Page 6 of Little Buried Secrets

I just wasn’t confident she’d be found alive.

Rae fisted a hand and pressed it to her chest. “The night Margot went missing, I assumed she had ended up coming home and was asleep in her bed. I woke up in the middle of the night feeling cold … so cold, even though the heater was on, and the electric fireplace in my bedroom was going. I thought maybe I’d just had a bad dream. You know? I figured I’d wake up in the morning and everything would be okay. Except it’s not okay, and the same frigid feeling I had is still there, living inside of me like an iceberg.”

“Is there anything I can do?” I asked. “I want to help in any way I can.”

“There is something, and it’s the reason I’m here.” Rae reached into her purse, took out an envelope, and handed it to me. “I want to hire you and your team. I want to know what happened to my baby, and I want … I want …”

The tears flared up once more.

I attempted to slip the envelope back inside her purse, but she set her hand on top of it, blocking me.

“I can’t accept this, Rae,” I said. “We’re, well … I consider you a good friend. It doesn’t seem right.”

“We are friends, and yet, you still pay when you come to my office. I will do the same.”

“Are you unhappy with the way the investigation is going?”

“The first thing the police asked me was if I thought Margot had run away. To even consider such a thing … it doesn’t make sense.”

“It’s a standard question they ask everyone,” I said. “It doesn’t mean they think she ran off.”

“Oh, they don’t. They seem to think Bronte may have had something to do with Margot’s disappearance. Can you believe it? As if we’re not suffering enough already. They came into my home pretending like they cared, like they were on our side. In no time they began questioning Bronte and the statements she was giving. She didn’t do anything. She’s innocent. I need you to prove it, and I need you to find Margot. You’ll help me, won’t you?”

Foley was handling the investigation the way he should have been, but now wasn’t the time to explain police procedure to her. Rae didn’t understand how investigations were handled or how questions weren't just a way to get to the truth. They were also a way to rule someone out.

Staring at her now, I realized I would do anything to alleviate her pain, and I placed my hand on hers.

“I will help you,” I said. “We will find out what happened to Margot.”

CHAPTER 5

“Why am I not surprised?” Foley stated.

I was sitting on a chair in his office, watching him pace back and forth.

“Rae’s concerned you think Bronte is involved in Margot’s disappearance,” I said.

“She’s right to think it. Truth is, I am questioning the girl’s story.”

“Why? What makes you consider her a suspect?”

Foley plopped down on his desk chair, opened a file folder, thumbed through some photos, and slapped one of them down in front of me. “See the big dent on the right side of the front bumper? Who do you think owns that car? Take a guess.”

“Bronte?”

“Yep.”

The car was light in color, but it wasn’t white.

It had more of an ivory hue to it.

“What has Bronte said about the dent?” I asked.

“It took us a half an hour just to get her to talk about it at all. Then she admitted to hitting a car while she was parking at the grocery store. A parked car, mind you. Sounds like she was ‘coming in hot’ and lost control of the wheel.”

“Have you spoken to the owner of the other car?”

“We have no idea who Bronte hit.”

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