Page 147 of Happily Never After

“Ugh, fine. I’m at the park with the taco truck.”

“I’ll see you in five.”

The line disconnected. So much for an hour of alone time. But maybe it was best to have some company. Only an idiot would attack her with Mindy in tow. She was basically a chihuahua in stilettos.

Claire flipped to another section of the binder. Thanks to her intense cyber-stalking of Barney and Victoria during his proposal planning phase, she had a spreadsheet of all their favorite places. His barber, his tailor, their favorite restaurant, even the stadium of his preferred sports team. Her skin crawled as she read over the names. She had watched him and Victoria on a date at that restaurant. Picked up a coffee from his favorite café before proposal practice. She had catered to a serial killer, and she had no clue.

West Haven businesses stared back at her. Nothing online connected any of these places to William Hickory, but maybe in person she’d be able to spot something. She’d investigate them all if she had to. She pulled out a highlighter and set to marking the most likely ones.

Ten minutes later, someone rapped on her window. Claire jumped like she had been electrocuted and smeared orange highlighter across her thumb. The Taser was half out of her purse when she recognized Mindy’s green eyes peeping at her through the glass. Phew. Not a murderer. She unlocked the doors, and Mindy jumped in.

“So,” Mindy said, immediately handing over a bag full of cookies. “Where do we start?”

“Where do you think he’d be most likely to hide a body?” Claire plunged her hand into the cookie bag. There wasn’t any room in her stomach after the fleet of carne asada tacos and extra guac she had eaten, but she’d always make room for Mindy’s cookies.

“Barber? Tailor? The quad at Venor?” Claire added.

Mindy grimaced. “Isn’t the suit guy down the street from the Heirloom? Let’s start there.” She twiddled Claire’s radio dial to a pop music station, and they set off.

Once parked in front of Barney’s tailor, Hammond Brothers, they climbed out of the car and glanced up and down the street. At this hour, the dinner crowds were dispersing and people were going home. Two couples walked toward a sports bar a block over. For once, there were no creepers hiding in the shadows. None that Claire could see, anyway.

She caught a glance of the Heirloom Hotel as she surveyed the street one more time. The sign blinked on, a sinister red in a sea of concrete. She shuddered from head to toe. What should have been a blissful evening celebrating Kyle and Nicole’s wedding had turned into the scene of a nightmare. She had avoided this part of town for the better part of a year, and now Barney had dragged her back into his web.

Claire redirected her attention at the store and put the hotel firmly out of her sight. If she could just solve the riddle, another family would have answers.Thatwas what was important. Herheart skipped a beat, and an ember of anxiety stirred deep in her stomach. She closed her eyes and counted to ten.

Dr. Goulding’s advice echoed in her mind. Deep breaths, ground yourself in reality. The streetlights buzzed to life overhead. An overripe dumpster must have been nearby as the smell was making her eyes water.

“All good?” Mindy’s voice was gentler than usual.

Claire’s eyes popped open. Her heart rate slowed, and she nodded. Maybe there was something to this anti-anxiety medication after all. Barney’s hold on her had just lessened another notch. It was time to focus.

She turned back to the window. Good lord, even the mannequins looked pretentious. Was that a pocket watch? Who carried a pocket watch anymore?

“If only we had a cadaver dog.” Mindy squinted at the ground as if expecting to see a shinbone jutting out of the small planter surrounding a red maple tree.

“I know, right? Detective Smith had the audacity to say ‘the police station is not a dog library, you can’t just borrow one.’ It’s like they don’twantto find the victims.” And there hadn’t been enough time (or corpses) to train Rosie or Winston.

Mindy squatted to inspect underneath the store’s dumpster. “And here we are, doing their job for them. Again.”

“Yep,” Claire said flatly.

They scoured the front and back of the store, but everything was asphalt and concrete. No patch of dirt to hide a body, no hickory tree, no curious graffiti, nothing.

The same was true for his barbershop, favorite café, and gym. Dead ends were everywhere. Her new jeans were covered in dirt. The ends of her hair had dipped into a dribbled milkshake outside the café dumpster. Could William Hickory have just been a red herring? Was she wasting her time? But he had toldthe truth before. Barney wanted everyone to play his game. Why lie now?

“I don’t know where else to look.” Claire’s shoulders slumped as she crossed off Buff Bros Gymnasium. “You pick.”

Mindy closed her eyes and pointed to a random location.

“Chez Louisit is.” Claire activated her turn signal and pulled out onto the highway. It was Barney’s favorite restaurant, the one Claire had sent him to after getting engaged. It was on the edge of the business district, near the park that was the site of his flash mob proposal.

Storefronts flashed by and a sense of unease crept in. Her stomach was in knots. If she failed, she would have to face the families of the victims empty-handed. Sure, her abduction had culminated in Barney’s arrest. She had debased herself to get him to reveal the location of Kayley Herrold’s body. But nothing was going to change the fact that she lived while their daughters died. Some closure was all she had to offer them. But they wouldn’t get it if she couldn’t find William Fricken Hickory.

They rolled up to the restaurant. The inside was dark, chairs already stacked on tables. They were closed on Mondays, but it wasn’t like Barney was going to just chuck one of his victims in the basement anyway.

She and Mindy exited the car and surveyed the area. Barney had always insisted on getting the window table at the restaurant. Claire shivered and drew her jacket more tightly around her. She backed up to the glass and panned slowly around the area like a human security camera. Was it someplace he could see from his favorite table? Something about this place felt different. The air was thick, almost heavy. The back of her neck prickled. Was someone watching them? Or was she onto something?

She leapt to the edge of the building and whipped her head into the alleyway. A sudden crick in her neck almost made hercry out, but she clutched a hand over the source of the pain and probed the darkness. A squirrel darted out from the dumpster. There were no footsteps. No movement in the shadows.

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