Page 24 of The Girl He Wanted

Mark shook his head. "No, I'm sorry. I don't know anything else about it."

"Thank you," Paige said, feeling a sudden note of hope. They’d been hitting dead ends before, but maybe they had a way into this case. She and Christopher left the house, heading back towards the car.

"That fear of heights could definitely be significant," Christopher said, unlocking the car doors. He sounded as though he thought they might have worked out what this was about, at last.

Paige nodded. "And the fact that only a few people knew about it could mean that the killer knew Bea personally."

"Agreed," Christopher said as they got into the car. "And this group therapy she mentioned could be a lead."

"I think it's potentially a better lead than any of her friends," Paige said. "If one of those had a motive to kill Bea, then it would have come up in the initial police investigation. With a therapy group, we potentially have a whole pool of people connected to Bea explicitly through her fear of heights."

As Christopher started to drive back in the direction of the Winterly PD, Paige started to look into any possible therapy groups that Bea Milling might have been a part of.

She started with a simple online search, but "honeysuckle therapy group" didn't yield any results. She tried a few variations of the name, but nothing came up.

Paige was about to give up when she came across a result for the Honeydew Therapy Group. Paige started to look into it further and found that it was a support group that offered group therapy for various mental health issues, including phobias. She quickly jotted down the address and phone number, feeling a sense of excitement building within her.

Paige looked for details of the person who ran the group. After a few more minutes of scrolling through their website, she found the name of the group leader, Lauren Michaels. There was even a picture of her on the website, a middle-aged woman with kind eyes and a warm smile.

Paige wrote down her name and phone number, feeling like they were finally making some progress in the case. The Honeydew Therapy Group could be the key to unlocking what had happened to Bea Milling.

"I think we need to talk to Lauren Michaels. Maybe she'll be able to shed some light on anyone in the group who might have wanted to hurt Bea."

Christopher nodded, a determined look on his face. "Let's do it. We need to find out who did this before anyone else gets hurt."

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Paige tried to look into the group a little more. It was getting close to lunchtime now, but Paige didn't want to break off from this when it seemed like they had finally found a lead that might get them somewhere.

She found a social media page for the group, and on it, she found a couple of pictures with Bea Milling in them. There were also a couple of references there to someone called "El." That name caught Paige’s attention instantly, making her hope. Was it possible that it was a nickname for Ellie Kane? It was a stretch, when Ellie was a member of a climbing group, but if itwasher, then they would have found a link between the victims, one that might explain the killer's whole motivation and possibly lead them to him.

As they drove, Paige called the number listed for the Honeydew Therapy Group. A woman answered.

"Hello, Honeydew Therapy Group, can I help you?"

"My name is Agent Paige King. I'm with the FBI. I'd like to speak to Lauren Michaels, please."

It seemed better to call ahead to let Lauren know that she and Christopher were coming.

"Oh, I'm sorry," the woman said, sounding hesitant. "Lauren's not available right now."

Paige frowned. "Is she out of town or something?"

"No, but she went home. She isn’t feeling very well. Perhaps you could try another time?"

Paige wished that it were that simple.

“We’re looking for someone who might be able to talk to us about a therapy group that included Bea Milling,” Paige said.

There was a pause on the other end of the line. “That would have been Lauren’s group.”

“And no one else was involved in running it?”

“She was the facilitator for it.”

Then they didn’t have any other options. She couldn't just leave this before she had some kind of answer, not when the killer could already be out there somewhere, selecting another victim.

"Would it be possible for us to get a home address for her?" Paige asked. "This is urgent."

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