Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Finally, we broke out of the desolate section of the lakefront. As the streetlights got brighter, I looked over my shoulder and saw a dark figure behind us, but he was going the other direction, disappearing into the trees. Had he been following us? Or was he just on a circular run around the park?
We slowed our pace as we reached the parking lot, but we kept going until we reached the car, until we were inside with the doors locked.
"Did you see that man moving back toward the trees?" Morgan asked, her voice ragged and stressed.
"I did. But I don't know if he was following us or not. He could have been a jogger."
"Or he was following us, and once we got to the lights, he took off."
"Or that," I admitted. "But the important thing is that we're fine."
"You keep saying we're fine," Morgan muttered with annoyance. "As if your will alone is enough to make that true."
I couldn't argue with that. I was trying to think positively. But it was getting more difficult by the day. Fortunately, it only took us fifteen minutes to get back to our building, and we got inside without encountering any more problems.
As we entered the apartment, Morgan shut the door and turned the dead bolt.
Letting out a sigh, she said, "Now I feel better."
I tossed my bag on the coffee table and sat down on the couch, kicking off my high-heeled sandals and tucking my feet up underneath me.
Morgan went into the kitchen and poured two glasses of water from the pitcher in the fridge, then brought me back one as she got comfortable on the cozy armchair next to me.
I was thrilled to take a drink, my throat parched from both the run and the fear. "Thanks. You moved fast back there, Morgan. I thought Cassidy was the runner in our group."
"She convinced me to start running with her in the mornings. I'd forgotten how much I used to love running. I was happy to get back into it. I actually ran track in high school."
"I did not know that about you."
"I was pretty fast, but I wasn't good at hurdles. I've never liked jumping over obstacles. But I seem to be doing that more and more these days," she said with a dry note in her voice. "At least metaphorically."
I smiled. "I hear you. I'm more of a Pilates girl than a runner."
"You moved pretty well, considering you broke your leg a few months ago."
"It's not ready for sprinting, that's for sure." I took another drink, then set my glass on the coffee table. "We should post the video."
"Do you want to film an update from here, about how someone chased us down the path?"
"No. I don't want us to be accused of creating fake drama, and we don't really know what that was about." I paused to read an incoming text from Cassidy, which basically told us to check our emails. "Did you see this?"
"Looking at my email now," Morgan said as I opened the app on my phone.
Cassidy had used her flight home to put together a timeline and also to create a diagram of how different people in Paige's life connected to each other. "I need to look at this on my laptop."
"Me, too," Morgan said, getting up to grab both our laptops from the table.
She handed mine to me, and I set it on the coffee table, before opening my email.
"While you look at Cassidy's information," Morgan said. "I'm going to post the video."
"Thanks." Looking at Cassidy's diagram, it was interesting to see how she connected people to Paige, to me, and to each other.
And she didn't even have all the people on that diagram.
I sent her back a note, telling her about my aunt's connection to the old group, with Professor Hale, Carrie Dunsmuir, Jay Loomis, and Nate Gardiner all working in the theater together.
And then I added in Sloane, who I hadn't spoken to yet, but who was a part of that group as well.
Before sending, I took another look at the diagram to see what else I could add, noting that she'd also put Rachel and the twins on there.
They connected to both me and Paige. But Rachel also connected to Sloane, and the twins' brother connected to Ray, who connected to Alina and Paige. I made a note of that.
One last glance took me to Liam, who Cassidy had connected to me and to Paige.
But he also connected to almost everyone else.
He'd worked at the bar where we went every week.
He knew everyone on the list. I tapped my keyboard thinking about Liam and Paige and wondering if I really knew the whole story between them.
Liam had sworn he hadn't cheated on me, and it did make sense that Paige might have tried to get him to get back at me.
But was there more between them that I still didn't know?
With that question running around in my mind, I noticed that Cassidy had put Detective Cabot in his own circle with a line to Detective Barclay. Did those two men connect with anyone else? That might be another question we needed to answer.
I sent Cassidy my email and then checked my phone, expecting the text I was getting to be from her, but it wasn't. "This is odd," I said. "Detective Barclay wants me to come down to headquarters tomorrow to talk to him."
Morgan looked at me with surprise and a little hope. "Maybe they're reopening the case."
"That would be great. That would take some pressure off us."
"And add a lot more resources to this investigation," she added. "The video is up. I was just checking the comments on our earlier post, and it has over four hundred comments. That's a lot for a short video."
"Any comments jump out at you?"
"I'm just skimming now. There are a lot of questions, some rude comments, but I'll need more time to go through these to see if anything is worth following up on." Morgan paused. "I'm not sure I have it in me to do it tonight."
"You don't have to. We did a lot today. We can take a break."
"What's on tap for tomorrow?"
"I'll talk to Barclay in the morning, and then I'd like to see Sloane."
"Speaking of which, I looked up that magazine article, and while her address was not given out, the neighborhood and street where she lives was revealed. It shouldn't be too difficult to find her house."
"I'll look at that in the morning."
"How do you think Sloane will respond to your questions? She was Paige's roommate, so she must have been very heavily involved in the aftermath of her death."
"I would think she would want to know what happened, but after hearing so many negative thoughts from Paige's former friends, I'm not sure what to expect."
"Were you close to Sloane?"
"We were more friendly when I was getting along with Paige. Sloane was a nice girl, very artistic. She always seemed to have paint on her clothes, on her hands, in her hair. Paige used to tease her about getting lost in her art. How we'd have to clean her up before we went out at night."
"It sounds like Paige and Sloane had a good relationship."
"They shared an apartment for two years.
I always felt like they were close friends, but Sloane wasn't the most talkative person.
She was naturally more reserved, comfortable with being in the background, which is probably why Paige and Sloane got along, because Paige was more like me; she liked to be the center of attention. "
"Did you talk to Sloane after Paige died?"
"I'm sure I did. I couldn't tell you what was said.
There were many conversations about Paige in the days that followed her death.
The campus was buzzing for weeks with speculation and rumors.
The police report shut most of that down, but it didn't stop all of it.
It was a tragedy we didn't know how to make sense of, so it was discussed a lot. "
"Hopefully, Sloane will want to help us. Where was she the night Paige died?"
"She was in their apartment. I don't remember her official statement. I'd really like to get that report, but Barclay never sent it. I'll try to pin him down on that tomorrow." I couldn't hold back the yawn that escaped my lips. "I'm tired."
"Me, too. We should probably go to bed, but I'm not sure I'll be able to sleep. I have a feeling I'm going to see a dark threatening figure in a hoodie running around in my head."
"Nice image," I said dryly.
"Sorry. Even if that man we saw wasn't after us, it doesn't mean we were safe there or safe here. If Paige was murdered, and we don't back off, her killer might come after us. I know I'm stating the obvious, but I needed to say it out loud."
"I'm very aware of the risk. We have to be careful."
"That won't be easy when we don't know where the danger might be coming from. If it wasn't a random stranger that took Paige's life, then you probably knew them. You might have even called them a friend."
A shiver ran down my spine as I mentally added, or even a boyfriend, to her statement.
Because Liam's negative reaction had been just as big as everyone else's.
"I can't worry about that now," I said as I got to my feet to go to bed.
"I don't know how I'll feel when we get to the truth, but first we have to get there. "
After a restless night with haunting nightmares keeping me awake, I got out of bed at seven thirty on Thursday morning.
After I'd showered and put on a sleeveless dress and wedge heels, I made my way into the kitchen to make coffee.
I was definitely going to need caffeine before my meeting with Detective Barclay and whoever came next.
Although, if he was going to reopen the case, that might actually limit our involvement.
That could be both good and bad. It would be safer, but we wouldn't have as much drama for our podcast.
Morgan came out of her room, looking even more exhausted than she had the night before. "Coffee," she mumbled, still wearing her PJs, her auburn hair a tangled mess of waves.
"Did you sleep?" I asked, pouring her a cup and then pushing it across the kitchen counter.
She took a sip, then shook her head. "Very little. I couldn't relax, and my brain wouldn't shut off. What about you?"
"Same."
"You look pretty good now."