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Back The Sorority Murder Save as PDF
Chapters (61)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise
  3. Dedication
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Three
  7. Four
  8. Five
  9. From the Missing Journal of Candace Swain
  10. Six
  11. Seven
  12. Eight
  13. Nine
  14. Ten
  15. Eleven
  16. Twelve
  17. From the Missing Journal of Candace Swain
  18. Thirteen
  19. Fourteen
  20. Fifteen
  21. From the Missing Journal of Candace Swain
  22. Sixteen
  23. Seventeen
  24. Eighteen
  25. Nineteen
  26. Twenty
  27. Twenty-One
  28. From the Missing Journal of Candace Swain
  29. Twenty-Two
  30. Twenty-Three
  31. Twenty-Four
  32. Twenty-Five
  33. Twenty-Six
  34. Twenty-Seven
  35. Twenty-Eight
  36. Twenty-Nine
  37. Thirty
  38. Thirty-One
  39. Thirty-Two
  40. Thirty-Three
  41. Thirty-Four
  42. From the Missing Journal of Candace Swain
  43. Thirty-Five
  44. Thirty-Six
  45. Thirty-Seven
  46. Thirty-Eight
  47. From the Journal of Candace Swain
  48. Thirty-Nine
  49. Forty
  50. Forty-One
  51. Forty-Two
  52. Forty-Three
  53. Forty-Four
  54. Forty-Five
  55. Forty-Six
  56. Forty-Seven
  57. Letter Found in the Journal of Candace Swain
  58. Forty-Eight
  59. Acknowledgments
  60. Booklist
  61. Excerpt

He looked at his phone and realized he was going to be late meeting Regan at Sunrise Center.

He quickly packed up his backpack and left.

Twenty-Seven

Regan arrived before Lucas at Sunrise Center, though he’d texted her and said he was running late. She introduced herself to Willa March, who was happy to give her a tour of the facility while they waited. Willa was sixty, tall and slender, with blue eyes and gray hair.

The homeless shelter was on the edge of downtown, more than a mile east from the northern boundary of the NAU campus. It was in a semi-industrial area, away from homes, near public transportation, an urgent-care facility, and two churches. Willa had done an excellent job making the facility look inviting. It had once been a church and small school. The church was now the dining and recreation hall, the garden that separated it from the school was clean and well-maintained, with several tall trees in the center, and the school had been converted to both offices and dorm-style rooms for men. A building in the back—Willa said it had once been a strip mall—had been refashioned into small two-room apartments for families, mostly women with children.

“We have four full-time staff members, including myself, and dozens of volunteers. A drug counselor is here through a county program two days a week,” Willa said. “We can have a maximum of forty men in the dormitory, and six families in the apartments. I have a temporary permit for two four-bed dorm-style rooms for women downstairs, but usually the women here come in with their children. One person is on duty at night, and we have a staff suite.”

“The facility is impressive. Clean and functional.”

“We’ve accomplished so much from our humble beginnings. The city and the county provide some of our funding, churches provide most of the volunteers and help with the food program, and we have generous donors. Our clients work to keep the facility clean.”

Lucas approached them as they were talking in the garden. “Sorry I’m late. Hi, Ms. March.”

He glanced at Regan, and she knew that he’d found something, but he didn’t say anything.

“Willa. I told you,” the director said.

Because it was a pleasant afternoon, in spite of a steady wind, they sat outside at a picnic table. Regan noted that four men were gardening on the opposite side of the yard, and two young mothers were watching five children play on a jungle gym. Regan stared a moment too long, memories of her watching Chase laughing as he swooshed down the tall slide at their old neighborhood park. The feelings of grief and sorrow were momentarily overwhelming. She almost got up to leave, but she buried it. Pushing it aside gave her a headache.