Chapter 20

TWENTY

After the media conference Jenna gathered her deputies in her office. With the hotline buzzing for most of the day, Rowley and Rio had been rushed off their feet collecting information from the callers. Piper and Cade had made great notes and sorted out the best potential witnesses for that weekend twelve years previous. Her deputies’ jobs had been to call back the most interesting leads and try to form a timeline of what happened that night. In the meantime, Jenna had enrolled the assistance of Kalo to complete background checks on their list of possible suspects.

Although experienced with media conferences, the constant bombardment of questions had left Jenna exhausted. It would have been fine if she had the answers, but this early into an investigation of a cold case her reply of “no comment at this time” didn’t appease the press. She’d literally turned the entire thing over to Wolfe and Norrell, and both had given clear and precise information. It had been just enough to hopefully bring the killer out of the woodwork. The media conference had at least jogged a few people’s memories and information was flowing into the office at a rapid rate. She looked at her deputies. “Just out of interest, have any of the potential suspects called the hotline to tell us about being with Abby and Cole the night they went missing?”

“Not as far as we are aware.” Rio leaned back in his chair and stared at his tablet. “I specifically asked Cade and Piper to keep an eye out for any information from the people on our list.” He sighed. “I guess it’s early days yet, but this is a hot topic in town and I’m starting to find it very suspicious that none of the people who were actually with the victims bothered to call the office.”

“Unless the women that we interviewed have already contacted them.” Kane rested one boot on his opposite knee and stared at Jenna. “If this is the case, maybe they figure they have an excuse for not calling the hotline or dropping by the office. They know we’re aware they were with them that evening. Maybe they’ve discussed it and believed that’s enough. Or that we’ll get in contact with them if we figure it’s necessary.”

Jenna sipped a cup of decaffeinated coffee, wishing it were their normal rich aromatic brew. She sure missed her coffee. “Has Kalo called in with any background information on our potential suspects?”

“Yeah, and they’re all clean.” Rowley ran a hand through his dark curls, making them stick up in all directions. “Twotrees and Wasser are partners in the automotive dealership in town. They started that business straight out of college. Dustin Crawley and Jess Hallon have worked on their family’s cattle ranches since leaving college. Crawley is quite the rodeo star and follows the circuit, so he’s not around as much as the others.” He glanced down at his notes on his tablet and then lifted his gaze back to Jenna. “I figure you know about the women, but Kalo ran them through the system anyway. Lily has worked at the beauty parlor since leaving college. She is now part owner. Josie is married to a guy by the name of Bob Campbell, and Marissa is a tax accountant who works from home. They’re all squeaky clean, apart from Crawley, who has a few minor misdemeanors against him for roughhousing in the bars all along the rodeo circuit. Mainly a few fines for busting up the place along with a few of his friends. He seems to settle down once he returns home, and Kalo couldn’t find anything, not even a speeding ticket, in Black Rock Falls.”

Chewing on her bottom lip, Jenna stared at the ceiling for a few moments. “This gives us nothing to use as leverage. If they’d had a few misdemeanors along the way, we’d have a reason to pull them in for questioning. Being on the mountain that night along with another twenty or so students isn’t good enough as many of those students were also friends with Abby and Cole. It’s inconceivable to believe that they had only these few friends in college. Most of them would have taken different classes and would have had a wide variety of acquaintances. We can go and talk to them, but in all honesty, they really don’t have to speak to us at all because we have absolutely nothing on any of them.”

“All I can suggest is we keep going through the hotline information as it comes in.” Kane leaned forward in his chair and took his cup of coffee from the desk. “There’s a chance that somebody saw something or remembered something unusual happening that night. You would be surprised that sometimes it’s the smallest things that end up leading to the conviction of a killer.”

“I’m still not convinced any of the kids who were on the mountain that night were necessarily responsible.” Rio drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair. “As far as we are aware, no other murders happened around that time, which wouldn’t indicate a serial killer. Abby’s and Cole’s murders could have been a random thrill kill or a jealous lover attack. I figure we need to delve deeper into the relationships in this group. It wouldn’t be too difficult to find out who was in the same classes at college. We could interview those people and find out if there had been any problems between the friends in that small group.”

“The brutal attack when Cole’s back was turned could indicate the killer was making a point, as in ‘this guy stabbed me in the back, so I’m giving him the same treatment.’” Kane sipped his coffee and eyed Jenna across the rim of the cup. “It could have been a spur-of-the-moment act fueled by rage at seeing Cole with Abby. We have no idea if they were making out in the caves before they died. If Abby had been involved with one of the others in the group or had rejected one of her classmates, it might be a motive for a single kill. Jealousy is a very strong motive for killing. We know that Cole was murdered first and attacked from behind. I’d like to know where Abby was at this time. Did she witness the murder? If she did, wouldn’t her first reaction be to scream at the killer for killing the person she loved?”

Nodding, Jenna pictured the scene in her head. “Maybe she tried to push the killer away and that’s how she grabbed his pin.”

“Exactly.” Kane reached for a cookie from the jar on the table. “If she was screaming and hitting him, it would provoke an attack just to shut her up. It’s a logical solution, and as Rio said, as there were no follow-up murders, I believe we can assume this is the case. He may have suffered remorse after killing Abby and moved away from town.” He sighed. “We can’t be sure we have the entire group of close friends as no one is talking.”

Jenna nodded in agreement. “Yeah, it seems very strange that there weren’t any more murders. We’ve dealt with serial killers so many times over the last six or so years, I guess we expect every murderer to be a serial killer, when in fact, crimes of passion, domestic violence, and accidental homicide do account for many murders in other towns. I figure we need to look outside the box with this one. It may never be solved. The person responsible could be long gone or even dead.”

“I figure when Norrell mentioned her team would be going to the crime scene to hunt down evidence, it would have shaken the tree. If the killer is still in town, it might cause a panic reaction.” Rowley’s mouth twitched into a smile. “Wouldn’t it be good if they returned to the scene of the crime?”

Laughing, Jenna nodded. “Yeah, well, I guess stranger things have happened in this town.”