Page 23 of The Girl He Wanted

"Yeah, it was just ... it was the best I was going to get, you know? I kept hoping that eventually ..."

Paige nodded, understanding. Mark had clearly still been in love with her. He'd definitely been close to her. If the local cops hadn’t already cleared him, that might have made him a suspect because she might have wondered if he’d tried to reignite things and been shot down. As it was, though, it meant that he was in a good position to answer questions about Bea beyond simply the one that they'd come here to ask.

"Can you tell me a little bit about her? What was she like?"

Mark hesitated for a moment before answering. "She was amazing. Beautiful, smart, funny."

"And can you think of anyone who might have wanted to hurt her?" Christopher asked. It was a standard question, but Paige doubted that it would get them much.

"No, of course not. Like I said, if I knew who had done this ..."

Then he would have reacted with violence. Maybe it was just as well that he didn't have any sense of who might have killed his ex-girlfriend.

"Do you know if she's had any more recent boyfriends?" Paige asked.

Mark shook his head. "I don't really keep tabs on her personal life anymore. We were just friends."

Paige nodded, but she didn't believe him. It seemed unlikely that he wouldn't know if she had started dating someone else, especially if he still had feelings for her. But she didn't press him on it. She wanted to focus on the thing she'd come there to ask.

"You mentioned in your statement that she was afraid of heights."

“That? You want to know about that?”

“It might be important,” Paige said.

Mark nodded. "Yeah, she was. She hated going up tall buildings or even just being on a ladder."

"Do you know if there was any specific reason why?" Christopher asked.

Mark shook his head. "No. She just said it made her feel dizzy and sick. Just the thought of it would be enough to stress her out."

It sounded like quite a powerful phobia to Paige. One that seemed significant, given the location of her death.

One question seemed crucial, given the depth of that fear.

"Did people know about her fear?" Paige asked. "Was it something that just anyone could have found out about?"

Mark shook his head. "No, not really. She didn't like to talk about it much. Only a few people knew."

"Who knew about it?" Paige pressed.

Mark thought for a moment. "Well, I knew, obviously. A few close friends. Her parents too. I mean, we talked about it a few times, but it wasn't like she went around telling everyone. She was embarrassed about it, I think."

Paige nodded, trying to think. It seemed like too much of a coincidence that both victims had been killed at a high altitude, and now they knew that Bea had a severe fear of heights. She had a hunch that this was significant.

"Okay, thank you for your time, Mr. Stoltz," Christopher said, standing up. "We might have a few more questions for you in the future, but for now, we'll let you get back to your evening."

"Sure, no problem," Mark said, standing up as well. "I hope you find whoever did this."

Paige got up to leave. She was halfway to the door when Mark spoke again.

"Wait a minute. There's one other group of people who might have known. Bea said something about getting some kind of group therapy for her fear. She wanted to find a way to overcome it."

Paige turned back to face Mark, her interest piqued. "Do you know what kind of group it was?"

Mark shook his head. "No, sorry. I don't remember. I think the name was something like honeysuckle, honeymead, something along those lines. But I do remember her mentioning it a couple of times."

Paige's interest was piqued. "Do you know the name of anyone in the therapy group or where they meet?"

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