She looked up at me. “It’s just toilet paper. I dropped it so I kicked it along.”
I shook my head and headed out the back door to find her car alongside mine in the driveway. I picked up the rest of the bags, looping their handles over my arm to get them all at once. I closed the trunk and made my way back in, dropping the bags on the counter.
“I thought I’d make some lasagna for dinner,” my mother said. Then looking over her shoulder at me, giving me that look, she added, “You’ll be home, right?”
And with that, I’m back to being a kid living at home. “Of course, I’ll be here.”
I helped my mother unpack, putting veggies and fruit in the fridge and other items in the cabinet.
“I thought you’d want to eat healthy while you’re here,” she commented, taking a look at the width of my hips.
“Keep looking. I got these from your side of the family so you’re to blame.”
“But your sister…” she started.
“Don’t even.” I finished.
She laughed. It’s a familiar routine we have had for years. My mother has a great figure. She’s short, medium build, and has short stylish blonde hair. My sister Liv is built just like her. I am built like my father and his side of the family – tall, curvy, and auburn hair. My face instantly gets red if I smile, laugh and take a few steps. It’s that typical Irish complexion.
We bumped around the kitchen, old routines falling back into place. I reached high to put some cake mix boxes on the shelf when she grabbed my arm. “I forgot to tell you I invited Jack to dinner. I hope that’s okay.”
“Jack Malone, the detective?”
“Is there another Jack we know?”
I shrug. “I could have just met with him tomorrow, but that’s fine.”
“Well,” my mother started, hesitation apparent in her voice, “I didn’t exactly invite Jack to dinner for you. I invited him for me.”
I raised my eyebrows in a knowing look. “He asked you out finally?”
“What do you mean finally?” She pulled tomatoes out of the bag and washed them.
I sat in one of the kitchen chairs. “When I talked to him about the case, he indicated to me he was interested. He sounded like he’d been interested for some time.”
She looked at me, the corners of her mouth turning up in a smile. It was nice to see my mother happy. I didn’t think I’d ever seen her date or even be interested in anyone. “I think it’s great, really. You deserve someone. Jack seems like a great guy. I just hope he’s as good a detective and not distracted being smitten by you.”
For that, she threw a dinner roll at me. I caught it and took a bite.
My mother frowned. “Carbs.”
I rolled my eyes and headed back upstairs to unpack.
CHAPTER 43
“I’m thinking about getting a breast reduction.” Liv carried plates to the table. “Jeff said he’d pay for it. My back is killing me.”
Sometimes I didn’t quite know how to respond to my sister. I was just glad that Jack hadn’t arrived yet. After taking a shower to get ready for dinner earlier, I had called and checked on Luke. He told me about running into his neighbor and her dog. I agreed with him that it was a good lead. Dusty wasn’t one to bark, but he’d let me know when danger was present. Luke told me he had checked on Cooper, too, who was on his way to Atlanta. Luke seemed to think it was a fool’s errand, but maybe Cooper would find something.
“What do you think?” Liv asked, bringing me back to the present.
“About surgery?”
She stood with her hand on her barely existent hips. “Yes.”
“If it makes you happy, do it. Just don’t talk about it with Jack here. Try to pretend we are normal people who don’t talk about boobs at the dinner table.”
My mother laughed. “How long are we going to have to pretend?”
“Until you marry him,” I deadpanned. The knock at the front door was perfect timing. My mother froze in place like she was a sixteen-year-old girl and it was her first date. I went to answer it. I pulled open the front door and came face to face with Jack, who I hadn’t seen in years. He had a full head of salt and pepper hair, the same piercing green eyes I remembered and a shy smile. He didn’t look anywhere close to his sixty-three years.
He thrust a bouquet of fall flowers at me. He shrugged. “I wasn’t sure what to bring.”
I smelled them and smiled. “My mom will love these.”
He followed me to the kitchen, waved to my sister and gave my mom an awkward hug. After bringing a few more items to the table, the four of us sat down to dinner.
My mother didn’t waste any time showing her disappointment in my career choice.
Turning to Jack, she asked, “If you had a daughter, would you want her in Riley’s line of work?”
Jack was mid-bite and looked over at me. He chewed and swallowed hard. “Thankfully, I only have sons.” Diplomatically he added, “If I had a daughter as smart as Riley, I think I’d be okay if she was safe.”
“Safe,” my mother said, pointing her fork at me. “Riley hasn’t always been safe. Did you tell Jack you were shot and strangled last year?”
Jack dropped his fork and it clanged on the plate. I hadn’t told him. It wasn’t something I ran around telling people. I also worried that if I told him he would tell me not to get involved in this case and refuse to help me out. My mother sat with a smug look on her face. We both knew exactly what she was doing. I couldn’t blame her. I nearly died, but I wasn’t going to give up work that I loved.
“Are you okay?” he asked, concern written all over his face.
“I’m fine,” I assured. “It was just a case we were working that got out of hand. I’ve had a year to heal. I’m pretty much good as new.”
Turning to my mother I pleaded with my eyes and said, “Mom, can we just eat dinner, please?”
She went back to eating. My sister started chatting endlessly about friends and people in the neighborhood. Jack and my mother talked about gossip from church. I was grateful the spotlight was no longer on me.
After dinner, my sister and I cleaned up while Jack and my mother sat in the living room talking and eating dessert.
“Why do you have to worry her?” Liv asked as she dried a plate.
I washed a fork and knife before rinsing and dropping them in the drainboard. “I don’t mean to worry anyone. I love what I do. I am stepping back some. I’m not even working the active case this time. Luke has that. I’m looking into this case that happened nineteen years ago.”
Liv finished drying the rest of the dishes. “I remember the case, you know. It terrified me for years.” She dropped the towel, cut herself a slice of chocolate cheesecake and sat down at the table.
Because I had been a freshman and away from home, the case didn’t hit that close to me. I was physically removed from it. I had completely forgotten my sister would have been in high school. She was two years younger than me so she would have been a junior.
“What do you remember?” I asked, releasing the plug to let the soapy water go down the drain. I picked up the dishtowel my sister had just set down and dried my hands. I also cut a piece of cheesecake and joined my sister.
“I was at a party the night she went missing. We had been in the woods a few blocks from here. Someone had a keg. I wasn’t drinking, but just hanging out. Mom was working a nightshift at the hospital. I remember thinking I had to get home before eleven when she would call to check on me. I remember walking back and passing right by the frat. They had a huge party that night. Some guy hit on me as I walked by, called out for me to come to the party, but I keep walking. Mom would have killed me if she knew I had snuck out. She still doesn’t know. I never told her. She got even more protective after that night.”
“Did you see anything?” I wasn’t surprised my sister had snuck out. She did that a lot when I was at college. Liv was a wild child. It wasn’t always easy on my mom because she had to work, sometimes in the ev
enings. She was a nurse and didn’t have that much control over her schedule.
Liv gave a weak smile. “I always wondered if I had seen her that night, but I don’t think I did. There were a lot of people in front of that house. When they found her body, it was even worse.”
“What do you mean?”
“Everyone in the whole neighborhood was terrified. People started wondering if there was a killer among us. Some people started accusing each other. Suspicion was cast around. It just kind of tore things apart. My friends and I were scared to go anywhere.”
I picked up Liv’s dessert plate with my own and put them in the sink. I’d wash them later. Sitting back down I asked, “I don’t remember any of this. Even when I was back home here, my mind was still focused on college. Were there rumors going around at the time about what could have happened?”
“Yeah,” Liv said seriously. “I think most people assumed it was that guy at the frat or one of her professors. There was one that was known to be a flirt or at least that was the rumor. My friend’s sister went to college with the victim. There were some rumors that a professor had dated some of the girls or wanted to date them. I can’t remember now.”
I didn’t remember any of that. I had heard from my mother about the guy at the frat but nothing about a professor, not that it was uncommon at university campuses. Maybe my sister could help with this case after all.
“Do you remember the professor’s name?”
“No, but my friend might. I can ask her,” Liv offered. She pinched the bridge of her nose. She looked back at me. Her voice quiet, she said, “I went there once.”
“Where?”
“To the cemetery where they found her body,” Liv explained. “Someone dared a group of my girlfriends. It was a creepy place anyway and that just made it worse. Nobody knew where she had been killed. We went to the angel statue where they said her body had been found. It was so sad thinking about her being there all alone.”
Liv started to cry. I had no idea this case had affected her this much, but I guess I should have known with it being this close to home.
CHAPTER 44
Cooper had settled fairly quickly into his hotel in downtown Atlanta. He had a meeting tomorrow evening with Adele Baker, the victim’s sister, but tonight the plan was simply to get the lay of the land. Shortly after arriving, Cooper had sat down at the desk and went over his case notes. He didn’t have much, and that was part of the challenge.
Cooper had taken the toughest case. He knew that. He hoped Luke was getting a good deal of evidence in Little Rock, and Riley certainly had connections to help her in her hometown. Cooper, though, wanted to start at the beginning or at least what the killer had said was his beginning.
This case was different for a few reasons. First and foremost, the victim, Jordan, was not a party girl, not that Lily or the other victims were per se, but Jordan was not known to drink, go to parties or do anything other than focus on school. She had few friends, and outside of being in the classroom and library, she didn’t go very far.
For Cooper, that meant the killer had to have been within a small circle of people that ran in the same sphere. It wasn’t like Jordan was snatched on the street or from a public place. She vanished from inside the university library or at least that’s how it looked from the evidence.
Cooper’s hotel was only a few blocks from the university campus. He had planned to walk it tonight while it was dark. Not that the campus would look how it did in 1993, but it certainly would give Cooper more of an idea than he had just by looking on the website.
He headed down to the hotel restaurant to grab a quick bite for dinner. While he was eating, Cooper received several text messages from Holly. He responded that he was out of town for work and not sure when he’d be back. She sent several messages back detailing her annoyance with him. It was enough that Cooper silenced his phone and put it in his pocket.
He had made a mistake with Holly; one he was surely regretting. It reminded Cooper that there probably wasn’t any woman who would be able to deal with the unpredictability of his work.
After paying his tab for dinner, Cooper headed out to the street. He walked the quick few blocks to the university campus and stood looking at the entrance from the sidewalk. It was one of many entrances. The campus was set in the middle of the city but sectioned off enough that one could tell the concrete sidewalks from the red brick walkways that made up the campus. It was easily accessible though. There was no security blocking the entrance and none that Cooper saw around.
Cooper stepped onto the campus grounds and walked around. He tried one building but the door was locked. Black wrought iron lampposts peppered the walkway. There were call boxes for emergencies every several hundred feet. He passed some students, but for the most part, it was quiet. At nearly ten in the evening, it was well past the close of classes for the day.
Cooper made his way across the campus until he came upon a large open grassy area and the library far off in the distance. Cooper remembered what the building looked like from photos online. The building looked more modern than the rest with its large windows and concrete design. It was one of the only buildings lit up on campus. Cooper had no idea where the dorms were in relation, but the library was his primary focus.
He followed the walkway until he reached the steps. Cooper noted the sign at the entrance that indicated the library closed at eleven. He had about forty minutes to look around. The librarian at the desk closest to the door smiled at Cooper as he walked in. He walked past her and farther into the library, but she called out to him.
“Excuse me,” she said. “I need to see your university identification?”
Cooper turned to face her. “I’m sorry, I’m not a student here.”
She frowned. “Then I’m sorry, you can’t access the library. It’s only for students, faculty, and staff of the university.”
Cooper approached her desk, offering her his private investigator’s license. “I’m an investigator from Arkansas. I’m looking into a missing person’s case from a long time ago. The victim went missing from the library. I just want to have a look around.”
She looked uncertain. “I’m not sure I can authorize that.”
Cooper smiled at her. “I swear I won’t be long. I just want to take a quick look around. There’s hardly anyone in here.”
The librarian, who did not look like a student, but not much older than Cooper looked across the room. She said sternly, “I’ll give you a few minutes, but I won’t stay open late for you. We close promptly at eleven.”
Cooper thanked her and walked quickly among the long tables that lined the first floor. There were stacks of books on each side and an elevator in the back. Cooper did a quick walkthrough just taking in the setting. It looked like a typical university library. Upstairs held more tables and stacks, and on the third floor, he found some quiet meeting spaces and a more comfortable reading area that had couches and chairs. Two students were checking their phones, and another was packing up her books to leave.
Cooper saw nothing out of the ordinary. He wasn’t sure which floor Jordan had disappeared from but he suspected it was the first from one report he had read. He couldn’t remember the details right now.
Instead of taking the elevator, Cooper found the stairs. He bounded down the steps. When he got to the first floor, he paused. The steps continued so he followed. He checked his phone for the time. He still had about twenty minutes. The stairs led to a basement, which was a maze of hallways and doors. Cooper tried a few but found them all locked. There was no one down there and not much access to anything. He did see one door that went out of the back of the building, but he assumed if he opened it an alarm would sound. Cooper made his way back to the first floor.
He approached the librarian who looked anxious to leave for the night. “Could you tell me where that basement door goes?”
She looked taken aback by the question. “You weren’t authorized to go into the basement,” she scol
ded. “But if you must know, it goes out to a service area where delivery trucks come in for mail and other shipments.”
Cooper thanked her and opened the door to step outside. She called him back. “I know what case you’re working on. It’s Jordan Baker. I’m Hope. Adele probably told you about me.”
“Adele said you went to school with Jordan. She said you might be willing to talk to me.”
“I did,” the woman responded. She ducked her head low and got even quieter. “I wasn’t sure about talking to you, but…” She looked around again like someone might be watching. She leaned over the counter. “Adele doesn’t even know this, but I never believed the university’s story. If you come back tomorrow night, I’ll give you a tour and tell you what I know.”
CHAPTER 45
I slept late the next morning, later than I generally do back in Little Rock. I missed my mother and sister leaving. I didn’t hear a peep. I even missed a couple of texts from Luke, updating me on his progress, which wasn’t much from yesterday. With neither my mother or sister home, I lounged around until it was nearly time to meet Jack and Frank at noon.
Frank had arrived the night before. Late in the evening, he had texted to let me know he had picked up a rental car and was staying at a nearby hotel. He had refused my mother’s offer to stay at the house and even Jack’s offer to stay with him. Frank had said he wanted to create his war room at the hotel and enjoyed the quiet.
I drove the few miles from my mother’s house out Pinewoods Avenue, which headed away from the suburbs and into a rural part of the county. The winding two-lane road was narrow and commanded my full attention.
Jack and Frank were already pulled over onto the shoulder of the road in the small dirt patch that sat in front of the cemetery’s wrought-iron gates. I crossed the lane and pulled in next to them.
Jack had told me before he left last night that he had called in a favor and received permission for us to be on the cemetery grounds so we were sure not to get into trouble. Not that the local cops would do much more than chase us off, but legal access was always preferable.
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