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“Okay. Thanks for nothing.” She smiled and ended the call, shook her head. “If Luke did kill Chloe, he didn’t have someone take him in his car. The Honda Insight doesn’t have the right headlights.” There went her passing thought that Luke and Stephanie had paired up and used his car.
“Would be too easy if everything just lined up.”
She could hope for once that it would, but hope really meant nothing—something she knew firsthand. She’d hoped for a long life with Kevin and Lindsey, and that hadn’t happened. She felt a ribbon of heartbreak lace through her as her thoughts bent toward Zoe and the latest possible kink in the adoption process.
“So, next steps? Want to question more students and see if we can determine if Chloe had any other enemies on campus?” Trent was looking over at her from behind the wheel, just waiting for direction.
“I think we’ve spoken to enough students for now. What I’d really like is Chloe’s phone history, but we know that may take a while to come through. We haven’t heard from Briggs to see how he made out on the video yet.” She could call him. He normally worked evenings, but she had his cell phone number and knew where he lived. He’d always been eager to help out after hours before. She gave Briggs’s number a try but had to leave a message. “Okay, we’ll need to wait to hear from Briggs. That leaves us with one thing. Florists. Let’s see if we can hunt down where Chloe’s killer got the black orchid from.”
“We can start with the florists in the area.”
“Didn’t I just say that?”
“Just wanted to say it for myself.” He smiled at her.
Orchids, florists, flowers…“Did you hear from that Metro PD detective?”
“You’ve been with me all day.”
Was it too much to hope that the cold case from twenty years ago and Chloe’s weren’t connected at all? That Chloe’s killer had been someone she’d known and not a serial killer targeting female college students? “I’m thinking we might have been getting caught up in seeing a serial killer where there isn’t one. We both see motive with Luke. He’s our most likely suspect right now.” Hearing her words made it feel like she was trying to convince herself. Maybe she was.
“Sure, but we need means and opportunity.”
“We’ll find it if it’s there.” She’d do her best to stubbornly cling to Chloe’s murder being an isolated incident.
He held her gaze, and her words echoed back in her mind. If it’s there.
“All we can do is follow the evidence,” she said. “And that’s taking us to local flower shops at this point. Agree?”
“I do.” He pulled out of the Hogans’ driveway.
Her mind was still chewing on what she’d said. Local flower shops. So someone from the area, presumably in Chloe’s life. But who could have hated her so much as to stab her seven times and leave her the way they had? How had Chloe wronged her killer? From what they’d discovered, she was a down-to-earth person who did things because she was moved from her heart—not motivated by praise or glory. She was interested in healing the planet and caring for the environment.
Chloe hadn’t deserved what happened to her. Amanda would make sure that Chloe’s killer would pay for robbing the world of the young woman’s light.
