Page 154 of Another Girl Lost

“Everyone keeps telling me Della’s not real,” I said. “But you know she’s real, right? You knew Tanner had a young girl in his house.” My anger was rising, and I struggled to keep my voice even. Could Lynn have saved Della or even Sandra if she’d called the cops? “You knew Tanner locked Della in a box under his bed when you two had sex, didn’t you?”

Her reaction was oddly calm. “You told that lie to Dawson. And like I told him, I didn’t know about the box.”

There was no horror or shock. No rush to deny. A normal person would have been horrified. “I think you did know.” I dropped my voice. “The box under the bed was an unspoken dirty secret between you andTanner, wasn’t it? Knowing Della was locked up turned you on. You liked having control over another girl’s life, didn’t you?”

As Lynn shook her head, her eyes danced with an evil delight. Her hand slid into her pocket. “No. That’s sick. I’m not like that.”

The denial sounded like it had been crafted for a jury. “You said Tiffany tried to blackmail you. What did she have against you?”

“Nothing.” Her confidence flickered a fraction. “She was bluffing.”

“Her addiction had gotten bad. She was desperate for money. Did she remember an overheard conversation you had with Tanner at the diner a decade ago? A whisper about Della, Sandra, or me? Were you worried about Tanner’s growing collection of girls?”

“Nothing so complicated. Tiffany was a dumb waitress who could barely pour a cup of coffee. She made up shit just to get a reaction.”

How many times had I been accused of lying?Scarlett, you don’t know what you’re talking about. Stop making up stories.“Tiffany was always listening at Mike’s Diner, wasn’t she? No one notices the girl in the uniform behind the counter, do they?”

Lynn’s face paled. Her jaw pulsed.

“She did hear you and Tanner talking about his girls, didn’t she? Maybe he was worried about having three women locked in his house.”

“You’re again making up stories that you’ll never prove,” Lynn said. “I’m the one you stalked. I was the one kidnapped, remember? I didn’t attack the cop. That was all you. You’re the one going to prison for a long time.”

Legally, I was in bad shape. But the more I studied her, the more I saw the truth of what she’d done. Luke would press me to keep asking questions. Get her to talk. Earn her trust. “You killed Tiffany, didn’t you? She wanted money to fund her drug habit. If she texted you, her phone records will prove a connection.”

“She was a greedy little monster. And no one is going to miss a dead drug addict.”

“She didn’t deserve to die.”

A low chuckle rumbled in Lynn’s chest. “You’re guessing now. You’re trying to get me to say something. But there’s nothing to say.” The fingers on her left hand flexed into a fist.

“You’ll never say anything against Tanner. He had as much control over you as me. You were just a puppet to him.”

“He loved me.” Her eyes narrowed.

“No, he didn’t. He used you.”

She tensed and then shook her head as if catching herself. “You’re gutsy. What nerve it must have taken to challenge Tanner at the end. I’m certain he would’ve killed you the first chance he got. He wasn’t the kind of guy who bluffed.”

“You helped him.”

“No.”

I moved a step closer to her. Why would Tanner have reached out to a plain woman like Lynn? What could she have done for him? “You’re a nurse. You’ve had access to drugs for years. Whatever he shoved in my arm made me woozy. Did you provide Tanner with the drugs he shoved in my system?”

“He said he couldn’t sleep. He needed the drugs to shut off his brain for a few hours.”

So, she had provided drugs to Tanner. “Or keep the girl in the box quiet? Or help him grab a new girl?”

“Where are you getting these ideas?” she demanded. “You have no proof.”

Luke had said circumstantial evidence was enough for a search warrant. “It occurred to me when I saw you in the coffee shop that Tanner’s innocent girlfriend might actually know everything.” This dancing back and forth was becoming grating. She was either going to bolt or come at me. I hoped Margo was still paying attention to my warehouse. If she had set all this up, she wasn’t the type to miss the grand finale.

Lynn’s gaze returned to the portrait. “I bet when you first met Tanner, he made you feel like you were the only girl in the world. Thatfirst hit of his affection is addictive. Without the glow of his attention, the world feels flatter, smaller.”

“You still miss him,” I said. “You really loved him.”

“Yes.” Sadness dripped from the word. “I loved—love—him.”

---