“You mentioned a social media smear campaign,” Flora said.
Leon wished he could spare her the pain of this but bringing it to her attention would be preferable to having her stumble across it accidentally. And he had no doubt that the person who had started those malicious online rumors would find a way of letting Flora know about them. It was better for her to find out this way.
“Laurie is already shutting it down—”
“I want to see it, please.” Flora’s face and voice were determined.
Reluctantly, Leon drew his cell phone out of his pocket. “You don’t have to do this.”
“Yes, I do.” She waited while he found the page Tegan had shown him earlier. Although her eyes widened as she scrolled through it, she didn’t speak. When she handed the cell phone back to him, she turned to Laurie. “Can you find out who created it?”
“I’ll try, but it’s unlikely,” Laurie said. “The account will have required an email address, but my guess is that will have been set up for the sole purpose of creating this page. An attempt to trace the internet provider—or IP—address of the computer on which the social media account, or email address, was created is likely to draw a blank. We’ll make the attempt, but mobile technology makes it easier for people planning this sort of attack to cover their tracks.”
Flora shook her head. “This is getting even more confusing. Jennifer’s murder and the information from Bulldog Warren make it seem like I’m being targeted and that, because it started so soon after my arrival here, it can’t be linked to anyone in Stillwater. But that—” she pointed to the cell phone in Leon’s hand “—that is about Stillwater.”
Laurie sat up straighter. “You’re right. My God. That campaign against you is totally targeted to a Stillwater audience.”
“What the hell is going on?” Leon asked. “Flora arrives in Stillwater and...what? Someone decides he, or she, doesn’t like the way she looks, the tone of her voice, the color of her lipstick? So they kill her receptionist and two of her patients, vandalize her car, and set fire to her house, whilst also running a social media smear campaign to drive her out of town?”
“And then try to drive me off the road as I was on my way here.” Flora pointed to her car. There was a large dent in the left wing and the bumper was hanging off.
“What?” Leon’s already elevated stress levels hit critical and kept on going.
“Did you get the registration details?” Laurie was already flipping to a clean page in her notepad.
“No. I was too busy trying to stay alive.” Flora exhaled. “Sorry. But I didn’t even think of it. I was on a quiet stretch of the Elmville road, just before the turnoff for Eternal Springs. A silver SUV with blacked-out windows drew level with my car. When there was no one else around, he swung into me. I’m sure he was trying to drive me into the drainage ditch at the side of the road. I managed to accelerate past him and make the turn.” She gave a shaky laugh. “It wasn’t a popular move with the truck whose path I crossed.”
“Damn it, Flora.” Leon had a mental image of her Honda Civic swinging across the path of an oncoming truck. “You could have been killed.”
Her eyes were bluer than ever as she gazed at him. “I could have been killed if I’d stayed on that road and taken my chances with that SUV. This way, I had a fighting chance of getting to Eve’s place.” She turned to Laurie. “But Leon is right. It looks like someone took one look at me and decided they wanted me out of Stillwater so bad it was worth killing for. It feels like there’s no reason behind this.”
“There will be a reason,” Laurie said. “It probably won’t be as simple as the ones Leon outlined. It’s unlikely to have anything to do with how you look or speak. But when we find that reason, we’ll know who the killer is.”
Leon reminded himself that he was looking at a woman who had a hugely successful track record when it came to catching murderers. Laurie herself had been the target of one of Wyoming’s most prolific serial killers, but she had captured the Red Rose Killer. He had to have faith that she would do the same again. In the meantime, he wasn’t taking any chances with Flora’s safety.
“I can take care of you and the boys when you are under my roof, but what about the rest of the time?” He fixed Laurie with a determined stare. “She needs a bodyguard.”
Flora shook her head. “My patients require privacy. And I don’t want this to hit the Ryerson Center any harder than it already has. A doctor turning up for work with her own security guard in tow? That’s not going to help our reputation.”
“At least it’s the weekend tomorrow. That gives us some breathing space. Let me talk to Cameron. He may have some ideas about how we can organize this. In the meantime, I’ll take some pictures of your car and get forensics to check in case the other vehicle left traces of paint on your wing.” Laurie got to her feet. “Will you be at the animal sanctuary awareness day?”
“I don’t think...” Flora’s expression was cautious.
“I’d advise you to come along. Be cautious but try to keep things normal.”
When she’d gone, Flora huffed out a breath. “Keep things normal? How am I supposed to do that?”
Leon was pleased to see a slightly militant sparkle had replaced the defeated look in her eye. “I don’t know. But let’s start with something easy like removing your jacket from that goat’s mouth.”
Because Leon had arrived at Eve’s place in Laurie’s car, he traveled back to town with Flora. Despite the damage, her vehicle started just fine, and the journey was
