Page 52 of A Constant Reminder

Chapter 33 – Tyler

The following morning, we sat around our kitchen table with Detective Macintosh. The large man with salt and pepper hair listened to Sam intently as the worry lines on his forehead creased.

Sam handed over her phone so the detective could jot down the number in his small notebook.

“And this is all he’s sent so far?” He gruffly asked.

“Well, he might have sent more, but I blocked the number.”

He simply nodded while scribbling more notes.

Sam was biting her fingernails down to nubs, so I took her hand in mine in an attempt to quiet her growing anxiety.

“Miss Flemming, I wish I had some good news for you. I’ve been searching everywhere for some type of breadcrumb that he’s left behind, but he’s making it tough. We did find some DNA on your dress from that night, but there’s no match in the system, and I can’t find the bastard to compare a sample in person.”

Squeezing her hand in mine, I silently assured her that she wasn’t in this alone.

“Honestly, I don’t have the best resources at my disposal, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. We sometimes work with the FBI, and when an agent saw me chasing my tail, he offered to lend a hand. And the feds have resources we can’t even dream of, so they’ll be looking into it as well. For now, I’m going to run this number and see what I come up with. I’ll be in touch.”

With a quick handshake, he was gone.

“Are you okay?” I said as Sam got up to pour herself more coffee.

“I’m trying to be.”

“If you want, I can hire a private detective to try to find him.”

“No,” she shook her head. “I know you have money, and that’s great, but we aren’t going to use that money to skirt around the authorities. Then, we’d be no better than the man who’s after me.”

In my mind, the two cases of using money to help were polar opposites. I struggled to see her side of it, but I’d respect her wishes.

For now…

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