“Holy...” Zach didn’t finish the expletive.

Zach, Ronan, and Shauna stood looking at the projection of Stephanie’s computer on a large screen in front of them.

“Thought you might want to see those,” Stephanie said, as though she hadn’t just pulled up evidence that would put the final nail in the coffin at Jonathan Sawyer’s rape trial.

They were looking at deleted messages from the Facebook group the Elmhurst Academy boys had been using to tell each other how far they’d gotten in their sexual exploits. Sawyer had posted pictures of Carrie and Hillary, letting the other guys know he’d slept with them, only to delete the posts later.

“It doesn’t make sense,” Zach said, as he realized what was wrong.

“Listen puzzle man,” Ronan said, referring to the way Zach often seemed to fit the pieces of a puzzle together, “this shows he was involved with those girls. It supports Hillary’s allegations and it also goes to motive. Hell, maybe all of this started because Carrie threatened to talk. He killed her to silence her, then got a taste for it.”

Zach dug his feet in. “No, something has been off about Sawyer from the start. I think he drugged and raped those girls, but I’m not convinced he killed them.”

“Why do you say that?” Shauna asked, her tone open, as though she was ready to hear him out and weigh his argument.

“Because, this makes no sense. If he killed Carrie and Adrienne, he wouldn’t have deleted the posts for Carrie and Hillary, but left up the one about Adrienne. He would have deleted it too, before she was found. If he only raped the girls, he might have gone and deleted the one for Carrie as soon as she went missing.”

“Maybe he just didn’t think Adrienne’s body would be found so soon. She was left out in the woods. It was a fluke she was found that easily,” Ronan argued. “And what was his reasoning for deleting Hillary? She isn’t missing. Why delete her but then post about Adrienne?”

Zach scrubbed his hands over his face, letting out a growl of frustration. “I don’t know.” He shook his head. “It doesn’t make sense either way.”

Shauna spoke. “Let’s assume he isn’t our killer. What if he was just deleting the posts after a short amount of time. Sawyer showed us he’s cautious. He talked about his rights like he’d looked up legal rights and the limits of what we can and can’t do. He didn’t think we could get into the Facebook account, but surely he had to know we could if we got a warrant. So, what if this was just him being cautious about the rapes? He posts them to brag to his buddies, then deletes them soon after that? Only Adrienne was killed before he had a chance to delete that one?”

Stephanie clicked a few buttons while they all looked to her. When she looked up, she nodded. “It’s possible. Each post was deleted about three days after it was posted. He had a few others in there, and he tends to delete the ones that brag about his conquests within a few days. He leaves any posts up where he’s just rating a girl’s looks or whatever.”

The room was quiet as they digested the information. It was broken only when the intercom on Stephanie’s phone beeped before a voice came over the line.

“Stephanie, you got Reynolds in there with you?”

Zach recognized the voice as that of the desk sergeant currently on duty and answered. “Yeah, Phillips, what is it?”

“There are two girls here asking to see you, detective.”

The fact the man didn’t snicker when he said it told Zach it was probably linked to this case. No matter how much they all relied on humor to break the tension, no one was joking where this case was concerned.

“On my way,” Zach said as he thanked Stephanie and left the room, holding the door for Ronan and Shauna.

He couldn’t help himself. He breathed in as Shauna walked by, letting the scent of her calm his frustrations. Truth was, the scent of her added a different kind of frustration, but it was one he enjoyed. He couldn’t place it, but it was sweet. Sweeter than you’d think for a female cop who could take on a number of her male coworkers and win in a fair fight. Shauna was somehow powerful and graceful all at once, like she was born to the strength in her body and wore it with ease.

She turned her head, giving him a look that said she was aware of what he’d just done, and he grinned at her in return. He didn’t care if she knew. He needed the distraction right now.

She gave a small shake of her head with a laugh that gave him hope and strode ahead of him to where Ronan waited at the elevators.

When they got to the bottom floor, they found Kate Sorino and Liz Gordon waiting for them. The pair looked like an unmatched set. Kate fit the role of the wealthy girl who was part of the popular clique. Her clothes were casual, but you could see they were expensive. Her makeup was applied just so.

Liz stood next to her in clothes that might have been just as expensive as Kate’s but they somehow didn’t look the part. Her shirt and skirt matched but didn’t go together in quite the same way Kate’s did. Not that Zach knew a damned thing about fashion. That was probably why he couldn’t put his finger on what was wrong, except to say that it was off somehow. And her makeup was a little too heavily applied. Not in the way of someone who was going for the tortured teenager goth look. She had tried to look like she was going for subtlety, but it was coming off as anything but.

Despite the difference in appearance, the girls stood close, as though gathering strength from one another.

“Kate, Liz,” Shauna said, “what is it?”

Kate bit her lip and Zach could see her chin tremble. He didn’t think she was faking it. 

Liz spoke for Kate. “Kate needs to tell you guys some things about...um...” she looked around but the lobby of the police station was empty, save for a single man sprawled in a chair on the other side of the space. His headphones and closed eyes said he wasn’t paying any attention to them. “About Sawyer.”

Zach nodded. “Come on up, girls. Does the school know you’re here?” It was after school hours, but Zach wanted to find out how they’d gotten here and who knew they were here.

“I drove us over,” Liz said.

The ride in the elevator was tight, but Zach kept the conversation going. “Kate, are your parents back in town?”

“Yes,” she said. “Do we need to tell them I’m here?”

“We can if you want to, but it’s not necessary,” Zach added. They stepped out of the elevator and he gestured down the hall to an empty room. Ronan tilted his head to the bullpen, silently letting Zach know he would leave Shauna and Zach to the interview.

“I don’t want them to know I’m here,” Kate said quickly.

Shauna nodded and they all sat in a room with couches and a water cooler. It was designed for interviewing witnesses they wanted to set at ease rather than intimidate. “We don’t need to tell them,” Shauna repeated.

Kate and Liz weren’t suspects in the case, and they weren’t in custody. At seventeen, there was no requirement that they have fifteen minutes alone with a parent, guardian, or an adult present when they talked to the detectives.

They sat and Zach tried to keep his expression and tone open. “What is it you want to talk to us about?” He didn’t say “tell us,” because he had a feeling if anything so much as hinted that Kate was about to tattle on someone, they might not have her here long.

Kate looked down and then glanced at Liz who nodded to her. Shauna slid into the seat across from Kate while Zach took a step back.

“You can talk to us, Kate. It’s all right.” Shauna said the words, then waited, not pressing too hard.

“I think Carrie went to see Sawyer the day she was killed.”

Zach schooled his features. Unfortunately, she wasn’t telling them anything they didn’t already suspect. So far, what she’d said didn’t do anything to clear up his concerns that Sawyer wasn’t the killer. Based on what she was saying, Sawyer could very well be guilty of raping Carrie if he drugged her, but not killing her.

Still, anything they could do to firm up the rape allegations could be helpful. He needed to remind himself of that and be patient.

“What makes you think that?” Shauna said.

Kate proceeded to tell them that Carrie wanted to lose her virginity, cheeks flaring hot red as she said it. According to Kate, Carrie knew what Sawyer had done to Hillary and she planned to put herself alone with him in the clubhouse to lose her virginity without having to stress over it.

Zach sat stunned. He thought he’d heard it all, but what the hell had that girl been thinking? It was crazy.

Then again, he knew how much a teenage girl could struggle with confidence and peer pressure. No, he shook his head. He still couldn’t wrap his head around it.

Kate began to cry and within seconds, it had gone from a trickle, to full blown sobs.

“I...” her voice hitched, “I...I...should” she stopped trying when it became clear she couldn’t get the words out.

Liz spoke instead. “She didn’t tell the police when Carrie went missing because she thought Carrie was trying to get away from her parents for a bit. She thought she was just crashing in Sawyer’s clubhouse for a bit.”

“She...never...” Kate tried again.

Shauna reached a hand out to touch the girl’s knee. “Take a deep breath, Kate. Good, good, that’s it. Now another one, slow and steady. Deep breaths.” Shauna crooned the words, slow and steady.

Kate’s crying slowed and the panicked breaths she’d been sucking in moments before calmed to a steadier rate.

Kate tried again, and this time, the words came out. They weren’t steady, but she was able to speak. “She never felt like she could breathe since her dad ran for Senator, you know? She felt trapped with everyone watching everything she did. I thought she was just trying to get away from that for a while.”

Zach did something he didn’t often do. “Kate, it wouldn’t have mattered if you told the police.”

Shauna looked back at him, but she didn’t seem to be chastising him for sharing details of the case with the girls, so he continued. He didn’t want to scare the girls or give them too much information, but he did want to make sure this girl didn’t carry that burden. It was one thing to want her to be honest with them from here-on-out, but he didn’t think she needed to carry the guilt that would come from thinking she’d gotten her friend killed.

“Carrie was killed before the police were called in, Kate. So, even though it’s important for you to share everything you know with us to help us catch her killer, don’t think that anything you did or didn’t tell us could have saved her, okay?”

He could see the weight leave her shoulders. There were still tears tipping slowly over the edges of her eyes, as she blinked up at him, but she nodded.

“Is there anything else you can tell us, Kate?” Shauna asked.

“I don’t know,” Kate said, sitting up straighter. “What kind of stuff would help?”

They had to be careful now. If they fed her any lines, she’d just give them back, and as much as Zach wanted a lead, he wanted it to be genuine, not something they planted in her head.

“Can you tell us who else hung out at Sawyer’s clubhouse?” Zach saw Liz stiffen then, but she seemed to force herself to relax right away. He remembered she’d said she didn’t hang out there, and he wondered if that was by choice or because she wasn’t welcome.

Sawyer and Kate were in the in crowd. Liz was not.

They listened as Kate rattled off the names of nearly the entire hockey team and a number of other boys at the school. There wasn’t anyone they hadn’t already looked at yet.

“What other girls go to the clubhouse?” Shauna asked.

Again, Liz tensed.

Kate listed a number of girls, all of whom had shown up at one time or another in the Facebook group. No one they hadn’t already known about.

“Do any adults come to the clubhouse?” Zach asked.

Kate looked confused. “Adults?”

It occurred to Zach that it shouldn’t be a foreign concept that an adult might come to check on the kids or supervise the party. Then again, that’s not the kind of thing he was talking about.

“Sure, adults,” he said. “Maybe Sawyer’s grandfather or father?”

Kate shook her head, no.

“Any of the coaches?”

Another no.

“How about any older kids? Maybe kids who’ve already graduated from school?” Zach didn’t point out that that would make them adults as Kate already seemed so thrown by the idea.

She lifted a shoulder and let it drop. “Mm hmm. In the summertime some of the kids come back if they’re home from college for the summer.”

“Have any of them been around yet this year?” Shauna asked.

Elmhurst was getting ready to wrap up for the semester, but Zach didn’t think colleges were out yet.

“No, not yet.” Kate looked defeated. She looked up at them with large owl eyes. “Can’t you prove he’s lying? That they’re all lying? The hockey team covers for him, you know.”

Kate looked to Liz who nodded her agreement and then Kate went on, swiping at tears on her face, as though she’d realized what the problem was. “You have to get the hockey team to tell the truth. If you could get them to talk...” she pled, like they hadn’t already thought about that.

Shauna pulled a stack of cards from her pocket and handed one to each of the girls. “If either of you think of anything or hear anything on campus you think we should know about, you can reach out to either of us directly.” She looked over her shoulder as though she knew Zach would be pulling his own cards out, which he was. He handed one to each of the girls.

“My cell phone is on there,” Shauna said, and Zach confirmed that his was, as well.

“Call anytime,” he said. It never hurt to have eyes and ears on the campus reporting back to them. They needed every scrap of help they could get at this point.

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