The First Wife by Erica Spindler Page A

had said about his first
     wife leaving him. “Are you talking about True Abbott?”
    Her stricken expression said it all.
    “Stephanie!”
    “I’m sorry, I have to go.”
    She pulled out her order pad and pen, wrote on it, then laid it on the table. “My
     number’s on there. Call me. I’m so sorry.”

 
    CHAPTER NINE
    The cold slapped Bailey in the face as she exited Faye’s diner. She stuffed the ticket
     with the waitress’s number into her jacket pocket and started toward her SUV.
    Only to find Billy Ray Williams there, his cruiser blocking her vehicle, the engine
     running. She’d had enough of the man and his games, and strode across the parking
     lot and rapped on his window.
    He lowered it. He’d removed his sunglasses and she saw that he had broad, even features
     and brown eyes, weathered at the corners from years of squinting in the sun. An everyman
     sort of face.
    He smiled pleasantly. “Hello, Mrs. Abbott.”
    “Cut the crap. It’s you, isn’t it?”
    “Me who what?”
    “Believes Logan’s first wife is a third missing woman.”
    “I’m not alone in that belief.”
    “What game are you playing here?”
    “This is no game. Ask your husband about True.”
    “Don’t tell me what to do in my marriage.”
    “Did he tell you he was investigated in her disappearance?”
    He hadn’t. But it didn’t matter. “She left him.”
    “Did she?”
    “Yes.”
    “Get in the car.”
    She laughed, the sound disbelieving. “You’re out of your mind.”
    “Get in and I’ll tell you everything you want to know. I’ll tell you the truth.”
    She laughed. “The truth according to you, Chief Williams. Not interested.”
    “I’m the law.”
    “That’s supposed to mean something? You can’t be the law and have an agenda.”
    “Everyone has an agenda. Mine’s uncovering the truth. Bringing it to light.”
    Instead of acknowledging him, she spun around and stalked to the Range Rover.
    “Do you want to live, Mrs. Abbott?”
    She stopped. Looked back at him in disbelief. “Are you threatening me?”
    He laughed. “Hardly. Just a friendly heads-up.”
    She unlocked the driver-side door, yanked it open. “Leave me alone.”
    “Death follows him. It follows that family. You have to ask yourself why.” He stuck
     his head out the window and called after her. “Ask him why he lied when we interviewed
     him. Why his story kept changing. Does an honest man do that? A concerned husband?”
    “You had better move your vehicle now, or I’m going to ram it. Don’t think I won’t.”
    Bailey slid in, inserted the key and the powerful engine roared to life. Shaking with
     anger, she shifted into reverse. In that same moment, Billy Ray flipped on his cherry
     lights and tore out of the parking lot.

 
    CHAPTER TEN
    The courtyard fountain mocked Bailey with its rhythmic trickle and splash. The sun,
     playing peekaboo with the scattering of clouds, seemed to taunt her for her agitation.
    Since returning from town, she had been unable to sit still. She had wandered, inside
     to outside, upstairs to downstairs. Her mind moving quicker than her feet. It spun
     with the things Billy Ray Williams had said, the things Stephanie had shared.
    Four years. Two women missing.
    Some thought True made three.
    Logan had been questioned in his wife’s disappearance. He’d lied to the police, changed
     his story. Why would he have done that? She rubbed her forehead. True hadn’t disappeared.
     She’d left of her own free will.
    True had been having an affair. Logan had told her so.
    “Death follows him. It follows that family.”
    What did that mean?
    And why hadn’t Logan told her any of this?
    What else hadn’t he told her?
    A lot, she acknowledged. But what did she expect? She had married a stranger.
    No. Bailey drew a deep, steadying breath. She knew him. What she needed to know anyway—that
     he was strong but gentle, loving and compassionate. He understood loss, because he
     had lost so much. He had