"I know." She considered the issue and didn't like any of the options. "Damn."
"Sorry. I'm going to contact the others."
"Ugh. That's a tough job. How is Pero doing? Last I heard he was recovering from a car accident that killed his brother, Anto. But that was like eleven, twelve years ago. Pero was okay but...his brother...yuck."
"He was a good friend. I didn't realize you didn't like him."
"I liked Pero. None of us girls liked Anto. And I never told you because he was your friend!" She smiled at the memories. "He was important to you and you were important to me. So I put up with him."
"I never knew."
"No," she reminisced. "There were lots of things you didn't know."
He laughed. "No way," he scoffed. Then he paused for a long moment, before asking curiously, "Like what?"
She laughed. "Oh, I don't know. There were lots of things. We were so young and intense. I was scared to screw it all up. But I did, anyways."
Damn. Meg closed her eyes. She shouldn't have said that. Waves of emotional exhaustion hit her in never ending painful waves. It was the only reason she'd said that. It wouldn't have slipped out otherwise. But it had and now she had to deal with it.
"What? No. That's not true. You were perfect, always."
"So not true," she whispered. "I was horrible; just horrible, back then."
"What are you talking about?" His voice deepened with caring, bringing tears to his eyes. "You were never horrible. It's not in you."
She stifled back the tears, hating the weakness threatening to overtake her. She should never have called him. Her throat was clogged and she couldn't get the words out. She swallowed several times but that hot ball in her throat refused to budge.
"Is this to do with Cia?" His voice broke through her pain.
"Yes," she managed. "You know when she disappeared we were gossiping about her? About her. That's like how horrible we were… She was dying and we...well, we were sniggering about her."
Just the memory burned hot and hateful in her head. God, she hated how she had acted back then.
"Christ Meg, you were barely eighteen. Everyone gossiped. And everyone gossiped about Cia. Jesus, she got around." He sighed. "If nothing had happened to her, that would never have been an issue, but because something did, it put a spotlight on each of our behaviors at the time." He groaned. "Remember what I did? I almost went out of my mind, knowing she'd died because I'd been a coward, too chicken shit to find out what that noise was."
"No, that's not true," Meg cried, shocked out of her self-pity. "You could have been killed yourself."
"And maybe I could have stopped it before anyone got hurt." He gave a short, harsh laugh. "Instead, I've spent every day wondering what if..."
"Like the rest of us. We all wondered if our actions could have changed the outcome and, of course, there is no way to know."
"Exactly…this has ruined all our lives, but we can't let it control us for ever."
"Like Stephanie." She sighed. "I'm sorry for her. I should have stayed in touch, but I just couldn't handle it."
"Yeah, we got that. I stayed in touch early on but I was struggling too and by the time she hit the streets, even though I tried for years, I couldn't help her anymore. She contacted me a few years ago saying she'd cleaned up her act and asking for help."
"What kind of help?"
"To get some counselling, help her find a place to live, that kind of thing."
"You've been a good friend to her."
The sound that came through the phone made her wince. "Not good enough. She's missing right now and I've done all I can do but there's still no sign of her."
"Shit." Her reaction was as much for the worry and frustration in his voice as for the fact that Stephanie was missing.
"Exactly." He sighed. "Everyone is assuming she's taken another dive into the drug scene to forget."
Meg sat up and crossed her legs. She ran a hand through her hair. "Has she done this since cleaning up?"
"Unfortunately, yes." He added, "Once after losing a job. It was a slip up, but not a bad one."
She winced. "Some events are enough to shake even the most stable of us."
He gave a short laugh. "And no one would consider her stable."
"No." So true but they'd been good friends at one time and Meg wished Stephanie'd had an easier time of it. "Well, I hope she shows up soon. Otherwise..."
"Yeah, I know." He cleared his throat. "Enough of Stephanie for now. With the media out hunting up anyone connected to Cia's disappearance, I suggest you keep a low profile for the next week while we work on the case."
"Will do." She stood up and walked to her window where she peeked out from the side. "The street looks clear. They haven't found me yet."
"Good. Let's keep it that way." His voice deepened. "I wouldn't want anything to happen to you."
She sighed. "You know the timing really sucks, don't you?"
"I know." His voice lightened so much she could almost see his smile in her mind, "I'm just letting you know your options."
"Really?" She laughed. "Is that what you call it?"
"No pressure." He said firmly. "I'm here if you need me or if and when you are ready to see if we have anything worth rekindling."
She both loved and hated the shiver of delight slipping down her spine at his words. He'd always had that effect on her.
"What a concept," she murmured a few moments later after saying good night. Maybe that's why she'd gone for Pete. Stable, solid, and comfortable Pete – he'd never take her camping and have someone get murdered. No, but he had taken her to his cabin where she'd found a body.
Maybe she was destined to live a life that always touched on crime. Certainly, she could have focused on that with her work, but she'd chosen a more humanitarian way to use her education and skills. Yes, crime was often involved, but she'd spent so much time working on old, oftentimes large cases, that the crimes, for all their horror, were distant and therefore, easier to deal with. Opening a mass grave to identify bodies from an earthquake was much less personal than identifying Cia's body found in a lonely, faraway place in the woods. The mass grave in Haiti had had an additional creepy criminal aspect to it, but that had been a one in a million lifetime's chance of occurrence.
She'd gone through enough horror back then. And she'd never told anyone at the time about her own history. It wasn't something she wanted to share. It was something she couldn't share.
***
Tuesday morning
Chad was still trying to gulp coffee before shooting out the door on the way to work, when Daniel called. "I'm calling them all in, including you."
"Shit. A little warning and a little time for them to arrange their lives would have been nice." He threw back the rest of his coffee then called Meg.
"Good morning." Her voice, warm and welcoming, brought a smile instantly to his face. Then he realized she'd lose both when she realized what he needed.
"What's up?" Her voice had cooled. "Chad?"
"Sorry just giving you a heads up. Daniel called. He wants everyone in the office today for questioning."
"Really?" She gave a choked laugh. "Well, I can make it but I wouldn't be so sure about the others. Let's see, Anto and Cia are dead, and Stephanie is missing. Besides you and I, that doesn't leave many. Josh, Pero, Tim and who? Bruce, right?"
"Right, only Josh, Bruce and you live in town. Tim is in Europe and I have no idea about Pero. I haven't heard from him or about him for over a decade."
"I'll go straight there. Let's get this over with." And she hung up.
Damn. Chad knew it was asking a bit much without warning, but he'd hoped for a better reaction than that.
He grabbed his keys and drove to work. At the station, he was surprised to find Mack waiting with Daniel. Chad asked, "Did you reach everyone?"
"I will." Daniel said. "No worries there."
At the tone of voice, Chad spun and looked at him. "What's going on? What have you
found out?"
"Stephanie is now officially a missing person. I went to her place. Found this." Mack tossed a small baggie on the table.
Chad walked over and checked it out. "Right, it's similar to the one found with Cia's remains."
"Right. And according to Stephanie's statement, she was Bruce's girlfriend at the time. But she has the same type of necklace as the one we found with Cia's remains."
"True enough. But she also went out with Josh earlier. In fact, the guys all bought them as they were all the rage. What one girl had, the next one had to have or better. As they were all friends, it was easier to just buy the same. So either Bruce or Josh could have bought it for her."
Daniel, shoving his long sleeves up his arms, asked, "Are you sure?"
"Look, there were a lot of friends in our group. Some came on one weekend but couldn't go on the next. But within that group a lot of the couples changed and paired up with others. In fact, the more I've thought about it, it was only a couple of hour's drive away, so anyone could have known of our camping plans and taken advantage of Cia being alone."
Mack just stared at him. Derision was clear in his gaze. "You are going to have to take off those rose colored glasses, boyo. One of you six males killed Cia, mark my words. There wasn't another friend making the drive out there just to pick her off. Neither was it a stranger or random killing. No," he stabbed a finger at the files in front of him. "It was someone in your group."
Chad glared at the files under Mack's thumb. "I damn well hope not."
"Both of you calm down." Daniel snapped. "And if you can't be impartial about this, then I don't want you anywhere near me or it, until I find the bastard."
"I am impartial" Chad wanted to snap out about Mack not being impartial, but that wouldn't help his case. In fact, Daniel could shut Chad out. But that wasn't going to help anyone. Mack wanted to clear his nephews. Finito. Chad wanted to clear all of them…
"Just because I don't want it to be a friend doesn't mean I'm not going to follow the evidence." He picked up the bag with Stephanie's' necklace in it. "This is hardly evidence. It just proves that Cia and Stephanie may have had the same boyfriend."
"Not Cia. Meg. That necklace had her name on it."
"And that could mean nothing." Chad said, "Cia wasn't the nicest or easiest girl to be friends with. She might have borrowed the damn thing or she might have stolen it. I can almost guarantee that she wore it to bug Josh. He'd bought it for Meg but hadn't bought Cia one. She'd wear it just to push him into buying her one."
"And then he killed her in a fit of temper?"
"Josh? Hell, no! He didn't, doesn't, have much temper. Although, given the years this mess has put us through, I'd have to say he's likely to have developed one. I called him this morning and he was already trying to dodge the media."
"Good. Let's hope he's pissed enough to say something incriminating."
"Whatever."
"I don't want you in on the interviews."
Chad knew that was coming. "Fine, but I'd like to listen in."
Daniel stood and towered over the portly Mack. He seemed to consider that, and then nodded. "Fine. Just let me know if you catch anything. Margaret is waiting so Mack will start. Maybe seeing him again after all this time will jog something loose."
Oh shit. That was so not likely.
Chad followed Daniel and Mack out the door. It was going to be a hell of a day. And it had only just started.
***
"There you are Stephanie. What's the matter?" The coldly amused voice laughed. "Remember me?"
Christ. Stephanie bolted for the far end of the street, dashed into another alley way and came up against a blocked exit. Her heart pounded as her instincts screamed at her to run.
She didn't know the voice. But, God, she knew the fear.
"There's nowhere to run." The voice was coming closer.
She spun around, searching for a way out when she felt something prick her arm.
How had he gotten so close, so fast?
"That wasn't so bad, was it?" The voice stretched and receded as the walls in front of Stephanie twisted and warped into a weird shape. She fell against one wall, feeling her body slide down to the ground.
"Have a nice trip. And this time, please die."
CHAPTER 14
Meg sat in the small room and waited. She didn't flinch or fidget. She'd been here before. She wasn't a scared young girl anymore and she hadn't done anything wrong. She worked on the side of the law now herself. Mack might try his scare tactics, but Meg was no fool. She'd already contacted her lawyer and had a brief conversation with him.
He'd offered to come in, but Meg hadn't wanted to take that step yet.
She wanted to help the police. She wanted Cia's killer to be caught and she damn well wanted her life back.
She checked her cell phone for what had to be the tenth time in the last half hour. There was still no contact from Pete. As much as she wanted a peaceful end to their relationship, she couldn't help but worry. She hoped he was all right.
The door opened to let Mack in. "Are you late for something, Miss Pearce?"
Meg looked up as Mack walked in. "No, I'm not."
His gaze drilled into hers. She stared back, quietly, calmly.
"Good. I'd like to have you tell me again what happened on that day Cia went missing."
"And correlate it to my old statement?" At Mack's nod, Meg said, "I can't add anything. But to the best of memory, this is what I remember..." and she launched into her story. Thank heavens she'd clarified that point with her lawyer. How accountable could one be for discrepancies between two statements on the same event taken seventeen years apart? Not much apparently. Given gaps in memories and time passing, there was only so much she could remember. When she was done, Mack handed her a copy of her old statement. She read it with interest. And found it to be the same. "Well, nice to know age hasn't affected my memory that badly. Yet," she added with a small smile.
"And now we come to this necklace." Mack tossed a small bag at her.
She picked it up, expecting to see the same necklace she'd excavated at the site. Instead inside was a shiny, newish looking one in the same style. She turned it over and read the inscription and laughed. "Typical of Josh; he never could figure out what to get people for presents."
"Josh?"
"Stephanie's old boyfriend, I think after me and before Cia and before she hooked up with Bruce." She gave him a crooked smile. "But who could remember? Back then, it was musical boyfriends."
"For you?" Mack's gaze, dark and intent, studied her carefully.
"Not really. I went out with Josh for a couple of months. Then about 6-8 months later, I started going out with Chad." She shrugged. "That was it for me."
"And what about Cia?"
Meg titled her head. "Again, it's hard to remember. She'd gone out with Chad before me, but months earlier. Then she went out with Josh at the same time I was going out with Chad. I think she'd been out with Bruce a few times as well. As for the others, I don't know."
"And Stephanie?"
Meg winced. "That I am not sure of. She was going out with Bruce and had gone out with Josh for a short while. Who else, honestly – I don't know."
"Did she ever talk about her boyfriends?"
Meg thought it was an odd question to ask now, but given that Stephanie wasn't here to answer questions herself, maybe not. "All the time. It was typical girl talk."
"Did she mention anyone else?"
"What do you mean anyone else? Any other boyfriends? Wanna-be boyfriends? I don't understand."
"Cia's remains were found and, right away, Stephanie goes missing. Is it too far a stretch to believe that maybe the same male did something to both of them?"
"I wouldn't like to think so." Meg felt her heart sink. "That would be horrible."
"But you are not a fool. So who else did Stephanie mention?"
With a sigh, Meg slouched back into her chair and cast her mind backwards. "Steph
anie loved keeping track of other people's relationships."
"But you didn't?"
"No." She smiled lightly. "I had my own and I was really happy with it."
"If you were so happy, why did you break up with him?"
There was no mockery in his voice but the tone was too even. Too...something… she couldn't figure out what it was. "I guess you had to be there to understand."
His gaze narrowed, darkened. "Try me."
She stared back calmly. "No."
His eyebrow shot up. "Really?"
"It has nothing to do with the case." She added carefully, her tone even and controlled. "It happened after the crime and in no way impacted on what happened at the time."
"For all I know, you two were in on Cia's murder together. After your unholy pact, you couldn't love each other, knowing what you'd done together and split. You've hardly spoken since." He smiled. "Have you?"
"No, we haven't." She'd be damned if she'd give him more than was required.
Just then the door opened and Chad walked in. Meg stared at him. She didn't smile. This scenario was awkward enough without any sign of friendship, or the signs of anything more, showing through.
With a hard look, Mack nodded to him. "Did you have something to add?"
"Meg, you said that Stephanie and you had been gossiping while out in the water. Was anything in that conversation indicative of who Cia might have moved onto next? Or who she wouldn't move onto?"
Meg frowned, trying to remember. "I remember some of it. Although I'm sure I brought this up back then. Stephanie had been talking about who Cia had slept with and who she hadn't. She never did tell me the names though. She did say Cia had slept with four of the guys who were on the camping trip and was planning on sleeping with a fifth that weekend."
Mack leaned forward. "That weekend?"
Chad shook his head. "Couldn't be, she was sleeping with Josh on that trip. She was sleeping in his tent."
"I know. That's what I'd been trying to figure out when you called out to us." She shrugged. "I never did get the name from Stephanie. I also don't know if Stephanie was telling the truth. She loved to stretch the truth and loved to gossip." She stopped and forced herself to correct her words. "We all did. But Stephanie thrived on it."
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