A First Love to Die For

Chapter Twenty-Two- Sobering Reality

(Lincoln's POV)

Sam was waiting for us in my office. Josie dialed in Lee and Lucy and we recapped our meeting with Harold and Victoria.

Sam looked at us both wide-eyed, "I obviously know that the person doing this could be someone that we know but it's one thing to think that and another to be living it. So, what are our next steps for Harold?"

I knew exactly what he was talking about. Since Victoria had spoken so openly about Harold, I had been dealing with the sobering reality of the fact that I had ignored Harold's behaviour.

Even the other day, the way that he talked about Josie. These comments weren't harmless, and I should have done more to make the women in town feel safe from his inappropriateness. It wasn't that I was assuming he was the killer, although if he was, holy fucking moly. But no matter what came up with him, I had some reflecting to do about what I had ignored.

Josie was the one who answered, "I want to talk to whoever worked with him at the program that he went to. Get that person's take. I also have two other team members coming in. We'll put someone on 'Harold watch' full time. It would make me feel better considering that he's checking off more and more boxes all the time."

Then she turned her body and asked, "What did you find out?"

Sam sighed with annoyance. "It turns out that Stephie does in fact remember all the women coming though. She felt super uncomfortable with the fact that they had all been to her salon and she didn't want people to find out, thinking that it would deter business."

The tic of his jaw let me know how he felt about her dishonesty. Lucy spoke up, "Sorry I feel I need to share what I found out last night. Hey Sam, I'm Lucy and my video partner over there is Lee."

I hadn't even thought about the fact that Sam hadn't met either of them yet. Before I could apologize, she continued, "I reached out to all the different officers in charge of the various missing person cases for our victims. Two of them called me back last night."

She paused and flipped a page, "Both officers had flagged Beauty Boutique as the last place of expenditure. They called to talk to someone. Both claimed to have talked to Stephie, who told them that she had befriended the girls, and spent some time with them while they were in town. She had said to each of the separate officers that she had been under the understanding that they had left Fenelon and gone back home."

Sam spoke up, "She didn't mention talking to any officers at all."

We were all silent for a moment and then Josie spoke up, "Something definitely feels off with the Stephie piece. Plus, she would have heard me talking to Chantelle yesterday and know that Chantelle was helping me trace Izzy's last days."

Holy shit.

She continued. "So, we have two viable suspects. Let's do a deep dive into both Harold and Stephie. We'll put a 24/7 watch on both of them, and luckily Trigg and Duncan arrive today to help out."

She tapped her fingers on the desk. "If it's possible one is our killer, I don't want to chance another victim."

She looked at me. "Any chance you can spare two officers? We'll put them in rotation to give Trigg and Duncan a break. Hopefully, it won't be for long and we'll turn up some more evidence soon."

I was willing to put out all kinds of overtime for this. "I absolutely can spare some officers. We'll do three and start a rotation so that there is a day off for every three days, keep them sharp."

I made eye contact with everyone, including our video calls. "Thanks, guys for all your support."

I knew my eyes lingered on Josie's face for too long. Today had thrown all of my emotions out of whack and my eyes felt like magnets, constantly drawn towards her.

I tore them away, coming back to what we had on the go. We weren't actually closer to catching our killer but it felt like we were at least on the right track.