THIRTY-THREE
Amanda was quite sure Luke and Stephanie had been holding hands when she and Trent started walking toward them. There were some quick movements and a little side shuffle that put some space between them.
“Detectives?” Stephanie said. It was sort of strange the way she’d said detectives with the arc of question, as if it was a surprise and odd that they’d be there.
“We’d like to ask you some questions. Please.” She gestured to a clearing away from the curious ears around them. It was either there or down at Central.
The four of them moved over to the area Amanda had indicated. So much could be said in the silence. One message was clear: both were uncomfortable. Luke kept adjusting his posture, left leg out, left leg back, right leg out, right leg back. Stephanie’s cheeks were flushed, and she was chewing her bottom lip.
“Do you know who it is?” Luke asked.
There was always something telling about the person who chose to speak first—it almost said even more than what was actually verbalized. The need to fill a silence could be seen as an aggressive move or even a sign of guilt. Though it could also be indicative of discomfort or wanting to silence one’s nattering conscience. She had strongly considered Luke to be a prime suspect at one time, and his need to talk wasn’t helping him right now. “We do.”
“Is it Jayne Russell? I mean, that’s what everyone’s saying,” Luke rushed to add.
Whether guilt or nervousness was the cause, Luke was trying to control the narrative.
“It is.” She was keeping her responses succinct for a reason. She was playing on Luke’s need to fill the void.
“You have any idea who could have done this to her?” Luke shifted his legs again. So uncomfortable. She passed a side-glance at Trent.
“Do you think it’s the same person who killed Chloe?” Stephanie asked, either oblivious to the tension and awkwardness coming from Luke or not caring about it.
“Open investigation,” Amanda said firmly. She set her gaze on Luke. “Where were you this morning between three and five?”
“With Stephanie.” Luke wrapped his left arm around her, the girl’s cheeks firing a bright red.
Amanda sought out his right hand, which would presumably be the one that covered Jayne’s mouth, but he had that one in a pocket. She set her gaze on Stephanie. “Were the two of you together?”
“We were.”
“And where was that?” Amanda countered.
“At my house,” Luke said. “In my room.”
Amanda didn’t care for how Luke seemed to speak for Stephanie, and a look around confirmed their conversation was drawing attention from other students still lingering in the area. “There are some more questions we need to ask the two of you, but here isn’t the place to do it.”
“We can go inside if that would be better.” Luke jacked a thumb over his shoulder to indicate the building behind them—the same one Trent had pointed out earlier.
“What’s in that building?” Trent asked.
“Classrooms and labs,” Luke replied.
“And is it open all hours?” Amanda jumped in.
“No. It’s locked at eleven at night and opens at eight thirty in the morning. Why?” Luke narrowed his eyes.
Amanda gestured for the closest officer to come over, who happened to be Leo Brandt. “We’re going to need you both to go to Central—”
“Wait. Does this mean that… that… you think we killed them?” Stephanie’s voice was high-pitched, panicked.
“We just have some questions to ask. Procedure.” Amanda gave her a pressed-lip smile. “Take them to Central,” she directed Officer Brandt when he reached them. “We’ll be there as soon as we can.”
He left with the two students.
“They have motive, and they could have worked together on this. Just alibiing each other out?”
“Could be.” She mulled over the facts of the case. “Putting oneself in Luke’s shoes… He wanted Chloe, but she didn’t want him. She was dating Josh. It could make sense that Luke couldn’t stand seeing them together anymore.”
“Except they broke up,” Trent inserted.
“Luke might not have known that. We’ll need to ask him.”
“And the reason for killing Jayne?”
“You’ve got two girls who have been friends forever. One’s not going to give any attention to a guy her friend doesn’t approve of.”
“You’re saying Luke could have blamed Jayne for Chloe not giving him attention?”
“Just one theory.”
“It could hold. And we know he has no real alibi for Chloe’s murder, and he knows about orchids.”
“Yep. Only thing is it seems Luke and Stephanie might be a couple. If they are, for how long? Why didn’t either of them mention this to us? The first time we heard they were even friends was from Professor McMillan.”
“Good question. But Luke being with Stephanie could indicate he’d given up on Chloe.”
“Maybe, but I don’t think so. I didn’t get that feeling from talking with him. He was still hung up on Chloe, and she continued to outshine Stephanie.”
“That could have upset Luke on top of his being snubbed by Chloe himself. It may have made him want to put an end to Chloe and Jayne and their demeaning nature toward him and Stephanie.”
She hoped that was what had happened. It would mean there wasn’t a serial killer stalking these college students and made it more likely that Lauren Bennett was safe. “We definitely need to talk to them again.” Her phone chimed with a text message. She read it. “Briggs with a reply. It’s called SMS spoofing when it’s a text message, and there is a way to track it to the true sender, but it takes time.”
“Great. One thing we don’t have much of.”
Another text filtered in. She scanned it and summarized. “We’ll need a signed subpoena to obtain the information from Jayne’s cell phone provider. Then Briggs can help us.”
“Should be easy enough to get that signed off.”
“You on it?”
“The second I find out who her provider is and we get back to the station. Could be something her parents know.”
Her parents…Another notification. This week was relentless. Her phone pinged again, and she smiled when she read the message: Once you have the subpoena, I’ll get started tracking the sender right away.
“Good one?” Trent leaned in, his arm brushing against hers.
She keyed back, Thanks. “It’s Briggs again, being his usual helpful self. Once we get what we need, he’ll handle the tracking.”
“Notifying the parents next?”