A young woman.
A woman I had never seen before.
“Do you know her?”
I shook my head.
“No.”
Detective Hayes looked at the photo again.
“That’s what we thought.”
“Why?”
He turned the picture around.
On the back was handwriting.
My husband’s handwriting.
And one sentence:
“This is what happens when they don’t obey.”
My blood ran cold.
“Detective…”
He didn’t look away.
“Your husband may not have done this only to you.”
I stared at him.
“What are you saying?”
He opened the folder wider.
Inside were several more photographs.
Different women.
Different dates.
Different locations.
And then I saw the final page.
A report.
A missing person’s report.
Filed two years earlier.
The name at the top made my heart stop.
Because I knew that name.
Everyone in town knew that name.
It belonged to the first wife of the man I married.
