“And…?” With the recent developments, she’d let the idea of a serial killer go, and she feared Trent might now resurrect it.
“Apparently, the detective I’d left the message for is out of town with a family emergency, but he has asked that a colleague call me.”
“You got their name and number, I hope.” She was more for proactive than reactive.
“Uh-huh.”
“All right, well, we need to see if we can find anything to build a stronger case against Josh Ryder.” Her mind went to the closet at Chloe’s family home. “Maybe it’s time to read some of her journals, see what she had to say about her relationship with Josh. I assume you have those in your cubicle?”
“Yep. And that works. We should also, at some point, visit the Tipsy Moose Ale House.”
“Craving a beer?” she teased.
“That’s where the car request came from. We could go over there and see if anyone recognizes Josh. Request came in at precisely three twenty in the morning, though, and last call at the pub is probably at two.”
She nodded, knowing the place quite well. “It is, but they don’t close the doors until the customers are finished. He could have been there drinking right up until the point he was picked up. But I’m not sure our killer—Josh, if that’s the case—would have been drinking alcohol. Just thinking about the clean and organized crime scene. It’s not fitting with a drunk person. The bar could have been nothing more than a pickup point.”
“Yeah, I suppose,” he said, deflated.
“It doesn’t mean people at the bar didn’t see him hanging around, but let’s start with the journals.” She got comfortable and waited while Trent returned to his desk. He handed her two journals over the divider between their desks. She flipped both open and looked at the dates of the entries. The ones she had were from a couple of years ago. “What about the two most recent ones?”
“Just a minute…” Trent put his head down and went through the books. “These two. I’ll take one and give you one?”
“Works for me.” She gave back the others, exchanging them for the more recent one. And speaking of, there hadn’t been a single journal at the townhouse where Chloe lived. Maybe it had been in her backpack that was still missing. Either that, or she’d stopped writing in them. The last entry from the one in her hand was two months old. Flipping to the front, it looked like it covered August and the start of the school year. She shared this with Trent. “The dates in yours?”
“Uh…one second. Looks like May until July of this year.”
“We could be missing her most recent one. Also the one that would have covered her breakup with Josh.”
“Still want us to read what we have?”
“Yeah. In the least, it will help us understand Chloe more, and might give us a solid lead.”
“You got it.” He started reading.
Amanda got to work too. She wasn’t a slow reader, but couldn’t claim to be that fast either. The entries in August were brief and sporadic, often only a line or two, and it didn’t take her any time to reach the first entry in September.
It’s the first day of school. God, I’m more nervous than I want to be. Mom and Dad keep going on and on, telling me how this is my year. The year I’ll really make a mark. But they say that all the time. They have no idea how much I work at being outgoing, how inside I’m so scared. But I do it anyway. Fear is only a state of mind. Maybe if I repeat that enough…
Amanda skimmed some pages and stopped at Luke’s name.
Luke is buzzing around again. Always. When will he take the hint that I love Josh, that I’m with him? He’s smart, he has to be to get the grades he does, but he doesn’t seem to get that I’ll never be with him. And he makes Josh soooo angry. I hate that! I think back to the way I used to be when I was younger. It doesn’t feel good.
Was she referring to the bullying she’d taken part in? So far they only had Ashton’s word on that. And who knew if it could be trusted?
She read more.
I’ll never even call someone a mean name again. Not after seeing what words can do.
She skimmed some more pages and stopped again at an entry dated September 28.
Ashton delivered pizza to the townhouse last week. I hadn’t seen him since forever. He wouldn’t look me in the eye. I know he’s been hating me on Snap, but I can’t blame him, I suppose. But he did key my car!
Maybe I pushed him to it.
Amanda marked the page with a sticky note. “Trent.”
“Yeah?”
“Anything about Josh in your journal?”
“Oh, yeah. It’s like I’m reading a steamy romance novel.”
“I didn’t realize that was a genre you’re drawn to.”
“Leave comedy for the comedians. What’s up?”
“I’ve pulled out a couple things so far. Josh had a temper and low tolerance when it came to Luke Hogan.”
“Gives Luke more reason to want to kill Chloe. Not sure this implicates Josh.”
“Except for Josh got angry with Luke hanging around. What if Chloe stood up for Luke?”
“Josh wouldn’t have liked that.”
“I can’t imagine he would have, and then the breakup could have been salt on an open wound.”
“Okay, but why wait three weeks after they split?”