I won’t let her destroy us. I felt some of that hidden anger rise to the surface and burn a hole in my gut. I hate people like her. It’s not fair. She’s beautiful, blonde and rich. Why isn’t that enough for her? Why does she feel the need to hurt everyone around her? If she hadn’t so irreparably damaged my life I could actually feel sorry for her. It was obvious she had serious issues. But she’d gone too far, done too much, for me to spare her even a moment’s pity. Besides, there was no room left for any emotion other than hate.
“Hey you wait up.”
I heard Sian calling out to me as I made my way to class. I’ve been avoiding her lately. In fact it’s been a while since I’ve hung out with anyone. “Hey Sian, how’re you doing?”
“Forget that, why haven’t I seen you around, are you okay?” See, that’s the reason I’ve been avoiding her, she sees too much and I haven’t figured out yet how to answer any probing questions.
I live in constant fear of Mandy getting her memory back. If she’d even lost it in the first place. Some nights I lay awake in a cold sweat, imagining she really is this great big specter hanging over everyone, just waiting for the right moment to strike.
“Yeah I’m fine how about you? Where’s Jace?” I looked around surprised that he wasn’t here by her side. It was rare to see one without the other these days. Then I saw him leaning against the wall with her in his sights.
I like that, like the way he watches over her. Like my dad used to do with my mom when I was younger. The memory made me sad and I fought back the tears in front of my friend. That would only open up the door to more questions.
“Here’s Valerie’s address, don’t even think about copping out or I’ll come to your house and get you.” I took the piece of paper with the information and made my escape. “Okay thanks I gotta go.” I know she was watching me as I walked hurriedly away.
Dad was waiting for me in the parking lot and I waved as I made my way to his car. This is the way things used to be before he fell from grace. As I slid in beside him I mourned the fact that we had lost that, that easiness that had once existed between us.
“How was your day sweetheart?” I hated that his smile didn’t reach his eyes. Was he still missing her? I played along all the way on the ride home. Like my heart wasn’t broken, like I wasn’t disappointed in him. Like his actions hadn’t scarred me deeply and I can’t even tell him why.
Chapter 10
Police Headquarters
***
“Detective Kiln here.”
“Hey detective I think we might’ve found something. We finished up the work you wanted done in the lab, thing is, it seems like both your cases dovetailed into each other.”
“I don’t understand, what do you mean?” I dropped the front legs of my chair and grabbed a pen.
“It was the same knife, unless you have two Unsubs out there using identical weapons, which isn’t impossible, but it would be one hell of a coincidence. The knife that was used on the Claiborne girl is the same one used in the Taylor incident.”
“You’re sure about this?” I rubbed the pain that had been brewing all day from between my eyes. “Yep, about ninety seven percent.”
Well that didn’t leave much of a window for error. I thanked the tech and hung up. “That was the lab, the results are in, it’s the same knife.”
Strom looked just as confused as I was. We’d been operating or at least I had, on the premise that the Sanders boy had done the Taylor girl. But at the time the Claiborne girl was being attacked twenty people swore they’d seen him on that bus.
“It could be a copycat, or someone trying to take the focus off of him.” I gave that some thought, it would be so easy to accept that. I didn’t like the kid or his dad. But unlike my predecessors on this case I wasn’t about to get thrown off so I kept my feelings to myself.
I’ve been working this town for five years and in all that time I’ve met some real pieces of work, but this family just rubs me the wrong fucking way. They thought their money and connections were a license to do whatever they wanted and get away with it, not on my watch.
As much as I disliked them, I didn’t see things playing out in that scenario. Besides if Chad Sanders had attacked the Taylor girl to throw the heat off his son she’d be dead.
“I don’t think so, plus the MO was different. The Claiborne girl didn’t have drugs in her system and she wasn’t shot.” Though it was obvious that whoever had attacked both girls wanted them dead, the Taylor attack seemed more personal.
We’d dusted her room for prints but there were too many to count and from her own words she had friends in and out all the time so there was no telling when the prints had been left.
I felt bad for her. I’d been sure that we’d have found something by now, but it was looking more and more like this person had covered their tracks very well. But because Sanders might be off the hook for the stabbing, those bruises she’d shown me tonight didn’t get there by themselves. Maybe I should have a little talk with the Claiborne girl’s parents and impress on them how serious an offense it is to give a false report to the police. There’s no way she could’ve been there when he attacked Taylor so viciously and not seen; unless she hadn’t been there. But even Mandy had confirmed that she was.
“So what do we do now? Wait for this hump to attack someone else? Do we really have a serial offender on our hands, going after teenaged girls?”