Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 78631 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78631 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
She reached for the device and found a note beneath.
Took Benedict’s burner to Trees. Call me when you wake. I’ll fill you in.
-N
Haisley sighed, torn between lingering in the afterglow and facing reality. Her emotions were a tangled mess—elation at finally being with Nash, fear of what their revelations meant for their future, and a gnawing worry that the secret she kept could unravel everything.
Forcing herself to push all that aside, she opened her phone to text Nash. Social media alerts tagging the Oakfield Mall exploded across her screen.
The first one read: Land developer George Benedict and his wife, Mila, found dead in a suspected murder-suicide.
Shock doused her veins with ice. “Oh, my god…”
Seriously? Was this news report actually real?
The next alert confirmed the first, even more brief and blunt. Lafayette mogul George Benedict’s mansion burns to ground, two bodies recovered.
As soon as she swiped that notification away, another took its place: Police confirm: Benedict dead from self-inflicted gunshot. Woman’s remains, believed to be his wife, found in rubble.
More headlines filled Haisley’s screen. Frantically, she scrolled, trying to piece together this horrible development. Details were still sketchy, but according to police reports, the neighbors called 911 about three thirty this morning after the blaze engulfing the Benedict mansion awakened them. By the time fire trucks rolled up and put out the inferno, nothing was left of the house. The female inside, presumed to be Mila, was found in the master bedroom, burned beyond all recognition. Mr. Benedict’s body was found on a chaise lounge by the pool without a single burn. He clutched a gun in one hand, dead from an apparent gunshot to the head.
Haisley gaped. What had happened to make Mr. Benedict snap?
Last night, a sobbing Mila had nearly spotted her and Nash at the office…then what? Had she gone home and confronted her husband about whatever had upset her? Haisley had sensed tension between them all week and felt sorry for the bubbly woman saddled with the curmudgeonly asswipe. Had they fought? Had it escalated into violence? Had George Benedict been so horrified by whatever he’d done to her that he’d taken his life?
Clutching her phone and trying to stop her head from spinning, Haisley leapt out of bed. What the hell should she do? What could she do?
She opened her messages to text Nash with the news, but her phone buzzed with an incoming call from a number only identified as Oakfield Mall.
“Hello?”
“Haisley Rowe?” asked a frantic female.
“Yes. Who’s this?”
“My name is Julia. I was the assistant to Ben Yuslav, the former manager of Oakfield Mall.”
The girl Ethan had gotten off at her desk with his hand down her panties. “Yes. Mr. Garrison mentioned that he’d…spoken to you after Mr. Yuslav abruptly quit.”
“That’s who gave me your number. Um…the press is beginning to swarm the mall.”
“This early?”
“News is breaking. As soon as I heard, I came to work to see if there was anything I could do. Then the press showed up… They’re asking if anyone representing the mall will make a statement. What’s happened to Mr. Benedict and his wife… It’s terrible. I don’t know what to say or do.”
The poor girl sounded young and panicked. Haisley wasn’t sure she still had a job since her boss was now dead. And who owned the mall now that he was gone? But if the investigation into the disappearances of the five missing women was going to continue, she had to run interference and buy them some time.
But this conversation brought up a possibility Haisley hadn’t considered… If Mr. Benedict was guilty of masterminding the trafficking ring, was he dead because Mila had discovered his crimes and he’d shut her up? That seemed possible. And if Haisley and Nash were ever going to find his victims, they had to pinpoint every clue possible before the police came in and took Benedict’s phone, computer, and personal effects.
“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” Haisley told Julia. “Don’t say anything to the reporters on the record. Just find a place to hold a press conference inside the mall before it opens. I’ll be there no later than eight.”
“Thanks. I really appreciate it. I didn’t know who else to turn to and…”
“You did the right thing, calling me.”
Haisley rang off. Her hands shook as she typed out a quick text to Nash.
OMG, Benedict is dead. Murder-suicide suspected. Social media is exploding. I’m off to the mall to handle press.
His reply came moments later:
I just read about the incident. Be careful. I have bad vibes about this. All Trees and I have managed to get from the burner phone so far is proof Benedict was having an affair. I’ll update you when we know more.
As texts went, it wasn’t romantic, but that was hardly the point now. He was working, just like she was. They’d talk about them later.