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That was that. The only male parent who had any kind of motive was Mr. Lane, but it was paper-thin, at best. Murdering over dance team? He just couldn’t see it.
Webb rubbed his chin and felt defeated. Maybe Ackerman was right. The case was solved, and they had their clearance. There were other cases he could be working on, and if anyone asked, he would say he was working them. But there was just something about this one…
It wouldn’t make sense to anyone else if he said it aloud, but in his heart, he didn’t believe Nyleah was resting yet. And it wasthat, more than anything else, that was driving him. He couldn’t give up now, but he didn’t know where else to look.
He put his computer in sleep mode and grabbed his jacket. Maybe something would come to him over lunch.
As he approached the desks at the front, Lucas Little, their resident paper chaser, waved Webb over.
“I have something for you,” he said with a mouthful of Altoids. The man was obsessed with oral freshness. It wasn’t a bad thing, but Webb wondered how he got anything else done between the post-meal flossing, post-snack flossing, and mid-day brushing and gargling.
“You can just leave it on my desk, man. I’m on my way to lunch.”
Lucas held out his hand. In it was a yellow sticky-note. “Just take it. Somebody called in an anonymous tip about one of your cases.”
Webb sighed and tried not to let his annoyance show. People called in tips all the time, and the vast majority of the time, they went nowhere. But when he glanced down at the note, he saw the name “Nyleah.”
“When was this called in? Just now?”
“Mm-hm,” was Lucas’ reply, but Webb was already on the way back to his office.
The woman on the phone was polite but curt. “I only have a few minutes,” she said. “I shouldn’t even be talking to you from here.”
“Where is here?” he asked, instantly regretting it.
She hesitated. “I’d rather not say.”
“Fine. The note said you have information pertaining to Nyleah’s death?”
“Well…maybe.”
“Maybe?”
“I’ve received information about someone she was dating.”
Dating? Webb hadn’t been able to get anywhere inquiring about Nyleah’s dating life, and he’d been wondering what the big secret was, if there was one. Nobody was willing to talk. Perhaps nobody knew.
“I’m listening.”
The woman cleared her throat. “She was involved with someone she shouldn’t have been involved with.” She waited a beat, and Webb began to get antsy.
“A teacher. And he’s married.”
Webb knew he had to tread lightly. But before he could ask her for a name, the woman spoke again.
“And she was pregnant.”
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
Jacesnuckintohisfather’s office and looked around in amazement. It was the only room in the entire house that the man ever bothered to clean. The rest was always left up to Debra, and she only did a good enough job that the dirt didn’t show. That house hadn’t been deep cleaned or disinfected in years. His mother would have done it; she was a clean freak.
He wasn’t looking for dirt today, though. He was on a mission.
Each desk drawer opened easily, but all they contained were papers. Extra syllabi, lecture notes, pages and pages of music and in-progress compositions—none of that was what he was looking for. Jace even came across a life insurance policy. He smirked and thought to himself,I hope it’s paid up.
He plopped down on the chair and frowned. This was getting him nowhere.
It had been two weeks or so since he’d been released on bail, and it had pretty much been the shittiest two weeks of his life. The utter chaos swirling around him had left him in a permanent state of angst, anxiety, and confusion. At any given moment, he was prone to completely spacing out, going inward in a way he had never done before. His father gave him a wide berth, not really talking to him as much as talkingathim from a distance, as if Jace’s instability was contagious. Debra had never really talked to him anyway, so she was about the same. Actually, she’d been spending a lot of time at her sister’s house in Vinings. Jace didn’t miss her.
