Once An Alpha (The S Files: Paranormal Investigation Agency – Book 1) by Callie McKenna Page A

something grabbed me.”
    “What happened then?”
    “I’m not sure. I woke up at some stage in a new house. I had a few injuries and a touch of frostbite, and a man had been treating me. My Bill. You know, he wasn’t a bad man. What he and the rest of them did was terrible, but he always treated me well. He loved me, and after a fashion, I loved him too. I gave him five children, and when he died two years ago I mourned as any other grieving widow would.”
    She turned her now-steely gaze to me. “Bill was a good man, despite what he did.”
    Lyndon looked at me, and I returned his gaze with a shrug. Heidi/Hilda hadn’t exactly been specific about the circumstances under which she ended up with her husband.
    “Heidi,” I said gently. “We need to know more about what happened to you. Did someone force you to marry Bill? Why did you stay and take on a new identity, and never try to escape?”
    Heidi stared into space again, and this time the glazed look in her eyes was even more noticeable.
    “Heidi?”
    “Oh, hello,” she said, looking across at me. “Who are you? It’s lovely to have visitors. I don’t get many these days, you know.”
    Lyndon shook his head at me, and I leaned across and grabbed Heidi’s hand. We’d lost her. “Heidi, it’s been wonderful chatting with you. You’ve really helped us a lot.”
    She looked confused, but nodded. “Oh, all right then. Would you care for a cookie before you go?”
    “Sure,” Lyndon said, grabbing one and then patting her on the shoulder. “Bye, Heidi.”
    She smiled, totally unaware of the lucid moments she’d just had and the information she had shared with us, and Lyndon and I dashed back to the car. I drummed my hands on the dashboard as he drove us back to the police department, my mind racing.
    “I knew it,” he said, looking at me. “I’ve had a feeling there was something weird going on here, and now we know there is. You were right!”
    “Lyndon, we still can’t be entirely sure. It’s exciting, but you saw what Heidi was like. She has dementia. Maybe she had heard about the missing hikers and her brain sort of just invented that story.”
    Lyndon narrowed his eyes at me. “This was your idea. You were the one who found this lead and thought there might be something going on here. You were the one who thought Heidi was Hilda Beaugard.”
    “I know, I know,” I replied. “But there’s still something missing. If she was kidnapped and made to marry a man here, then that still leaves about a million questions. Why did she stay, and never try to escape and tell anyone who she really was? Why was she even kidnapped in the first place? What about the rest of the hikers that have gone missing?”
    He shook his head. “I don’t know. But I can feel it, Myla. We’re close to something here.”
    I nodded. He was right. Even though there was still a whole load of unanswered questions, I could feel it too. We were on to something.
    We spent the rest of the afternoon going through town records to see if we could find anyone else who had seemingly moved to the town and married a local not long after there was a missing person case, but it was difficult with half the records missing. Grumbling, I went and asked Ted.
    He sighed. “Yeah, I know what you mean. Annoying, isn’t it? Most of our records are digitalized, and they were all taken from the paper records in the town archive. Unfortunately a fire destroyed a lot of those records about fifteen years back. So we make do with what we’ve got.”
    Dammit. “Thanks anyway, Ted,” I said, forcing a smile.
    “Why do you need townspeople’s records anyway?” he said.
    “We’re just trying to get a feel for the town and pursue every angle we can,” I replied. “You never know.”
    “Good for you, Myla. The FBI’s lucky to have someone as sharp as you,” he said. “You know, you could always try the local Gazette down on High Street. They might have back issues that could help you find