grip around her shoulders. He was glaring at them, but there was something else in his eyes that gave Evelyn chills.

Recognition made her breathe faster and her fists clench. She knew that look. The look of someone who felt sure he held all the power. Someone who thrived on control, usually at the expense of others.

A memory flashed through her mind, of a man who looked nothing like Pete Varner. A man who’d dated her mother, but who’d stared at ten-year-old Evelyn with a predatory intensity. A man she’d known instantly to try to avoid.

She’d done her best, which was difficult with a mother prone to passing out on the couch, surrounded by the stink of stale vodka. She’d escaped a very bad fate through pure luck and a little desperate ingenuity. If the flimsy lock she’d latched on the bathroom door hadn’t held long enough for her to climb out the window...

Evelyn’s attention shifted to Linda and she noticed the glaze over the woman’s eyes. Had she started taking medication to numb the pain of her daughter’s disappearance or had she been on painkillers before?

Anger flooded, and she knew it was directed more toward her own mother than at Linda Varner.

It must have shown on her face, because Pete suddenly snapped, “Leave her alone,” bringing Evelyn’s focus back to the conversation. “We had nothing to do with leaking the note.”

“Since you two are the only ones who had access to it before it landed in a police evidence room, I highly doubt that.” Sophia’s dark eyes filled with her own fury.

She was so angry it made Evelyn wonder if Sophia had a similar tragedy in her own past. Or maybe she’d just taken this case too much to heart, since she had young children. Either way, Evelyn and Sophia were probably both projecting too much. And it might shut Linda and Pete down, prevent them from cooperating.

“Maybe one of your cops leaked the note,” Pete said, sounding smug instead of outraged.

Evelyn put a hand on Sophia’s elbow. This wasn’t getting them anywhere. The damage was done, and Linda looked ready to faint. Besides, Evelyn had a feeling they’d get a lot more out of her if they could separate her from Pete, which she didn’t think would be happening today.

The detective glanced at her, gave her a small nod even as fury still radiated from her clenched jaw and flared nostrils, and stepped back.

“Look,” Evelyn said, trying to hide her own animosity as she addressed Linda instead of looking up at Pete. “What’s done is done. But we want you to understand there’s a reason we were keeping the note out of the media. It’s best for your daughter that we don’t share certain parts of the investigation. Going forward, you should talk to us before the media.”

“Okay,” Linda said, her voice small and quiet, tears in her eyes. “Pete just thought—”

“We thought it would help put pressure on whoever grabbed her,” Pete interrupted. “Get him to think the police were closing in on him, so he’d let her go. The media is starting to lose interest. And we’ve got to keep Haley’s face in front of people, so they keep watching for her, so someone comes forward if they see her.”

So, it had been Pete’s idea for Linda to go on the news. Evelyn wondered why he hadn’t stood beside her, the way he had for other news conferences.

Then again, if Pete didn’t want Haley coming home because he was hiding a secret, leaking the note wouldn’t really help him if she’d run away. And if a stranger had grabbed her, but the note had been about Pete, would leaking it cause her abductor to panic? Maybe not, but Evelyn didn’t have the luxury of assuming anything.

“If someone has your daughter,” Sophia said slowly and deliberately, “we don’t want that person to panic.”

Evelyn glanced up, past Linda’s wide-eyed horror, expecting to see smugness on Pete’s face, but it was wiped clean. Instead, he seemed genuinely shaken.

“Oh, my God,” he whispered. “I never thought—”

“We’re already running damage control,” Sophia said, holding out a hand that Linda gripped so hard Evelyn could actually see her cutting off blood flow, turning Sophia’s fingertips an unnatural white.

Sophia glanced questioningly at Evelyn, and she nodded at the detective. Linda was clearly too distraught to answer a lot of questions, and this trip had answered a few things for Evelyn already.

It told her that whatever mistakes Linda might have made, Sophia was right about one thing. Linda was desperate to get her daughter back, but she hadn’t planted the note.

Pete still looked horrified, a little pale underneath a tan that had to be from a spray bottle. But was it an act?

Beneath the distress in his eyes was something shrewd and slimy. But it didn’t mean he had anything to do with Haley’s disappearance.

From the outside, to the media, Haley was the perfect, all-American teenager and her family the new normal: divorced, one parent remarried, visitation rights for the other. To the world, family and friends were grieving and searching as hard as they could for Haley.

But up close, there was a strange dynamic in this household. And there was clear animosity between the Varners and Bill. Where did Haley fit in? How many secrets did this family have?

“We should go.” Evelyn nodded at Linda, who reluctantly released Sophia’s hand.

It was time to dig as deep as they could into the people closest to Haley, and see what they could unearth.