Dead in Her Tracks (Rogue Winter #2)(19)

Immediate applause and wolf whistles drowned out the music.

“About time!” Bruce shouted across the room.

Patsy rushed to her daughter, giving her a giant hug and kiss. Both women were laughing and crying simultaneously. Patsy turned to Zane, nearly knocking him down with her hug. “Thank you, Zane.”

“No, thank you, Patsy.”

He looked over Patsy’s head and met his fiancée’s gaze.

He finally felt complete.





CHAPTER NINE





Stevie smiled at her computer monitor. Then at her pencil. And then at her coffee cup.

And so her morning had gone.

Her facial muscles were exhausted because she hadn’t stopped smiling since Zane proposed last night. She’d experienced one terrifying moment of standing on the edge of a giant abyss, her decision floating in the air. She’d answered on instinct and instantly known she’d given the correct answer. She’d been certain of her answer ever since.

Everything felt right.

It’d all clicked into place last night. She’d been happy since she and Zane had started dating, but she’d never felt like this.

Stupidly happy. Grinning-like-an-idiot happy.

Her cell phone rang. Carly.

“I had to hear from Mom that you’re engaged! That’s not fair!” her sister wailed in her ear.

“I’m as surprised as you are,” said Stevie.

“No one is surprised,” argued Carly. “The only surprise is that it took so damn long.”

“He already had a ring,” said Stevie. “When we got back to his place last night, he pulled a ring out of a drawer.”

“I know all about the ring. Who do you think helped him pick it out months ago?”

Stevie pressed a palm against her forehead. “Are you serious? Months?”

“Yes! Everyone’s known you two were meant to be together except for you.”

“Well, I knew . . . I just didn’t know when the right time was.” She studied the small diamond on her left hand. It’d also received a lot of her smiles that morning.

She placated her sister with the promise of meeting later for coffee and hung up.

Months?

“Stevie?” Zane hollered from his office down the hall. She glanced at her ring one more time and went to join him. He wore his work face, frowning at a report as she stepped inside. He glanced up and it melted away into a smile as he looked at her. She held his gaze for a long moment and remembered their agreement to keep it professional at work.

He sighed and refocused on his report. “We just got the analysis back on the hairs we found in the back of Bob Fletcher’s vehicle. Seth had them rush it since we had a murder suspect in custody.”

Stevie nodded, remembering how the county crime scene techs had found several long hairs. “Vanessa Phillips?”

“Yep. She was a definite match. So that proves she was in there at some point. Doesn’t prove he killed her, though. And they have three other DNA profiles from other hairs they’d removed.”

“Three?” Stevie felt ill. “We need to get them the Medford missing girls’ hair samples to compare.”

“I already sent the Medford investigator an e-mail about it.”

“How could women be missing and we didn’t notice? And what about the drugs?” Stevie asked. “Hank said Bob was abusing oxy, and Donald said he’d heard that the truck stop was the place to buy illegal prescription medication. What else do we not know about?”

“I’m afraid to ask,” said Zane. “The photo expert at the forensics lab was able to enhance part of the footage of Bob putting the woman in his vehicle. It’s definitely Vanessa Phillips. They created a pretty clear shot of a bracelet she was wearing and it matches one found in her motel room.”

Stevie thought hard about the video, remembering how the woman’s arm had flopped sideways at one point. “Wasn’t she wearing two bracelets? I remember them being gray blurs on her wrists.”

“There was only one in her hotel room.”

“So he left a bracelet on the body? That seems sort of odd. He went to a lot of work to clean evidence from her body and put away the jewelry she was wearing. Her clothing never turned up, right?”

“That’s right. He must have kept the second bracelet,” said Zane grimly. “A trophy. Maybe he kept the clothes too.”

“But where? We went through Bob’s house thoroughly and wasted an hour traipsing through the snow looking for any outbuildings. Where’s his hiding spot?”

“I swear it feels like we get one question answered and it leads to a dozen more,” Zane muttered. “Who else would know more about Bob?”

A queasiness settled in Stevie’s gut. “Jake Powers has worked at Fletcher’s bar forever.” Simply saying the man’s name made her feel slimy.

“The guy who tried to beat up Tony Cooper?”

“Yes. I haven’t seen much of him since I’ve been back, and you could have knocked me over with a feather when I saw how much weight he’d lost . . .” Stevie thought hard for a second. “Don’t some narcotics suppress the appetite?”

“I wouldn’t know,” said Zane. “What are you thinking?”