Page 143 of Until the Sea Runs Dry

“Why would she need protecting?” Clare asked, confusion clouding her green eyes.

“The way she was when I first found her, and the little quirks she had… I study body language all day long in my line of work so it seemed obvious to me that she had been abused before… By a man, her ex we think.” Logan explained.

Clare’s horrified gasp echoed around the room. She gripped onto Loki tighter until he whined.

“It made sense in the way she kept apologizing, kept blaming herself for things that weren’t her fault. It would also make sense why no one has come forward for her. And we can’t forget the way in which she was found.”

“Abuse victims are often isolated from family and friends, which might explain why no one has been in touch to report her missing,” Summers explained. “It could be that Jane was alone with only her abuser for company.”

“Are you sure it’s her ex? It all sounds too horrific.”

“Yes,” Westler replied. “Because I’ve almost found him.”

“Remember when Jane went to the hypnotherapist, and she mentioned a marina and a yacht and a glass cubed office?” Logan asked. “Using those clues, Westler was able to narrow it down to one particular marina that has all of those things.”

“Right,” Westler continued. “I gathered information on every single person who has regular access to one of the yachts in the marina, but that still leaves us with almost forty suspects.”

“We can check out each of them, but that would entail having teams to investigate some forty places of work and their homes, and the yachts themselves, which would be an enormous production. If we could narrow it down, it would be so much more helpful. Timing is crucial in a case like this.” Summers stuck the memory stick into a nearby computer and activated the folder Westler had helpfully named “SUSPECTS.”

Faces flooded the screen.

“But, we haven’t got anything else to go on,” Logan replied.

“No. So, I guess we’ll have to send those teams out. I’ll start with the marina myself,” Summers said. “And we can liase with some other stations to put together the actual teams.”

While they talked, Clare had been studying the men and women who were projected onto the screen. She wasn’t expecting to recognize any of them, but when she came to the fourteenth photograph, the blood drained from her face.

“No… it can’t be.”

She pointed at the man on the computer screen, her ears rushing with sound. The world began to tilt on its axis. She could feel herself growing faint with shock.

“That’s Ken, my new boyfriend. That’s the man I’ve been seeing.”

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