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“Could you tell us exactly what this is about? Shouldn’t we be at the hospital if something happened to Trisha?” Mr. Manohen had a white-knuckled fist. It was evident they were in denial about my phone call.
“About Trisha, we have reason to believe her body was found in the park this morning. Her belongings were found between five and six. Do you recognize this purse?” I slid over a picture of her purse and the clothing that we had discovered.
“Yes, that’s Trisha’s purse. And that’s her costume she was wearing last night.” Her mother tapped the image. I withdrew the photo and gathered myself, compartmentalizing the parent that ached inside of me.
“You saw Trisha last night?”
“Yes, around seven or so. She was wanting some money for this week. She could’ve lived off-campus with us, but she said she wanted the college experience. She comes to us often for money or just to have dinner.” Karen shifted closer to Paul.
“It pains me to show you this next photo, but we need a positive confirmation of identity.” I pulled out the photo the medical examiner was able to provide me.
She was in the black bag on the gurney. A white sheet shielded their view of her wounds, but some blood stained her cheeks, and her hair was messy. I slid it over to her parents, and her mother let out a wail. It was the scream of a mother who lost her child. It was like no other sound, and it shook me to the core. Paul tore his eyes away and embraced his wife, who refused to look away from the photo.
“My baby! Paul, that’s Trisha!” Paul began to quake as he rocked his wife.
“I have great sympathy for your pain. Your daughter is with the coroner now as they collect forensic evidence. Do you know what Trisha was doing last night?” I tucked the photo back into the folder.
“She was going to a party; I think it was some fraternity in off-campus housing. It was all she talked about all week.” She tucked her wet face into her husband’s chest.
“Do you know who could’ve done this?” Paul’s voice was grave and monotone.
“That’s the other reason why I wanted you to come in. We don’t have many leads right now. She was found early this morning, so we’re in the beginning stages of our investigation. Forensic evidence is being collected, but we don’t have many answers for you. It would be premature of me to make my speculations without more information. I was hoping you could tell me if Trisha has had any problems lately. Is there anyone that expressed harm or ill intent toward her? No incident is too small.”
“Our daughter wasn’t the nicest in high school, but she really blossomed and changed since beginning at Monarch.” Karen was laced with despair as she remembered her daughter. “There weren’t many people from her high school that kept in touch with her, and she mostly had problems with girls. I’m not sure if I can place any names. It was always stupid drama with that crowd.” I scribbled down what I could, but without names, there wasn’t much of a lead.
“Her friend from high school is Kiera Martin.” Her father was blunt. “If Trish got into any trouble, I’m sure it was Kiera's doing.”
“Paul! Kiera is a good friend! We can’t blame Trisha’s problems on her.” Karen looked appalled at his accusation, but nonetheless, it was a name.
“Does Ms. Martin attend MRU with her?” They nodded in unison.
“She’s in most of her classes, and she’s one of her roommates,” Karen offered.
“We have a grief counselor if you’d like to talk to someone about what your family has experienced. Your daughter’s autopsy is a top priority and will be completed by the end of the day. If you’d like to see her, I can give you a call when they are finished and arrange that for you.” I stood and they followed suit.
“I think we’d like that very much,” Paul muttered as I escorted them to the counselor and drew the conference room blinds. I turned multiple boards full of crime scene photos around to face the sitting area of the room. This was going to be a long journey.
“Sir, I have some findings that were reported back,” Stan called into the conference room. It was six in the evening, and I felt wired from the large amount of caffeine I’d consumed today.
“Yes, yes. Come in. I could use the extra eyes as well. Do you think you can spare two of your officers? I need to go to the university tomorrow for interviews and I’d like some extra hands to canvas.” I started pushing over papers that started coming in.
“Absolutely, Christly and Hannigan are on beat tomorrow. What’s got your mind turning now?” He straddled a chair beside me.
“So, we have this timeline: her parents’ house around seven, a supposed party, and unaccounted time between nine and five. We know that this party was held at a frat in off-campus housing. We’re missing how long she was at the party, who she went with, and when she left. Regarding her leaving the party, was she alone? Were there witnesses?”
“Okay.” He was turning things over. “We need to answer those questions, but have you considered her phone activity?”
“Yes!” It wasn’t excitement in my voice, at least not in its happiness sense. “So, I’m getting analytics on it, but currently they were able to give me phone calls from a few hours before and after, but everything else is behind red tape until Judge Farley can get the warrant inked. The calls from Kiera start coming in around one. I’m hypothesizing that was the time she left the party, or at the very least when they got separated. Oh, here, look.” I shuffled the papers. “These were the messages on her screen, also from Kiera.”
“These must be about the party then. ‘So was mask guy as good as he looked?’ ‘Did you finally get to see his face?’” I nodded and strode over to my corkboard and put a pin in a makeshift unknown picture.
“Whoever ‘mask guy’ is, he’s probably the last person to see her alive. If he’s not our killer.” My phone beeped and I looked down as the ME’s number flashed on the screen. “It looks like he wants me downstairs. Wanna join?”
“I’ll be behind you,” he said as he promptly rose from his chair.
Chapter 5
October 12, 2020
