If She Heard

“Who’s getting married?”

“My brother,” Olivia said.

“He was sort of a big brother to all of us when we were in high school,” Tabby said. “Had rough words with some of the creeps that asked us out and couldn’t handle the rejection.”

“I’m one of the maids of honor,” Olivia said. “And I invited all of my friends, of course.”

“But we figure it would be stupid to have a rip-roaring night of fun the day before the wedding,” Tabby said. “So we decided to do it Saturday night.”

“What did you all do?” DeMarco asked.

“Hung out at my house for a while,” Claire said. “Well, I suppose it’s my parents’ house. But they were away for the weekend, knew I was in town and wanted to hang out with my friends. So they were cool with everyone coming over. We watched some movies, drank some wine, ate some pizza.”

“Did you go anywhere else at all?”

“Kayla and I went out to the supermarket in Glensville to get more wine,” Olivia said.

“Where is Glensville?”

“About twenty minutes away from Harper Hills.”

“You couldn’t just get wine somewhere in town?” Kate asked.

“No,” Tabby said. “We’re all under twenty-one and everyone knows everyone else in this town.”

“Yeah,” Olivia said. “Plus, there’s this guy in Glensville that I used to date, a few years older than me. He knows the manager at the supermarket in Glensville. They didn’t card and let us get some drinks.” She paused here and then added: “Shit. They aren’t going to get into trouble, are they?”

“They should,” DeMarco said. “But that’s smalltime compared to what we’re dealing with right now. Now…did anything of note happen in Glensville?”

“Nothing,” Olivia said. “We went in, got three bottles of wine, and left.”

“Any cross words with this guy you used to date?”

“No. Hell, I barely even spoke to him. He had his new girlfriend with him anyway. He was sort of in a rush to get out of there.”

“Did anyone end up drinking too much that night?” Kate asked.

“All four of us,” Tabby said. “I was sort of pissed when I found out Kayla had left. Her mom’s house is only like ten minutes from Claire’s house, but still. It was irresponsible of her to drink and drive. Of course, then I found out she had been killed and…”

“What do you mean when you found out Kayla had left?” DeMarco asked.

“Well, near midnight Claire brought out some of her folks’ liquor,” Tabby said. “We had a little too much to drink. I faded out sometime around one.”

“I blinked out shortly after that,” Claire said.

“Yeah,” Olivia added. “Kayla and I were the last ones hanging in there. I don’t think she drank any of the liquor. Sure, she was sort of buzzed, but I don’t think she was flat out drunk. Not when I passed out, anyway.”

“So you all think she just saw that everyone had passed out and decided to go home?” DeMarco asked.

“Seemed that way,” Claire said.

“And she didn’t call or text any of you when she left?” Kate asked. “She didn’t leave a note or anything?”

“Nothing,” Olivia said.

“I just assumed she was a little embarrassed,” Tabby said. “She was never a huge drinker in the first place. I don’t think that changed when she went to college. Of course, maybe she was just embarrassed to be hanging out with a few friends that never decided to get out of Harper Hills and go to college. I don’t know.”

“Was she acting any different than you can remember her acting in the past?” Kate asked.

“No, and that’s the weirdest thing of all,” Claire said. “She was the same old Kayla. Cracking jokes, open, honest. It was almost like nothing at all had changed since we’d graduated high school.”

DeMarco asked a few more questions, specifically about the conversation they could remember having the night Kayla had died. While she orchestrated the question, Kate did her best to size up the demeanor and body language of the three girls. She had no reason to suspect that any of them would be hiding something, but her attention did keep coming back to Olivia. She was fidgeting slightly and her eyes would not stay in one place for very long.

She’s the only one that was alone with Kayla on the night she died, Kate thought. Maybe we could get more out of her if the other two weren’t here. She made a mental note and filed it away as DeMarco wrapped up the last of her questions.

The waitress brought their burgers and the agents gave their farewells. DeMarco ended the conversation by giving each of the girls one of her business cards, instructing them to call her if they thought of anything else or heard any murmurs about what had happened to Kayla.

“What do you think?” DeMarco asked Kate as they walked back out to their car.

“I think Olivia may have had more to say if her friends hadn’t been around. She seemed antsy. And she was the only one that spent any alone time with Kayla.”

“You think something happened when they went out for that extra wine?”

“I don’t know. But even if not, I wonder if they maybe talked about something that might have been related to what happened later. It’s all speculation, but…”

“No, I saw that she was sort of uneasy, too.”

They both considered this as they got into the car. Night was slowly falling and though the day felt long, Kate knew it was not over yet. DeMarco had always been a night owl, milking every last minute and ounce of productivity out of the day.

And that was fine with Kate. Because as the first day of the case came toward a close, something in her heart became more and more certain that this may be her last case. If that were true, she intended to make the most of it.

CHAPTER SIX

DeMarco was doing everything she could to not overthink things. But she also had to be honest with herself. For a moment, as brief as it may have been, she had been a little pissed off when Duran informed her Kate would be joining her for this case. That disappointment had quickly been replaced by joy, though. Her partnership with Kate Wise had been, at first, almost like a mentorship. But as they had grown and learned each other’s habits and mannerisms, it had become something more. Still, along the way, DeMarco had always felt that she had been a junior agent…someone still learning the ropes, hoping to impress Kate as her own skillset continued to develop and mature.

DeMarco knew this case was hers. Kate had come on board at the last minute and was going out of her way to remain in the back seat. While DeMarco appreciated the gesture more than she could express, it was making her feel uncomfortable. Kate was a born leader and something about watching her knowingly give up control was odd.

It also made DeMarco wonder what might be going on behind the scenes. How was Kate viewing her career now that she was the so-called Miracle Mom and had finally come back to work?

DeMarco wasn’t sure, but had a feeling she’d know by the time this case came to a close. First, of course, they had to close it.

She pulled into Larry’s Lanes and Arcade at 6:15. The parking lot was mostly empty, colored a strange red in the faded neon of the word ARCADE in the sign out front. DeMarco parked as close to the front as she could, not sure where the body of the first victim had been found. As she and Kate walked inside, DeMarco paged through the contents of the case reports, having filed them to memory last night before going to sleep.

The victim was Mariah Ogden, nineteen years of age. She had been found by the owner of Larry’s Lanes and Arcade at 10:40 on Wednesday night. She had been lying on the pavement behind her car. Though Larry had not seen them, the coroner’s report detailed the bruising around her neck and the evidence of immense pressure against her windpipe. Mariah, like Kayla, had been strangled by someone who appeared to be quite strong. So far, it seemed no one had seen what had happened and there were no leads at all.

DeMarco and Kate approached the shoe rental counter, where a man of sixty or so was standing by a small television. He looked extremely bored. A quick glance of the fifteen lanes behind her revealed that only two lanes were occupied—one by five middle-aged women and another, all the way at the far end of the building, by a lone man.

The man behind the shoe rental counter nodded to them as they approached, giving them a strange look. The lapel on his shirt read LARRY. “Can I help you?”