Whispers of Deception

Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

“ S orry, I’m late. I stopped to get . . . ” Delilah’s voice trailed off as she took in the scene before her. “Coffee. Do I even want to know?” she asked, stepping into Augustus’ apartment.

The place was a mess—-papers scattered everywhere, Willow’s journals lying open with pages torn out, and it looked like a tornado had ripped through. Augustus was kneeling on the living room floor, absorbed in the mess, his focus entirely on his laptop.

“Don’t touch that,” Augustus snapped, swatting Sebastian’s hand away as he reached for something on the floor. “It’s the lake house,” he muttered, his mind elsewhere.

“No, that’s my muffin,” Sebastian murmured, retrieving his hand-eaten pastry from the clutter.

“Stop. I’m trying to map everything out,” Augustus said, barely acknowledging him as he shuffled papers around.

“Could you use something other than my food to do it?” Sebastian huffed, taking a bite of the rescued muffin.

Augustus waved him off, still engrossed in his work. “How far is the lake house from the Smarty Mart?”

Lilia squinted at her phone, scrolling through the map. “Fifteen minutes.”

“And the Smarty Mart from the park?” Augustus pressed, not looking up.

“What is he doing?” Delilah asked, dropping her bag onto the floor as she stepped closer to the mess.

“I’m retracing Willow’s steps,” Augustus murmured.

“The park is seventeen minutes from the gas station,” Lilia answered, glancing between her phone and Augustus.

“How exactly is that supposed to help us?” Delilah asked, her voice tinged with skepticism.

“And the park to Circle 9?” Augustus continued, ignoring Delilah’s question.

“Nine minutes,” Lilia said.

Augustus furrowed his brow, leaning back as he tried to piece together the timeline. “Okay, so she leaves the party at 11 p.m. She drives to the Smarty Mart and gets gas or something. Why stop at the park?”

“Maybe she stopped to eat her snacks?” Eleanor suggested from where she was sitting on the couch.

“Why not just eat them in her car?” Augustus countered.

“Do you think she met up with someone?” Sebastian wondered aloud.

“The eyewitness report said she was alone,” Lilia pointed out.

“So she stopped to eat her snacks, and then she drove to the hotel? What happened after that?” Augustus asked, frustration seeping into his tone.

“Nothing. Everything ends after that—she just . . . ” Lilia’s voice faltered.

“Vanished,” Augustus finished, his voice hollow.

A heavy silence settled among them, each lost in their own thoughts, the enormity of their task settling in.

Eleanor finally broke the silence. “Okay, so hypothetically, if we were building a suspect list, who would be on it?”

“The mystery guy should be at the top of the list, for sure,” Lilia suggested.

Delilah nodded, her gaze moving to the free wall in Augustus’ apartment, now filled to the brim with the pages from Willow’s journal, newspaper articles, and photographs. “I vote for Mr. Montgomery.”

“You’re joking?” Lilia looked at her in surprise. “Why would he kill his own daughter?”

“Willow hated her dad, and besides, who reports their daughter missing two days later?” Delilah shot back.

“The police already secured his alibi. He and Mrs. Montgomery were out of town. New York, if I’m remembering correctly,” Lilia countered.

“I still think he should be on the list,” Delilah insisted, her eyes not leaving the wall.

“And who else? Professor Jameson?” Eleanor added.

“Why? He said that they weren’t having an affair.” Lilia frowned.

“He still kept it a secret—-why? It wasn’t something to hide.” Augustus shrugged.

“He was trying to protect her,” Lilia shot back.

“From what? Why keep it a secret after she was dead? That’s the kind of information the police should know. Someone was threatening her enough for her to want to run away. He should’ve told someone,” Sebastian agreed with Augustus.

“We need more,” Lilia finally said, her voice cutting through the tension. “We can’t just guess. We need to find something concrete.”

“Agreed,” Augustus murmured, his eyes scanning the papers before him. “We’re missing something.”

“What if we revisited the places she last went to?” Eleanor suggested. “We could talk to people. If she was running from someone, she would’ve been scared. Someone would’ve noticed that.”

Augustus looked up from his laptop, considering the idea. “What time is it?”

“Four o’clock,” Sebastian replied, glancing at his watch.

“Okay.” Gus nodded. “Sebastian and I will head to the gas station. The rest of you can go to the motel and ask questions. We can meet at Ellie’s afterward.”

Lilia nodded, gathering her things. “Just be careful,” she warned as they all stood to head out.

“Always am.” Sebastian saluted.

The bell above the door chimed as Augustus and Sebastian entered the gas station. The harsh fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, casting an unflattering glow over the aisles of snacks and drinks. A faint smell of gasoline mixed with stale coffee permeated the air. Augustus scanned the cover, where a man with a thick beard was restocking packs of cigarettes.

“Excuse me,” Augustus began, approaching the counter. “Were you working here on the night of the 16th of April?”

The man looked up, his expression tired but not unfriendly. “Nah, that was Jason’s shift. Hey Jason!” he called over his shoulder.

A younger guy emerged from the back room, his posture slouched with a bored expression on his face. He had the air of someone who simply didn’t care.

“Yeah, what’s up?” Jason asked, glancing between Augustus and Sebastian.

Augustus showed him a photo of Willow. “You saw this girl here on the 16th of April, right?”

Jason barely looked at the photo before rolling his eyes. “Look, I’ve already talked to the police.”

“We’re just asking a few follow-up questions,” Sebastian said, stepping in with a disarming smile. “It’ll only take a few minutes.”

Jason sighed. “You’ve got five minutes.”

“Great,” Augustus said, diving right in. “You told the police that she came here alone. Did she look distraught or alarmed?”

Jason furrowed his brow. “No.”

Augustus nodded, taking a note. “Right, so?—”

“No, I mean, she wasn’t alone. She was here with a man. I told the detective that the first time they interviewed me.”

Augustus frowned. “That can’t be right. The report said that she was alone.”

Jason crossed his arms, leaning against the counter. “Well, the report’s wrong. She was with a man.”

Sebastian furrowed his brow. “Could you describe him?”

Jason hesitated. “Caucasian, tall, brown hair—it was a while ago. I can’t really remember.”

Sebastian let out a frustrated breath. “Could you maybe give us more than that? You just described yourself at this point.”

Jason shrugged. “That’s all I got—sorry, man.”

Augustus exchanged a glance with Sebastian. “Did they seem like they were together? Like they knew each other?”

Jason considered the question but shook his head. “I didn’t really pay that much attention. But now that I think about it, they weren’t really talking to each other. It was weird, like they were together but separate, you know?”

“Did you see what kind of car they were driving?” Sebastian asked.

Jason nodded. “A black sedan. But she paid at the pump and left pretty quickly after. I was too busy with other customers to really notice.”

Augustus sighed. They were so close, yet so far.

“You’ve been helpful, thanks,” Sebastian said with a forced smile.

As they walked out of the gas station, Augustus ran a hand through his hair. “Why would someone falsify the police report? Why make it seem like she came alone?”

“The only person who has the ability to do that is the police,” Augustus said.

“Or the mayor?” Sebastian turned to look at him.Augustus pursed his lips.

“Look, maybe Delilah’s theory isn’t too far off.”

“Why would Mr. Montgomery kill his own daughter?”

“You remember how he was with her? Willow hated her dad—he was a dick. Always harassing her about keeping the family image, forcing her to the brink of breaking every single second. She could never catch a break from him. Do you remember a few days before she disappeared?” Sebastian asked.

Willow’s father had been erratic. Something had set him off as usual. It had been going on for years. This time was the worst; he had been so obsessed with his political campaign, so angered by the poll numbers that he had snapped at Willow.

“He threw a vase at her head,” Sebastian filled in when Augustus didn’t answer.

“I remember,” he murmured.

“Also, Lilah has a point. Why wait two days to report her missing? Willow had never done anything like that before. It’s like he wasn’t worried because . . . ”

“—because he knew what happened to her.”

They shared a passive glance.

“So, if we’re adding suspects to the list.” Sebastian shrugged. “Montgomery has got to be on it.”

The car engine rumbled to life, and Augustus sighed heavily, his forehead leaning against the wheel.

“How did we get here?” he grumbled. “In this mess. It’s our junior year of college; we should be thinking about the future, master’s programs, and post-grad jobs. Instead, the entire world has their eyes peeled on us, waiting for us to slip up and give them a story.”

“We’ll figure this out, man.”

“What if we don’t? Is our future truly amounting to orange jumpsuits and freaking day-old prison food? This wasn’t the plan. It was never supposed to be this hard.”

A tethered silence settled among them, the soft hum of the engine filling the car. Everything felt heavy.

Sebastian leaned back against the seat, squinting ahead at the darkening sky. “You know I’ve got your back, right? Doesn’t matter if we’re in jumpsuits, or at each other’s weddings. You guys are the closest thing I’ve got to family. I’m with you no matter what.”

Augustus inclined his head to glance over at his friend. “You goin’ soft on me, Hale?”

Sebastian snorted. “Piss off, asshole. Drive.”

But Augustus knew what he meant.

Sebastian didn’t have much of a family; not outside of appearance’s sake at least. His father cared more about his fortune than his children—covering his eldest son’s drug addiction with some excuse of being out of the country for business reasons. Kept his youngest son quiet with more money than any normal person could ask for.

As long as they were out of his way, appearing perfectly fine in the media—Darren Hale couldn’t care less.

Sebastian’s friends were all he’d ever had.

They were more than friends, they were family.

Augustus shook his head, putting the car into drive, “Love you too, man,” he muttered.

Suspect List:

Professor Jameson

The Mystery Guy

Thomas Montgomery

Orion Blake??