“Something like that.” Kane dropped into a chair and opened one of the paper bags. “Cherry pies, still warm from the oven. I’ve died and gone to heaven.” He sniffed the pie and hummed in pleasure. His eyes met hers. “And I found a silver sedan.”
Astonished, Jenna stared at him. “You sure it’s the one that Livi saw Chrissie getting into?”
“Not one hundred percent but maybe ninety-nine percent.” Kane bit into the pie, moaned, chewed, and swallowed. “I chased down silver and light blue sedans in the local area and luckily there are fewer than a hundred or so in town. I narrowed the search to the area surrounding the college, and guess what?”
Impatient, Jenna stared at him. “Go on.”
“The janitor owns a silver sedan, and when I called him, he told me he’d wanted to drive the car to church on Sunday but found vomit in the floor in the back.” Kane took another bite and seemed to take forever to swallow. “He lives on campus and leaves his car in the parking lot. His spare set of keys are on a nail in his office and he rarely locks the door. He put it down to a student prank.” He gave Jenna a long look. “Wolfe said Chrissie vomited sometime before she died. Whoever gave her a ride to the party probably took the janitor’s car and used the same car to take her back to the dorms.”
Food forgotten, Jenna reached for her phone. “We need to get Wolfe onto it straight away. I gather the janitor cleaned up the vomit?”
“It’s with Wolfe already.” Kane smiled at her. “He pulled up the carpet and is doing tests as we speak. One thing, though: the entire car was wiped down for prints but Webber found hairs on the back seat—they’re the same color as Chrissie’s. He found other hairs as well and a few other stains. They were tearing the car apart when I left.”
Jenna leaned back in her seat and took a long breath. “Great job. If Chrissie was in the back seat, that tells me more than one guy was in the car with her.”
“Maybe two carried her to the vehicle if she was still groggy.” Kane sipped his coffee. “Dumped her in the back seat—just a minute, she had a split lip. It was still bloody after being in the shower for hours; she would’ve bled over the back seat if she was lying down, and from the pool of vomit, she’d have been on her left side.”
Excited by the revelation, Jenna leaned forward, all hint of tiredness gone. “They’d have turned off the interior light so nobody would recognize them and could’ve missed the blood on the back seat in the dark.” She reached for a paper bag and took out a pie. “One thing’s for sure, if they’ve left any trace evidence, Wolfe and Webber will find it.”
“Another thing.” Kane’s gaze had wandered to the last cherry pie and remained there. “I made a few inquiries about Jacobs. I wanted to make sure he hadn’t been in any fights lately or had any enemies.” He lifted his attention back to her. “He was in a fight with a guy by the name of Owen Jones. I asked the janitor if there was any scuttlebutt about Jacobs, and he said Jacobs and a few other members of the team—Lyons’ crew, we’ll call them—told the coach he’d attempted to sell them drugs. A fight broke out between Jones, Lyons, and Jacobs, and the coach benched Jones then later the dean suspended him from college for the entire semester.” He shrugged. “Although they carried out a search and found nothing. I figure Lyons’ crew set him up to get one of their own on the team.”
“So, is he back now?”
“Yeah, started back for the fall semester.” Kane leaned back in his chair and sighed. “If Wolfe suspects homicide in the Jacobs case, we’ll need to take a look at Owen Jones.”
“Yeah, if he’s as innocent as you say, he sure has a motive.” Jenna sipped her coffee. “I really don’t have time to watch football but Rowley explained how important being on a winning team is to these guys. The chance a scout might see them could mean a million-dollar career.”
“Yeah, and to have that snatched away on a lie…” Kane shook his head. “That would make me angry but not mad enough to murder someone.”
“So, we have Stein, but who else would want to kill someone for raping Chrissie?” Jenna shrugged. “Chrissie could’ve mentioned to anyone that she was going to the party and they’d assume the team was involved.”
“We’ll need to take a close look at her family and their movements around the time of Jacobs’ death as well.” Kane made a note. “I’ll see what I can find out.”
“Great.” Jenna noticed Kane’s attention had drifted back to the pie. “Ah, do you want to eat that pie while it’s fresh? I’m having trouble finishing mine.”
Kane gave her a smile to light up a room. “I thought you’d never ask.”
Eleven
Kane followed Jenna into the college cafeteria and pointed out Livi. Jenna had decided to speak to the girl alone, hoping she’d be more forthcoming speaking to a female officer. He headed for a group of students and asked if anyone knew Phillip Stein. They pointed out an athletic young man sitting alone in the corner wearing a T-shirt, jeans, and a baseball cap worn backward. Kane went over and introduced himself. “Mind if I sit down and have a word with you?”
“Is this about Chrissie?” Stein lifted his chin almost defiantly. “I wasn’t with her on Saturday night. You need to be speaking to Seth Lyons.”
Kane pulled out a chair and sat down. “I’ve already spoken to him. Tell me about your relationship with Chrissie. How long have you known her?”
“I knew her in high school and then ran into her again the day she started here; she’d gotten turned around and I took her to class.” Stein stared into space as if remembering the moment. “She was a beautiful soul, gentle, and soft-spoken. I’ll miss her.”
Kane noticed the sorrow in his eyes. “You cared for her?”
“Yeah, it was heading that way, but we never really went on dates—as in out on a date. It was lunch here in the cafeteria and coffee at Aunt Betty’s when we met up in town.” Stein shrugged. “She was kind of innocent—know what I mean? I wanted to take things slow.”
“So it was a shock to you when she told you she was going to a party with Lyons.” Kane watched his reaction. “Did it make you angry?”
“Angry?” Stein’s eyes narrowed. “Hurt maybe, disillusioned yeah, but not angry. I told her to have a good time and I’d call her on Sunday. She told me I was good old reliable Phil.” He snorted. “I figured if she had one night with that animal, she’d decide I was the better choice.”
Kane frowned. “He insists she didn’t show.”
“Then who raped her?” Stein’s voice was low and deadly. “It must have been bad. She killed herself, didn’t she? That’s what Livi is telling everyone.”