My Best Friend's Husband by Cassandra Dee

Author:Cassandra Dee [Dee, Cassandra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cassandra Dee Romance

7

Stone

Six months later.

The day has finally come. We never located my missing wife, despite massive effort. They brought out the dogs, the helicopters, and multiple search parties were organized. The police even dredged nearby Lake Kanaweetchee in the hopes of finding a trace of Margaret.

But it’s as if she’s vanished into thin air. I don’t get it. The forest is dark and looming, but someone can’t disappear just like that. These days, the government has military-grade tracking devices, including drones and pressure pads buried beneath the forest floor that can tell the difference between animals and humans. So why couldn’t they find one missing woman?

But it’s true. After the umpteenth search party came back empty-handed, I confronted Sheriff Gould about next steps.

“What do we do?” I asked, my expression half dour, yet also half afraid. “So many people and manhours have been spent, not to mention the bill I’m going to get from the great state of Maine. What’s next?”

The chubby sheriff hitched up his pants and cleared his throat.

“Is this the end of the line?” I pressed. “Please tell me if it is. This has been pure torture.”

Those words were the truth too. Looking for Margaret was torture because I care about her. Sure, we were getting divorced, but that didn’t mean that I hated her guts. She was a decent human being who deserves better than death.

But then Sheriff Gould spoke, tugging a bit on his hat brim.

“You know I’ve been in this business for thirty years now, don’t you, son?” he asks kindly. “Seen a lot of stuff in my day.”

I nod, bracing myself for platitudes. He’s going to say something about “life isn’t fair” or “you have to appreciate what you have while you have it.” I hung my head with despair. This wasn’t the time for moral preaching. If my wife was dead, then I wanted to know.

But instead, Sheriff Gould cleared his throat again and his eyes took on a practical look.

“In my time, I’ve seen some missing persons cases and they usually end badly. But most times, there were puzzle pieces that offered an explanation: a drug dependency, or an abusive significant other. Sometimes they were drifters with long histories of crime. Or in one case, the missing person was in the country illegally, and had somehow bought a firearm in nearby Vermont.”

I nod.

“No, none of that applies to Margaret. She was fine. She was healthy, happy, and had her entire life before her.”

Of course, I don’t mention that we were on the verge of formally divorcing. There’s no need to go there.

Sheriff Gould nods again.

“That’s what makes this case so strange. Your wife didn’t have a mean bone in her body, nor an enemy in the world. She was beloved by the entire town, and worked as the local librarian. We’ve been over her life story many times, and it appears golden for the most part.”

I stare at him, puzzled.

“So what are you saying?”

He shrugs a little.

“I just thought … well, son, have you thought that maybe your wife wanted to disappear?”

I stare at him, my brow furrowed.

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