She made a note in her phone. “I’ll need to pick through Tessa’s cell phone records from the whole summer.”
The police had focused on the last few weeks of Tessa’s life. Even after learning of her pregnancy, Horner hadn’t done much to look for the father of Tessa’s baby.
Lance frowned at the lake. “So everyone else leaves. Tessa is alone in her car. Why would she get out of her car?”
“I can think of a couple of reasons.” Turning in a circle, Morgan scanned the forest. “She was mad at her grandparents. She didn’t want to go home. She took a walk to clear her head.”
“Or someone arrived.”
“Someone she knew. Jacob, if we’re thinking he was the father of her baby and that Mr. Emerson lied about handling the call, and that she actually talked to Jacob.” Morgan wouldn’t have gotten out of the car alone in the dark, but she wasn’t a frightened, pregnant teenager.
“Would he really have to kill her if he’d knocked her up? His family has plenty of money. This isn’t 1950.”
“In some ways, social pressure hasn’t changed as much as you might think. I’m sure Tessa was feeling pretty desperate. She hadn’t even graduated high school. Her grandparents are old-fashioned. The stigma of being a teen mom would alienate her from everyone.” Morgan thought of the girls who had gotten pregnant back in her high school days. They’d all dropped out of school, unable to handle being ostracized.
“It was early enough for her to get an abortion, or she could have given the child up for adoption,” Lance said.
“True. But I’m sure she was still panicked about the pregnancy.” Morgan’s heart ached when she thought about Tessa going through her personal crisis alone. Her grandmother was too out of touch to be a confidant.
“Could she have threatened the father?” Lance said.
“If a paternity test proved Jacob was the father, how would that have affected his plans for law school?”
“Doesn’t seem like enough motivation to kill her,” Lance said. “Legally, the most Jacob could have been forced to provide is financial support. No one could force him to raise the child. His family could afford to pay Tessa.”
“That’s how you and I would approach a critical decision, but we’re talking about two teenagers. Tessa clearly engaged in risky behavior.”
“Like unprotected sex,” Lance said. “She was sleeping with Nick and at least one other boy.”
“Exactly. Plus, they all admitted to drinking beer. Jacob said he drank a couple of beers. Maybe it was much more,” Morgan added.
“That all said, we don’t know for sure that Tessa was killed because she was pregnant. We have no evidence that she told anyone.” Lance took a few shots of the opposite side of the clearing. “The police have held that piece of information back from the press. No one has mentioned it, not even the Emersons.”
“If she told the father and he killed her because of it, it’s not knowledge he would admit to having.” Morgan walked across the clearing to the entrance of the game trail. “She got out of her car. They argued. She ran, and he chased her.”
What had it been like for Tessa that night? Alone in the dark.
Lance snapped a few pictures of the area where the Honda had been parked. Then he followed Morgan down the game trail to the edge of the lake. Trampled cattails and torn pieces of crime scene tape marked the location where Tessa’s body had been found.
Other than the limp, dirty yellow tape, the only other sign that a young woman had been killed there was a small memorial of teddy bears, notes, and flowers at the water’s edge.
A chill swept over Morgan as she stared at the patch of thick reeds that Tessa had lain in. Standing in the safety of daylight and Lance’s company, she could barely restrain the urge to run. “The mud here is too wet for footprints. Any imprints would have filled in.”
“The police didn’t find any on the bank either. Too much sand in the soil, and there were so many tire tracks and footprints at the clearing.”
“The police had no way of knowing who came before or after the party.”
“Why did she run in this direction?” Mud sucked at Morgan’s shoes as she picked her way toward the water and the broken path of reeds that had led to Tessa’s body. “On the other side, there’s a path that leads to the public parking lot, the gazebo, and picnic tables.”
Lance followed her. “There wouldn’t have been anyone there at that time of night to help her. She was running blind, terrified out of her mind.”
But Tessa had barely made it out of the clearing. Morgan stared at the lake, aware in every fiber of her body that a young girl had been brutally murdered on that very spot of marsh. Tessa’s blood had leaked from her body and soaked into the mud. Had she been awake? Had she known she was dying?
Alone in the dark.
They were quiet for a few minutes. A breeze rushed through the reeds, their heavy heads swaying.
The snap of a twig made them both jump. Lance spun toward the sound. He wrapped one thick arm around Morgan, sweeping her behind him.
“What is it?” The hairs on the back of Morgan’s neck lifted as she peered around his body and whispered, “A deer?”
“I don’t think so.” Lance’s gaze swept the trees as he and Morgan backed toward the game trail. “Someone is out here.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Lance’s hand automatically went to the Glock at his hip.
The sound had come from deeper in the woods.
“Let’s go back to the Jeep.” He steered Morgan down the path toward the clearing, keeping his body between her and the origin of the noise.
He should have listened to his instincts when they’d first gotten out of the car. But he’d thought they were both spooked by the scene itself.
Oh hell, they still could be.
Morgan pointed toward the impromptu shrine. “Looks like plenty of other people have been here. It’s probably just someone who wants to pay his respects. Or satisfy his curiosity.”
“I’m sure you’re right,” Lance said. Was their visitor Jamie Lewis? She’d been at the party, and no one seemed to know how she’d gotten there. Could she be hiding out here in the woods?
“Should we call the police?” Morgan asked as they stepped back into the clearing. Out of the underbrush, they turned and headed for the grass and dirt tract where they’d left the Jeep.
“And say what? We heard a twig snap while we were out in the woods?” Lance put Morgan in front of him and glanced over his shoulder. He couldn’t see anyone, but damn, he could feel eyes on him.
“Good point,” Morgan said. “But we need to know who’s been hanging around the crime scene.”