“Fair enough.”
“Did Hunter have any other suspects apart from you?” he asked.
“I don’t think so,” I replied. “He was so sure it was me that he focused all of his attention on me.”
“Damn.”
“I guess the first thing we could focus on is the note,” I said, cocking my head to one side. “How many people could realistically copy Lindsay’s writing?”
Adam let out a short sigh. “I wasn’t exaggerating before. I think anyone who knew her or went to school with her could do it.”
“Okay. So that doesn’t narrow it down at all,” I said with a frown. “What about the rooftop garden? Who knew about that and knew she might be up there?”
“Everyone knew about it. Friends. Relatives. Probably at least fifty people all up.”
“So that doesn’t narrow it down at all either,” I said. I chewed on my bottom lip for a few seconds. “I guess there’s only one thing we can focus on, then. Motive.”
Adam stared down at his hands. “Yeah. I guess so,” he murmured.
I reached over and patted his arm. “We don’t have to talk about this right now,” I said. “We can wait.”
He drew in a deep breath and looked back up at me. “No. It’s okay. I want to do this.”
“Okay. I’ll be back in a second.”
I went to the café counter and asked if I could borrow one of their order notepads. The waitress nodded and gave one to me right away.
“All right,” I said as I returned to the table. “We can write anything we think of down here and show it to Hunter when we see him.”
“Okay.” Adam handed me his pen.
I flipped the notepad open. “So… who might’ve had a motive?” I asked. “And what could those motives be?”
“I hate to say this, because she was my sister. One of my closest friends, too. But she had a lot of enemies,” he replied in a low, tentative voice, staring distantly at the wall.
“Yeah, I know. Hunter told me a bit about that.”
“Don’t get me wrong,” he said, turning back to me. “She was a good person. She just did bad things sometimes.”
I gave him a tight smile. “I know exactly what you mean.”
He fell silent for a beat. Then he rubbed his chin, brows dipping in a frown. “I guess the first person cops focus on when a woman is murdered is the husband or boyfriend. So in Lindsay’s case, that would be Kairo Belmont. You know him. He’s one of the Princes.”
I wrote down Kairo’s name. “Do you think he’s capable of killing someone?
“I don’t know,” he said. “I’ve wondered about him a few times, and he was the main one I had suspicions about when it happened. Mostly because Lindsay cheated on him a lot.”
“Oh, right. That’s a pretty common motive for murder.”
“Yeah. Thing is, though, he’s a really nice guy. I can’t picture him doing anything to hurt someone. Not physically, anyway.”
I cocked a brow. “Nice doesn’t always mean innocent. You never know what people are hiding.”
“True. Sometimes I’ve even wondered if he’s a little too nice. Do you know what I mean?”
“Yeah.”
Adam’s face suddenly fell. “Wait. I just remembered why I was never all that suspicious of him in the end.”
“Oh? Why?”
“He wasn’t in town that weekend. I remember because Lindsay told me she wanted to break up with him—finally—but she had to call him or text him to do it.”
“Where was he?” I asked, ready to make a note on the paper next to his name.
“On vacation. The fall term started a week late last year, so a lot of people were still away when it happened.”
“Where was he specifically, though?”
“New Zealand.”
“So there’s no way he could’ve done it, then,” I said, crossing out Kairo’s name.
“I don’t think so, no.”
“You said she cheated on him several times. Do you know who it was with?”
He nodded and took the notepad and pen from me. “These are the guys from school who she saw a few times behind his back,” he said, jotting down four names. He quickly crossed out the second one on the list. “This guy moved away before she was killed. So it can’t be him. And this one—” He paused while he crossed off the third name. “He ended it with her pretty fast and got a girlfriend. So I can’t think of any reason he’d want to hurt Lindsay.”
“And the other two?”
“We’ll keep them on the list for now,” he said, handing the pad back to me. “I can’t think of any reason why they’d want to hurt her, but they were definitely in town at the time.”
“Maybe it wasn’t just a fling to one of them,” I suggested. “Maybe he was in love with her, and he flew into a rage when she didn’t feel the same way.”
Adam nodded. “If we’re going with the unrequited love angle, then there’s five more guys from school I should add to the list,” he said. “And one girl.”
As he wrote down some more names, I chewed on the inside of my cheek. I’d considered that the killer could be an RFA student, but it hadn’t occurred to me that it could be a girl. There was no reason it couldn’t be, though. Girls were just as capable of violence as boys.
I knew that all too well.
“Did she have any enemies at school?” I asked. “Girls who hated her, or girls she hated? Or guys?”
“Yes. A lot. I’ll write them down now, and we can figure out whether they were in town or not later.”
We fell into silence as he wrote everything down.
“Are you sure that’s all of them?” I asked when he pushed the list back to me.
He frowned. “I think so, but there might be a couple I forgot. Also, there were quite a few girls Lindsay didn’t like much, but I wouldn’t say she hated them or vice versa.” He leaned forward, elbows on the table. “Like the Medusa Society girls. Even though they were just as popular as her, she avoided them like the plague.”
My brows shot up. “Why?”
“I don’t think they actually did anything bad,” he said with a shrug. “But I remember Lindsay telling me that Dad warned her to stay away from them.”
“Do you know why?”
“No. I assumed it was because the Medusa girls are mostly scholarship students. So they’re…” He trailed off, cheeks flushing slightly pink.
“They’re poor compared to most of the other RFA kids,” I said flatly. “And therefore not well-bred enough for Charles Connery’s daughter to hang around.”
“Yeah. Maybe. I don’t know, though.”
I started writing ‘the Medusa Society’ on the pad, but Adam stopped me. “I wouldn’t even bother writing them down,” he said. “I really don’t think they had anything to do with it. Like I said, they avoided each other, but that’s all. I don’t think Lindsay was ever outright nasty to any of them.”
“Okay. Any other girls you can think of? Frenemies?”
“Hold on. I wasn’t actually done with the list of guys she was hooking up with behind Kairo’s back,” Adam said.
“Oh. Sorry. I got sidetracked.” I picked up the pen. “Go on.”
“Remember Chris?” he asked.
“As in Chris Hewittson? Hunter’s friend?”
“Yes. He and Lindsay hooked up for a while.”
My brows shot up. “Really?”
“Yeah. I don’t think anyone ever found out about it, though. Apart from me.”
“Hunter went through Lindsay’s entire phone, email, and internet history,” I said. “So he must know.”
Adam shook his head. “They never messaged or called each other. They’d sneak coded notes into each other’s lockers to arrange their meetings instead.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. I guess they thought it was hot to sneak around behind everyone’s backs and share a big, forbidden secret with each other,” he said. “I only found out because I caught them in her
room one day when she forgot to lock the door. After that, she told me everything.”
“Was Chris in town the night she died?” I asked.
He nodded. “Yeah, I think so.”
“Were they still hooking up?”
“No, it was over by then. But he could’ve gone to her and asked her to start things up again, right? And she could’ve said no and made him really mad.”
“That’s true.” I wrote down Chris’s name. “Anyone else?”
“There were a couple of married guys. Did Hunter mention that?”
“Yeah, he did.”
“The first one was Bradley Astor. They met at a gala in town about six months before she died.”
“Do you know any other details about it?” I asked, writing down the name.
“It was just a one-time thing. He didn’t know she was only a teenager. When they talked afterwards and he found out, he said it could never happen again.”
“Lindsay told you that?”
“Yes.”
I scribbled down a note next to the name. “It could’ve been him or his wife who attacked Lindsay.”
Adam chewed on his bottom lip as he thought about it. “Hm. I doubt it. As far as I know, his wife never found out at all.”
“But you don’t know for sure. She could’ve secretly discovered his affair and decided to get revenge on the other woman. Or maybe Bradley thought Lindsay would spill his secret, and he wanted to keep his wife in the dark forever, so he….” I trailed off, not needing to finish the sentence.
Adam sighed. “Yeah, you’re right. They should both be on the list.”
“Who was the second married guy?”
“Jason Breckenridge.” He leaned back and blew out a deep breath. “Now that’s a crazy story.”
I neatly printed the name ‘Jason Breckenridge’ and then nodded for Adam to go on.
“Okay, so… you know how Lindsay and Trina used to be best friends?” he asked.
I stared at him, eyes wide. “Huh?”
“They were best friends,” he repeated.
“I didn’t know that. I thought it was you and Trina who were best friends.”
“Not back then. We were definitely close, and we hung out all the time, but she was closer to Lindsay. They had more in common because they were both girls. You know how it is.”
I slowly shook my head. “I honestly had no idea.”
“Really? Trina never mentioned it?”
I thought back to when I first met Trina. She’d brought Lindsay up and told me that she died, but only in a brief, detached kind of way. Because of that, I got the impression that they were just acquaintances who knew each other through Adam. Not friends.
Certainly not best friends.
“No. She’s never said a word about it,” I said, brows knitting in a confused frown.
Adam frowned too. “Huh. That’s strange,” he said. “She never mentions Lindsay around me, but I always figured that was just because she doesn’t want to upset me or make things awkward. I didn’t think she’d hold back from you, though.”
“Yeah. It’s weird.”
He shrugged. “I’m sure she has her reasons.”
“I guess so.”
I didn’t write Trina’s name down on the list, but I made a mental note to chat to her about this at some stage. I didn’t think she was capable of hurting anyone, but I still wanted to find out why she was so reluctant to share anything about her close friendship with Lindsay, just to cover all the bases.
“Anyway, like I was saying,” Adam went on. “They were best friends. As close as sisters. Whenever Trina’s parents hosted family lunches or dinners, they’d always let her invite Lindsay. That’s where Jason Breckenridge comes in.”
“Who is he?”
Adam cocked his head to one side. “Has Trina ever told you about her older sister?” he asked.
I nodded. “Samantha, right?”
“Yup. Anyway, she got married near the end of 2017. Jason was her husband.”
“Was, or still is?”
“We’ll get to that,” he said, lifting a palm. “Anyway, in April last year, Trina’s parents hosted a big Easter lunch. Lindsay was invited, as usual. She met Jason there.”
“And they hooked up?”
“Not that day. But Jason ended up getting Lindsay’s number out of Trina’s phone when she wasn’t looking. They started texting, and after that, one thing led to another.” Adam let out a sigh and shook his head. “I think Lindsay knew how wrong it was, but she had a lot of trouble controlling herself. She was always like that.”
“Right.”
“Anyway, Samantha came home early one day and found them together.”
“Oh, shit. She must’ve been devastated.”
“She was. They’d only been married for a few months, so it was a hell of a way for the honeymoon period to end.”
I pressed my lips into a slight grimace. “Poor Samantha.”
“Trina was furious,” Adam went on. “Especially because she was the one who introduced Lindsay to Jason by inviting her to the Easter lunch. So she felt like it was partly her fault.”
“Did she confront her?” I asked, brows rising.
“She was going to, but she never got a chance. That was actually my fault.”
“Why?”
“Well, after Trina found out what happened, she was angrier than I’d ever seen her before. Too angry to even look at Lindsay, let alone speak to her. But she told me all about it. I suggested she take some time to cool off and then talk to Lindsay about it later. Obviously they weren’t going to be friends anymore, but I figured Trina needed to say her piece. Let Lindsay know how much she’d hurt her and her family.” Adam stopped and hesitated for a few seconds, flattening his lips. “She was going to come over to our house and confront her about everything the next Sunday, but like I said… she never got a chance.”
“Because Lindsay died?”
“Yes. The night before Trina was going to come over.” He scrubbed a hand over his face and sighed. “I know she felt awful about it. She was so mad at Lindsay for wrecking her sister’s marriage, but at the same time, they’d been best friends for a decade. So she was still devastated when she died.”
I nodded slowly. “That’s understandable.”
“Yeah. Anyway, Jason could be a suspect, right?” Adam asked. “Because when Samantha found out about the affair, she kicked him out of their house right away and hired the best divorce attorney in town. He knew he was going to end up with nothing.”
“Why?”
“Because he didn’t really have much of his own money. Samantha met him in college and brought him to Royal Falls, and marrying into the Seabornes was like winning the lottery for him. Suddenly he had a ton of money and job offers flung at him all the time, all because of his wife’s parents.”
I nodded. “That’s a definite motive. He might’ve blamed Lindsay. As if the affair was all her fault, and therefore it was also her fault that he lost his golden ticket.”
Adam let out a short snort. “Exactly. A lot of guys don’t like to take responsibility for shit like that. They’ll act like it was entirely the woman’s fault. Like she seduced him with her wicked temptress ways, and he was totally powerless.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yup. But in reality, Jason was a predatory adult willingly pursuing and sleeping with a sixteen-year-old girl.”
“She was actually still fifteen when they first met.”
“Yikes.” I underlined Jason Breckenridge’s name. Right now, he seemed like the most obvious suspect. “What about Samantha?” I asked, glancing back up at Adam. “Do you think she could’ve been angry enough at Lindsay to hurt her?”
“Maybe.”
“And Mr. and Mrs. Seaborne? Could they have been angry at her for contributing to the destruction of their daughter’s marriage?”
Adam shook his head. “No. I think they’d be more likely to kill Jason than the woman he cheated with.”
“Oka
y.” I fell silent for a beat as I scanned our list. “We’ve got quite a few names so far. Is there anyone else you can think of who might’ve been angry at Lindsay?”
His eyes scrunched up as he considered my question. Then he shook his head. “No one else springs to mind right now. Unless you count Hunter’s totally debunked theory that it was you, because of the necklace. And that doesn’t make sense, because your mom got the necklace at a pawn shop. Unless—”
He stopped midsentence and dropped his gaze to his mug.
“Unless what?” I asked, leaning forward.
He shook his head again. “Nothing,” he muttered. “Just forget I said anything.”
“Adam,” I said in a warning tone. “Tell me.”
He let out a deep sigh. “I can’t. I don’t want you to take it the wrong way.”
“I won’t.”
“Really, Laney. It’s nothing.”
“Doesn’t sound like nothing,” I said, arching a brow.
“Look, it’s just something that suddenly popped into my head for a second, and there’s no way this person could actually be responsible. Please just forget I said anything.”
I narrowed my eyes. “You can’t keep me in suspense like that. Tell me.”
“Only if you promise not to get upset.”
“I promise.”
“All right.” He cleared his throat and met my eyes again. “I don’t know how much Hunter has told you about Lindsay, but she kinda had two sides. She could be sweet as pie for a whole month, and then suddenly she’d flip a switch and be a raging bitch for a couple of days. Then she’d go back to being normal and nice.”
“Yeah, Hunter mentioned that she had a bit of a wild personality,” I said with a slight nod.
Adam leaned forward. “Well, about three weeks before she died, she threw a tantrum. She said some earrings and a necklace had been stolen out of her room. Some cash too,” he said. “The last person who went in her room that day was your mom, when she went to clean her bathroom.”
My heart sank. I could already tell where this was going. “She accused my mom of stealing from her?”
He nodded. “Yup. No one believed her, though. Your mom has worked for us for ages, and we’ve never had a single problem with her. So we figured it was just Lindsay being Lindsay.”
Savage Prince: A Dark High School Bully Romance (Royal Falls Elite Book 1) Page 33
