by Lori Ryan
“So, he posted it, and we left. We were hungry and she was out, so we, uh, we left and went to eat.”
“Where did you go?”
“Hemmies. I mean, uh, Hemler’s Burgers.”
“Okay,” Shauna said with a nod again.
“So, we went there, hung out, ate. That was it.”
Shauna had given up the pretense of looking for the paperwork. She’d gotten their guy talking. “So, what time was it when you finished eating?”
“It was almost nine-thirty when we left. They were closing in half an hour. We ate and dropped Sawyer at home.”
“What time was that?” Shauna asked.
“Close to ten.”
“It took you almost a half hour to get to Sawyer’s house?” Shauna’s tone was innocent but they all knew Hemler’s was only a fifteen-minute drive to Sawyer’s house.
“Yeah. I mean, no. Not really. We ran into Kyle Lawler and Mike Davies out in the parking lot. We talked to them for a bit. They were going to grab takeout and go to Mike’s house. He thought we might want to go, but we all had practice the next day. Coach is really hard on us if we’re late.”
Zach cursed under his breath. Everything he’d said checked out with the lawyer’s statement so far, and the timeline as far as they knew it.
“Okay, Ryan. Let’s go through this all again,” Shauna said, this time, pulling out a sheet of paper for him to write on. “Can you tell me, how did you know Adrienne was still alive when you left the clubhouse?”
As Zach and Ronan looked on, Shauna pulled him through the information again, bit by bit, looking for inconsistencies. They found none. Even Ryan’s answer to her question about knowing Adrienne was alive added up. He said she’d been passed out, but that she’d rubbed her nose and rolled over on the couch when they were there, like she was sleeping because she drank too much. According to Ryan, she’d been fully clothed, but her shoes had been off.
The interview with Aiden Fleming produced similar results, only his mom facilitated his talking to Shauna with routine threats to pull him from the hockey team if he didn’t cooperate. The stories matched, including the conversation with Mike Davies and Kyle Lawler. Zach would bet those two would support the story as well.
Either the boys were exceptionally good at lying, or they were telling the truth.
Chapter Fifteen
“It could be that the boys are telling the truth,” Ronan said. “Maybe they did drop Sawyer off at ten, but his parents are lying. The parents likely don’t know what that kid is doing once he goes up to his room. They built him his own freaking house out in the backyard. I doubt they keep close tabs.”
“None of you swear.” Shauna said this with a frown, as though she’d only just put the information together and Zach had to laugh. Theirs wasn’t a typical police department in that sense.
“The captain fines us if we do,” answered Cal Rylan, who’d just joined them to brainstorm what they had so far on the case.
Shauna’s eyes swung to Zach. “How do you still afford food and clothes?”
Zach grinned. “Funny woman.” It was true. She was funny. He’d always liked that about her. It was also true that he swore a lot and had paid his captain a hell of a lot of money over the years.
Zach motioned to Cal. “Shauna O’Rourke, meet Cal Rylan. He and his partner, Jarrod Harmon, are the guys that worked the sniper case.”
Shauna shook hands with Cal, and Zach fought the urge to growl at the contact. It didn’t matter that Cal was crazy in love with the agent he’d worked the case with. He and FBI Agent Eve Sands would be married the following year. He still didn’t want Cal touching Shauna.
Shauna looked at Zach. “Did you tell me it’s Cal’s sister who’s dating that journalist?”
Cal answered. “Ray Lansing. I still haven’t come to grips with that one, but he’s making Joyce happy.”
“If anyone deserves it …” Ronan said and the others nodded. All except Shauna, who looked at Zach.
“Joyce was the victim of a very violent crime years ago. She didn’t leave the house much until Ray Lansing entered the picture.”
Shauna nodded, but Cal seemed eager to move the topic along.
“What next? You can pressure Sawyer’s parents? See if they admit to lying?” Cal offered.
“My gut says they won’t,” Ronan said and Shauna and Zach both agreed.
Ronan looked at his watch. “You guys grab dinner and I’ll check in with Stephanie. See if she’s come up with anything else for us.”
Zach almost laughed at the look of panic that crossed Shauna’s face when Ronan mentioned going to dinner with Zach.
“I don’t need to eat,” she said.
What she meant was she didn’t need to eat with Zach. Ronan and Cal gave them both an odd look.
Zach took Shauna by the arm and laughed. “You do need to eat, so it might as well be with me,” he murmured as they crossed the room. “Smile and pretend you’re thrilled.”
“Nonsense,” she hissed, glancing around like she hoped no one noticed him leading her out of the room by the arm. No such luck. “You and Ronan can go eat. I can check in with Stephanie.”
“Nope.” Zach was grinning now. He couldn’t really have helped it if he tried. She was really going to dig in her heels and refuse to go with him. “We’ll just grab takeout and bring it back. You don’t have to look so damned panicked. Did you really think Ronan would send us out to a four-course meal in the middle of a murder investigation?” He pressed the elevator button as she wrenched her arm free of his hold and glared at him.
He smiled back.
If there were any words to her grumbling, he couldn’t make them out. She kept it up, though, all the way down the street to the diner, where they ordered takeout for the team.
Zach knew from experience he didn’t have much time while they waited for their food. The diner owners and wait staff all put any order from the NHPD ahead of the line, whether it was an order for them to eat there or to-go.
“Let’s grab coffee while we wait,” he said, gesturing to a booth. He gave a nod to the hostess who’d gone to sit at the counter and she gave a tip of the head to indicate they could sit where he’d led Shauna.
Shauna dug in her heels. “We should just take our food and go.”
He gave her a look that dared her to sit. Shauna was never one to refuse a dare, even if it wasn’t a spoken one.
She sat.
It didn’t take a minute for two cups of hot coffee and a dish of creamers to arrive.
“Tell me about your world,” he said. Neither of them poured any cream or sugar into their cups. He took a sip, but Shauna wrapped her hands around the mug, seeming to draw on its warmth.
“Not much to tell. I work.”
“How’s your mom?” he asked.
“She died.”
Shit. Zach knew how much Shauna loved her parents. Hell, her whole family was close. “I’m sorry. How is your dad?” As soon as the question was out, he felt like an idiot. If her mom had died, her dad was not doing well. They were a couple who always seemed to be truly in love.
“He’s dead.”
“What?” Zach almost spit out his coffee. “What the—” He looked at her and saw her blandly sipping from her coffee cup.
The waitress came and dropped their food off, packed into a large plastic bag with the handles tied over Styrofoam containers. She left the check then walked to a table against the far wall to take an order.
Zach narrowed his eyes on Shauna. “That’s messed up, Shauna. You don’t tell a person your parents are dead when they’re not.”
She gave him a quirk of her brow and a look that said she didn’t want his lessons in comportment. “As far as you’re concerned, they are. I’m not getting involved with you personally again, Zach. We’re working a case together. That’s all.”
“You don’t think it’s worth trying to get to know each other again? The right way this time?” He was an idiot for asking a question she’d all but told him
the answer to already.
She gave him a long look. “That’s not going to happen.”
“Fair enough,” he said. He couldn’t argue with her on that one. It’s not like he deserved a second chance with her.
The only problem was, he wanted to argue with her.
“Fair enough,” he said again. “So, we’ll just be friends this time.”
She snorted. “What part of nothing personal do you not understand?”
He couldn’t help it. He grinned at her, letting the smile settle over him in the slow easy way meant to tell her he wasn’t buying her line. She’d let him in.
She shook her head, but he saw the slight twinge of her lips, like she wanted to laugh at him.
He’d take it.
Chapter Sixteen
Hillary Hunt—the other girl in the circle of popularity that was made up of Carrie, Adrienne, Kate, and Hillary—was a small blonde girl with wide brown eyes that seemed too large for her face. She wore sweatpants and a shirt with the Elmhurst Academy crest on it. She was currently sitting cross-legged between her parents on a large sofa in the Hunts’ living room.
Shauna wasn’t above pressing Hillary. The girl’s parents had put off the interview the last time they’d reached out to her, claiming their daughter was too distraught to talk.
Screw that, Shauna thought. Two of her friends had died. Pressuring her for information was necessary.
“Were Carrie and Adrienne talking to anyone new?” Shauna asked. “Maybe on social media? Someone they’d met online or kids from another school?”
“No, nothing like that,” Hillary said, shaking her head for emphasis.
“Is Hillary in danger?” the girl’s father asked and her mother’s face took on a look of panic.
The school had dragged their heels on warning parents about the danger to their students, arguing the fact the girls had both gone to the same school was coincidence. It made Shauna sick to think they cared more about their reputation, their bottom line, than the safety of the students. There would be a notice going out in a few hours, though. The mayor had finally pressured the head of the school to make the warning.
“Do you think this person will come after Hill?” Mrs. Hunt echoed the question.
Shauna let the question hang in the air long enough for the family to draw some conclusions, then gave a weak, “we hope not,” in response, before asking her next question. “Hillary, can you think of anything, any little detail, that might help us figure this out? Figure out who hurt Carrie and Adrienne?”
She felt a little shitty for playing on that fear, but screw it. They needed a lead. Ronan was back at the station and she and Zach had come to try to pull something from the girl in the hopes she’d have something for them to go on.
The question had the desired effect. Hillary squirmed, confirming there was something the girl was holding back.
Zach took that moment to quietly ask Mr. Hunt to join him in the other room. Shauna knew he wanted to clear the room of men in the hopes Hillary might open up.
She softened her voice. “Hillary, we need to stop this person. Before anyone else gets hurt.”
The girl looked at her mom, then back to Shauna, pushing one piece of hair behind her ear as a tear slid down her face. “Sawyer’s clubhouse.” Another glance to her mom then back to Shauna.
“I told you I didn’t want you going there,” her mother said, then looked to Shauna. “His parents think it’s okay to build a kid his own game room and let the kids all hang out there unsupervised. What kind of parent does that?”
Shauna nodded but didn’t say anything. She agreed with Hillary’s mom, but right then, she needed Hillary talking. “What happened in the clubhouse, Hillary?”
Hillary was crying now. “I went there with some friends. There were a few of us, so I thought it was okay. But I think he slipped something to me. I woke up and I was alone.” The girl held herself now, arms wrapped around herself like she couldn’t get warm. “I think someone did something to me. My clothes weren’t on right, like someone had undressed me but then didn’t dress me up right. I had a tank top on under my shirt and that was gone. My underwear was crooked, like…”
She didn’t finish. Her mother’s arms were around her now and the poor woman looked like she might be sick. Shauna didn’t blame her.
“Can you tell me when this was?” Shauna asked. They’d have a hard time proving anything if she didn’t remember who did this to her, but maybe the girl would be able to tell her something they didn’t already know. If someone had been there with Sawyer. Maybe just by telling them today, memories would open up for Hillary and she’d remember some small detail that would help.
“About three months ago.”
“Can you tell me who was there with you when you got to the clubhouse?” Shauna asked.
“Sawyer was there, and Kyle Lawler and Mike Davies. Adrienne and Carrie were there, but I think they left before I was slipped something.” The pinched brow said the girl was trying to remember but wasn’t sure and Shauna knew time could be hard to piece together on some drugs. She wondered if it was GHB that Hillary had been given, like the others.
“Did you tell anyone what happened?”
Hillary nodded. “I told Carrie and Adrienne what I thought happened. They still went and partied there some. Carrie liked the attention she got there. Adrienne said she thought it was creepy that he hit on her and Carrie both, but I’m not sure either of them really believed anything had been done to me. I think they thought I just got drunk and passed out.” She looked to her mom. “I only had a little beer. I didn’t pass out.”
Now she looked back to Shauna. “Kate believed me. She started making excuses not to go there. We would usually hang out someplace else if Carrie and Adrienne were going there.”
As Shauna listened, she couldn’t help but hate the fact that it was so hard for girls to feel like they couldn’t come forward for help. If this girl had said something to an adult, would Carrie and Adrienne be alive today? But the girls probably feared it would get out, that they’d be called easy or worse. Maybe people wouldn’t believe her at all. There were all kinds of things for a girl in her position to fear. Shauna understood that all too well.
When her husband had abused her, Shauna hadn’t wanted anyone to know what had happened to her. There was still shame inside her over it, despite the fact she knew full well she shouldn’t feel any. Her husband should have borne all of that.
Listening quietly, she documented everything Hillary had told her. She didn’t know if they’d ever be able to bring any charges on Hillary’s behalf if she had no memory of what had happened, and any evidence that might have existed on her body or clothing was long gone. But, maybe Hillary could testify in court. With her testimony, they would be one step closer to justice for Carrie and Adrienne.
Chapter Seventeen
Zach watched as Shauna slammed the cabinet that held the coffee mugs in the breakroom. She could rival him for her temper, only he had a feeling hers flared less frequently than his. Although he wasn’t sure what had set her off right then.
When they’d split up a few minutes ago, he’d been off to check on the prosecutor’s arrival, Ronan was going to touch base with the cold case detectives doing leg work, and she’d planned to grab coffee for the three of them.
“Hey,” he said, coming up behind her and putting a hand on the mug she was about to slam down on the counter. His hand had to close over hers to stop the motion, and the contact with her was the last thing he needed since he’d been trying to respect that she only wanted to be friends, but she seemed to need an intervention. “Tell me what’s wrong before you take it out on that innocent mug.”
Wrong thing to say. She spun on him, eyes blazing. “Did you really just ask me that?”
It took everything in him to bite down on the urge to tell her how hot she was when she was mad. That probably said a hell of a lot about his personality flaws, but he didn’t want to analyze that too closely
.
He pulled the mug from her hand and framed her against the counter with his hands. “I get it. Really, I do. But tell me, right now, in this moment, what set you off?”
Shauna blinked several times before answering. “Hillary Hunt’s mother called me. Hillary is in the hospital. She tried to kill herself.”
Zach’s stomach fell to his knees. “What? Will she make it?” They dealt with a lot of shit as cops, but the worst thing was when something happened to a kid. And they’d been the ones to make Hillary talk.
Zach raised his eyes to Shauna and now saw the pain behind her anger. She blamed herself. “Will she make it?”
“Yes. Apparently, she went to school where a lot of the kids on the hockey team are defending Jonathan Sawyer. They’re saying she asked for it. That they all take the GHB to relax and she took it voluntarily. That no one slipped it to her.”
Zach’s gut flared and rage went through him. He started counting. Would it be bad for him to try to talk Shauna down only to walk away from her to go scream and vent in the bathroom? Probably.
She reached out and touched the ticking muscle in his jaw. “You want to go break things in the bathroom, don’t you?” He was surprised to hear laughter in her voice.
He let out a rough huff of laughter. “I really do.”
“It really bothers me that this kid can’t be our perp from thirty years ago. There’s something we’re missing here.” Her words echoed what he’d been thinking for a while.
He nodded. “I agree. Let’s see what we can get out of Sawyer then look further into the father and grandfather.”
“I was thinking,” Shauna nodded, “I think we might be getting tunnel vision. We also need to look at the headmaster at the school. He’s new there. He didn’t mention that but it’s worth clearing him.”
“Agreed. And let’s look at Adrienne’s uncle, too. Something seemed off about that guy. He’s far too involved with the school and kids. He doesn’t have kids of his own. Maybe there’s something there.”
Ronan walked in then, splitting a questioning gaze between the two of them before shaking his head as if saying he didn’t want to know what they’d been doing.
