Page 43 of Lone Star Rescue

“Cause of death appears to be a blow to the head, so I suspect it would have been fast.” She didn’t address the part about when Nancy could see the remains but instead moved on to the other bit of info they could give her. “We found Sandy Lynn’s remains in a grave near the town of Canyon Ridge,” Bree said, and she waited, maybe to see if Nancy had a reaction to that.

She did.

“Canyon Ridge?” Nancy said on a gasp. “Someone buried her there? Who did that?”

“We don’t know yet, but we’re investigating it,” Bree assured her. She paused. “Sandy Lynn was killed from a blow to the head, and according to the expert who examined her remains, she’d been dead about eighteen years.”

Nancy seemed to freeze, her face going white. She pressed her trembling fingers to her mouth.

“Who would do that to my daughter?” Nancy asked, and her voice was all breath, no sound.

“Again, we don’t know, but we’ll work hard to find out,” Bree answered. “Let’s go back to when she ran away. Tell me about that.”

Maybe Bree was trying to get Nancy to focus on something other than murder and remains, but this trip down memory lane was necessary. It could provide vital clues that could indeed help them identify her killer.

Nancy nodded. Then, nodded several more times before she started. “As I said, Sandy Lynn had had a bad break up with a young man, Parker Livingston. They hadn’t dated long, but I suppose she fell in love with him. She didn’t see the breakup coming, so it crushed her.”

Rafe made a mental note of the boyfriend’s name and wished he could run a quick search on him. Not the time for it though.

“You also mentioned about some girls being mean to her,” Bree prompted. “Do you have their names?”

Nancy shook her head. “I don’t think Sandy Lynn ever mentioned that, but I know she came home crying several times. She commuted to college,” she added. “To save money, she lived at home.”

“Her father didn’t help with her college expenses?” Bree asked.

He saw the flicker of surprise in Nancy’s eyes before her gaze slid away from them. “No. He’s not in the picture.”

Bree moved to the edge of the chair and leaned down, trying to reestablish eye contact with the woman. “Miss Franklin, Sandy Lynn’s remains were identified through DNA. And we know that her father is Wade Wainwright.”

No flicker of surprise this time. Nancy gave a long sigh of resignation. “Yes,” she murmured. Then, her head whipped up. “Does he know?”

“Yes,” Bree verified. “We informed him that she was his daughter, and he knows that she’s deceased.”

Nancy opened her mouth as if ready to blurt out a question, maybe to ask how he’d reacted, but she didn’t end up saying anything.

“You had an affair with Wade Wainwright?” Bree pressed.

“No. Just a one-night deal,” Nancy said, confirming what Wade had told them. “I knew he was married, and at the moment, that didn’t matter. I can’t excuse what I did. But I got Sandy Lynn, so it turned out to be a win-win for me.” Her voice broke. “And now she’s dead.”

More of those silent tears came, and Bree waited before aiming another question at the woman. “Did you tell Mr. Wainwright you were pregnant with his child?”

“No,” Nancy was quick to say. “But I thought she might tell him.”

Rafe and Bree exchanged glances. “She?” Rafe repeated. “You mean Sandy Lynn?”

“No.” Nancy stared at them a moment. “Wade’s wife, Arlene Wainwright.”

Rafe was certain he was just as surprised as Bree. Somehow though, they managed to slap on their poker faces.

“How did his wife know?” Bree asked.

“She said her husband was prone to lapses. That’s what she called it.Lapses,” Nancy muttered it as if the word were profanity. “I truly thought it was love at first sight with Wade and me. Turned out though that it was lust at first sight for him, and the next morning, he left, and I never heard from him again. Then, about three weeks later, his wife showed up.”

“How did she find you?” Rafe wanted to know.

“Apparently, she’d hired a PI to keep tabs on Wade, and the PI gave her my name and the address of the apartmentwhere I lived then. She came to my door unannounced and proceeded to demand that I never see her husband again.”

Rafe had known Arlene well enough to know that fit with the woman’s personality. Appearances meant a lot to her and her socialite family, so she wouldn’t have wanted an ugly divorce or rumors of her husband cheating.

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