Page 13 of Vanishing Point (Bent County Protectors #1)

“Use the security system. Mr. Marigold next door is always home and usually being nosy, so he’ll let you know if anything is funny. Call me if you need anything. When Inspector Kay gets here, wait for me to text that it’s really her at the doorbell camera, okay?”

Vi nodded, gave him a kiss, and then watched as he expertly wrangled Mags into her car seat. And she stood there, watching the car go, trying to fight that feeling this was all just too good to be true.

“I won’t let it be,” she muttered, turning back inside. She locked the front door and then took her time getting ready. Brushing her hair, putting on light makeup. Actually putting on jeans and a top instead of living in sweats and yoga pants.

When the knock sounded on the door, she waited for Thomas’s text.

It’s the postal inspector.

So she opened the door and smiled.

The woman held out a badge. “Hi, I’m Inspector Dianne Kay. Are you Vi Reynolds?”

Vi nodded. “Yes. Come on in.”

The woman was pretty, polished. But she had that cop way of looking around, cataloging everything, and making Vi feel like she was a series of failures for them to judge.

Why didn’t it feel like that when Thomas did the same thing, she wondered? Probably just knowing him.

They sat down at the kitchen table, and Inspector Kay took the offered coffee. “I just have a few questions about the envelope you received two days ago, and then I’ll get out of your hair.”

“Of course.”

“You received an envelope, addressed to your name, at a ranch out in unincorporated Bent County?”

“Yes. That’s where I’ve been living.”

“And what were the contents of this envelope?”

“Don’t you have the envelope?”

The inspector looked up from the notes she was taking. “I will once the Bent County detective bureau releases them to me. But I want to hear it, in your words. That will help my case.”

“They were the same pictures that were in Detective Hart’s envelope.”

“Okay.” The woman tapped her pen against the paper, studying Vi. “And you’re the subject of the pictures that both you and Detective Hart received?”

“Yes.”

“And in the pictures you received, you’re injured as well?”

“Yes.” She knew the woman wanted more information, but Vi knew enough about dealing with cops at this point. Postal inspector. Detective. SWAT. It didn’t matter.

She wasn’t giving up information she wasn’t specifically asked for.

“Can you tell me the circumstances of those injuries?” Inspector Kay asked.

“How does that connect to mail fraud?”

“I don’t know yet, and it might not.” The inspector smiled kindly. “But I can’t determine that if I don’t know.”

Vi inhaled and nodded. It made sense, even if she didn’t like it. Still, she wasn’t quite strong enough to meet the inspector’s gaze. She looked down at her hands. “My ex-husband used to beat me.”

“So, were these police report photos?” the inspector asked. She was being incredibly patient, but it didn’t make Vi feel any better.

She clenched her hands into fists under the table and kept her voice even and calm. “No.”

“Then…”

“A few of them I took myself, to document what he was doing to me.” For as much as that had mattered. “He used to confiscate my phone all the time, so it’s no surprise he has access to them. As for the ones I didn’t take I wasn’t aware he took those.”

“And these pictures are from an incident how long ago?”

“I’m not sure. The ones I took were from about two years ago. The ones he took… I’d have to take some time and try to remember. We were married for almost five years.”

“So, you…let him do this to you? For years? That’s what you’re saying.”

Let him . Twin emotions assaulted her at that turn of phrase. A guilt and shame she was so familiar with, she almost sank into that. But there was a new feeling in there.

Outrage. Because her therapist, her cousins, her friends, Thomas, no one let her talk about herself that way.

So she wasn’t about to let anyone else. “I was a victim of systematic physical, emotional and financial abuse, Inspector Kay.”

The woman reached across the table, rested her hand over Vi’s. “Of course you were. I wasn’t trying to say otherwise. I’m just trying to get the facts.”

“Those are the facts.”

She nodded, but it gave Vi the same feeling as the cops she’d dealt with at Eric’s precinct.

Like they just thought she was crazy. Or overdramatic.

“So, you think the sender was your ex-husband?” She flipped through her notebook. “Eric Carter?”

“Yes. I don’t know who else would have access to those photographs.”

“And do you have any idea of what connection your husband might have to the Plano Police Department return address he used?”

“Ex-husband.”

“I’m sorry.” And she sounded it. Her expression was even a little chagrined. “Does your ex-husband have a connection to Plano that you know about?”

Vi had to stop being so touchy. “No. He was from Virginia. We lived in Richmond the entire time we were married. As far as I know, almost all of his family are in Virginia or Georgia. I suppose he could have a friend or a former coworker who moved to Texas, but I don’t know of any specifically.”

“Okay. That should be all the questions I have for now. If you get any more suspicious mail—from Texas or anywhere—would you contact me?” She pushed a business card across the table. “Or if you think of any connection Eric Carter might have or have had with Texas?”

Vi nodded, relieved this was over. The inspector stood and Vi led her back to the front door, opened it for her.

The inspector paused, looked her over once, that cop calculation not well hidden. But then she smiled. “Don’t worry, ma’am. We’re going to get to the bottom of this. I promise.”

Vi wished it made her feel better.