Black Orchid Girls (Detective Amanda Steele)

Melissa gasped and covered her mouth. Mitch got up from where he was seated and sat next to his wife on the couch. He took her hand and squeezed it. Melissa leaned in toward her husband.

“I’m going to step outside,” the lawyer said and let himself out the front door.

“When did she… ah… die? How? You said she was mur… dered?” Mitch’s voice fractured on the last word, a tough one to swallow when it came to a loved one’s fate.

“She was stabbed, numerous times.” There was no delicate way of putting that.

Melissa gasped out again and pinched the tip of her nose.

Tamara returned to the room with two teacups, her timing terrible. Amanda made solid eye contact with her and shook her head. The woman retreated without leaving the additional cups.

Amanda addressed her next words to Mitch, “As for when, her time of death was early this morning.”

Mitch slowly bobbed his head. “Time of death…” His tongue flicked out, and he sniffled. “It’s surreal to hear you say this and know you’re talking about my daughter.”

“Our daughter,” Melissa corrected in a near whisper.

“Do you know of anyone who might have wanted to hurt Chloe or had something against her?” It was a question no loved one wanted to answer, or even consider, but it was necessary to every investigation.

“No, I have no idea.” Mitch turned to his wife.

“Our girl was popular, Detective. Everyone liked her.”

Amanda could read between those lines. It might seem those with all the friends were the most liked and untouchable, but reality was often the opposite. Being in the spotlight cast shadows in which enemies were bred. But they clearly weren’t going to get the names of Chloe’s enemies from her parents. They’d have to rely on Chloe’s peers for that information. “We’ll need to get a list of her friends from you, if that’s possible.”

“I can’t tell you the names of all her friends, just the important ones,” Melissa said. “There’s Jayne Russell and Lauren Bennett. She shares a townhouse with them.”

The important ones…Melissa was clinging to her self-importance still, probably what she was comfortable with, and the familiarity soothed. No mention of a boyfriend but Amanda would circle back to that. “Do you have their numbers?”

“Yes, of course.” But Melissa didn’t move to get up or pull out her phone. Amanda would get the details before they left.

“We’ll also need an address for the townhouse.” The residence on Chloe’s file was still listed as her parents’ house. Amanda would wager that she still had a bedroom in this home too.

Melissa nodded but didn’t say anything.

“I assume she has a room here,” Amanda said. “We’d like to take a look before we leave to see if it offers the investigation any clues.”

“Sure,” Mitch said and earned a glare from his wife.

Melissa added firmly, “Don’t disturb a thing.”

“We’ll respect her space and things,” Amanda assured her.

Melissa nodded.

“Chloe was a student at Geoffrey Michaels?” Trent asked.

“That’s correct,” Mitch replied. “She’s going to make a difference in this world. Save it, if you ask me. She studies at the Potomac Center and is enrolled in environmental science and policy. She wants to make a real change by initiating policies that protect the environment. The degree she’s pursuing would qualify her to do just that.” He sank his chin to his chest when he’d finished speaking. “I guess all that is actually past tense now. She was…”

Amanda let a few minutes of silence pass as a portion of the enormous loss sank in. One small mercy about grief was it didn’t hit all at once. It came in waves, though some felt on scale to a tsunami. Those moments were so intense they stole breath and stopped the heart.