After meeting with his team and making calls from his desk, Brandon spent the better part of his afternoon in his car, trying to track down Ross Collins, who wasn’t at his apartment or at the hardware store where his neighbor told Brandon he worked. Brandon had mixed feelings about Ross Collins. On one hand, there was the rap sheet and the black pickup truck. On the other hand, there was nothing at all directly tying him to Vanessa. But Brandon wanted a face-to-face with the guy. Until Brandon talked to him and ruled him out, he considered him a person of interest.

After striking out with Ross Collins, Brandon went looking for Vanessa’s two confirmed ex-boyfriends. But Cooper and Jason weren’t at work or at home, and if anyone knew where to find them, they weren’t talking.

Finally, Brandon drove out to the West Lake Hills home of Dr. Mason Lloyd. The house was a pink-brick colonial with a three-car garage and a pile of pumpkins on the doorstep. The door was answered by the third Mrs. Lloyd, who turned out to be blond and beautiful and about nine months pregnant. With her perfectly toned arms and flawless skin, Hannah Lloyd looked like an advertisement for Pura Vida. After glancing at Brandon’s police ID, she told him her husband was at their lake house in Marble Falls.

“When do you expect him back?” Brandon asked, noticing the rock on her finger as she fidgeted with the end of her ponytail.

“Sometime today. Tonight, actually.” She scrunched her brows together, somehow without showing a single wrinkle. “Is there a message I can give him?”

“No, thanks.”

On the way to his car, Brandon spied Hannah’s white Mercedes parked inside the open garage, but not Mason’s silver Porsche 911, so that lent credence to her story. Who knew where her husband was—maybe she didn’t even know—but it didn’t look like the man was at home. Marble Falls was more than an hour away. Brandon wondered if Mason Lloyd really was at his lake house, or if that was just an excuse he used when he wanted to spend the night away from his wife.

Brandon returned to the police station frustrated and hungry. It was after five, and he wanted to call Leigh to see if she had plans for dinner. She probably needed to work tonight, like he did, but maybe he could talk her into taking a break. He’d been thinking about her all day, about her lush body and her sweet mouth. And he’d been thinking about the gnawing certainty that she hadn’t wanted to see him last night. Something was wrong. Brandon wanted to figure out what it was, but to do that he needed to get her away from work, where she could loosen up and let her guard down.