Chapter 9
The morning’s light had softened by the time we set out, but the air was still cool enough to see our breaths when we spoke. The forest behind the neighborhood seemed to stretch on for miles, a dense weave of pine and oak that swallowed sound the deeper we went.
Talia walked beside me, her hands buried in the pockets of her oversized jacket, her headphones looped around her neck instead of in her ears. The blue in her hair caught the light like streaks of sapphire each time the wind kicked up.
She pushed a pair of sunglasses over the ridge of her nose and said, “Do you mind if we just walk for a minute?”
I nodded, taking what she’d said as her way of asking whether we could skip the talking for now. Considering she hadn’t planned to speak to me at all when I showed up at the house, it felt like progress. Maybe, if I gave her time, she’d change her mind.
We followed a narrow trail that wound through the trees, past a patch of moss-covered stones and a half-collapsed fence that once marked someone’s property line.
The smell of damp earth filled the air, mingling with the faint sweetness of pine needles.
When we reached a small clearing, I could almost picture how it must have looked that night when Audrey had left for Talia’s house, unaware she was being followed.
Talia stopped beside a fallen log, her gaze fixed on the forest floor.
“This is where they found her. It’s crazy, you know?
I look around, and it’s like nothing ever happened here.
But for me, I feel frozen in place. Weeks have passed, but I’m still stuck right here, and I can’t seem to move on from it. ”
“There’s no rush, no timeline on grieving.”
“I feel like a different person, like the person I was when she was alive died with her, even though I’m still here.”
I turned toward her. “I know what you mean. When you lose someone like that, it changes everything—how you see the world, how you see yourself. It’s like you’re still breathing, still moving through the same spaces, but part of you stayed behind with them. I’ve felt that too.”
She paused, then said, “Whoa, that’s deep.”
“I get the feeling you’re a deep person, an old soul like me. Am I right?”
She nodded.
“Talia, I know you’re struggling to talk about Audrey, but since you asked me to go for a walk with you, I was hoping I could ask you about a few things. It would be a big help. If you’re not ready though, I get it.”
She took a breath, steadying herself. “How long have you been a private investigator?”
“Let’s see, about four years now. Before that, I was a detective for the San Luis Obispo County.”
“Have you … uhh, solved many murders?”
“Twelve in the past five years.”
“Twelve out of how many?”
She was testing me, but it kept the conversation going, which gave me hope.
“It might be easier if I said there’s never been a murder case I’ve worked on that I haven’t solved.”
“Are you serious?”
“Sure am.”
“What do you want to ask me?”
It seemed my patience was about to pay off.
“In the days before Audrey’s death, what was she like?” I asked.
Talia glanced toward the trees. “Quieter than usual. I could tell something was off, but every time I asked, she brushed it off, told me not to worry. Which, of course, made me worry even more.”
“Do you have any idea what it might’ve been?”
She shook her head. “None.”
“What about Logan? How were they doing?”
Talia gave a small snort and rolled her eyes. “Annoying.”
“How so?”
“There was this party one night. Every time I left for a minute, I’d come back and find them whispering somewhere off to the side. The second I walked up, they’d go quiet, pretend they’d been talking about something else. But I knew better.”
“Any idea what they were talking about?”
“No, but I’d been friends with Audrey almost my whole life. I could always tell when she was hiding something from me.”
“Why do you think she was talking to Logan about whatever it was, but not to you?”
Talia sighed and pushed her hands into her jacket pockets. “Earlier that week, she saw me hanging out with Colton.”
“Colton Jagger? The new guy?”
“You know about him?”
“I heard he liked Audrey,” I said.
“He did,” she replied. “But she thought he was pushy, and she wanted nothing to do with him. I didn’t see him that way, though.
Once I got to know him, I mean yeah, he’s a little immature sometimes, but it’s not a big deal.
Audrey didn’t like that we were spending time together.
She said it was weird because she and I were friends, and he liked her first.”
“Do you think your friendship with Colton had something to do with the way she’d been acting around you?”
“Maybe. Even if it did, though, we’d made a pact in middle school. We were friends first, no matter what. Nothing was supposed to come between us.” She paused, her voice tightening. “But I mean, maybe Colton had something to do with the way she was acting. Hard to say.”
“What about your other friends at school?” I asked. “Any problems there?”
Talia thought for a moment. “At that same party, our friend Sadie had too much to drink. One of our other friends offered to drive her home, and after they left, Audrey noticed Sadie had forgotten her purse. She texted her and said she’d hang on to it for her.”
“Seems like a kind thing for a friend to do,” I said.
“That was Audrey. Always looking out for everyone. The next day, Sadie showed up to get her bag. Later that afternoon, she started blowing up Audrey’s phone, accusing her of stealing money. Said a couple hundred dollars was missing.”
“She accused Audrey of taking it?” I asked.
“She did. Right away too. Audrey was furious, and she called me, crying. I told her I’d handle it.
” Talia brushed a strand of hair off her face.
“None of us knew how long Sadie’s purse had been sitting on the counter before Audrey found it.
The house was packed with people that night. Anyone could have taken the money.”
“When you tried to reason with Sadie, did it work?”
“She backed off, but things weren’t the same after that. We’d been planning a girls’ trip before college—me, Audrey, Sadie, and two others—but after the argument, Audrey said she didn’t want Sadie to come with us. Said she couldn’t trust her anymore.”
“That must’ve made things awkward.”
“It did. Audrey was planning to talk to me about it that night, the night she … you know … died.”
Her voice faltered, and she went quiet.
“Was Sadie aware of how Audrey felt?” I asked.
“Oh, yeah,” Talia said, her tone flat. “Sadie knew. Everyone in our friend group did, and then somehow it started getting around, and some of our friends started throwing shade at Sadie. They couldn’t believe she’d accuse Audrey, of all people, of stealing from her.”
“How did Audrey feel once it got around?”
“Audrey kept things to herself. She preferred peace and avoided anything that caused drama.” She paused, then added, “I’ve come out here a few times, hoping to, I don’t know, connect with Audrey somehow.
I guess I thought being in the place where she was last alive might make me feel closer to her. Weird, huh?”
“Not at all. I visit some of my loved ones who’ve passed at the cemetery, and I talk to them. I find it’s a good way to get some of my feelings out when I’m having a hard time or being challenged by something I can’t figure out on a case.”
“When you do that, do you feel closer to them?”
“Most of the time, yeah. What about you?”
“Sometimes I feel her, like she’s standing right beside me, even though no one is there.”
“Do you ever worry about coming out here? Whoever killed Audrey could be anywhere.”
She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small pocketknife, turning it over in her hand before pressing the button on the side. The blade flicked open with a sharp click.
“I keep this with me,” she said, her grip tightening on the handle. “People think I’m fragile, that I can’t handle what happened. But they’re wrong. I’m not afraid, and I want to look the person who took her life in the eye. I want them to know what they took from me.”
The knife’s blade caught the light, and I felt a knot tighten in my chest. “I understand why you feel that way. You want justice, and I respect that. But confronting whoever did this isn’t something you can prepare for with a knife.
Audrey didn’t see it coming, and I don’t want the same thing to happen to you.
If you want to help her, instead of putting your own life in jeopardy, help me find the truth. We’ll do it together, the right way.”
Talia’s jaw tightened, the light in her eyes shifting from defiance to something more guarded. For a moment, I thought she might argue my point, but then she sighed and pressed the button to close the knife.
She slipped it back into her pocket and turned toward me. “I know you’re just trying to look out for me. It’s just hard sitting around, doing nothing, while whoever did this to her gets to walk free.”
“I know,” I said. “But doing something reckless won’t bring her back. She’d want you to stay alive, to honor her memory, and to live a full life, the life she never got to live.”
We turned back toward the house, the forest going quiet as we made our exit.
“I’ll be honest with you, because I think that’s what you want from me,” I said.
“It won’t feel normal for a while. Grief has a way of making every day feel the same, like you’re stuck inside a moment that never ends.
But one morning, you’ll wake up and realize you made it through the night without crying.
That’s how it happens. Small steps. Little by little. ”
She nodded but said nothing.
“You’ll never stop missing her,” I said. “But the pain changes. It settles into something you can carry, something that reminds you of just how much she mattered.”
The house came into view through the trees, which meant our time was coming to an end, and there was one more thing I hadn’t talked to her about yet. As I glanced toward the kitchen window, Brianne’s silhouette moved past, no doubt wondering where we’d been and what we’d talked about.
“There’s something you should know, if you don’t already,” I said.
She looked at me, wary. “What is it?”
“It’s about Logan. He’s missing. He’s been gone for five days now.”
Talia blinked, confusion giving way to disbelief. “Missing? What do you mean, missing? Did he run off?”
“That’s what it looks like,” I said. “I was hoping you might know something that could point to where he went.”
“I don’t. He texted me a few times on the day Audrey died, and a couple of other times just to check in, but then he went quiet. I figured he needed space.”
I pulled my phone from my pocket and scrolled to the photos I’d taken of the drawings from Logan’s notebook and turned the phone toward her. “These are some of Logan’s sketches. Do you recognize any of them?”
She studied the screen. “This one in the woods … I don’t know. He used to go camping or fishing on the weekends when he wanted to be alone. That was before he started dating Audrey. After, he never wanted to leave her side.”
“What about this one?” I asked, showing her the sketch of the locket. “Have you ever seen it before?”
Talia frowned, taking a longer look. “I don’t recognize it.”
I flipped back a few photos, showing her the sketch of Audrey. “Do you know anything about this one?”
She nodded. “Yeah, he was making a portrait of Audrey as a graduation gift. He showed me the rough outline once. It’s beautiful.
Do you think, I mean, the night of the party when I saw them whispering …
do you think they knew something, that there was a secret they were keeping?
You think that’s why Logan’s been gone for so long? ”
“I don’t know yet, but I hope to have some answers soon.”
Talia crossed her arms. “If Logan’s tied to Audrey’s murder somehow, and if he’s in danger, I hope you find him before whoever hurt Audrey finds him first.”