Page 86 of Into the Shadows

“What is it? What did you find?”

“So, Ryan and I took the afternoon to scroll through microfiche of newspapers from back then,” Carson starts.

“It was fascinating to read some of those articles. I had to keep reminding myself what we were looking for.” Ryan laughs.

“Me, too, but anyway, we finally found something.”

“Wait.” Gia stops them. “I need to call Ginny.” She starts a video call, and we’re all a little shocked to see Ginny’s sweet face fill the screen.

Carson tenses next to me. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

Ginny breathes out a laugh, wiping her eyes I’m only now noticing are red. “I should’ve known you guys would notice. Nothing is wrong. Just said something stupid that I shouldn’t have.”

“What does that mean?” Gia asks what we’re all wondering.

“Never mind that. I’m fine. What’s up? Why are you all there?”

Gia looks at us, her expression asking if we should push. Carson makes the decision for us. “Ryan and I found something interesting about our mysterious letter writers.”

Ginny straightens, her whole attention now focused on us. “What?”

Carson pulls out a couple of printer pages from his backpack and holds them up so we all get a good look at the headline.

Victoria Ashcroft: Missing and Presumed Dead

“No. Way.”Gia’s mouth drops open. “Do they know what happened?”

Ryan shakes his head. “No. The article only says that she’s been missing for a week and they now believe she’s dead. What’s even crazier is they speculate that her fiancé may have had something to do with it, as he’s also missing.”

“The two of them went missing, and no one ever knew what happened?” I ask.

“We’re not sure,” Carson answers. “There were a lot of missing issues of the paper, so it’s lucky we even found this one, but none of the others we looked at mentioned anything more.”

“They probably assumed they either ran off together or the guy killed her and left town without a trace,” Michael offers.

“That’s so sad,” Ginny says from the phone.

“Right? We’ve got a name for the guy, a Colin Ramsbury, but our research is going to have to be put on hold. The records office is going under construction, and they’re moving some stuff to the historical preservation society once the renovations are complete.”

“Only Lottie’s idea would turn into a murder mystery,” Gia deadpans. Everyone starts laughing, myself included.

“What can I say? It’s sort of my thing.” I shrug.

Chapter 48

Teddy

Fuck, I’m nervous.

I blow out a breath after I take off my helmet. Placing it on the seat of my bike, I head up the steps into Lottie’s house. Not for the first time, I wish she lived with me. My house still isn’t fit for even me to live in at the moment. Levi did a walk-through with me, and we made a plan to update and expand the house so Lottie and I could turn it into our home, but they’ve got some other projects going right now. It’s going to be a few months before they can get to mine.

Lottie and I have gotten into a routine at this point. She spends a few days at my house, and I spend a few days at hers. It’s worked out rather well, and it’s not very often that we don’t sleep in the same bed.

“Hey, Sparkles, you ready?” I ask into the quiet house. Lottie strolls down the stairs, looking like a vision in a light blue sundress. “Damn, woman. You trying to kill me?”

Lottie’s cheeks flush, and a satisfied smile tilts the side of her mouth. She steps into my chest, and I wrap myarm around her waist to pull her tight to me. I’ll never get enough of the way her curves feel pressed against my body.

It’s been almost five months since we first started seeing each other, yet it feels like yesterday that I walked into Jones’s Diner for lunch that first time.

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