“The truth about Adele,” Regan prompted.
“The pot was laced. Taylor brought it, swore that she hadn’t known, but it was either LSD or PCP or something really bad. Adele freaked out the worst and ran into the woods. Candace was the only one who wasn’t impaired, and she tried to catch up to her, but Adele turned, knocked her down. Then Adele jumped up, took off, and ran into a tree. She stumbled and fell down a short cliff. Her head split open on a rock. It was an accident, but Candace said everyone panicked. Even her—and Candace is pretty unflappable. But Rachel convinced us—I guess me, too, though I don’t remember—that we couldn’t say anything because our lives would be ruined. Rachel was hysterical. Said she would go to jail and lose everything—her job, her life—because she had given us the alcohol and let us get stoned. This was before pot was legal and we were all under twenty-one. She was an associate professor, so she’d be doubly punished, and we’d all be expelled. Rachel said it was an accident, and our lives shouldn’t be ruined because of an accident.
“That night Candace stayed at my side because I guess I was really out of it, and she thought I might need to go to the hospital. Rachel, Kim, and Taylor went to move Adele’s body. Candace said that she had always felt guilty, but that she’d met someone who knew Adele and now she had to tell the truth. She told me about the argument at the Spring Fling.
“Taylor told Candace what they did with Adele’s body. Kim’s family owns hundreds of acres in Payson. There’s an abandoned gold mine near her property, and they put her body in the mine.” Tears were rolling down Alexa’s face. “Candace wanted to find her, take pictures, and go to the police. But she didn’t know where the property was or how to find it. I gave her some ideas on how to track it down, and she went back to campus to use the library. She was going to inspect all the mines near Kim’s property to find the right one and then get the evidence and go to the police. She wanted to put Adele’s body to rest and give peace to her family.”
Mateo got up and brought back tissues for Alexa. She blew her nose, then wiped her face. He kissed the top of her head.
“I would have gone with her to Payson, but I was having a difficult time with the pregnancy, and I was also working. I couldn’t leave. She went back to campus to access the library and find old maps of Payson to locate the right mine. She said she was going to try to be incognito because if Rachel and Taylor knew what she was doing, they might stop her. And that’s the last I heard from her.”
“Why did she steal the Sunrise Center truck? Why not take her car?”
“I don’t know. Maybe because she didn’t think her little VW Bug could get up into the mountains. Some of those mines are really remote. She would have to park and hike in.”
That made sense. Regan asked, “What about Adele’s car in New Mexico?”
“After they put her body in the mine, they drove to Gallup and left her car there, making it seem like she’d gotten into an accident. Came back to campus as if nothing happened and left for winter break. When they heard that Adele was missing, they pretended to be shocked. I’m so sorry I never said anything before, but when Candace was killed, I was terrified that if I said anything, I would be next. I didn’t have any firsthand information or proof, and I couldn’t even swear that Adele was at Rachel’s apartment because I don’t remember anything from that night. When Candace died, I was six months pregnant, and all I could think about was my daughter being raised without me. Am I going to jail? Are they going to arrest me?”
“No,” Regan said. She highly doubted that anyone would prosecute Alexa. First, there was no proof that she had been involved, and her story was credible. She didn’t remember anything from that night and only knew about it because Candace told her three years later. Unless the police could catch Alexa in a lie, Regan didn’t think any DA would take the case.
And now, Regan knew where Candace had gone on Tuesday after she had left the library. She’d “borrowed” the Sunrise Center truck and driven to Payson. It was nearly a three-hour drive from campus. It could have taken her days to inspect all the mines in the area. Then she returned, either because she’d found proof or...didn’t find anything.
Alexa said, “She documented everything.”
“What do you mean, documented?”
“In her journal. She wrote down everything that she remembered about the night Adele died, and she wrote down everything that happened at the Spring Fling.”
“Her roommate told me about her journal, but the police never found it, and her family doesn’t have it.”
“She hid it. Rachel Wagner had become the Sigma Rho advisor that year, the year after I graduated, and Candace didn’t trust her because of what had happened to Adele. So she bought one of those prepaid flip phones, and she kept her journal in the library where no one would find it.”
Hope grew, just a little bit. “Do you know where?”
Alexa shook her head. “She never told me. Only that the chances of anyone checking out the book she had hollowed out to hide the journal were next to zero.”
Mateo spoke up. “Do these people at the sorority, the ones responsible for Adele’s death, know that Candace sought Alexa’s help? Do they know who she is? Are they going to come after her?”
“No, but they do know that Alexa was there when Adele died, and they might think she knows what happened.”
Alexa turned her head, buried it in her boyfriend’s shoulder. Mateo said, “I’m not going to let anything happen to you or Bella, honey. I promise.”