“Did she have a friend that she might have visited? Maybe just a casual friend? In or around Kingman?”
“Yeah. I thought about it after I listened to the caller who saw her there. One of the Sigma Rho girls who had already graduated lived there, and I wondered if she was who Candace had visited. Now that I think about it, they were pretty tight—it wasn’t the first time she’d driven out there. But not so close that Candace talked about her a lot.”
“Do you know her name?”
“Sorry, I never met her. Candace might have mentioned it once or twice, but I don’t remember.”
It should be pretty easy to find a sorority sister from Kingman.
“So that caller didn’t surprise you.”
“No.”
“What about the library? I walked through there this morning, and there are several places she may have hidden.”
“Hidden? Like, you’re thinking she spent the night?”
“Yes.”
“I guess it’s possible, but why?”
Million-dollar question, she thought.
“I’m trying to think like her, figure out what her plan was, if she even had a plan. Or if she might have been scared or intimidated or worried. You were close to her.”
“I really wasn’t,” he said quietly. “I wanted to be. But Candace didn’t let anyone inside. I guess three years ago I didn’t care all that much. She liked me, we had fun, sex was great, she was smart, and I always had the feeling she came over to my place because she wanted to get away from her sorority.”
“Do you know if she was having problems with any of the girls there?”
He shrugged. “I couldn’t tell you.”
“Taylor James?”
He frowned.
“You know her.”
“Not well.”
“But?” she prompted.
“They used to be best friends, but something happened, and Candace said Taylor wasn’t the person she’d thought she was.”
“What about Kimberly Foster?”
“Don’t know her.”
“Annie Johnston?”
“Candace’s roommate? Real sweet. Kinda on the wholesome side. Annie was the only one who Candace brought here, like when she’d stop in here to see me. She’d come alone or with Annie.”
“Do you know if Candace had a second phone? Or access to a vehicle that wasn’t hers?”
“Now that you mention it, I saw a flip phone in her purse the last time I saw her. She was here, had her purse on the bar, and I commented on it. What happened to your phone? I think I said. She said it had a cracked screen so she got a prepaid one until she got it fixed. Something like that. It was in passing.”
Interesting...and odd. There was no mention of a prepaid phone or a nonworking smartphone. In fact, Annie had mentioned the many calls Candace was getting, and the notifications on her screen. It could have been cracked, but it was functional.
“Is that important?” he asked her, interested.
“Possibly. According to the police report, she made no outgoing calls, nor did she answer her phone or respond to messages, after Friday night. You were the last person she called. And you know now that she wasn’t killed in the lake.”
“Right. Vega said she drowned in chlorinated water, like a pool.”
“Do you know who she might have been with who had a pool?”
“No, I mean, a lot of people have pools. She loved the aquatic center because it reminded her of her little sister. She talked about Chrissy all the time. In fact, I went to her funeral and met Chrissy for the first time. She’s a sweet kid, heartbroken. I reached out a few times, sent her some pictures I thought she might like, of Candace and me. She seemed to appreciate it.”
That was a thoughtful gesture, she thought.
“Did Candace ever mention Joseph Abernathy to you?”
“No. I mean, I had heard about him from the police and everything, but she never mentioned him. Like I said, she didn’t talk much about herself or her life. She was very private.”
“Can you think of any place she might have gone where she felt safe, or disappear to while she was maybe studying or collecting her thoughts? A person or place?”
“Other than her sister, no. When Chrissy said she hadn’t talked to Candace, when Candace was still missing, I figured she was dead. Because there wasn’t a week that went by that she didn’t talk to her sister. So when I found out that she was alive that whole week? It surprised me.”
“Was Candace having problems with anyone on campus?”
“If she was, she didn’t tell me. There was one odd thing, though. Candace was in an off mood one day after tutoring, and then she quit the writing lab suddenly. She liked tutoring there because it gave her a break from the hard sciences she was studying. She was very creative and a really good writer. I asked her why. She got paid for it, and I know she was saving up so she could go on a trip with Chrissy over the summer, after her graduation. She said she needed to focus on school for the last semester.”
“Makes sense.”
“Not for Candace. She had outstanding grades. She didn’t struggle academically. And—well, I thought she was lying. I don’t know why, but it sounded like an excuse to me. Not what she said, but how she said it.”
“I really appreciate you talking about this, Richie,” she said. “If you can think of anything else—especially where Candace might have gone that week—I’d encourage you to call in to the podcast.”
“I really don’t know where she went. I’ve thought about it all week since I listened to it, and her disappearance just doesn’t make any sense. Are you sure that this Abernathy guy didn’t kidnap her? Hold her captive somewhere? I mean, I know that she wasn’t assaulted, you know, like that, but maybe it was something else.”
“I suppose anything is possible, but I think Abernathy is way down on the list. He was a barely functioning alcoholic.” She paid her bill and said, “Oh, one more thing. Do you know about Candace’s journal?”