Chapter Five #2
As Lucian moved them closer to the couch, so they could sit, Bishop pulled a pair of gloves from her blazer pocket. They were always on her, since she was a detective.
Snapping them on, she began digging in the dead woman’s purse.
And nothing seemed to be standing out.
Bishop laid everything out on the desk and stared down at it. The contents were sparse.
A lipstick. A pen.
A brush. A wallet.
Her phone. Some chewing gum.
Some change. A pack of tissues.
A hair tie. Sunblock.
A pacifier.
Honestly, there was nothing in there that you wouldn’t find in a woman’s purse.
What did her friend want them to find?
Only, Bishop wasn’t one to not be thorough. You didn’t stay a detective by not being curious.
So, she opened the wallet.
Inside, she began pulling out anything that might be what Wynter was talking about. A part of her was curious if Ridge had actually linked up with Wynter in his dream, or if it was just a dream.
At this point, it could go either way.
The man was a tuner for a psychic, and he, himself, had some psychic gifts.
Could this be one?
Had he somehow gone into the static without Lucian, and found his wife?
That was the question.
As she laid out the contents, again, there didn’t seem to be much of anything.
A credit card in her name. Her driver’s license.
Seventy-four dollars. Change.
A bank debit card. A receipt.
But then, that’s when she found it.
Oh, and it was well hidden, too.
Tucked into a tiny pocket, she pulled out some business cards.
Hot damn.
“Uh-oh,” she said, as soon as she recognized them, and what it meant.
This wasn’t good.
His wife rarely made that sound unless she’d just stumbled onto something that was going to be problematic, and on this case…
That was everything.
“What?” Lucian asked, getting up.
Leaving Ridge to sit there, he headed toward his wife to see what it was she was seeing.
Then, he saw it too.
Oh, shit.
In his wife’s hand was an appointment card, and it was dated for next week.
Only, that wasn’t the problem.
Who she had an appointment with absolutely was problematic.
‘Doctor Leon Kenyon’
That was the same shrink that had been seeing the women who had been killed on this case.
Ridge’s wife was seeing a therapist.
As.
A.
Patient.
“What?” Ridge asked, as he was still sitting on the couch and watching them.
At first, they didn’t answer.
Why?
Because Bishop had a bunch of appointment cards from past visits. They went back months. They had four visits on each one, and there were six cards.
One dated back to three months after Wynter had given birth.
When they turned, Lucian had no choice but to ask questions and go there because this was one more thing that had they known, they might have been able to save Wynter.
This wasn’t going to be easy on Ridge.
“Was Wynter seeing a doctor?” he asked.
At the question, Ridge looked confused.
“No. Well, not that I know of. I mean, she had OBGYN appointments for follow-ups after giving birth. I think her last one was last week.”
Yeah, no.
Bishop knew that you didn’t have long-term follow-up visits that far out after giving birth.
After the initial eight-week follow-up, unless there was an issue, or it was your yearly appointment...
But a man wouldn’t know that or even suspect anything if a woman told them that.
“For?” she asked, instead of going there.
Yet.
Ridge looked uncomfortable.
That’s when Lucian stepped in, thinking he was pretty sure what Ridge wasn’t saying. After all, he’d admitted it to him not that long ago.
“Could it be that she was on birth control?” he asked, informing his wife by telling her what Ridge had told him earlier, without actually telling her.
Bishop looked confused.
Oh, and for a couple reasons.
These cards weren’t for that kind of doctor, and the couple had been trying to get pregnant. You didn’t take birth control while actively doing that.
Granted, a psychiatrist could prescribe meds, since they were actual doctors.
“She was?” she asked. “I thought you were trying to…”
And from the look of pain on Ridge’s face, she aborted asking that.
Oh, shit.
That told her that things weren’t good in Hunterhurst-ville, apparently.
Because it was the three of them, Ridge owned it. There was no doubt he could trust Bishop. Maybe his wife had told her, and she could help him figure this out.
“Did you know she was on the pill?” he asked her. “Did you know she was taking them?”
Hell.
No.
Bishop was shocked.
“Uh, no! She never said a word to me. Are you sure she was on them?” she asked, still not sure how this related to a shrink.
Then, he shared how he knew.
“I went to go fill up her car, and I moved the seat back. When I did, a half-used pack of pills fell out of the door pocket. She was taking them, and seeing a doctor, I guess.”
Well, that was a problem. It was clear that she didn’t want to have any kids, but that wasn’t the doctor she had an appointment with, according to the cards.
That led her to believe one thing.
Did this tie to what she’d just said earlier about her being depressed after pregnancy?
Could Wynter really have been?
The therapist card would likely point in that direction, and it made sense. The birth control, not so much.
“That had to be what was happening,” Ridge admitted.
Oh, not even close.
Somehow, this seemed worse. That Wynter wasn’t telling her husband…
That was bad.
Now, Bishop stared at her husband, and the look said it all.
‘Who is going to tell him and break his heart?’
Because she would rock, paper, scissors to not have to be the one who told the man, she hoped her husband would take one for the team.
Or give one.
She was pretty sure both of those scenarios were happening anyway in bed.
“I’ll do it,” he offered.
Yeah, Lucian was going to own this one, since he already was in a ton of shit once Bishop found out what had happened.
Focusing on the man, he tried to find a way.
“Ridge, I have to tell you something.”
The man looked confused.
“What?”
Lucian pulled off the bandage. Knowing this man, he was well aware he’d be hurt by his wife keeping this from him.
“She was seeing a therapist. We found the cards that they book out the appointments on. Four at a time, and she had one this past Monday, and one next week.”
He stared at them.
“What?” he finally asked. “That can’t be right. Why was my wife seeing a therapist?”
Then, it hit him.
“Oh, Jesus.”
Bishop lifted a brow.
“What?”
He came clean.
“She was sneaking around. I thought at first she was having an affair. I thought maybe she was seeing someone. It started about three months after Sophia was born. Jo told me she’d disappear for an hour here and an hour there.
Sometimes, she’d take Sophia for a ‘walk’ but take her purse.
Jo suspected the worst, but that couldn’t be it.
My wife would never cheat on me. Now, I know she was seeing a therapist. That feels… worse.”
Well, they could probably venture to say she was going to the doctor.
For therapy.
“Ridge, it gets worse.”
He didn’t like the sound of that, or what Bishop was likely going to say next.
“How? My wife didn’t want another kid with me, and she was sneaking out to see a therapist without sharing that with me. How does it get worse?”
Bishop told him.
“It’s the same doctor that all of the victims were seeing. Doctor Kenyon was her therapist, too.”
Immediately, they both saw it on his face.
Ridge was up, fast. Oh, that information put some pep in his step—as in rage.
Someone exploded when he put two and two together to come to his own conclusion.
“I’ll fucking kill him!” he said, going to rush past Lucian. Only, the man was quick and grabbed him well before he could get past him.
The whole time, Ridge fought with nothing but desperation.
It was clear that the rage that the man might be the killer had pissed him off.
Big-time.
Even as he tried to get free, Lucian had to shove him onto the couch and laid on top of him in an attempt to keep him from hurting himself, or the doctor.
“Let me up! I’ll kill him! He killed my wife!”
Because she wasn’t getting punched in the face on this one, instead, Bishop parked herself in front of the door, making sure if Lucian lost control, she’d grab him.
As she did, she watched the two men, and this was more than restraint.
There was a familiarity that was consistent with something lovers would do.
Her husband knew exactly where to place his body over this man’s.
That was something that took time to learn, not just a lucky shot at it.
Yeah, Lucian had laid on this man before.
She’d bet on that.
Someone had been under her husband, and not because he had been angry.
Shit.
Pushing that aside, Bishop saw that Ridge was getting the upper hand. He was absolutely getting free and heading her way. That meant she had to act. There was no way that they could let Ridge go after the doctor.
That didn’t bode well for anyone.
Especially since they didn’t have proof.
“Ridge!” Lucian stated. “Stop!” he ordered, as he kept fighting.
Only, the man had anger on his side. In his rage, he had a little more in the tank than Lucian, who was three days past exhausted.
When he hit Lucian in the balls with his knee, the man rolled off of him, and Ridge was up. Immediately, he raced toward the door, but he wasn’t getting past Bishop.
She put him down.
Hard.
Okay, maybe a little too hard.
When he was staring up at her, his eyes were huge, and she was to the point.
“You can’t go kill him! We don’t know if he’s part of this. I know you’re hurt and upset, but this isn’t the way to do this!” she stated. “Calm the fuck down!”
He stared up at her.
“I let her die,” he whispered. “I was with Lucian, and I should have been with her,” he said, sobbing.
Yep.
There was no doubt he’d been ‘with’ Lucian, and that guilt was what he was feeling.
How did she know?
Well, when a woman knew, a woman knew.
Ultimately, she’d have to get to the bottom of that.
Later.
From his spot on the floor, nursing his balls, Lucian crawled toward the man. When he got to him, he pulled Ridge into his body and held him as the man’s sobs wracked his body.