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“I told you she liked to play jokes on people. Why would she contact me of all people if she was in trouble? Besides I wasn’t the only one on the message.”

  Jo frowned. “It’s a group message. Who else received it?”

  Reece swallowed and peered down, “I recognize Sarah and Micah’s phone numbers.”

  Jo blew out a breath, threw her notebook on the chair and strode towards the door. She flung the door open and looked out into the great room. Most of the crowd had left. She saw no signs of Sarah or Micah. How come neither girl mentioned Laura’s very last group text message?

  She turned around to see Pete and Reece looking at her. Jo asked, “What time did that text message come in?”

  Reece looked at her phone. “11:18 p.m.”

  Jo thought about Reece’s strange question earlier about needing lawyers. “Did you three talk to each other about this message?”

  Reece nodded. “Sarah thought it was best not to say anything. I mean it wasn’t like any of us could have helped her. She didn’t tell us where she was going. Plus, her parents and Matt thought she was with us. Sarah and Micah were used to covering for Laura. They assumed if her parents or Matt called, they were to say she was with us. I knew nobody was calling me. Mrs. Finney definitely doesn’t like me and is probably as puzzled as I am about why Laura was friendly again.”

  Jo blew out a breath. Now, she was shaking. Out of the three girls she talked to today, she’d thought Sarah would have been the closest friend to Laura. Each one of the young women that were supposed to be Laura’s friends had what seemed like strained friendships with the victim. So much so, when she reached out for help, none of them responded. Nor did they acknowledge they knew Laura was in trouble. At the least, one of them could have called 9-1-1 to get the ball rolling to find Laura.

  With what information they had gathered, Laura Finney was one complicated young woman. Jo needed to study Laura’s phone records and whatever the CSI tech could find on Laura’s computer. To successfully solve this case, it was crucial they find out where and with whom Laura had spent her final hours.

  Chapter 10

  Tuesday, August 25 at 2:15 pm

  Jo’s frustration with the investigation was growing by the hour. Matt Vaynor had become a priority. Jo had left specific instructions at the memorial service to talk to any of those close to Laura. Laura’s fiancé seemed to have disappeared since yesterday. Nobody had or wanted to admit they had knowledge of where the young man went after he left the services.

  “He’s looking real guilty to me,” Pete growled as they returned to the office after visiting Matt’s parents’ house and then to the only residential address they had. The man who answered the door said he had moved in three weeks ago.

  Pete raged, “His parents just happened to not have their own son’s most recent address. He probably hadn’t changed it on the job yet either.”

  Jo sighed, “Well, Micah was the one who mentioned that Matt didn’t get along with his parents, his dad especially. We can check his job and I suspect, Sarah may know. From the interviews, she seemed protective of him with them being cousins.”

  Pete shook his head and swallowed a swig of coffee. “We can only hope. Sarah should still come in as well as that Reece gal and try to give us something on this mystery guy.”

  “I agree. They seemed to be talking about the same guy.”

  Jo had to admit she was really keen to talk to Matt Vaynor though. If he’d found out that Laura really wasn’t ready for a marriage, he could have reacted badly in anger.

  Jo’s anger still stirred just thinking about Bryan’s transgression, though the affair was only one time as he claimed. Jo rubbed her stiff neck. She didn’t need Bryan and her marriage to interfere with this investigation. She got up from her desk chair and walked over to look at the evidence board.

  Matt’s disappearing act was a sign of guilt, but Matt wasn’t the only person of interest. Laura’s mystery guy described by both Sarah and Reece was high on the list as well. Jo was disturbed they didn’t have more to go on. This man had made himself available once when Sarah and Laura were running a few weeks ago, so it was possible he could have been stalking Laura. Jo had grown weary of coincidences from witnessing people’s behaviors during a homicide.

  An officer walked towards Jo. “Here are the phone records.”

  “Thanks, Sgt. Wu. Please keep me updated if you find anything on that laptop.”

  Sgt. Wu asked, “Is there anything in particular I should look for?”

  “Yeah, there’s a mystery guy in Laura’s life. She had to correspond with him either by phone, email or even social media. See if you can find someone fitting our description.”

  “Will do, Detective Reed.”

  Jo started to correct Sgt. Wu. Most of the department knew her when she was Detective Reed only. She added the hyphen and Powell after she married Bryan. Most of the time, she didn’t correct anyone and wasn’t sure why the way Sgt. Wu addressed her bothered her now.

  Jo sat at her desk, grabbed a pencil and studied the numbers on Laura’s phone records. The messages Laura sent to her friends were around 11:18 p.m. last Tuesday night. According to the medical examiner, Laura was killed between midnight and sometime early in the morning on Wednesday. There was no more activity on her phone since those last messages to friends who clearly didn’t think it was necessary to respond.

  So Laura knew she was in trouble sometime after 11:00 p.m. But where was she?

  There was one phone call that caught Jo’s interest. At 10:08 p.m, Laura answered a call from someone that lasted almost ten minutes. It was a number Laura called and received calls from often. After further search, Jo blinked at her finding.

  She called over to Pete. “Hey, this is interesting. Laura received a call from her fiancé after ten o’ clock that Tuesday night.”

  Pete rolled his chair from his desk and peered at her. “Really?”

  “They talked for almost ten minutes. This would have been almost an hour before she sent out her message to her friends.”

  She sat back in her seat. “Let’s think this through. Laura was out possibly with another man. It looks like Matt called quite a few times. So she’s ignoring her fiancé’s phone calls and finally picks up. I wonder how that conversation went. She certainly didn’t reach out to him for help when she texted her friends.”

  Pete answered, “He could have been the one she needed to get away from. I just found out some interesting things about Matt Vaynor too. Come look at this.”

  Jo walked over to Pete’s desk and leaned down to look at his computer screen.

  Peter pointed to the monitor. “This guy has a record. He has some DUIs and assault and battery charges from three years ago. Apparently he got into a fight with a guy at a club. According to this, Matt claimed he was defending his girlfriend. So some guy messed with Laura and Matt went berserk.”

  Jo frowned, “The jealous type. I wonder how much the Finneys approved of this engagement. Or was Laura still engaged? Remember, she left her engagement ring at home that night. We don’t know why. It could have been that the engagement was off or she just didn’t want this guy she was out with to know she was engaged to another man.”

  The more Jo thought about it, if the engagement was off, Laura hadn’t cleared up any other reminders of Matt. There was still the wallpaper photo of the happy couple on Laura’s laptop.

  Pete pulled a map off of his desk and walked over to the evidence board. “We have a few motives building for either of these guys. Check this out. Let’s just say Matt did find out his fiancée was cheating on him.”

  Pete pinned the map on the board and then circled an area of the map with a red pen. “Laura’s body was found in this vicinity behind Pine Woods Park Apartments. The last location on her phone was here.” Pete marked another location on the map. “There are apartment complexes as well as a few residential areas. This area in particular is a mile away from where her body was found, and guess who lives here now?”
>
  Jo blew out a breath. “Matt? This is his new place?”

  Pete tilted his head. “Just confirmed with a college buddy of his. They helped him move in three weeks ago.”

  She crossed her arms. “If he killed Laura, why would he dump his fiancée’s body that close to him?”

  Pete shrugged, “Looks like she talked to him on the phone. Who’s to say she didn’t go see him, they argued. It ended badly. He might have just wanted to get her out of his apartment. Come on, this guy has been hiding. If he wanted to help us, he would have at least showed up for us to talk to him.”

  This seemed almost too easy. So many times it was the spouse or boyfriend, but something bothered Jo. She examined the photo with the ligatures around Laura’s neck. They originally thought the crime seemed similar to Maddock’s m.o., and that Laura’s murder could have been a copycat. Hopefully, that wasn’t the case.

  “We need to talk to Matt Vaynor, even if we have to drag him in here. We’re also going to need a search warrant for his apartment. I’ll get started on paperwork.”

  Jo sat at her desk. They needed to get some real leads and start building this case against someone soon. Any day now, Jo was confident Senator Finney was going to come at them with some heat about his daughter’s murder.

  She wanted to be ready.

  Chapter 11

  Tuesday, August 25 at 3:45 pm

  Jo and Pete stepped off the elevator onto the third floor and entered through the double glass doors marked Ridgecrest Construction. A woman with long reddish wavy hair that hung down her back was on the phone. Jo made eye contact with the woman who smiled and lifted her finger to let them know she would be with them soon. Jo looked around the office. She noticed a conference room nearby where a group of people was talking. Matt Vaynor wasn’t at his apartment. They were here to see if anyone at his job had seen him.

  The woman hung up the phone. Behind her round brown glasses, her green eyes blinked, showing off long black lashes. “Sorry for the wait. How may I help you?”

  Jo pulled out her badge. “I’m Detective Jo Reed-Powell and this is my partner Detective Pete McConnelly. Is Matt Vaynor in the office today?”

  “Oh my. Is this about his Laura? I’ve seen the news. It’s so sad. Matt came in this morning, even though we all told him to stay home. He may have gone home already, but I’m not sure. I’ll show you his office.”

  Jo looked at Pete. Both his eyebrows shot up in the air. This was really unexpected. So maybe the young man wasn’t hiding out as they suspected.

  They followed the petite redhead who was even shorter than Jo down a hallway past several offices and stopped in front of an office across from the copier. The door was closed. “We understood if he needed time, but he came in this morning. He looked horrible, so I hope he did go home. Here’s his office.”

  “Thank you.” Pete stepped in front of the woman and knocked on the door before opening it.

  A man looked up surprised. He’d been looking through a folder he had in his hands. Jo stared at him thinking he looked familiar to her. He was definitely not the man Jo remembered seeing on Laura’s laptop wallpaper. He kind of looked like a taller version of the guy who played Harry Potter.

  Pete asked, “Matt Vaynor?”

  The man pushed his glasses up on his nose and shook his head. “No, I’m Matt’s co-worker. Josh Collins. You are?”

  Pete and Jo displayed their badges.

  “Oh! You must be here to talk about Laura. Matt and I were having a meeting. He should be back soon. Poor guy. He needed to compose himself.” Josh held out the folder in his hand. “I told him this project could wait and he should go home.”

  Behind them a man spoke. His voice was hoarse. “Hello?”

  Jo spun around to see the man who had entered the office. Now this was Matt. Dressed in a blue shirt and khakis, Matt’s athletic body filled out his clothes. All the glorious blond hair he had in the picture on Laura’s laptop was gone, replaced with a buzz cut. Jo could tell by his bloodshot eyes that the young man had experienced a few difficult days and nights. They needed to determine if guilt was mixed in with the grief. “I presume you’re Matt Vaynor?”

  He nodded and then answered, “Yes. You two look like detectives.”

  It wasn’t often anyone described her as looking like a detective. Jo found it interesting that Matt assumed so, like he had been expecting them. They had only been trying to track him down for days.

  From behind, Josh spoke, “Matt, don’t worry about this. I can handle the project from here.”

  Matt looked frustrated. “Are you sure? I really could use something to do.”

  Josh walked over to pat Matt on the shoulder. “Take it one day at a time, son.”

  Jo watched Josh leave. The man didn’t appear to be that much older than Matt, but he spoke to Matt like he was his dad.

  Matt walked back behind his desk. “You want to sit?”

  Pete responded, “No thanks. This shouldn’t take too long. We’re sorry for your loss. We understand this is a difficult time.”

  Matt rubbed his face. He had a beard growing in what was past the five o’clock shadow phase. “I still can’t believe any of this.”

  Jo spoke up. “Mr. Vaynor, we talked to some of Laura’s friends at the memorial service. We missed you.”

  “You can call me Matt. Sounds like you’re referring to my dad when you talk to me like that. Sorry, I couldn’t stay. I had to get out of there. All of those people expressing their condolences. I just can’t process that she’s gone.”

  “We understand. Can you tell us about the last time you talked to Laura?”

  Matt didn’t look up. He seemed to struggle for an answer. “Maybe Tuesday? I’ve been pulling long hours at work.”

  “So you talked to her Tuesday night?”

  “Yeah, when I got off work I called her a few times. She didn’t answer so I called my cousin thinking they were together. Sarah told me Laura had made other plans.”

  “But you did eventually talk to Laura?” Jo asked.

  Matt’s face seemed to grow white in front of them.

  Jo looked at Pete. “Are you okay, Matt?”

  His eyes appeared vacant as if he was trying to remember something. “Yes, we talked. Or rather, I should say we argued.”

  Jo inquired, “About?”

  “She wouldn’t tell me where she was.”

  “Okay, so you argued for how long?”

  “I don’t know. A few minutes. She hung up on me.”

  Pete asked, “Where were you Tuesday night after midnight?”

  Jo thought she saw fear in Matt’s eyes. Matt swallowed. “I don’t think I can talk to you anymore.”

  Pete asked, “Why?”

  Matt looked at them. “Because I think I need my lawyer.”

  Pete looked at me. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, I need to call my lawyer.”

  Pete stared at Matt like he wanted to punch him. “Well, Mr. Vaynor, we’ll need to finish this downtown since you’re not willing to cooperate.”

  Jo stared at Matt. Did he do this? Surely, Matt Vaynor wasn’t going to confess to killing his fiancée. God, could this case finally become that easy.

  In the back of her mind, Jo had a growing sense this case was going to take a turn she wouldn’t see coming.

  Chapter 12

  Tuesday, August 25 at 5:15 pm

  They needed to wait for Matt’s lawyer to show up. Matt was cooperative about riding back with them and sitting in the interview room. Jo looked at Matt through the mirrored glass. This man clearly had a motive to kill Laura. She hated to admit it, but she understood what would have driven Matt to kill.

  She looked up at the clock on the wall and shoved her hands in her pocket. She hated to do it, but she had to call home. Jo walked back to her desk and dialed her home phone. She cringed as Bryan answered. “I’m just touching base to say I will be late.”

  Bryan responded back slowly as if he was thinking as he
spoke. “We’re good here. I guess we’ll see you later then.”

  Jo didn’t like Bryan’s tone. It was as if he was numb to her calling about being late. She looked at the phone before hanging up. Really, she had kept a pretty good schedule for most of the year. It was just this recent case that had thrown her off.

  The thought of her and Bryan heading towards divorce didn’t sit well in her spirit. They both loved B.J. fiercely and all Jo could picture was a bitter custody battle. More than she wanted to admit, especially now and in the last year, Jo was often the absent parent. It was crucial to check out every lead when it came to solving a case and that took time.

  Jo leaned back in her seat, closed her eyes and rubbed her pounding temples as her mother’s words rang in her ears. Pray! Trust God to guide you, Josephine.

  Pete tapped on her desk, “Jo, Mr. Vaynor’s lawyer is here. This guy has got to be guilty. He has one of the best defense lawyers in Charlotte.”

  “What?”

  Jo snatched her notebook off of her desk and marched towards the interview room. She noticed a familiar face indeed. Adam Locklear was the kind of lawyer you called when you were in real trouble. Not many lawyers were cheap, but not just anyone could afford Adam Locklear. Jo couldn’t wait to mention to Asia about this one. Adam had dated Asia several years ago and he seemed like the one who would finally reel Asia into marriage. That didn’t happen mainly because her older sister was just as stubborn and strong willed as Adam Locklear.

  One thing for sure, Jo doubted they would get a confession from Matt Vaynor. She walked in the room and faced the two men. Matt wouldn’t look up. Jo thought if this man was trying to appear innocent, he wasn’t doing a very good job.

  Adam grinned as if he hit the jackpot. “Detective Reed, how good to see you again. It’s been awhile.”

  This wasn’t a social call. “Yes, it has Mr. Locklear. It’s Detective Reed-Powell. Thanks.” Jo usually didn’t correct most people about her name, but Adam was a special case and she didn’t want him to think he had the upper hand at all.