Cold Case at Carlton's Canyon. Rita Herron
our senior year of college.”
“What did her father think about that?”
“At first he wasn’t too happy,” Fisher admitted. “But eventually he realized it made sense. And when a student was raped on campus, he said he was actually relieved she was living with me.” Emotions made his voice warble. “He felt like she was...safe.”
Justin heard the guilt in Fisher’s tone. He understood that kind of guilt. “Do Kelly and her father get along?”
Fisher frowned up at him. “Yeah, why?”
“Anything you tell us about Kelly might help us find her,” Justin hedged. “So they get along?”
Fisher nodded. “Kelly’s mother died a while back and they went through a rough patch. That was before we started dating. But they were both grieving and adjusting. She said the last two years they’ve been close.”
“How did her mother die?”
“Cancer. She was sick a long time.”
So no skeletons that might suggest Lambert had hurt her. “What did Mr. Lambert think about the upcoming marriage?”
Fisher sipped his water again. “He was cool with it.”
“But?”
Fisher shifted in the seat. “At first he wanted her to wait until we saved more money. But Kelly assured him we’d be okay.”
“You have money?” Justin asked.
Fisher shrugged. “A little. I had scholarships for college, so I saved over the summers, enough to get us by until we both started getting paid.”
“So Mr. Lambert gave you his approval?”
“Yes,” Fisher said a little curtly. “Now why all these questions? Shouldn’t you be doing something to find Kelly?”
“We will do everything possible, Mr. Fisher. But like I said earlier, we need to know everything about Kelly to help us.” He hesitated and decided to take another tactic. “You said Lambert wanted you to wait until you were more financially sound. Did he offer to help out financially?”
Fisher shook his head. “He was paying for the wedding, but not our rent or bills. I saved the money for a down payment on a house.”
Admirable of the young man. Maybe he had nothing to do with Kelly’s disappearance.
If not, he’d have to look at the father.
And the serial killer they had nothing on yet...
“How are Lambert’s finances?” Justin asked.
“He owns the bank in town. How do you think?”
“Being a smart ass won’t help you,” Justin said, his voice sharp with warning.
The young man shoved his hands through his hair. “Sorry, I’m just nervous and worried.” He gripped the edges of the seat. “I feel like I need to be out looking for Kelly.”
He’d check Lambert’s financials just to verify Fisher’s statement. If Lambert needed money and had an insurance policy on his daughter, that would provide motive. Although, the man appeared visibly distraught.
If he had money and had nothing to do with her disappearance, and this case wasn’t related to the serial kidnapper, Lambert might receive a ransom call.
Fisher unscrewed the lid of the water bottle and swallowed a huge gulp.
“What about arguments between the two of you?”
A slight hesitation. “We disagreed over seating my uncle Jim next to her cousin Monique ’cause Monique will talk your head off. But that was small stuff. Nothing she’d leave me over.”
“How about exes?”
His lips tightened, and he glanced to the doorway. “Her old boyfriend, Terry, called her a couple of weeks ago. Said he heard she was getting married and wanted to talk to her before we tied the knot.”
“Talk to her about what?” Justin asked.
Fisher shrugged, dropped the water bottle cap, then bent over and picked it up.
“She didn’t tell you?” Justin pushed.
“No,” Fisher said. “I asked her if she still had feelings for him, but she laughed it off.”
“Did he still have feelings for her?”
Fisher toyed with the bottle cap, rolling it between his fingers. “She said he didn’t.”
“But?”
Fisher scowled. “But I saw a text he sent her and it sure as hell sounded like he did.”
The anger in the man’s tone raised Justin’s suspicions. “Did she agree to see him?”
Fisher squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, then opened them and took another sip of water. “I don’t know. When she didn’t come last night, I thought...maybe she’d met up with him.”
Justin pushed a pad in front of Fisher. “I’ll need his name and any information you have on him.”
“I don’t know his number, but his name is Terry Sumter.”
“When was the last time you saw or spoke with Kelly?” Justin asked.
Kelly’s fiancé dropped his head into his hands with a pained sigh. “Yesterday morning for breakfast,” Fisher said. “We had waffles, then she said she had a million things to do—a dress fitting, shopping for bridesmaids’ gifts.... The list went on and on.” Regret flickered in his eyes. “I was only half listening. I had no idea it might be the last time I ever saw her.”
Justin gritted his teeth. The man’s fear sounded sincere. So did his guilt.
But were his guilt and fear real because he was afraid of getting caught?
“She was supposed to come home last night?”
He nodded, rubbing at his eyes. “I called and called and finally I received a text saying she was going to spend the night with one of her girlfriends.”
“Which one?”
“Betty Jacobs,” he said. “But when I called Kelly this morning and she didn’t answer, I tried Betty and she said Kelly hadn’t been there.”
Justin would pull everything he could find on the ex-boyfriend as well as Kelly’s phone records and Fisher’s.
Three different scenarios skittered through his head.
Kelly could have met with the old boyfriend, decided she’d made a mistake in agreeing to marry Fisher and run off with him.
Or Sumter could have tried to convince her to leave with him and either kidnapped or killed her when she’d refused.
Or Fisher could have discovered Kelly had feelings for her ex, and fought with her about it and killed her...either accidentally or in a fit of rage.
* * *
THE PHOTOGRAPH OF Kelly Lambert went up on the wall beside the other girls’.
All such pretty young women with their glossy hair, perfect lips and orthodontist-enhanced smiles.
All girls who were ugly on the inside and deserved to die.
One by one they would leave this world.
And everyone at Canyon High would know the reason why.
Chapter Three
Amanda knew dividing Lambert from Fisher was the best police approach. If one of them was lying or hiding something, separating them was the best way to get the truth. But she didn’t intend to let the Texas Ranger run her investigation or tell her what to do.