“Rachel is manipulative. She could have convinced Nicole that the man was Abernathy, to the extent that Nicole believed it. Just like she had been convinced it wasn’t Candace in the truck. Remember, she was a freshman then, away from home, new to the sorority, and Rachel was in a position of authority. And now, three years later, listening to the podcast, she’s rethinking what she knew then.”
“I can’t arrest Rachel for the information in the journal or on conjecture,” Brian said. “I can ask her about the journal. Get her on record either confirming or denying, which could help us if we catch her in a lie. But I would really like Nicole’s statement first. She’s still in a coma, and I have no idea when she’ll be ready to give a statement once she wakes up. Steven, I’m sorry to take the case, but I’ll keep you in the loop as much as you want. You did say you were breaking it off with her, right?”
“I’ve been ignoring her calls all day,” he said.
“She’s going to know something is up,” Regan said.
“What am I supposed to do?” Steven said, showing the first outward sign of frustration and anger. “Pretend nothing is wrong? Pretend she didn’t cover up the death of a college student? Pretend she had nothing to do with poisoning a young woman?”
“We don’t know for certain that she did,” Brian said.
“She did it,” Steven said. “Everything is coming clear to me. I honestly believed that Joseph Abernathy was involved in Candace’s death. Everything pointed to him, but there were a couple of things that didn’t quite fit. When he was seen leaving town, it made him seem a more likely suspect, but I should have looked harder at the sorority. Rachel convinced me not to.”
“How so?” Brian asked.
“Because she made it so compelling that Abernathy was guilty. And the girls who spoke to me were genuine about their concerns about him. The campus police had numerous reports. I guess I wanted to believe it was him and he ran because of what he did. But I listened to Lucas’s podcast, and he brought up some good questions that I shouldn’t have easily dismissed—like how Abernathy, a known alcoholic, could have killed her and moved her body without being seen, without leaving evidence. That takes more planning than luck.”
“Did you grab the security cameras from the college?”
“By the time we knew she’d drowned in chlorinated water, the tapes were worthless. The college keeps tapes only thirty days. We had requested the tapes from the weekend of the party and still have those—I’ve gone over them several times. But there is not full coverage. Very few indoor cameras for privacy reasons. Had I known she was seen in the library, I would have requested those tapes, but no one came forward, until now.”
“Buddy, you did what you could with what you had to work with,” Brian said.
“I feel used and manipulated. I met Rachel during the murder investigation.”
Regan had been wondering about that, but didn’t comment.
“I liked her,” Steven said. “She seemed genuine, smart, kind—and I was wrong. If I can date a woman for nearly three years and not know who she really is, that doesn’t make me a good cop.”
“It makes you human,” Regan said.
He frowned.
“Three years is a long time,” Regan said. “Most people get married, move in together, or call it quits.”
“I have a nine-year-old daughter. She comes first in my life, and Rachel understood that. She said she wasn’t ready for a lifetime commitment because she was working on a full professorship and she devoted so much of her time to the sorority, as their advisor. And looking back on it now, it was convenient for me, because I didn’t want a serious relationship, and I enjoyed her company. We were both happy with the arrangement. I admired her career, that she had a life separate from me, and respected my time with Wendy. But she used me. Clear as day now.”
“Where is your daughter?” Regan asked.
“After I talked to my boss this morning, I called my dad and asked if he could take her for the weekend, and I would explain everything later. I didn’t want to call in my regular babysitter, not knowing what was going on with Rachel or what she might do. I can’t see her going after me or my daughter, but as a precaution I didn’t want Wendy in town.”
“I get that,” she said.
She understood more than Steven could possibly know. If she’d had advance knowledge that one of her enemies was in town, she would have done more to protect her son.
Don’t think about it. Don’t think about it.
She didn’t know how not to think about it, but she pushed her guilt aside for now.
Brian said, “I need to talk to the DA and the hospital to check on the status of Bergamo. I might have more questions. I have your contact information, Regan. I’ll reach out if I need anything else.”
“If you don’t mind,” she said, “I’m going to head to the hospital now. If I hear something first, I’ll call you.”
“Appreciate it.”
After Regan dropped him off, Lucas spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon digging into the life of Rachel Wagner. By the time Lizzy came by at one thirty, he had a headache from reading so much material online, but he was beginning to think he might be onto something.
Candace Swain wasn’t the first person Rachel killed.
“What’s all this?” Lizzy asked, waving her arm toward the coffee table where he had spread out a hundred sticky notes and his laptop was open, its charger draped across the room, attached to an extension cord. Four Coke cans and an empty bag of chips littered the floor.
He quickly picked up. “I’m not this messy, really.”
“I know you’re not. What are you doing?”
“Trying to figure out something.”
“Let me help.”
“I thought we weren’t going to talk about the podcast.”
“Do you think you can put all this aside right now?”
He shook his head.
“Then, spill it. Tell me what you’ve been doing.”