Page 31 of Vanishing Point
The inspector looked up from the notes she was taking. “I will once the Bent County detective bureau releases them to me. But I want to hear it, in your words. That will help my case.”
“They were the same pictures that were in Detective Hart’s envelope.”
“Okay.” The woman tapped her pen against the paper, studying Vi. “And you’re the subject of the pictures that both you and Detective Hart received?”
“Yes.”
“And in the pictures you received, you’re injured as well?”
“Yes.” She knew the woman wanted more information, but Vi knew enough about dealing with cops at this point. Postal inspector. Detective. SWAT. It didn’t matter.
She wasn’t giving up information she wasn’t specifically asked for.
“Can you tell me the circumstances of those injuries?” Inspector Kay asked.
“How does that connect to mail fraud?”
“I don’t know yet, and it might not.” The inspector smiled kindly. “But I can’t determine that if I don’t know.”
Vi inhaled and nodded. It made sense, even if she didn’t like it. Still, she wasn’t quite strong enough to meet the inspector’s gaze. She looked down at her hands. “My ex-husband used to beat me.”
“So, were these police report photos?” the inspector asked. She was being incredibly patient, but it didn’t make Vi feel any better.
She clenched her hands into fists under the table and kept her voice even and calm. “No.”
“Then…”
“A few of them I took myself, to document what he was doing to me.” For as much as that had mattered. “He used to confiscate my phone all the time, so it’s no surprise he has access to them. As for the ones I didn’t take I wasn’t aware he took those.”
“And these pictures are from an incident how long ago?”
“I’m not sure. The ones I took were from about two years ago. The ones he took… I’d have to take some time and try to remember. We were married for almost five years.”
“So, you…let him do this to you? For years? That’s what you’re saying.”
Let him. Twin emotions assaulted her at that turn of phrase. A guilt and shame she was so familiar with, she almost sank into that. But there was a new feeling in there.
Outrage. Because her therapist, her cousins, her friends, Thomas, no one let her talk about herself that way.
So she wasn’t about to let anyone else. “I was a victim of systematic physical, emotional and financial abuse, Inspector Kay.”
The woman reached across the table, rested her hand over Vi’s. “Of course you were. I wasn’t trying to say otherwise. I’m just trying to get the facts.”
“Those are the facts.”
She nodded, but it gave Vi the same feeling as the cops she’d dealt with at Eric’s precinct.
Like they just thought she was crazy. Or overdramatic.
“So, you think the sender was your ex-husband?” She flipped through her notebook. “Eric Carter?”
“Yes. I don’t know who else would have access to those photographs.”
“And do you have any idea of what connection your husband might have to the Plano Police Department return address he used?”
“Ex-husband.”
“I’m sorry.” And she sounded it. Her expression was even a little chagrined. “Does your ex-husband have a connection to Plano that you know about?”
