Black Orchid Girls (Detective Amanda Steele)

“Great, I’ll go talk to her now.” She found Stephanie in the cafeteria slumped forward and staring at the table. “Miss Piper,” she said quietly as she approached.

Stephanie lifted her head and sniffled, swiped at her cheeks. “He’s always going to love her, even if she’s a ghost. I’ll always be runner-up. Why would I ever expect to come first?”

Amanda sat next to her. “I’m sure he cares about you.” Not that she saw evidence of that.

“No, he doesn’t. I’ve been deceiving myself.” She faced Amanda and opened her mouth like she was going to say something else, but remained silent.

“Were you together this morning from three AM?” She did her best to ask without aggression or judgment.

Stephanie shook her head, and Amanda’s heart sped up.

“No?”

“No. I lied. I’m sorry. I just didn’t know what to…” Her words disappeared.

Amanda should have put them in separate rooms and questioned them individually from the start. “Why did you lie?”

She wouldn’t look at Amanda.

“Do you think he might have killed Jayne and Chloe?” Amanda asked.

She chewed her lip.

“What time did you and Luke meet up this morning?”

“Eight. On campus.”

Goosebumps spread on Amanda’s arms. “Where?”

“The other side of campus from where Jayne was found.”

That meant nothing. Luke would have had plenty of time to dispose of Jayne’s clothes and clean up and change himself. “Do you know when he got to campus? Did he arrive before you?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you think he killed Jayne Russell?” She’d try the direct route again since it hadn’t netted her an answer the last time she’d asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Stephanie, listen, it’s important that you are honest with me. He can’t hurt you. I promise you that.”

She hesitated again, her mouth opening and closing like a fish breathing. Eventually, she said, “I really don’t know what to think. Jayne was dismissive of him—me too, for that matter—but I didn’t kill her.”

“How was she dismissive?”

“It’s pretty much like… well, she wouldn’t give us the time of day.”

That could have been their perception. “What makes you think he might have killed her? You said you didn’t know, so there must be a small part of you that wonders if he did.”

“Just his lying and dragging me into it.” A few tears snaked down her cheek, and she let them roll off her jaw.

“Okay. You did the right thing by telling me this, Stephanie. Thank you for being honest.”

“Do you think he killed Chloe and Jayne?” Her eyes wide, expressive.

“It’s an open investigation, Stephanie, but he is a person of interest.”

That set the girl into a crying jag, and it was several minutes before Amanda could get her calmed down enough to pass her to an officer for a ride home. After that, Amanda dragged herself to her desk, feeling like a damp rag.

Trent popped his head up over the divider. “Subpoena is approved for Jayne’s phone records and the request has been made to the provider. I’ve updated Briggs with a text.”

“Great.”

“I also have the subpoena approved to get Pick Me Up to provide us with the payment method used from the ride requested Monday morning to the park. We’ll have to go to the credit card company after that to get the person’s name.”

“Still, we’re one step closer.”

“As you know I received the info from the Metro PD. I took the liberty of seeing if any of the suspects in the Annie Frasier case cross over into our investigations or the university. The answer is none that I could find.”

“Okay, well, we tried.” It would have been nice to get closure for an old murder case while they were at, but the sad reality was not every homicide was solved. And without a connection to the recent murders, the good news was they probably weren’t looking at a serial killer. Chloe’s and Jayne’s murders were isolated incidents, their lives taken by the same hand, no doubt, but the motive more personal in nature.

“And you? How did you make out?” His eyes went to the phone she held in her hand.

She brought him up to speed, and by the time she’d finished, he was staring at her, mouth agape.

“She lied to give him an alibi, meaning Luke has none for the time of Jayne’s murder?”

“That’s right. None for Chloe’s either. There’s nothing to prove he was in bed sleeping.”

“We’re holding him, then. What about Stephanie Piper?”

She shook her head. “No reason to. She’s not involved.”

He pointed at Luke’s phone. “Should we have a look?”

She sat in her chair and entered the password. Trent joined her in her cubicle.

First, she went to his text messages, and there was nothing but one string of communication with Stephanie, whom was likely Stephanie Piper. Nothing incriminating, but given Luke’s dry responses to Stephanie’s messages to meet on different occasions, it was clear his heart wasn’t in the relationship. It appeared as if he’d settled for Stephanie because he couldn’t have Chloe. Amanda shared this observation with Trent.

“I guess it was too much to hope there was something on his phone screaming that he’d spoofed Josh’s number?”

“Apparently. But I’m sure Briggs will be able to help us. There’s probably something he can see that we can’t.”

“And it’s possible that Luke handed over this phone because he used another number, a burner maybe, to do the spoofing.”

“Ah, the intelligent criminal.”