“Done. Any theories?”
Sully met his gaze. “My gut tells me it’s someone she came into contact with at her dive shop, or there in Englewood locally. While out shopping, eating, something. Maybe someone Rob knows who met her. She’s a member of the Chamber of Commerce. She’s spoken publicly at state and county meetings about fish and game laws.”
His heart sank a little as he noted all of that. Yes, they’d had some pretty contentious hearings over the years about fishing regulations and restrictions, the latest one just a few weeks earlier. That was one thing Rob hadn’t mentioned when they talked, although he didn’t blame the man for forgetting it.
He’d have to talk to Rob again about his coworkers, if she’d had contact with any of them.
If any of them had started acting odd following the attack.
And they were already slowly working their way through interviewing customers and students at the shop, a very painstaking process considering just how many customers passed through her establishment on a daily basis.
Not to mention many of their customers were tourists, or part-time residents.
He went around the room, taking everyone’s name and information and getting nearly the same answers from them with few new insights. Leah Erikkson mentioned that Laura had helped her, Tilly, and Loren with a Christmas charity drive in Sarasota. Loren offered up their regular “girls day” outings to get their nails done together and eat. Tilly’s husband, Landry, mentioned that they all attended a Mote Marine charity event a month earlier, a dinner and special marine documentary film screening.
Shayla Daniels arrived straight from the hospital a little before ten, apologizing for being late and offering no new insights beyond what everyone else had already said. She did relate Laura had a few more recollections, but nothing relating to the attack.
Until he had the DNA results, any and every option still lay on the table, frustrating him. Once Laura Spaulding went home, very likely on Monday, she’d be vulnerable to further attack. He was already stretching his superiors’ patience as it was by authorizing overtime for the deputies standing guard at her hospital room.
He closed his notepad and looked at everyone. “I appreciate you all coming here tonight to talk to me. Like I said, I’m not out to conduct a witch hunt. I just want to put this guy away for good before he hurts anyone else.”
“You realize Rob loves her, right?” Shayla quietly asked. “And before this, she really loved him. She was looking forward to their wedding.” Her husband draped his arm around her shoulders and she snuggled close to his side. “They were happy. I hope you’ve completely eliminated him as a suspect.”
He shoved the wistful pang away. Daniels and his wife looked happy, in love. As did the other couples and triads. He nodded. “I do, and I have.”
“He wouldn’t be doing his job if he didn’t ask us all this,” Sully said, nodding his head toward Thomas. “He has to go through all leads.”
“Thank you, Sully.”
Sully was the first to stand, albeit slowly and with some obvious pain. He limped over to Thomas and extended his hand. “I wish I was still on the job so I could help out more.”
Thomas shook with him. “So do I. I suspect we’re going to need all the help, and luck, we can get catching this guy.”
He said his good-byes and headed back to Charlotte County, calling dispatch to let them know he was off the clock and on his way home.
As he drove I-75 south, heading into the dark and desolate section south of the Clark Road exit, his thoughts returned to the night of the attack exactly a week earlier. The sight of fresh blood smeared on the wall, and all over the carpet and runner. The pictures knocked off the wall.
The shaken neighbor.
The door had been unlocked when the neighbor burst in after pounding on it. He tried the knob, found it open, and entered. He didn’t pursue the attacker, who apparently knew about the back door and fled through it.
Now he understood the neighbor’s stumbling over some of his answers when he’d interviewed him. It hadn’t been simple shock, but an attempt to protect Rob and Laura’s privacy.
I need to talk to him again. Tell him I know about the BDSM and see if he’s got any other information that might be helpful.
But it would have to wait until tomorrow. For tonight he simply wanted to go home, get a hot shower, and attempt to fall asleep in his empty bed before his memories of Ella began to eat him alive once more.
Despite his exhaustion, physically and mentally, Rob’s spirits soared a little when Laura carefully made room for him in the bed and patted the mattress next to her.
“Are you sure?”
She smiled. “I’m sure. And you look exhausted. Rest for a few minutes.”
He didn’t argue, carefully squeezing himself against the edge of the bed, trying not to crowd her.
Before, it would have been irrelevant. The way they usually slept closely twined together, they could have been comfortable together in a twin bed.
Mindful of both her physical injuries and her lack of memories, he waited until she snuggled against him to fully relax.
“Don’t let me fall asleep,” he said.
“Why? I think you need to fall asleep for awhile.”
“I have to be at work at six.”
She pressed her face against his side before tentatively resting her hand on his chest. “Just a short nap. Please?”
He closed his eyes. Despite wanting to stay awake to talk to her, he couldn’t help it. The afternoon had been one call after another, exhausting mentally and emotionally, including an accident victim who’d died en route to the hospital in Punta Gorda.
The suddenness of the dream might have shocked him awake had he not been so worn out. He relived the first night they’d spent in the house together, just a couple of months earlier.
He’d surprised her by borrowing one of Tony’s smaller spanking benches and setting it up in the living room. She’d come home from teaching an evening class at the shop to find candles lit, music softly playing, and him sitting on the couch waiting for her.
He pointed at the floor in front of his feet.
With a sexy smile on her face, she left her purse by the door and stripped all the way across the living room, leaving a trail of discarded clothes behind her until she dropped to her knees in front of him, naked.
He stroked her hair. “Such a good girl,” he whispered. He’d laid out her cuffs and play collar and quickly buckled them on her. “Ready to break in our new home, baby girl?”
In the dim, flickering light, her eyes appeared closer to sapphire blue, full of passion and longing as she stared up at him. “Yes, Sir.”
Taking her by the hand, he helped her to her feet. “You’re not going out on the boat tomorrow, are you?”
She grinned, knowing what that meant. “No, Sir.” He didn’t like to mark her up, regardless of her feelings on the matter, if she’d be taking a class out within a couple of days. A bathing suit didn’t do much to conceal marks. And, unfortunately, he had to work the next day. They still had a lot of work to do in the house before they could live there full-time, but for tonight…
Tonight, they’d start making more memories and finally be able to enjoy letting loose in their own space.
He held her close, his hands stroking her back, down to her ass, where he grabbed her flesh and squeezed hard.
She draped her arms around his neck, nearly melting against him with a happy moan as his fingers dug in. He’d always had fantasies about tying up his partners and spanking them, but not until he’d met Laura had any of those fantasies—and more—come true.
Anything he’d wanted to do to her she’d met head-on and even improved upon. She’d talked him into trying knife play, wanting the sensation, not bloodletting, and even arranged for them to take a class on it at a club up in Tampa.