“If I could get into her account, I might be able to get some more information about who posted this shit.”

“Could you take it down altogether?”

“Not without access to the WilsonSeniors account, which is where it came from.”

“This is a nightmare. Everyone will know. We have to do something, Sam!”

“I’m doing everything I can, Trace. I got taken off the homicide case because I was forced to tell Uncle Joe that Brooke might’ve been there.”

“You told him that? There’s no proof she was there!”

“I’m looking at proof that she was, Trace. I think two of the guys are Hugo Springer and Michael Chastain, who are among our victims at MacArthur Boulevard.”

“Oh my God,” Tracy said.

“Hey, Sam, it’s Mike.” This came after some jostling on the other end of the call. “What the hell is going on?”

Sam brought him up to date on what had been found online.

“This can’t be happening.”

“I’m so sorry, Mike. I’m doing all I can from my end, but my hands are somewhat tied because of a possible connection between Brooke and the homicide at MacArthur.”

“What connection could there be? She was stoned out of her mind! You saw her!”

“She was there, Mike. The video puts her at the scene. I recognize the comforter from the bedroom where three of our victims were found.”

“Son of a bitch,” he said softly. “This is going to destroy Tracy.”

Sam had already had the same thought herself. “I’m doing all I can. I’m trying to figure out Brooke’s passwords to get into her accounts.”

“I had a conversation with her about that last winter,” he said. “I told her to make sure they weren’t something stupid like the word ‘password.’ She lit right up, and we laughed over how I’d guessed that she’d done something stupid. That was before everything kinda blew up on us. We were still laughing together then.”

Sam typed in the word “password” and gained entry to Brooke’s Facebook account, where she quickly removed the offending posts and disabled the account. She did the same on Twitter and Instagram. “That worked. I took her offline on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Do you know if there were any others?”

“Check Vine and Tumblr too.”

“Jeez, I’ve never even heard of those.”

“You will before long with a teenager in the house.”

“All right, I’ve deactivated those too. Nothing posted there, thank goodness.”

“Thanks, Sam.”

“I’m going to figure out who did this, Mike. Have no doubt about that.”

“I know you will. I’ve got to go take care of Tracy. She’s beside herself. She so doesn’t deserve this after all she’s done for Brooke.”

“You’ve both given her everything.”

“And this is the thanks we get.”