“Besides, you still have guests to deal with. The last thing we need is to have Lisa storming back demanding answers.”
Sylvie opened her mouth to protest, but Bryce cut her off. “We’ll take care of Lisa. Tell Bobby to call me.”
“Of course.”
Sylvie pressed her lips together. “We’re in this together, Diana. Remember that.”
Diana nodded. They were in this together. Whether Sylvie deserved to be or not. And now it was Diana’s turn to contribute, to be strong for once… to bring what she’d started to an end.
Bobby
“I think you have a visitor,” Val Ryker said over the rim of her coffee cup.
Bobby Vaughan glanced up from the reports scattering the table he and the cop-turned-investigative-consultant had commandeered at the Easy Street Café.
A young woman pushed through the café door and scanned the worn Formica tables and coffee-sipping crowd. From her cascading blond hair and light blue eyes to the soft line of her cheeks that made him ache to protect her, she hadn’t changed. And although she and her sister were identical, there was no doubt in his mind which twin he was looking at. He could feel her presence in the churning of his blood.
“Want me to leave?” Val asked.
Bobby’s day had started with being kicked out of his office in the sheriff’s department after a sewage back up. But as badly as his day had begun, it seemed to be getting worse.
He dropped his gaze to the reports. “No, stay. In fact, if she comes over, why don’t you handle it?”
“Aren’t you even curious about what she wants?”
“No.”
Val let out a pained sigh. “What if she needs to talk to a sheriff’s detective?”
“You have more police experience than I do.”
“You were on the Emergency Response Team. Surely you can handle this.”
“But you were a police chief.”
“I no longer have a badge.”
“You can borrow mine.”
“Coward.”
“See? Your cop instincts are on point.”
Another sigh.
Of course, Val wouldn’t understand. She had been living with her boyfriend, Baraboo District Fire Chief David Lund, for quite a while now. She probably didn’t know what it felt like to fall in love only to get her guts kicked out.
And come to think of it, he didn’t really want her to be watching as he relived the sensation. “On second thought, go up to the counter and ask for some refills, will you?”
“Too late. Now I’m curious. Not going to miss this show.” Val leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs. Picking up her coffee cup, she took a long, leisurely sip.
So much for keeping his pain to himself.
“Bobby?”
No matter how braced for impact Bobby thought he was, the sound of Diana’s voice hit him in the gut like a full-fledged ulcer. He kept his eyes riveted to the report in front of him. He didn’t need a close-up view. He still saw her face nearly every night in his dreams.
And in his nightmares. “I’m busy here, Diana.”
“Ed Dryden contacted us.”
An extra shot of acid added to his misery. Bobby had never had any direct contact with the serial killer, but he’d spent the past eight months working on two murders committed by someone who was copying the way Ed Dryden had liked to kill and display his victims, back before he’d been finally shut away in prison.
And, of course, eight months ago, Bobby had also learned that Ed Dryden was Diana and her twin sister’s biological father.
Bobby searched Diana’s face. “When did he contact you?”
“He sent Sylvie a wedding gift. A family portrait of us as children.”
“Nice.”
“She’s kind of upset.”
“I can imagine.” He knew Sylvie wouldn’t want his pity, but he couldn’t help giving it all the same. “How did it arrive? Mail? Delivery service?”
Diana shook her head. “It was in with the other gifts. The only thing I can figure is that he must have had someone drop it off at the reception last night.”
Val pulled the cup away from her lips and shot Bobby a look.
“Do you have the portrait with you?” he asked Diana.
“It’s in my car.”
“Good.”
“That’s not all.” She pulled out a large plastic bag with a greeting card inside from her purse and gave it to him.
“A card. I guess he must have read the etiquette books.” He opened the card a crack through the plastic bag cover. Bold handwriting scrawled at the bottom of a wedding verse. A father should have the privilege of walking his daughter down the aisle. I miss my girls. I look forward to your visit.
“I’ll bet he does,” Bobby muttered under his breath. The opportunity to emotionally torture his adult daughters must be a dream come true for someone like Dryden.
“There was a newspaper clipping about the Copycat Killer inside too. It’s tucked in the envelope.”
Manipulating the bag, Bobby opened the envelope. The slightly yellowed shadow of newsprint peeked from inside. He shook it out into the bag. The headline was close to eight months old, originating from shortly after the second murder, when the press had given the Copycat Killer his name.
The article itself was written by a reporter named Aidan Powell, also known as one of the biggest pains in the ass Bobby had ever known. Somehow Powell had discovered that the two women, whose bodies were discovered in two different counties, had been killed in eerily similar ways… ways that echoed the murders of infamous Wisconsin serial killer Ed Dryden.
The article had led to the identity of one of the victims, a woman named Katrya Galey, who had been working at a waterpark resort in the Wisconsin Dells when she’d disappeared. But the name of the second victim, whose identity the killer took great pains to hide, still remained a mystery.
Since then, things had been quiet. Diana and Sylvie’s parentage remained a secret. No more bodies had been found. The taskforce had been reduced to only him and Val and a few people in Madison working the case.
A killer like this copycat never stopped. Not until he was caught. Or he died. And as the months rolled on, Bobby spent his sleepless nights hoping for the latter.
“Dryden might just be toying with you. But just in case, you and Sylvie need to play it safe. Get out of town for a few days.” Bobby braced himself for an argument.
Diana merely nodded. “I’m worried about Sylvie. She’s pregnant.”
Pregnant. No surprise. Sylvie and Bryce had wanted a family so badly, he’d been amazed they’d put it off as long as they had.
The familiar ache bore into his stomach wall. Last October he would have bet the couple married and expecting would be him and Diana. How things had changed. “Aren’t they planning to get away for a honeymoon?”
“She won’t go. Says she doesn’t want to leave me alone with this.”
“And Bryce?”
“He says he’ll do what’s best for Sylvie and the baby.”
“I’ll see what I can do to convince her.”
“I’ll take the portrait and card to the lab.” Val set her coffee cup on the table, stood, and held out her hand.
Bobby gave her the plastic bag and a grateful look, and she started for the door.
Diana didn’t move. She trapped Bobby with a pointed stare. “I need to talk to you.”
“Val can handle it.” He couldn’t stand looking at Diana one more second and pretending she didn’t mean anything to him.
Diana paused a moment longer before heading for the exit. When she finally disappeared through the glass door, Bobby lowered his head into his hands.