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Two police cars with lights flashing pulled up, followed by Joseph, Caitlyn and Daniel.
Lacey blinked against the harsh red-and-blue lights even as she registered Daniel’s presence.
“What’s so urgent this couldn’t wait till morning?” He looked tired, bleary—and impatient.
Joseph shot the man a surprised look and Catelyn simply raised a brow. Mason lasered his former friend with a look that produced a flush on Daniel’s smooth cheeks. “Uh, sorry. It’s been a rough night all around.” In a more congenial tone, he asked, “What happened, Lacey?”
“Someone was in my house and left another message.” Tears trickled down her cheeks. She honestly didn’t know how much more of this she could take.God, why is this happening?
“What!” Mason exclaimed over her silent, anguished prayer. “Where?”
“Bethany’s room.” A welcome numbness seemed to come out of nowhere and seep into her bones as Mason let her go to head into the house.
The others followed while Catelyn issued orders into her phone requesting a crime-scene unit.
From the far reaches of her brain, Lacey heard someone caution the others about disturbing a crime scene.
She squelched a hysterical giggle. Her whole house was considered a crime scene. How surreal.
Yet Bethany’s continued absence was very, very real.
The thought allowed her to gather her composure and even though she vaguely remembered someone telling her to stay put, she followed, anyway.
Maybe she’d dreamed the scene in Bethany’s room.
As she turned the corner to walk down the hall, she heard Mason exclaim and Catelyn draw in a shocked breath.
Coming up behind them, Lacey peered around Mason’s shoulder and gave a little whimper.
She hadn’t dreamed it.
* * *
Mason heard Lacey behind him and tore his eyes away from the scene. Too bad he couldn’t delete it from his memory.
Someone had fashioned a white-foam wig stand into a Bethany look-alike, complete with reddish-blond hair, painted blue eyes and a light dusting of freckles across the bridge of the nose and cheeks. Pink lipstick decorated the lips.
But what had him worried was the red liquid someone had place at the base of the neck.
The head had been made to look like it had been decapitated. Crime-scene members worked feverishly through out the room, a camera flash snapping incessantly.
Mason wrapped an arm around Lacey’s shoulders and pulled her to his side. Right now he wasn’t thinking about the past, he was racking his brain trying to come up with a reason for everything happening. To Lacey he said, “That’s not real. It doesn’t mean anything except someone has a twisted desire to see you hurting.”
“It could mean…”
He knew what she was trying to say. “No, it doesn’t. If someone had really done that to her, they would have left us the real thing. Not…that.” He hoped. He caught Joseph’s eye. The set of his jaw said he didn’t like this one bit. Catelyn consulted with one of the crime-scene techs.
Lacey shuddered, but he felt her shoulders relax a minuscule amount at his reassuring words. “Besides,” he confirmed, “I think Bethany called Georgia’s phone just a little earlier.”
“What?” She jerked to look at him, new hope flaring in her emerald eyes.
“I’ve got someone tracing the call.” He nodded to Joseph. “And Joseph’s working on some other things that could help us find Bethany—and who’s doing this stuff.”
“I’m going to have to move out,” she whispered. “I can’t stay here and keep my parents in danger.”
“No.” Mason shook his head. “We need all of you together. Who’s to say this person won’t go after your parents if they can’t get to you?”
As soon as the words left his lips he wished he could take them back. A new fear flashed across her face. Before she could speak, he held up a hand. “We’re going to get someone to cover your house—24/7. Right, Catelyn?”