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“All I can say is it was before six, because that’s when I woke up and she was already gone.”
“Do you know why she would have come here that early in the morning?” Amanda asked, feeling a sense of déjà vu. She’d asked the same question regarding Chloe.
“Well, she’s been a bit of a mess since Chloe’s murder. I think she just came down here to have some time to herself before class.”
They knew now that Chloe had received a text message to meet at the park at four in the morning on Monday. Had Jayne received a similar message? There was obviously no sign of her phone thus far, so they’d likely have to go about requesting the call history from the phone provider. A pain in the butt that would cause yet another delay to closing what was now two murder cases.
“Why were you down here this morning?” Trent asked, seeking a full answer directly from the source.
“Just wanted to see if I could catch up with Jayne.” She sniffled. “It’s been so hard… after Chloe. Either of you ever lose anyone you were close to?”
Amanda wasn’t getting sucked into that emotional vortex. “It takes a long time for life to return to a new normal. So it wasn’t just for fresh air?”
Lauren shook her head. “I know that’s what I told the officer but… Now I realize this might look bad, but the truth? I had a feeling I’d find Jayne here—not dead obviously. But when I saw her phone on the counter, I was going to use bringing it to her as an excuse to talk to her.”
“What were you going to talk to her about?” Trent asked, but Amanda’s mind was on Jayne’s phone and getting her hands on it.
Lauren glanced at him. “I wanted to come to a truce and stay living together.”
“But you didn’t care for her,” Trent pointed out, wedging in again before Amanda could ask about the phone.
“No, but Chloe did, so there had to be some good qualities in her. Plus, you know how hard it is to find a roommate? At least I knew what I was dealing with when it came to Jayne.”
“I can see that.” Trent smiled. “But you said you had a feeling Jayne would be here this morning?”
“Uh-huh.”
Amanda would let asking about Jayne’s phone go for now, following the path Trent had laid out. “You also had a feeling something was wrong with Chloe, and she’d been murdered.”
Lauren met Amanda’s eyes in a relaxed manner. “I know how this could look, but I didn’t hurt either of them. I just have what you might call a strong intuition.”
As a cop, Amanda could appreciate strong intuition. But did she trust Lauren’s claim? Amanda wasn’t seeing any real reason to suspect her of murdering her two roommates. There was no obvious motive. If anything, Amanda would wager Lauren may be at risk. “You have Jayne’s phone?”
“Oh, yeah.” Lauren reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a phone. She put it in Amanda’s hand.
Amanda hit the button to wake up the screen. “Do you know Jayne’s password or how to unlock it?”
Lauren nodded. “It’s a trace pattern.”
Amanda handed her the phone and asked that she unlock it. She watched as Lauren swiped across the screen.
“There you go.” Lauren gave the phone back to Amanda.
“Thanks.” Amanda went straight to the texting app. She went cold at the sight of a message from last night.
Must talk to you. Meet me by the water on campus… next to the river at 4 AM. Your favorite spot.
Similar request and terminology that was sent to Chloe. Your favorite spot… But even more chilling was the name and phone number of the sender.
She excused herself and Trent, and they stepped a few feet away from Lauren. She held the phone so Trent could see the screen.
He leaned in. “Is that—”
“Yep. Josh Ryder.”
“How is that even possible? His phone was in lockup last night.”
“I don’t know what’s going on, but I don’t like it, and I’m going to get to the bottom of it.”
“We’re going to get to the bottom of it.”
It was strange, after all these months of having a partner, that sometimes she still failed to remember she wasn’t in this alone. And knowing someone had her back felt good.
