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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

Nicole’s voice came through. “I called because I had information, but I had been convinced that I didn’t remember it correctly. Three years ago, I saw Candace in a beat-up white truck driving through campus on Tuesday morning. I knew she was missing, and I thought it was odd. I went to our advisor, Rachel Wagner, and she told me I was mistaken. I don’t remember exactly what she said, but she made me feel stupid, and I began to believe I was wrong. Then on Sunday morning, we went out to brunch, and something caught my eye. Rachel was with us, and I said I thought I saw a guy getting on the freight train. You know the place, the Rail Yard Café. Rachel said it was Joseph Abernathy. She told me I had to call the police. So I did. But I don’t know that it was Abernathy. I didn’t recognize him, I only caught a glimpse. Rachel has a way of making you think you knew something when you didn’t or believe you didn’t know something when you did. It’s subtle psychological manipulation, but you have to understand how much we looked up to her. She was our mentor, our friend, and I never thought in a million years that she would lie to me. Until she tried to kill me.”

Lucas said, “Nicole didn’t realize when she called in to the show that Rachel knew who she was—she had disguised her voice. But by her statement, Rachel worried that Nicole would tell the police that it was actually Rachel who identified Abernathy—the perfect scapegoat for the murder of Candace Swain. Rachel wanted to silence her, so poisoned her with a dangerous depressant she’d stolen from another sorority girl who had a prescription. If Nicole’s roommate, Vicky Ryan, hadn’t come into their room right then and recognized that Nicole wasn’t breathing, Nicole would have died.”

Vicky’s voice came on. “I thought Nicole was angry with me, ignoring me, so I touched her and realized she wasn’t breathing. I called 9-1-1 and immediately began CPR. My instincts took over. By the time the paramedics got there, she had a pulse. Faint, but it was there.”

Lucas said, “Nicole was in a coma for twenty-four hours and was released from the hospital this morning. She is expected to make a full recovery.