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Chapter 10
Peyton
“Is that all?” I was exhausted and on edge, and the same blond detective from the first night, Jackson, had tested my patience from the moment I stepped inside the not an interrogation room.
Jackson sat back in his chair and folded his arms, glaring at me like I had something to confess. “Unless there’s something else you’d like to add?”
There wasn’t. I’d done exactly as Rocky had instructed, answered every question they asked of me and no more. “I would like for you to find out who killed Chloe. I wasn’t crazy about her, but I didn’t want her dead and I didn’t kill her.”
“We know,” the female detective, the one who requested I come in today, said.
“We just need to know anything that might help us.”
“I don’t know anything else. I think she might have been seeing someone but, honestly, I couldn’t say for sure. Our schedules weren’t synced because she changed her major again and had a lot of early morning classes.”
“Why do you think she was seeing someone?”
I shrugged. “Because the hookups stopped and she was a pretty prolific hookup girl, ya know? I figured she stopped because someone gave her a reason to.”
“And you?” Jackson took over the questioning, leaning forward and studying me carefully. “Know of anyone who might want to send you that message?”
“I wish I knew,” I answered honestly. “I’m sure I piss people off, I’m not exactly a people pleaser.” Jackson snorted as if in agreement, and I glared at him as I continued. “But this past year, all of my attention has been on graduation.” Should I have paid more attention to Chloe and her life? Though that text made it sound like I should have been the target.
“That will be all, Ms. Brooks,” Smith said, when Jackson didn’t immediately hit me with another question. “Thanks for coming in, we’ll be in touch to let you know when you can return to your apartment.”
“Thanks,” I sighed, and pushed my body out of the hard metal chair with the rickety leg. The thought of moving back to the scene of my roommate’s murder filled me with dread, I’d have to look for somewhere else to live. “If I think of anything else, I’ll call.” They’d officially cleared me as a suspect, which meant I didn’t have to talk to them again if I didn’t want to, but I wanted the killer found.
I left the interrogation room in a daze, squinting at the sun as it filtered into the blinds that covered the massive front windows of the sheriff’s office. I shielded my gaze with a hand as I walked outside and jogged down the stairs.
“Peyton?”
I stopped just as I hit the bottom step and looked over my shoulder at the unfamiliar voice, startling slightly at the face I saw.
It was the guy from a week ago, the one who wore a tie to the bar. His pale coloring was easy to remember, with that white-blond hair and light, light blue eyes. His skin looked even paler and more washed out in the daylight, and…he wore another tie. This one was checkered, with a yellow duck at the bottom. I blinked and turned to face him.
“Zachary, right?” I said slowly.
Surprise and then pleasure flashed in his pale eyes, and he smiled a wide, white smile. “You remembered.”
“Yep,” I said tightly. “What are you doing here?”
“I had to drop by the UPS store to mail something.” He gestured to the building next to the police station, but then his shoulders fell and his expression turned sad. “I was sorry to hear what happened to your roommate. I am truly so sorry for your loss, Peyton.”
“How…did you know about Chloe?” I asked, feeling decidedly uncomfortable in his presence.
“News of her death is all over campus.”
“Oh.” I scrunched my brow, thinking. “You go to my college?”
He smiled broadly.
I blinked, and when he didn’t make any other response, I looked around for Rocky. “Listen, I should—”
“I’m sure the police are all over your place,” he said suddenly. “I have a spare room if you need a place to regroup for the summer.”
Was this guy serious? “Oh, thank you for the offer, but I have somewhere to stay.”
“With Lisa?” he sneered, the sudden and completely out of place venom in his voice catching me off guard. I remembered then the strange anger he’d had when she’d kissed me, and I wondered if he was maybe homophobic or something.
