After what had already happened today, she was rethinking her initial decision to ask for his help. She could hire a private investigator. Someone else. She’d only thought of Liam because he’d been willing to die to protect her. That was someone she could trust. But that didn’t mean she wanted to put him in that kind of danger again—he’d already sacrificed so much.
Exhaustion weighed on her, and she rubbed her eyes. “I’m not sure where to start.”
“We have a ways to go on this drive, so you can start at the beginning.”
Rae blew out a breath. “Before Zoey was Alan’s wife, she was my college roommate. That’s how she met Alan, in fact. One night, Zoey didn’t come back to our dorm room. We had planned to see a movie that night, so I was worried when she didn’t show up. I was about to go to the campus police when Zoey texted me to cover for her. Said she needed a break from classes. She gave me no other explanation. It was just weird, and I was still worried. A few days later I came home and found Zoey soaking in the tub. Dark circles under her eyes and bruises on her body. I wanted to rush her to the emergency room or call the police, but she made me promise not to tell another soul. Zoey warned me that if I told anyone, she would disappear again and for good this time.”
Rae rubbed her eyes again. She needed to remember everything. “So, I kept Zoey even closer. I took her home to meet my family a few weeks later. She met Mom and Alan. Dad had died a couple of years before. I didn’t tell anyone about what happened to Zoey, except for Alan. He was falling for her and needed to be warned about what he was getting into. But by the time I got to that conversation, Alan was already smitten. He proposed, and they married three weeks later.”
“Your brother’s actions remind me of you, Rae. You’re the hero of basket cases and underdogs. You don’t wield a gun. Your weapon is the mighty pen or, these days, laptop. How about word? That’s it. You use the written word as a weapon.”
She tossed him a weary smile.
“Sorry. I’ll shut up now. Tell me the rest.”
Rae shared the rest of the story about Zoey’s current disappearance. Her voice shook. Just thinking about the incident in college stirred disturbing memories.
“You think the two disappearances are related or else you wouldn’t have brought up what happened in college. How could they be related?”
“The billion-dollar question. I suspected she had a stalker back then. Anyway, Alan asked me to find her and suggested I talk to her mother and look into her past.”
“Wait a minute. He asked you to do this? Why can’t he do it?”
“They have a four-year-old daughter, Callie. Alan is the one who called the police, and he knows they’re looking at him closely. The husband is the first person on their radar. Beyond that, Callie is autistic. He needs to be there for her. But I found out today from Samara Davidson, Zoey’s mother, that Zoey did have a stalker and that was the reason she fled Jackson Hole and changed her name. She had hoped to escape him. Maybe that was even part of the reason she married Alan. Regardless, I know she loves him. I know she loves Callie and would never willingly leave. But I had theorized that her stalker had found her again and took her.”
“And now you’ve decided that’s not the case?”
“I learned that authorities recently found and identified his remains. So he can’t be the person who took her. I’m grasping at straws.”
“Hold your next words. I need to concentrate on this drive. It’s tricky when it’s dark.” He stopped the truck and engaged the plow. “You actually drove on this road today?”
“Yes. I rented a four-wheel drive because I didn’t know where my search would take me.” She let him concentrate on the drive, the truck pushing snow out of the way.
Finally, he steered the truck under the Emerald M Ranch archway, then kept going until he parked next to three vehicles in front of the huge log cabin with a wraparound porch.
“If we’re lucky, my family might already be in bed since they have to get up in the middle of the night if they want to make their early morning flights.”