Page 116 of Obsession

“So not much help there,” Marsh said.

“Right. The former sheriff’s son was one of the last people to see the Selby girl alive, and I plan to question him later today.”

“Any chance the man who went missing killed your victim?”

Emma leaned closer to the laptop. “No. We found where he was buried last week, and while I’m not a forensic anthropologist, I believe the body has been there since he went missing ten years ago. The site is within a few miles of where Mary Jo Selby died.”

Sam pulled out the notes he’d made and laid out all the details of their case for the two men, beginning with discovering where Ryan’s body had been buried and then removed. “We found his college ring and one bone, but it was enough to identify him.”

Then he told them about the daisies Emma had received and the anonymous notes, how someone fired on them at her apartment, and then George Selby’s and his daughter’s shootings.

“It sounds like our killer is living in Natchez,” Lane said.

Sam looked up from his notes. “That’s my conclusion.”

“What’s the connection to Oxford and Jackson, though?” Marsh asked. “Do you have a suspect who has either lived in both places at the time of the murders or has relatives in the area?”

“I wish. I don’t have any suspects at all,” Sam said. “I want to question the former sheriff’s son, but—”

“Wait a minute,” Emma said. She looked over the notes Sam had taken, then turned to the laptop. “Both Trey Carter and Gordon Cole were in Oxford when your victim was murdered. They were at Ole Miss then.”

“What?” Sam jerked his head toward her. “Are you sure?”

“Yes. They graduated in 2013, a year after Ryan would have graduated. And both had come home the weekend Mary Jo was killed to celebrate Ryan’s twenty-first birthday. And mine,” she added. Her eyes widened. “It just dawned on me that Gordon went to medical school in Jackson...”

“How about Trey? What did he do after graduation?”

Her face paled. “He attended the police academy in Jackson.”

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Emma couldn’t believe it. Trey Carter a murderer? She shook her head to clear it. It wasn’t possible that the man she’d dated for several months was a killer. That he’d killed his best friend ...

Hewascontrolling ... but that didn’t make him a murderer. “Trey and Gordon aren’t the only men I know who lived in Oxford and Jackson at the time of the murder,” she said. “Corey Chandler attended Ole Miss the same time they did, and then he practiced law in Jackson until three years ago.”

“When did you learn that?” Sam asked.

“Last night.” She added Corey’s name to her notes and then marked through it. “But as far as we know, he wasn’t in Natchez when Mary Jo and Ryan were killed. He would have been at Ole Miss then, so that basically eliminates him.”

“We need to make sure he wasn’t in Natchez ten years ago.” Sam leaned toward the computer. “Did you two research erotomania?”

Both men nodded. Emma had skimmed over a few internet articles. “What I read,” she said, “was that an erotomaniac’s behavior could closely resemble that of a single-minded stalker, and like stalkers, they could even perceive themselves as being the ‘savior’ of the object of their attention.”

“Yeah, I read that,” Marsh said. “And all that love they havecould turn to rage if they thought the object of their desire was never going to return their love.”

Lane agreed. “I discussed this with my psychologist brother-in-law last night, and he said most people with this psychological disease are harmless, but not all. If there was an early childhood trauma, especially involving the man’s mother, he could have developed that ‘savior’ complex involving the woman that he perceived was in love with him.”

Emma propped her elbow on the table and rubbed her forehead. It was so hard to believe she could be the object of some man’s obsession. She looked up and glanced at each man. “If some man believes I’m in love with him, wouldn’t I know it?”

“I wish my brother-in-law were here. He could explain it better than me,” Lane said. “Let’s say a woman is being stalked by someone with erotomania. She has no idea the erotomaniac has feelings for her. He has delusions that she loves him, and that whoever is keeping her from him is a threat. He can even think she’s sending him coded messages through social media.” He paused and turned to Sam. “If you’re dealing with an erotomaniac, both of you really need to be careful.”

“You agree with me that I was the target Friday night?” Sam asked.

Both men nodded, and the thought made Emma sick. “Do the three of you agree that we now have three, maybe four people to interview—Trey, Gordon, Sheriff Carter, and maybe Corey?”

Sam frowned. “I agree those are people of interest formeto interview.”

“I agree,” Lane said. “You’re a civilian and don’t need to be involved.”

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