Page 52 of Fatal Deception
He ran a hand down her spine. His heart justachedwhen it came to her. And he didn’t particularly care to think of the state of his heart, how he was twisting it up in someone that was part of a case he was working. He knew he was justaskingfor trouble that would come once this whole thing was settled.
But he couldn’t stop himself. Maybe he didn’t want to.
When his phone rang in his pocket, he muttered a curse, eased Audra away so he could answer it. “Beckett.”
“Hey,” Laurel said. He could hear the sound of her driving, so she must have him on Bluetooth. “Vicky’s going to send you the details, but I just got another bit of a something. Not a lead exactly, not Florida, but it’s interesting. One of the names of Audra’s half siblings just popped up. He’s been listed as a missing person out of Idaho. I don’t know how it’d connect exactly, but I want us to look in to it.”
Chapter Sixteen
Audra felt like she’d been through some kind of very strange gauntlet. She knew about gauntlets that were all bad. Gauntlets that were mostly good—like when Vi and Thomas had gotten married, or Rosalie and Duncan had. Gauntlets that were terrible—when Dad had died, when Vi had been kidnapped.
But this was a mix of everything. Failure and depression over drawing Rosalie into this. Dread over having to tell Franny. Anxiety that they had no answers. And twin feelings of joy and terror that Copeland had stood across the room and said:I care about you.
How? Why? Was he lying just to keep her safe, just to do his job?
No. That wasn’t him. As hard as it was to understand why he would care about her, she knew he wouldn’t say it without meaning it. Not Copeland.
He was still talking into his phone. She got the impression it was to someone from work, probably Laurel. When he hit End, then slid the phone into his pocket, he took a minute before he turned and looked at her.
“Interesting development. Do you know anything about Austin Young?”
Audra tried not to frown. “I know Austin is the name of one of my half siblings.” She thought back to what they’d learned after Dad had died, who she’d reached out to. “Not the youngest. The middle? I think he was in college when Dad died, but it wasn’t acollege I knew, so I don’t remember the name. But he’d be out now, I’d think.”
“He’s been reported missing. He’s been living in Idaho, but his sister, Karly, reported it from where she’s living in Colorado. His mother and other siblings corroborated they hadn’t heard from him, so the police did a welfare check. Boss hadn’t seen him, friends hadn’t seen him.”
Audra tried to center herself with this new strange information. This Austin she shared half her DNA with but had never met had gone missing. “Karly. She’s the oldest.” Audra had reached out to Karly specifically, because they were almost exactly the same age.
There had been no response.
It didn’t make sense that it might be connected. Idaho. Florida. “Do you think he…?”
“I’m not sure what to think yet, but there’s something I want to cross off the possibility list.” He studied her in a way that had her feeling wary. It was acopstudy, like she was simply a piece of evidence to be slotted into place.
She didn’t care for it, but a lot of it softened as he reached out, put those big hands on her shoulders. “Audra, I’ve got a big ask.”
“Oh, anask. How novel to not betold.”
He didn’t smirk or laugh or do anything else, which had dread curling in Audra’s stomach. This was serious.
He held her gaze, and there was something warm and empathetic in his eyes, which made the dread dig deeper.
“I want you to call your mom.”
Audra didn’t allow herself to immediately react. She stayed very still, kept her expression frozen, until she could work through all the reactions inside of her.
“For the case,” she said, very carefully.
“Yes. I want you to have a mostly normal conversation, but then I want you to ask if she knows someone.”
“You think Austin missing connects…to my mother?”
“It could. She could. It more likely doesn’t, but I don’t want to leave that stone unturned. Something is coming out of Florida, where your mother is. Someone I was looking into went missing around the time all this started. I want to make sure those are two separate things.”
Audra swallowed. “She wouldn’t have anything to do with my father’s other kids. She won’t even…”
“Have anything to do with her own?” he asked, finishing gently for her.
She couldn’t hold his gaze, and even she knew the little shrug she’d meant to be casual was nothing but jerky under his hands. “Yeah.”