EIGHTEEN
Amanda asked for Luke Hogan to be paged next. While they waited for him to come to the room, she turned to Trent. “Lauren knew exactly what a black orchid stands for.”
“Could be the one we least expect.”
Amanda’s phone rang, and she checked the caller ID. Deb Hibbert. She was her contact at the adoption agency. “I’ve got to get this,” she said.
“No problem.”
Amanda stood, answered, and stepped into the hall.
“Amanda…”
Her stomach clenched at the way Deb said her name, at the woman’s pause. She had bad news. Amanda had already experienced enough of that for a lifetime, but with all that misfortune, it had emboldened her to face it head-on. It also made it so Amanda could sense bad news coming. “What is it? I sense something is wrong.” As she said the words, she recalled Lauren and her feelings about things. It could just be evidence of strong intuition—nothing sinister.
“Guess I should have known better than to think you might not pick up on it. You are a detective.” Deb took a deep breath that traveled the line. “I reached out to Colin Brewster in California.”
Amanda tensed and started pacing. She watched students and faculty move in the hallways around her, hoping the distraction would aid in calming her nerves. It wasn’t working.
“He wants to contest the adoption.”
“He can do that?” She started to whirl into a cyclone of deniability. She knew when she’d handed over his name that it was a possibility he’d come forward and try to claim that Zoe was his daughter, but there was an easy way to fight his attempt. “So, we just get a paternity test.” Rational, level-headed, even if she wasn’t feeling either of those things.
“Yes, but if the DNA comes back and says that he’s Zoe’s father, I think you know what that means.”
Apparently, it was too much to hope that the man wanted nothing to do with Zoe—not even enough to bother with a paternity test. She doubted he’d even met the girl, and he probably hadn’t known of her existence before Deb had reached out. But now Amanda was faced with the real possibility that he might want to swoop in and take Zoe with him to California. The girl had only been with her a couple of months, but Amanda already couldn’t bear the thought of life without her. Amanda wanted to see Zoe grow up, find out what kind of person she was going to become, what she was going to do with her life, who she was going to fall in love with, be at her wedding and the birth of her children. Whatever stops on the journey, Amanda wanted to be there for all of them, or at least as many as possible.
“I know this wasn’t what you wanted to hear, and it might not end up affecting the adoption. Let’s keep positive, and I’ll be in touch.”
“Thank you for letting me know.” Amanda ended the call realizing the irony of being told to keep positive. Usually that was a line she fed herself, even when she didn’t believe it. Honestly, the whole “keep positive” adage only surfaced when the opposite was the more natural response. Amanda laid a hand over her stomach and tried to coach herself into thinking this was for the best. Let it come up now and be done with it. Then Zoe would legally become her daughter, and there would be nothing but the future to look forward to.
Amanda turned to go back inside the room and came face-to-face with a young man just outside the door. He towered above her several inches. He had brown hair and a solid build, and he wore glasses. Genetically he was an attractive kid, but his slumped posture suggested a lack of confidence.
“You must be Luke Hogan,” she said, holding out a hand.
He looked at her extended hand as if it were a foreign entity, but eventually he took it. His palms were clammy, and his grip weak. “I am, ma’am.”
“I’m Detective Amanda Steele.” Holding the door open, she motioned for him to go first. She gave him a gentle smile as he walked into the room, hoping it would set him at ease.
Trent stood and walked around the table to greet Luke and introduce himself. The two of them were about the same height. That would make Luke six foot one—within the estimated range for Chloe’s killer.
“Please, take a seat.” She gestured toward the numerous chairs that surrounded the table. “Wherever you’d like.”
Luke dropped into the chair that Lauren had vacated, and Amanda and Trent went back to where they had been sitting. Luke’s eyes were scanning the room. It was clear he was uncomfortable. Had he killed Chloe and was nervous he might have gotten caught? Or was it simply being asked to come here to talk to two police detectives?
“Do you know why we’re here, Luke?” Amanda figured it might be best to go the more indirect route with him.
He met her gaze and slowly shook his head.
“We’re here because one of your classmates, Chloe Somner, was murdered.” She let it root as she watched for a reaction.
Luke’s chin quivered, and his eyes pooled with tears.
“Were you close?” she asked.
He slid his bottom lip through his teeth and shook his head. “I wanted to be. She was one of the prettiest, brightest girls in this college.”
Now Luke was demonstrating some confidence. He wasn’t shy about his affection toward Chloe, even in the light of being told she’d been murdered. “How did she feel about you?” Amanda leaned forward ever so slightly.
“Sometimes I wondered if she even knew I existed. It was like I was invisible to her, and regardless of what I did, it didn’t matter.”
“And how did that make you feel?” Trent asked. “I mean, as a guy myself, it stings when a girl doesn’t reciprocate my interest.”
“Should I get a lawyer?”
Amanda sat back in her chair, surprised by his defensiveness. “I guess that depends, Luke. Did you kill Chloe?” She hadn’t intended to go down this direct path, but it was the one on which she’d landed.
“No,” he spat. “But it’s obvious you guys are wanting to pin her murder on me. I watch those crime shows. I know how important it is for the police to close cases—even if the wrong guy goes to prison.”
“I can assure you, Luke, my partner and I are only interested in finding the killer, not some scapegoat to settle the case. So just answer my question: did you kill Chloe?”
“I told you no!”
She recoiled at his brash reaction but did her best to hide the fact. She’d try another tack. “How did it make you feel knowing Chloe would never be interested in you romantically?”
A rogue tear fell down a cheek. He swiped it away and said nothing.
“Did it make you angry?” She realized she was getting aggressive, but sometimes it was called for. She wanted to see if she could provoke a telling reaction.
“Sure, yeah, it made me angry sometimes. I would have made her happy, and I would have treated her right. Not like that Josh guy. I don’t know what she ever saw in him. It was like he had her blinded somehow.”
Amanda glanced sideways at Trent.
“Josh didn’t treat her right?” Trent asked.
“I doubt it. The guy was more jock than academic. Chloe has a future. Had.” He looked down at the table and wiped his eyes.
“Did you ever see him hurt her or mistreat her?” Trent inched forward on his seat, his energy buzzing beside her. It would just take Trent hearing that Josh had hit Chloe to send him on a tangent.
“Not directly. But I’m pretty sure he was seeing other girls behind Chloe’s back.”
Josh Ryder was at the Fairfax campus, a half hour away. “And how would you know this, Luke? I’m not saying you’re lying, but I’m guessing you must have a good reason to make this claim.”
“All you have to do is look at the guy. All the girls like him.”
Amanda studied Luke. It was obvious that just as much as he cared for Chloe, he hated Josh. Could her murder have been a case of Luke not being able to have Chloe, so no one could? Jealousy was an age-old motive for murder. She relaxed her body language before she proceeded. “Where were you yesterday morning between three and seven?”