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She clicked off and stuck her phone in the side pocket of her purse. She dropped her head into her hands. She was too raw where McCrae was concerned. She needed to think. To figure things out.
Maybe Zora’s and Brian’s deaths were an accident. Maybe. But it sure didn’t feel that way.
Who killed Tanner? And Brian and Zora . . .
“Why?” she asked aloud.
After several minutes, she pulled herself together and headed carefully the rest of the way to her parents’ grocery store.
Chapter 24
Amanda was back at her house, in her bedroom, staring across the fields toward the chasm where the West Knoll River ran—a barely visible, jagged, dark gap, from her point of view, that cut off her land from the property beyond.
Zora.
She hadn’t gone back to the office. The momentum of the day had faded as soon as she’d heard the news, a punch to the gut. The interview she expected to play on the Chann
el Seven noon news had lost the power to make her smile. Her game with Hal hardly seemed worth it.
She’d left her phone downstairs, but she still had Zora’s message, a puzzler. She’d blamed Amanda for Carmen’s death, if she could read between the lines. From something that had taken place at the barbeque. Was she the only one who truly remembered what had happened that night? It was all so steeped in mystery and suspicion, when in truth they were just a bunch of drunk, stoned idiots doing exactly what drunk, stoned idiots did.
Still . . . Zora’s message had been fairly specific.
Did it even matter anymore?
She shifted her gaze to the general direction of Grimm’s Pond—the site of the crash, she’d learned from a news feed on her phone. What had happened that sent Zora and Brian plunging over the cliff to their deaths?
She shivered and rubbed her arms. Hearing Zora’s slightly accusatory voice on the phone over and over again had spooked her. Normally, she was immune to atmosphere and innuendo, but not today.
She heard her cell phone ringing downstairs, but it was too difficult to work her way down the spiral staircase and catch it in time, so she let it go.
She didn’t want to talk to anyone anyway.
. . . saw you with Tanner, what you were doing in the woods the night of the barbeque. He said Carmen saw, too . . .
Why had Brian been talking about the barbeque? Did it have anything to do with what happened to them?
What she remembered of the barbeque was how good Delta had looked, how cute and gorgeous her figure was. Ellie had looked good in her swimsuit, too, and Amanda had felt ugly and forgettable. Her talent agency had just dropped her. Nobody wanted her, except Tanner, but then he was indiscriminate. So she’d flirted outrageously with him in front of Delta, had really thought she wanted him. Funny how things turned out.
She sighed. It was unfathomable that Zora was gone.
Stripping off her clothes, Amanda put on her running gear and headed out to the path that ran along the river. She could go all the way to Grimm’s Pond if she felt like it, the last half mile across an unfenced field and then down to the river and swimming hole.
* * *
The crash site offered up little and less, and the information that was available was being broadcast by every channel. Ellie felt a bit heartsick that she wasn’t part of the news team, and she turned a cold shoulder to Pauline and her favorite cameraman, Darrell, when they appeared. Pauline stared her down. She could tell Pauline wanted to ask her what the hell she was doing, but Ellie wasn’t going to give her the chance. She was pissed, too. She’d been let go through no fault of her own. It just wasn’t fair.
Grimly, she drove toward the West Knoll police station. She’d hung up on McCrae but now realized she needed him. She was going to get this story whether she was employed or not.
But . . . with Zora and Brian’s death, Tanner’s murder had slipped from the very top of the news rotation. Delta might not be under such a fine microscope, so it was a good time for her to pitch for an interview. She’d been harsh about Delta, true. Maybe Delta didn’t know it, though. Ellie could suck up a little, maybe get a personal one-on-one.
And where are you going to air it?
She would work that out later. The interview was the thing. That would be a coup, and if it played right, all the focus would shift back to Delta.
She heard her own thoughts and grimaced. Zora was dead. Tanner was dead. And all she could think about was getting her job back.
Her cell buzzed. She eyed it almost angrily, not trusting it wasn’t more bad news.
