CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Renee Beaumont’s cottage looked smaller with the evening pressing down around it.
Selena parked behind Connor’s SUV at the edge of the lane and sat for a moment with both hands on the wheel.
The dressing at the back of her head pulled when she turned to look at the house.
Light showed through lace curtains in the front room, but no movement crossed behind them.
The garden gnomes stood in their rows and clusters, their painted faces catching the last of the day.
Connor was already out of his vehicle.
He stood by the gate, hat in one hand, phone in the other, looking at the cottage as if it had shifted while he was away. Earlier that day, the place had seemed odd. Now it looked arranged. Every cheerful figure in the flower beds seemed to be watching.
Selena climbed out and crossed to him. “Where’s Marlene?”
“With Arnold at the department. She’s safe.” Connor put his phone away. “I told him not to question her until you get there.”
“That’s the first sensible thing you’ve said today.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“Why are we here, Connor?”
His mouth moved as if he might argue. Then he looked back at the house. “It’s Renee. The killer is Renee.”
Selena stopped beside him. “You’re sure?”
“I’m sure enough to be here.”
The lane behind them stayed empty. A dog barked somewhere beyond the trees, then another answered farther off. The cottage did not react to any of it. Selena kept watching the front windows.
Connor said, “Renee was close enough to Sandra and Janet to hear things no one else was hearing. I’m convinced Janet must have confided in her. That’s how she learned that Victor was having an affair.”
Selena looked at him. “Marlene told you as much?”
“Marlene came home to catch Victor cheating. She found him dead. She panicked and drove back to her mother’s. But before that, she’d suspected Victor was having an affair with Janet Holt.”
“Sandra’s sister?”
“Yeah.”
Selena pictured Sandra Holt on the sofa, held between Janet and Renee. Janet quiet and close. Renee attentive, almost maternal. At the time, grief had made that scene ordinary. Now it began to look crowded with motives.
“That’s the connection we needed between Warren and Victor!” Selena said. “Warren’s sister-in-law sleeping with Victor!”
Connor continued, “Renee was right there with Sandra after Warren died. She knew what Sandra thought Warren had done. She knew who was hurt, who was angry, who felt humiliated.”
“Knowing pain isn’t the same as murder, though.”
“No. But Gary Beaumont drowned after Renee believed he had eyes for Mavis Turnberry. That accident meant he was never able to answer for what he’d done. Warren was shot after Sandra found out he was sleeping around. Victor was shot after Marlene thought he was cheating with Janet.”
“Gary’s death was a year ago.”
“And a year later nearly to the day, Renee decides to kill other men to answer for Gary’s crimes.”
Connor looked at her then. The defensiveness she expected was absent. Only urgency remained.
“I was wrong about Marlene,” he said. “I let knowing her get in the way. But this isn’t me swapping one suspect for another. Renee had access to Sandra, Janet, and Marlene’s grief. She knew where the wounds were.”
Selena folded her arms against the cooling air. “This is a good theory, Connor.”
“Renee finds women who’ve been betrayed or think they have. She gets close. Comforts them. Listens. Then the husband dies.”
Selena remembered Renee offering soft little openings when they visited Warren’s wife. Sandra stepping through them. At the time, it had seemed like support. Maybe it had been rehearsal.
Connor said, “Renee wanted us looking at affairs. Not because the wives were guilty. Because she wanted the men judged.”
“Punished,” Selena said.
His gaze sharpened. “Exactly. In a way she couldn’t punish her dead husband for his affair.”
Selena’s mind turned to the blank pages left at both scenes. “The blank letters could be the apology she never got from Gary. The confession she thinks every one of them owes their wives.”
A chill moved across Selena’s skin that had nothing to do with the evening. Day by day the case had been offering them different villains. Ray Parkinson. Carl Higgins. Marlene. Each one angry enough to tempt them. Each one with a reason that could be placed neatly on a board.
Renee had never needed to stand in the center. She only had to stand beside the person in pain.
“Are you sure about this?” Selena asked.
“I am.”
“I hope you’re right.”
Connor turned to face her fully. “You need to trust me.”
The words carried more than the case. They both knew it.
Selena looked toward the cottage, then back at him. “I’ll trust the evidence. Right now, this is a good lead.”
He almost smiled. Almost.
They went up the path together. The gnomes lined the way, little red hats and frozen grins on both sides. Selena noticed one near the porch that looked newly painted, its cheeks brighter than the others, fishing rod held in both hands.
Gary had loved fishing.
She filed the thought away.
Connor knocked.
No answer.
He knocked again, harder. “Renee? It’s Sheriff Chase. Open up.”
The house remained still.
Selena moved to the side window and looked through a gap in the curtain. The living room lamp was on. The couch was empty. The tray from their earlier visit had been cleared away. Gary Beaumont’s photograph sat above the fireplace; his smiling face fixed toward the room.
“Anything?” Connor asked.
“No.”
Connor tried the door. Locked.
“Her car?” Selena asked.
Connor moved to the drive, then shook his head. “Not here.”
Selena looked at the lane. “If she’s our killer and she thinks we’re closing in because we were here before, she may run.”
Connor had already taken out his phone. “Or she may be moving faster to her next victim.”
He dialed.
Selena stepped close enough to listen.
A woman answered on the fourth ring, voice wary. “Hello?”
“Sandra, it’s Connor Chase.”
A pause. “Sheriff?”
“I need to ask you something, and I need you to think carefully.”
“What’s happened?”
“Is Renee with you?”
“No. Why would she be?”
“When did you last see her?”
“Earlier today. She came by after breakfast. She said she wanted to check on me.”
“What time did she leave?”
“I don’t know. Around lunch, maybe. Sheriff, what’s going on?”
Connor glanced at Selena. “Did Renee mention anyone having an affair lately? Someone in town?”
Silence.
Selena watched Connor’s face. His jaw tightened slightly.
Sandra said, “That’s an odd question.”
“I know. Answer it anyway.”
“Well, yes. She did, actually. Just today, in fact.”
“Who?”
“A man named Bradley Atkins.”
Selena’s attention sharpened.
Connor put the phone on speaker. “What did she say about him?”
“That he was stepping out on his wife with some school teacher. I don’t know if that’s true. Renee heard it from someone at Melania’s, I think. Overheard, I mean.”
“What else?”
“She said his poor wife was being made a fool of.” Sandra sounded uncomfortable now. “She kept going on about it.”
“How?”
“I don’t know. Just too much. I told her I didn’t know the people, and she said that was exactly the problem.”
Selena and Connor looked at each other.
Connor said, “What did she mean?”
“I thought she was just upset about Warren and Victor. Renee gets intense sometimes.”
“Did she say where this Bradley lives?”
“No. But she asked if I knew him. I said I didn’t. Then she asked if I knew his wife. I didn’t know her either. Sheriff, is Renee in trouble?”
Connor’s eyes stayed on Selena. “We need to find her.”
“Why?”
Selena watched a moth strike the porch light and fall to the boards.
“If she comes back, call me immediately.”
“Connor, you’re scaring me.”
“It’ll be okay, Sandra. Just do as I ask. Goodbye.”
He ended the call.
For a second, only the crickets spoke.
Selena grabbed her radio. “Cheryl, this is Raven.”
Cheryl answered at once. “Go ahead.”
“Do you know a Bradley Atkins?”
“Bradley Atkins?” A pause followed. “Yeah. Factory worker. Lives over on Briar Lane, just off Lime Street. Why?”
Connor was already moving toward his SUV.
Selena keyed the radio again. “Married to a Sheila Atkins?”
“That’s him. What’s going on?”
“Send the address to Connor and me. Now.”
“Agent Raven.”
“Now, Cheryl.”
“I’m doing it.”
Selena followed Connor to the vehicles. “Tell Arnold to send units but no sirens until they’re close. If Renee’s there, I don’t want her hearing half the county coming. She’ll have a gun. We’re not far.”
Cheryl’s voice came back tighter. “Copy that.”
Connor opened his driver’s door. “I know the road.”
“I’ll follow.”
“No. Ride with me.”
Selena stopped. “Why?”
“Because I know these roads better. If you follow, we lose time. And if we’re right, Bradley Atkins is out of time.”
She did not have time to get annoyed at that.
Selena ran around to the passenger side and climbed in. Connor started the SUV before she had the door fully closed. The tires spat gravel as he reversed, swung hard, and sent them down the lane toward the county road.
The radio crackled again with Cheryl reading the address. Selena wrote it on the back of an old envelope from the console.
Connor pressed harder on the accelerator. Fields blurred past on both sides. The SUV rocked as they hit a dip in the road, Selena catching the dash with one hand.
“Careful,” she said.
“You want to get there too late?”
“I want to get there in one piece.”
Connor eased back by a fraction, but not much.
The sky ahead had deepened into blue-gray. Porch lights shone from houses as they entered the edge of town. Selena watched each driveway, each sidewalk, each parked car, her mind already building the scene before they reached it.
A house. A wife. A husband. A woman with a gun and a belief that killing could be dressed up as mercy.
Connor picked up the radio. “All units responding to Briar Lane, keep back until Agent Raven or I call it in. No sirens. No visible approach if you can avoid it.”
Arnold’s voice came through. “Copy. We’re two minutes behind you.”
Selena checked her weapon, then secured it again.
Connor glanced at her. “You good?”
“My head still hurts, but apart from that…”
“Hold onto your lunch.”
The SUV turned forcefully onto Lime Street, then took the next right.
Briar Lane opened ahead, quiet and residential, porch lights glowing under the last band of evening. Connor killed the headlights halfway down the street and coasted toward the curb.
At the far end, a brick house sat behind a white mailbox shaped like a little barn.
Selena saw a parked car across from it.
Empty. She pointed at it. Connor nodded. “That’s Renee’s. I’m sure of it.”
Selena keyed the radio. “Suspect vehicle located outside Bradley Atkins’s house. Units stage one block out. No sirens. We’re approaching.”
The front path to Bradley Atkins’s house lay open beneath the porch light.
Connor stopped the SUV.
Selena already had her hand on the door.
“We move quiet,” she said.
Connor nodded once.
They stepped out into the dark and started toward the house.