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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

“I can’t let you tell anyone. I have too much to lose.”

Candace recognized the woman who wanted her dead.

Her friend, her teacher.

Rachel.

As the truth hit her, that Taylor had betrayed her, that Taylor knew that Rachel had planned to kill her, Rachel shoved Candace’s head underwater. She fought back, but weakly this time as water filled her lungs. Her arms and legs kicked futilely. Candace’s vision went black. Her mind and body became numb.

Her pain disappeared.

Forty-Two

Saturday

After their morning at the library, Regan left Lucas at his apartment after asking if he would rather stay with her. He said he was fine, that Lizzy was coming over after lunch, and he wanted to prepare for Tuesday’s podcast. She reminded him to stay put, trust his instincts, and call if anything out of the ordinary happened.

Regan headed over to the hospital again, this time to check on Nicole Bergamo. She called her dad when she got there; he didn’t answer.

No one would give her information about Nicole’s status, so she tried Vicky Ryan’s number. She didn’t answer, either.

Something wasn’t right. She texted her dad and said she was in the hospital and then sat in the lobby. After thirty seconds she got up and paced, reading every plaque under the pictures of people she didn’t know—former administrators, heads of departments, benefactors.

A few minutes later, out of the corner of her eye Regan watched a group of young women enter. Four of them, carrying flowers and balloons. Two wore NAU sweatshirts, two wore the Greek letters that signaled they were members of Sigma Rho. They approached the information desk across from where Regan was standing. “We’re here to see Nicole Bergamo,” one of the girls said.

The receptionist typed. “I’m sorry, she can’t have visitors right now. You can take the flowers to the third-floor nurses’ station, and we’ll bring them to her.”

“But she’s okay, right?”

“I don’t have that information. All I can confirm is that she’s a patient here.”

Third floor. Regan let the girls go in the elevator; she took the stairs. As soon as she exited on the third floor, she heard an argument at the end of the hall. Rachel was there talking to a uniformed deputy about being allowed into Nicole’s room.

The four sorority girls were at the nurses’ station, watching Rachel cause a scene.

Two hospital security came out of the staff elevator and walked down the hall. Regan still didn’t know where her dad was, and Vicky was nowhere to be seen, either.

Rachel glanced at the two security officers, but she locked eyes with Regan.

“You need to leave, or we will place you under arrest,” one of the guards said.