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Back The Sorority Murder
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

Steven hesitated, realizing the potential problem, then said, “Yes, she said she was at breakfast that morning with friends and saw him jumping into the car as the train started to move. No one else saw him.”

“Hmm.”

Regan said, “When Nicole called in to the podcast, she insisted that her voice be disguised because she didn’t want anyone in the sorority to know that she was calling. Specifically, someone in the sorority had told her three years ago not to tell the police about seeing Candace in the truck, that person convinced her that she had been mistaken. I believe that person was Rachel Wagner and that, when Nicole is out of her coma, she’ll state that. What if Rachel also convinced her to be the official witness to Abernathy’s last sighting? Who was she with that day?”

Steven didn’t even wait for Brian to read the notes. “Vicky Ryan, Rachel Wagner, and Taylor James. None of them saw Abernathy, but why would Nicole lie?”

“Rachel is manipulative. She could have convinced Nicole that the man was Abernathy, to the extent that Nicole believed it. Just like she had been convinced it wasn’t Candace in the truck. Remember, she was a freshman then, away from home, new to the sorority, and Rachel was in a position of authority. And now, three years later, listening to the podcast, she’s rethinking what she knew then.”

“I can’t arrest Rachel for the information in the journal or on conjecture,” Brian said. “I can ask her about the journal. Get her on record either confirming or denying, which could help us if we catch her in a lie. But I would really like Nicole’s statement first. She’s still in a coma, and I have no idea when she’ll be ready to give a statement once she wakes up. Steven, I’m sorry to take the case, but I’ll keep you in the loop as much as you want. You did say you were breaking it off with her, right?”

“I’ve been ignoring her calls all day,” he said.

“She’s going to know something is up,” Regan said.

“What am I supposed to do?” Steven said, showing the first outward sign of frustration and anger. “Pretend nothing is wrong? Pretend she didn’t cover up the death of a college student? Pretend she had nothing to do with poisoning a young woman?”

“We don’t know for certain that she did,” Brian said.

“She did it,” Steven said. “Everything is coming clear to me. I honestly believed that Joseph Abernathy was involved in Candace’s death. Everything pointed to him, but there were a couple of things that didn’t quite fit. When he was seen leaving town, it made him seem a more likely suspect, but I should have looked harder at the sorority. Rachel convinced me not to.”

“How so?” Brian asked.