Something clicked in my mind and I said, “Was Britta there with you during that time?”
Sara turned to me as if I’d just touched on something that’d bothered her for a long, long time. “No,” she said. “Her date walked out on her, and she took off, too. I remember seeing him before we heard about Spence, but I don’t remember that Britt ever came back to the dance.”
Cole nudged my knee with his, and I nudged a little back. We had ourselves yet another suspect in the pool.
We left Sara’s house and got back in the car.
“How far away is Ashland from here?” I asked him, anxious to go talk to Britta.
Cole glanced at the clock. It was nearly five thirty in the afternoon. “Depending on traffic, it’ll take us at least an hour,” he said.
I frowned. “Crap. They’ll probably be eating dinner by then.”
“Might not be a good plan to interrupt their dinner,” Cole agreed. “Plus, it’s Saturday night. They could be going out or something, too.”
“So what do we do?” I asked.
“We can go see Britta tomorrow,” he said. “You up for that?”
“I am. I’ll have to figure out what to tell Mom. Her thirty-six-hour shift ends at six A.M. tomorrow, but she’ll head straight to bed, so I can probably just leave her a note that I’m hanging out with you and that’ll be okay.”
Cole glanced again at the clock on the dash. “Do you want to get a snack before I take you home?”
I was a little hungry, and it was an excuse to hang out with Cole a bit longer. “I’m always up for a snack.”
He started the car and backed out of Sara Radcliff’s driveway. “Taco Bell or ice cream?” he asked.
“Ice cream,” I decided.
We got a couple of cones and ate them leaning against Cole’s car, talking about stuff that had nothing to do with Amber or Spence, which, honestly, was a relief. At least for a little while. Cole asked me about living in Richmond and my old school, and I asked him about certain teachers and classes I had at Chamberlain High. Once we’d polished off the cones, he motioned to the car and said, “Can we make one more quick pit stop before I get you home?”
“What’s the pit stop?”
“I want to check the murder file again,” he said. “There were all those witness statements taken the night of the murder and no mention that Britta had left the dance early, or that Amber and Britta had gotten into a fight. If Sara knew about the fight, probably some other people did, too, so I just want to check the file to make sure I didn’t miss something.”
“Sure. Let’s do it.”
We got to Cole’s house and he pulled into the back of the drive. “What time does your mom get home?” I asked him.
“On Saturdays she usually gets home around seven thirty. She likes to hang out with some of the other nurses at a pub near the clinic and unwind. I’ll end up making her dinner before I get to my poker game.”
I glanced at him as we walked to the back door together. “Poker game?”
He made a face like he was sorry he’d let that out of the bag. “Yeah, just me and a couple of friends. You know, guy stuff.”
“Cool,” I said. He kept surprising me, and I liked the image of him sitting around with his buddies, playing poker. There was just something sexy about guys being guys.
Cole seemed to think I was put off by the confession, though. “Lily, I’d invite you over but we’re not all that civilized on poker night.”
I put a hand on his arm. “Cole,” I said. “It’s cool. Have fun at your poker game. Really.”
His expression relaxed. “But I’ll see you tomorrow, right?” he asked, pausing at the door.
“Definitely,” I said coyly.
Cole leaned toward me, and our gazes locked. He was going to kiss me again, and I nearly moaned with anticipation. The last kiss we’d shared had been surreal. I was eager to feel his lips against mine again.
But an inch from me, Cole paused. His gaze traveled up and behind me, and then he pulled back and said, “What the hell?!”
I turned to look back. The window into what appeared to be the laundry room was broken and there were little bits of glass on the ground. The latch had been pushed up enough for someone to crawl through.
Suddenly, I felt Cole’s arm snake around my middle. “Get behind me,” he said.
I went from alarmed to petrified in under two seconds. “You’re not going in there, are you?” I whispered.
“Yeah, so stay here,” he said.
I grabbed his shirt. “Don’t be an idiot! We should call the police! What if they’re still in there? What if there’s two of them?”
“Stay here,” he said again, and gently eased out of my grasp to try the handle on the door. It opened easily, and I remembered that he’d locked it when we’d left the house earlier.
“Cole!” I whispered. “Don’t!”