Free Second Chance by Christy Reece

is their primary motive.”
    Cole gave a slow nod. “Based on what I’ve read and heard so far, I agree that Elizabeth Fairchild is evil. However, I also agree that she’s too obvious. Sounds like she’s perfectly capable of doing something like this, though.”
    “That’s what Keeley keeps saying,” Eden said. “She believes Elizabeth is vicious enough, but that she wouldn’t because of the publicity.”
    “What are your thoughts about the two abductions being tied together?” Cole asked.
    “Got to be related in some way,” Jordan said. “And it reinforces the idea that someone wants to see Keeley suffer.”
    “It was Elizabeth who wanted Keeley charged with Stephen’s abduction,” Eden reminded them.
    “True. But that could just be the woman being who she is. She’d want Keeley to pay whether she really believed she had anything to do with it or not,” Cole said.
    Flipping to a clean piece of paper, he jotted Elizabeth’s name down. “So who are the closest people to Keeley? We’ll put them on the short list for the time being.” He shot Eden a glance. “Elizabeth’s at the top. But who else?”
    “Mrs. Pickens … the housekeeper. She comes in once a week. Mary Thompkins, a woman who comes inthree or four times a week to cook. Miranda Fairchild, Keeley’s sister-in-law. And Keeley’s friend Jenna Banks.”
    “What about the sister-in-law? Seems odd that Elizabeth hates Keeley but her daughter is one of Keeley’s closest friends.”
    “Won’t seem strange when you meet mother and daughter,” Eden said. “They’re polar opposites.”
    Cole grunted. From the sound of it, being the polar opposite of Elizabeth Fairchild would put a person in line for sainthood.
    “What do you think about her friend Jenna?”
    “Keeley and Jenna have been friends since grammar school,” Eden said. “It’s pretty obvious she adores Keeley and her daughters.”
    Cole glanced down at the meager list of suspects. “Anyone else?”
    “There’s the weekly yardman and the gardener. They’ve been questioned repeatedly, too.”
    Cole’s gaze darted between the two LCR operatives across from him. “So has Keeley angered one of them so much they arranged for her husband’s abduction? And then, when that didn’t destroy her, they took her children, too?”
    “FBI has questioned every one of them extensively, as have Eden and I. Elizabeth is openly hostile, but the others appear to be almost as devastated as Keeley.”
    “What about someone in town? Someone from her past?”
    Eden shook her head. “She keeps a very low profile, hardly ever goes into town. And if that woman has a past, it’s invisible. Other than going to Tahiti on her honeymoon, she’s rarely even been out of Fairview. Grew up here, went to the community college the next town over. Married the local golden boy. From what we can tell, this is all she’s ever known.”
    Cole stretched his long legs out in front of him. “Any other terrible events in her life besides the kidnapping of her husband and now her children?”
    “Nothing that would indicate someone has it in for her,” Eden said.
    “So the real problems started after she’d been married to Stephen for several years. I understand he had several affairs. What about those women? Anyone talked with them?”
    Jordan grimaced. “Yeah, I had the dubious pleasure of talking to the ones we know about. None of them live in Fairview, and from what I can tell, none of them had any real regret that Stephen Fairchild was dead. Sex was pretty much their only relationship.”
    Cole had to agree with that assessment. Rarely did sex, even good sex, create the kind of hatred and need for revenge this person seemed to have toward Keeley.
    He tapped his pen on the notepad as his mind searched for an answer. “It’s been over a year since Stephen was killed. Why would the children be taken now?”
    “I think the saddest part is that Keeley was finally getting her life back together,” Eden