The Unseen Neighbor by Kate Bold

Author:Kate Bold [Bold, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kate Bold
Published: 2024-06-12T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

Colt's fingers dance over the laptop keyboard with a restless energy, the dim glow of the screen casting long shadows across the sparsely furnished motel room. It's that time of the afternoon where the sun is too tired to fight the creeping dusk, and the room swims in an uneasy half-light. He should walk away, he knows; let Eliza Bennett peel back the layers of her own twisted marital saga. But curiosity, that sly devil, hooks him deep—Michael Bennett harbors secrets, and they're dressed in the enigmatic guise of Rachel Wells. Colt can’t help but be curious himself.

He clicks through pages, databases, social media platforms—any digital footprint that Rachel might have left behind. The internet, it seems, is both a graveyard and a treasure trove, and Colt is a seasoned seeker of buried truths. His search brings up a high school yearbook from Stoneycreek—a cheerleader, pompoms in hand, beams out from a page adorned with spirited slogans. That face, those eyes—they match the description he was given of Rachel Wells. The pieces start falling into place, each new discovery a weight added to the scale, tilting towards the inevitable conclusion that there's more to her than meets the eye.

The room suffocates with the thickening plot, the walls closing in as if they, too, are curious about this woman who has set Eliza's life on a precarious edge. And Colt, despite his better judgment, leans into the mystery, his mind weaving connections where there may be none. Yet, he can't shake off the feeling that Rachel Wells is the key to understanding the strange charade playing out in Barren Pines.

"Rachel Wells," he murmurs under his breath, a mantra for the chase. The name feels like a riddle wrapped in a conundrum, each syllable a step deeper into the labyrinth. Colt shakes his head, a silent reprimand to not get lost in the maze of conjecture. Focus. Facts. These are the tools of his trade, and he must wield them with precision.

He bookmarks the yearbook page, a digital breadcrumb to trace his way back when needed. There's a story here, one that goes beyond cheerleading chants and teenage smiles. He's sure of it. And as the light outside finally succumbs to the night, Colt feels the pull of the unknown, the allure of the dark edges of human nature, where secrets lie in wait, ready to pounce on the unwary.

Colt clicks on the next link, his fingers tapping a staccato rhythm against the laptop's keys. He finds himself staring at an archived local news report. The headline screams of tragedy: "Local Teen Missing: Community in Shock." A chill crawls up his spine as he reads. There's a picture of a girl with auburn hair and a hopeful smile – Kailey Matthews, the missing nineteen-year-old.

Kailey had been a cheerleader too, her life interwoven with Rachel's in the tight-knit fabric of Stoneycreek High School memories. Colt scans the text, and there it is, a quote from Rachel Wells, painted as the grieving friend.

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