Twisted Knot

Two names on a list

~Detective Joseph Perry~

It had been three weeks since I met the Templetons. About a week ago, I tried to question the wife about Donna Lymann, and she had lawyered up. I had learned a lot about their strange family, and it was the weirdest situation I'd seen in a while. The husband was a high profile business, who was in rehab and had been cheating on his wife for years. They hadn't filed for divorce, but Elizabeth was living with another man. It was the stuff of soap operas.

Despite their strange and anti monogamous ways, I couldn't find any dirt on either of them. But something was wrong, and I could just feel it. Since I had started in missing persons, I had seven females;four dead and three missing. The dead girls all had a signature mark, a "W" marked into their wrists and they were dropped in dumpsters. And all of the women, both the missing and the dead, were on Stefan Templeton's list of mistresses. Someone was killing off Stefan's old flames, and but I couldn't figure out who.

All of the women he had listed as potential threats checked out, they had alibis or were out of the area. It felt strange to me that someone knew all of Stefan's deeds, and was targeting his lovers. So assuming that neither Paul, Elizabeth, or Stefan was a murderer,who would know Stefan's past so well? I started to make a list.

1. A secretary. No, his secretary was an older woman, in her sixties. That didn't seem to fit.

2. A therapist. Stefan Templeton was not the therapy type of guy, save for a rehab stint to save his marriage.

3. A consistent lover. Other than Elizabeth, that wasn't the case. H used and abused his other women.

4.a stalker

I looked at word. Who would stalk Stefan, and why? I heard my phone ring and I answered it, seeing Kelly's number.

"Sweetheart, you are going to owe me dinner after you see this," she said.

"I'll give you anything if you break this case," I said. She giggled lightly, and I knew it. I had a thing for my private eye, and no Tim to act on it.

"I found an old photo of Elizabeth Templeton," she said. "It's grainy and dim, but it appeared she kept some interesting company in France. I emailed it to you."

"I am clicking on it," I said as I did. "Son of a bitch! Is this real?"

"Am I good or what?" she purred.

"This doesn't give me answers," I said. "But maybe it's a new lead. Elizabeth, you have your secrets don't you?"

I hung up on Kelly and I knew now who the killer was. I looked back at my list and tried to make sense of it, still confused on what it all meant. I had circled all of the names on the list of women who had brown eyes. There were two names left, and one of those names was Elizabeth.

I needed to go see the Elizabeth, and I needed to go now.

((these are short bits, so I'll put them in one chapter. Sorry to switch POV mid chapter))

~Elizabeth~

I was having the dream again, the Paris dream.

It was always the same dream, I ran out into the streets at night, feeling panicked and confused. I walked the streets for hours, aimlessly trying to forget. M phone rang and I answered it, hearing his voice.

"Where are you," he said. I felt myself tremble. Why had I answered?

"I am long gone," I said. "I have been thinking and thinking and I'm going to the police..."

"Do you honestly think they'll protect you," he said. "Besides, Your DNA is everywhere. You'll look guilty too."

"You're a monster," I said. "Everything was lie..."