Page 20 of Vanishing Point (Bent County Protectors #1)

Thomas figured the cold, empty feeling inside of him was good. It meant he wasn’t freaking out. If he was tethered to his body, he might start tearing his house apart piece by damn piece. Until he found a clue.

Right now, he stood in the side yard next to Laurel, studying his open window. Copeland hadn’t shown up yet, but Thomas had to believe it would be soon.

Had to.

“Look,” Laurel said. “We talked to your other neighbors, watched your doorbell cam footage from front and back doors, but we didn’t talk to anyone in the back.

If no one facing the street saw them, if none of the cameras caught them, they had to go somewhere outside those things.

” Laurel pointed behind him, where his backyard backed up to neighbor’s backyards.

“If she came out the side window, she could go that way, and the camera wouldn’t pick it up.”

Thomas was halfway across the yard before Laurel was even done talking. He talked to all his neighbors as a matter of course. A lot of the older ones had sought him out, with their variety of “complaints” about the neighborhood and what he could do to solve them in a law enforcement capacity.

His backyard catty-corner neighbor was one of the people who loved to complain the most. If Vi had gone through her yard in any capacity, Mrs. Harolds would know.

He was at her front door in seconds flat and had to remind himself not to bang on the door like a man determined to break it down. Just three sharp knocks.

He counted in his head, trying to keep from kicking the door open. When it finally did, Mrs. Harolds stood on the other side of her storm door.

“Oh, hello, Thomas. Well, aren’t you dressed up nice? You know, I’m glad you stopped by.”

“Mrs. Harolds—”

But she kept talking, opening the storm door and stepping out onto the porch as Laurel came up behind him.

“That girlfriend of yours was very rude to me.”

Thomas thought his knees might give out. “Today? You saw Vi this morning?”

“Yes.” She pointed out toward her perfectly manicured lawn and beautiful gardens.

“There was a car parked in front of my mailbox when I went out to check on my roses. Then her and her friend started to get in. Well, I told them not to park in front of my mailbox, because the mailman always gets a bit prickly about it and won’t deliver my mail, and I’m expecting a very important package. ”

Thomas nodded, trying to absorb this information. A car parked in front of Mrs. Harolds’s house. There was no reason for that, except sneaking around.

“She didn’t even apologize. She told me to mind my own business. Can you believe it?”

“What kind of car? Can you describe the friend?”

Mrs. Harolds frowned. “It was very rude.”

“Yes, Mrs. Harolds,” Laurel said, before Thomas could explode on the older woman. “What kind of car?”

“I took a picture of it. I know you told me that the police can’t help me just because someone parks in front of my mailbox, but I was going to report it anyway. Hold on.”

She disappeared inside and Thomas had to clench his hands into fists to keep from barging in after her.

Laurel put her hand on his shoulder. “It’s a lead. It’s a start. Any idea who the friend might be?”

“None. She was supposed to be meeting Franny and Mags at the park.”

Mrs. Harolds reappeared with her phone and held it out to him. “Her friend was driving. So, I suppose it was her friend’s car, but still. She could have said sorry. She knows me. The other woman doesn’t. And isn’t from around here, far as I can tell.”

Laurel peered over his shoulder at the photo of a navy blue sedan. He couldn’t make out anything going on inside the car.

“Rental car,” Laurel said, pointing to the sticker on the back that indicated it was from the rental company. “I’ll text the plate to Copeland. Someone can get in touch with the rental company.”

Thomas nodded. “Can you describe her friend?” he asked Mrs. Harolds.

“She was dressed much nicer than Vi. You know, I don’t know why young women wear those jeans. In my generation, we got dressed up if we were going anywhere. We cared about our appearance.”

Thomas wanted to scream, but he kept his cool. It was the only way to get the information. “And the friend did? Was she wearing a dress?”

“No, she looked very professional. Like Laurel here,” Mrs. Harolds said, pointing to Laurel’s court outfit. A blazer, button-up, and modest skirt. “Dark hair, pulled back. Dark sunglasses. I thought maybe she was a cop, though I didn’t recognize her.”

“Okay.” There were no other female cops in the department who’d be out of uniform. Could it have been one of the municipalities in Bent County? Except why would they come this way, and why wouldn’t Vi call him?

“Thank you. You’ve got my number right, Mrs. Harolds? If you think of anything else, if you see that car again, can you call me? Right away.”

“Well, of course. I’d like to see them punished for blocking a mailbox.”

He narrowly resisted telling her he didn’t give a shit about her mailbox. Probably because Laurel was pulling him away. Back through Mrs. Harolds’s backyard and then his own. Copeland was just pulling up with a deputy in a county van.

“I’ll show Bridgers where to get the prints from,” Laurel said. She motioned for the deputy to follow her inside once he had his toolbox.

“I’ve got Clarion working on dealing with the rental company,” Copeland said to him. “Once we know who rented it out, it’ll go over the radio.”

“She’s with a woman. Dark hair. Blazer, skirt. No idea height or weight. No idea anything beyond that car.”

“Then we’ll get to the bottom of that car. Hey.” Copeland studied him. “Listen, I know you want to be a part of this—”

“You aren’t about to suggest I sit this out?”

“Sit out the case involving your live-in girlfriend? Me? No. Why would I do that?”

Thomas scowled at him. “I’m letting you and Laurel take the lead as best I can. But I have to be here. I have to be part of this.”

“Look. I’m going to ask this, because it has to be asked. Because Laurel’s got too soft a spot for you to do it, but someone’s got to. Is it possible she left of her own accord?”

Thomas wanted to be offended. He was offended. But he was also still numb enough to know Copeland was just doing his job.

“Even if I take myself out of this, she wouldn’t leave her daughter, her cousins without a word. She just wouldn’t.” Speaking of cousins… “I’m going to call Rosalie while you guys process the house.”

“You sure you want to bring a bunch of reckless PIs into this?”

He already had pushed in Rosalie’s number and was listening to the phone ring in his ear. “Yeah, I’m sure.”

V I HADN’T GOTTEN more than one step before she fell. All on her own. Like an idiot. But panic had shot through her with such a violent surge of shock, she hadn’t thought. She’d only acted.

Eric was here. Working with the inspector? How? Why?

“Dianne,” he said, in that terrible, patient way of his. The kind she knew meant terrible things were coming. “Get her on her feet.”

The inspector yanked Vi up again. “Where do you think you’re going tied up like that?” She laughed, the sound full of menace, not humor.

Vi looked up at the woman, wondering how this had happened. “You said he was arrested.”

“I lied.” Dianne shrugged. “Like you should have.” She shoved Vi forward, and then into a chair.

Facing Eric. Who just sat there, looking calm and still as he so often did.

If there was anything off about him, it was the faint hint of a beard growing and the fact his hair was a little long.

In all their time together, he’d preferred to stay clean-shaven with a short buzz cut.

He looked at her, nothing but smug satisfaction in his expression. Just like when she’d tried to go to the police the first time, and nothing had come of it.

It lit something within her. An anger that she’d had to push down deep when she’d been with him for fear that everything would spiral out of control. An anger she’d avoided out of fear for so long.

But these past two years, she’d climbed out of fear. So anger and temper snapped inside of her like a storm.

“Well, Eric, this might be the stupidest thing you’ve ever done.”

Some of that smug melted off his face. “What did you say?”

“You heard me.”

“And I want you to repeat it. Word for word.” He stood, using his height and his overmuscled, compact body to create a threat. Looming over her, the table between them.

Two responses warred within her. The old one where she said nothing, kept her eyes downcast, and prayed he stopped. Prayed he would just stop caring anything about her and leave her to her survival.

Then a new one, where she held his gaze, said all the reckless things cluttering up her mind, and took whatever he dished out.

“This is the stupidest—”

He lifted the table and hurled it so that it crashed into the wall, one of the legs knocking against her knee on its way.

She swallowed down the yelp of pain and she did not look down. “—thing you’ve ever done.”

“You know I hate that word, Vi.” Because his father had called him stupid. His father had beaten him, and she’d let that sympathy keep her for far too long in a terrible, dangerous situation. She thought she could break the cycle of abuse.

He made sure she thought she could, she realized in retrospect. He’d known how to use the sob story of his childhood to keep her tricked and trapped.

“I do know,” Vi said. “That’s why I used it.” Then she squeezed her eyes shut and braced herself for the backhand. The stomach punch. Whatever horrible blow was coming.

When nothing happened, she opened her eyes. Eric was still hovering above her. Smirking. His hand was in a fist, reared back and ready to do damage. But for the time being, he was just watching her.

He got off on the fear. On the cowering. And she’d given him that, year after year. Always convincing herself it was self-protection.

Maybe it had been. Maybe if she’d stood up to him then, she’d be dead, and Magnolia would have never been born, and Thomas…

It was an alternate reality worse than this one. This one where he’d somehow gotten the postal inspector to kidnap her. She looked at Dianne. “Why are you doing this?”

Eric looked over at the woman. “You know, Dianne here is a perfect example of what a woman should be to the man who loves her. Loyal. Willing to go above and beyond to make her man happy.” Eric reached out, ran a hand over Dianne’s hair.

Like they were intimate. Like he cared. She might have even believed it if she believed he was capable.

“Once you’re out of the way, we’re going to get married,” Dianne said, wrapping her arm around Eric’s waist. She looked down at Vi like that was some kind of great injury.

“If you hadn’t come up with that connection to Texas, we might have let you go.

But…” Dianne shrugged as if this was all Vi’s fault.

The fact she’d let him make her feel at fault for so long burned like acid in her gut. “You have a new wife lined up, then. Congratulations. Enjoy hell, Dianne.” She glared at Eric. “So why aren’t you killing me and getting it over with?”

Eric leaned in close, some horrible mix of sneer and grin on his face. He smelled like beer and sweat and it made her want to retch.

“Do you know how long I can draw this out?” he said.

“How much I can make you hurt and suffer for weeks ? And no one. No one will find you. No one will stop me. I never would have killed you, Vi. I would have loved you and taken care of you forever, but then you left. You brought this upon yourself.”

The fact he could even pretend he had loved her baffled her. “Do you really believe that?”

“If you’d learned how to be a better wife, I wouldn’t have had to hurt you the way I did. If you’d kept it to yourself, not tried to drag my entire precinct into it, everything would have been fine . If you’d stayed, we could have worked things out. But you ran. So now you have to pay.”

But he’d had all this time. All this space. And still, she was sitting here breathing.

“I’m going to torture you, Vi,” he said, seeming to get immense physical pleasure just from saying those words. “As long as I can draw it out. We’re in the middle of nowhere—thanks for the idea, by the way. I couldn’t have found anywhere as isolated as Bent County if I tried.”

She knew he meant it as a threat, but it sent a bolt of hope through her. She was still in Bent County. That meant she still had a chance. A hope.

Because Thomas would find a way. She knew he’d find a way. Maybe he’d be too late, and that would be horrible… He’d blame himself. He’d…

No, she had to do everything in her power to stay alive. To survive whatever Eric did. If she gave Thomas enough time… She would not be the corpse he found. She wouldn’t .

“No one’s saving you from me, Vi.” Eric grabbed her by the neck, squeezed until she was struggling to suck in a breath. “No one.”

Thomas will , she told herself. And she held on to that belief as hard as she could.