“No, it wasn’t. She always had a kind word for everyone,” Reed said. A sharp ache settled in his chest, but he refused to acknowledge it. Instead, he focused on the conversation at hand. “What happened next?”
Margaret crossed her arms over her chest. “Owen waited for Bonnie to get off work and approached her in the parking lot of the courthouse. He repeatedly asked her out. When she refused, Owen became enraged. He called her a flirt or some other kind of nonsense. She managed to get to her car and leave, but the incident left Bonnie shaken enough to tell me about it.”
“Did anything else happen?”
“No. As far as I know, Owen never bothered her again.”
Reed’s jaw clenched. “Why didn’t you tell me about this earlier?”
Margaret bit her lip. “I’m sorry, Reed. To be honest, it slipped my mind until Will mentioned that Owen might be a suspect. The argument between Bonnie and Owen happened at least six months before she disappeared.”
Reed wrestled back his frustration. Cold case investigations often got new information this way. Something that seemed benign long ago suddenly took on new meaning.
“Margaret, do you believe Bonnie ran off?” Emma asked.
She shifted in her soft-soled shoes and hugged herself tighter. “Frankly, I never did.”
Reed sucked in a sharp breath. “But...you told me differently.”
“I know. I didn’t want to get your hopes up if I was wrong. The former sheriff was so certain Bonnie had taken off. He made it seem like I couldn’t trust my own insights about my friend. After all, I hadn’t known about her relationship with Joshua.”
Reed pinched the bridge of his nose and fought back his frustration. The former sheriff had done a lot of damage to the investigation.
“We need to call Austin right now and tell him to stop the search immediately,” Emma said. She started for the house. “Don’t let them step into the woods on my property.”
“What?” Reed chased after her. “Why?”
“Because I have an idea.”
Emma refused to explain her plan until Cooper and Austin arrived. Reed wasn’t going to like it, and she needed reinforcements. Once they were all settled at the kitchen table, each with a fresh cup of coffee, she displayed an aerial view of her property on a tablet.
“Let’s do a quick review of what we know,” she said. “I inherit my uncle’s property and move to Heyworth. Shortly thereafter, someone starts breaking things on my property and making scary phone calls telling me to leave town. Then poisoned meat is left out for Sadie to eat. As a result, I file a police report. A week goes by and nothing else happens on the property. We now know that’s because my stalker was looking for and arranging to hire Charlie.”
She paused and Cooper nodded for her to go on.
“Charlie breaks into my house and attacks me,” Emma continued. “Subsequently, Reed launches an investigation. Charlie is instructed to get rid of me and Reed. He calls in reinforcements—his brother, Mike, and his cousin, Vernon. They hatch a scheme to kidnap Vernon’s daughter while she’s on a camping trip with her mother and stepfather. As the nearest SAR team, it’s almost guaranteed Sadie and I will be called out to aid in the search. The basic idea is to kill us once we locate Molly, but Vernon has poor aim and—based on the conversation Austin overheard Vernon having—probably didn’t want to be responsible for the actual murders. He calls one of his cousins, most likely Charlie, and tells him to hurry up and get there so he can finish the job.”
“Fortunately for us, he was late,” Austin muttered.
“Agreed. When the attack falls apart and Vernon is arrested, a new plan is made. Charlie and Mike storm the hospital to rescue their cousin and kill me. Two of the hired hitmen are killed in the process—Vernon and Charlie—but Mike escapes. That’s what we know and what we can prove.”
“Right.” Cooper drained the last of his coffee.
“The ultimate question is why would anyone want to kill both Reed and I?” Emma rose from her chair and grabbed the carafe of coffee, refilling each man’s cup before her own. “Reed believes his sister’s disappearance may have something to do with it. Cooper, you think someone—probably my cousin Owen—has hidden something on the property he doesn’t want us to uncover.” She took a deep breath. “I think you both may be right.”
Reed’s eyes widened as he followed her chain of thought. Austin, midsip of his coffee, choked and started coughing.
Cooper frowned. “What are you suggesting? That Bonnie’s body is somewhere on your property?”
“No, that Bonnie is alive and being held captive somewhere on my property.”
All of the men stared at her in disbelief. Emma pointed to the tablet, showing the aerial view of her property. “I have large swatches of wooded areas on my land. That was perfect for me because I intended to use it as a training area for the canines, but it also means it would be easy for someone to slip on and off the property without me knowing.”
“Hold on, hold on.” Cooper put up a hand. “If Bonnie was alive on your property, then wouldn’t you have found her by now? I mean the kidnapper has to keep her in some kind of structure.”
“But it could be an underground bunker. There have been cases like that.”
“Even if that’s true, the kidnapper would just move Bonnie.”
“But he couldn’t get rid of the structure,” Emma said. “Bonnie’s scent would linger long enough the dogs might pick up on it. Or improvements to the land could uncover the bunker. DNA, fingerprints... It would be nearly impossible to get rid of all the evidence inside, right? Especially if Bonnie has been there for a long time.”
Cooper nodded slowly. “That’s true. It would be hard
