Dead Serious (A Lorelei Luna Witchy Mystery Book 5) by Sara Bourgeois

Author:Sara Bourgeois [Bourgeois, Sara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-08-06T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

I could tell Reid was getting frustrated as we hit yet another dead end trying to track down Lisa. We’d followed every lead, talked to everyone we could find who knew her, but no one had seen or heard from her since before Julian’s murder. I knew Reid took his job as sheriff seriously, and he hated not being able to solve a case. Especially one this high profile, with his election coming up. The murder of a registered sex offender being displayed as a macabre Halloween scene was big news in our small town.

Donovan Brown, Reid’s opponent, never missed a chance to throw shade about the lack of progress in his quotes in the local paper. I could tell it was getting under Reid’s skin. He didn’t show it outright, keeping up his usual stoic facade, but I knew him well enough to read the subtle signs of tension in the set of his shoulders, the furrow between his brows.

“We’re missing something,” he muttered as we left the tattoo parlor where Lisa worked. Her coworker, Axel, had been hopeful she’d show up for her shift today, but there was still no sign of her.

“We should talk to Starr again,” I suggested. “If she and Lisa were close, maybe she knows something she didn’t want to share before. Maybe she’ll be ready now.”

Reid nodded slowly, his forehead creasing in thought. “Worth a shot, I guess.”

We headed over to Starr’s house, both quiet as we ran through everything we knew so far in our heads. Starr answered the door cautiously, eyeing Reid in his uniform warily.

“Sheriff. Lorelei,” she greeted us flatly. “What can I do for you?”

“We just had a few more questions about Lisa,” Reid said. “Can we come in for a minute?”

Starr stepped aside reluctantly, letting us into the cozy living room. Photos of her kids smiled from the walls and mantle.

“I already told you, I don’t know where she is,” Starr said defensively, arms crossed over her chest.

“We know,” I said gently. “But you two were close. Is there anything else you can tell us about her state of mind lately? Did she mention any plans to leave town for a while?”

Starr shook her head sharply. “No. Like I said, we barely talked since...” Her eyes flicked to Reid then away. “In the past few weeks.”

Reid cocked his head, looking at Starr curiously. “Since what?”

Starr shifted on her feet, glancing between us. She seemed to wrestle with a decision before finally speaking. “Since Julian got out of prison. Lisa was...having a really hard time with that. She didn’t want to talk about it much.”

“But you knew about her history with him,” I probed.

“Yeah, she confided in me back then after he dumped her,” Starr said bitterly. “He was a monster. But after he got arrested, Lisa just wanted to forget about him. Then when he got out early...” She shook her head angrily.

Reid’s brow furrowed. “Hold on. You knew Estock before he went to prison? You never mentioned that.

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