“In this place, if you want privacy, then you walk.” Saige stepped around his car. “C’mon.”
Five minutes later, they followed Saige onto a footpath that led into the forest and came to a stop.
“We’re hidden from the road here,” Saige said.
He glanced around and turned to Alex. “The statement can wait...Tell me, how close were you to Jocelyn?”
Again, he caught the man off guard from the look of shock on his face. “I wasn’t close to her at all. She made my brother’s life hell. I was glad to see the back of her.”
“What about you, Saige? Did you have any run-ins with her over Quinten?”
Her brows drew together, but she shook her head. “I don’t think so. My memory is still elusive, so who knows?” She held her hands out and then let them drop to her sides.
“Jocelyn saw them the day before Saige went back to school. She found out about Quinten seeking a divorce and came by Saige’s house steaming. Saige and Quinten had their arms around each other.” Alex sighed. “Jocelyn called them a few choice words before she took off, telling them that they’d be sorry...Why the questions?”
Coulter looked between them both. “Jocelyn has been dead for around seve
n years.”
Saige didn’t move or really react. Obviously, she had no memory of the woman to put a face to the news. Alex, on the other hand, lost all color and stared at him in obvious shock before he tried to blink it away, but it didn’t quite work.
The man moved to a tree stump and dropped his ass on it, his head went into his hands.
“Alex?” Saige queried, dropping to her knees in front of him. “I’m sorry.”
Alex shook his head. “It’s just a shock that’s all. All these years…I thought she left my brother for a more exciting life when in fact she hadn’t gotten much of one.” He squeezed Saige’s hand and turned to face Coulter. “Do you know how she died?”
Coulter contemplated what to say without saying too much. “Without getting into specifics, let’s just say the ME thinks it is a homicide. She was dumped…or rather buried…close to the river off Morris Bridge Road in Tampa. Some campers found her five days ago.”
Amber believed it was attempted strangulation. Jocelyn’s head had been nearly severed—just like the young woman they found yesterday. It intrigued him that bones held so much information after being buried for years.
“How do you know its Jocelyn?” Saige asked.
“The ME matched the partial serial number in the breast implants to Jocelyn, and then the dentist records. Her medical records also indicated pins in her left arm and leg. They all matched.”
“She was in a car accident as a teenager,” Alex confirmed what Coulter already knew.
“You’re thinking that her death is connected to Quinten,” Saige observed. “Why?”
Alex’s head snapped around to Coulter. “Connected? How? Quinten was locked away then.”
“I know it wasn’t Quinten, and I’ve never been completely sold on the idea that Quinten was guilty of the murders and your kidnapping.” He nodded toward Saige. “There’s always been something that niggled at me about the case. But everyone else got hung up on his DNA. Getting back to Jocelyn and how she was found, I think whoever put her there went back and uncovered enough so that she’d be found. I don’t believe in coincidences.”
Saige looked surprised, but Alex became angry. He stood with his fists flexed at his sides before he turned and started pacing.
As Coulter watched Alex walk out his aggression, he debated showing them a picture of the girl they found to see if she was familiar. So far, they had no leads on her identification and his gut churned with the knowledge that she was connected somehow to all this.
He was going completely out on a limb with Saige and Alex by discussing his doubts and the case, but he was willing to trust them because they all wanted the same thing—the truth.
Pulling out his cell, he unlocked the screen and before he could change his mind, opened up the image of the young woman’s face. Amber had cleaned her up the best she could and the sheet had been pulled up to her chin. His stomach rolled when he thought of the ruin below that sheet…the bastard had been angry and violent. If he did nothing else, he needed to get justice for her—the victim.
“I want to ask you to take a look at this picture.” He kept his cell to his chest while he spoke. “And tell me if you recognize her.”
Saige eyed him warily while Alex just stared at him.
“She’s dead?” Alex asked.
“Yes.”