If You Know Her: A Novel of Romantic Suspense

lips together. “I can see the differences, but it’s spooky.”
    “You’re telling me.” Ezra grimaced. Then he paused, studying her face. “Are you okay? Do you need a drink?”
    “Fuck, no.” She winced and muttered, “Sorry. I can’t put anything in my stomach, though. I’d puke all over the floor.”
    “Okay.” He leaned back against the desk, setting the picture down, angled away so Nia couldn’t see it.
    Not that it mattered. She wasn’t likely to forget there was a woman out there who was almost her cousin’s twin. A woman who lived in this town where her cousin had died.
    This was too much—She wanted out of here.
Now
.
    But she wouldn’t do that. Not until she’d done what she came for. She’d come for a reason and Nia didn’t walk just because things got hard. She didn’t do it.
    Taking a deep breath, she reached into her bag and pulled out the folder. “I know whoever took over after Sheriff Nielson died says they closed the case. But it doesn’t sit right with me. I can’t buy it. Something … shit. I don’t know, it’s like there are pieces missing from the puzzle and until I’ve got those pieces, I can’t find whatever so-called closure I’m supposed to find to get on with my life. So … well, I’ve been digging around.”
    Ezra narrowed his eyes. “Digging around how?”
    “Online, mostly. Phone calls, sometimes. People give me information—providing I don’t do anything with it.” She gave him a tight smile. “I know people. I’m a photojournalist. For a while, I thought I wanted to be an investigative reporter, but then I figured out I preferred to capture the story from behind the camera. And I’m better at it. Still, I’ve got decent instincts and I know people. Called in some favors.”
    She licked her lips and looked down at the folder. The one holding the information on Kathleen Hughes. With a shaking hand, she held it out to the sheriff, watched as he took it. But as he flipped it open, she looked away, unable to watch his face. “I’ve been following up on missing persons reports and women who’ve been assaulted and murdered. Nothing really clicked with anybody until I saw her. She doesn’t really fit the profile right. She doesn’t look anything like my cousin. She was younger, into parties, living hard. If I had been looking to connect them, I never would have.”
    From the corner of her eye, she saw him flipping through it.
    “So why did you?” he asked, his voice absent, distracted.
    She wasn’t fooled. When she shot a look at him, she could tell he was taking in everything. Everything about the victim—about the information in his hands.
    She saw the exact moment he found what had jumped out at her—what had made
her
connect things. And then she waited for him to tell her she really needed to let go … to move on her with her life.
    Instead, he cocked his head and plucked the report out, reading it over a second time.
    “Her hair was cut,” he murmured. He flicked a glance at her.
    She swallowed and nodded.
    “Not all of it—the guy probably didn’t want to get anything on him. Looks like …”
    “He messed her up good,” Nia said, shrugging. “I’m not delicate, Sheriff King. I’ve seen a number of dead bodies, more than I care to remember. But I’m not delicate. She would have had blood and brain tissue all over her. If he’d been found hauling
that
around …”
    “Wouldn’t be wise,” Ezra murmured.
    “There’s more,” she said quietly.
    He flipped it over and when he came to the part where a roommate mentioned a bracelet missing, his eyes narrowed.
    “She was wearing some pretty expensive bling—the bracelet was made custom for her, although it wouldn’t have been obvious at first—it was engraved on the inside with the words,
For my angel
,” Nia said.
    She hadn’t known about that until she talked to the woman’s roommate a few days later. It had been inscribed with
For my angel
—it had been a gift from an old boyfriend, the doctor in Detroit. She’d dropped the boyfriend, kept the bling. Nia had gotten a few more details from the roommate as well—the bracelet
wasn’t
one of a kind, but there were two details that might as well make it that way.
    It had been inscribed and set with a stone … on the inside. A sapphire, a small one.
    Kathleen’s birthstone. Apparently the doctor had wanted her to have something unique—she’d wanted the bracelet, but he’d wanted it to be special for