BooksBarbecue
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

“Yeah, sure. Come to the studio at seven, an hour before we go live?”

“I’ll be there.”

“I got an email last night,” Lucas said. “Can I forward it to you? I think it’s legit, but she didn’t sign it, and the email address is anonymous.”

“Sure.” She rattled off her personal email.

“Thanks, Regan.”

She ended the call, and less than ten seconds later the email came in. Regan read it twice.

One sentence really caught her eye:

they say they want to protect candace’s image, but it’s really more the sorority’s image they care about.

Who did she mean when she said they? The sorority as a whole? A group within the sorority? Did someone there know more than they’d told police?

She read the message a third time and determined that the sender was likely a senior—possibly a five-year student—who had been a freshman or sophomore when Candace disappeared. She didn’t say that Lucas couldn’t read the note on the podcast, just that she wanted to be anonymous. This might give them a jumping-off point tonight.

Regan chatted with Susan for a minute while she paid the bill with the money Jessie left, then she walked out, heading over to her truck. She thought about going home and talking to her dad—she hadn’t spoken to him since she’d walked out last night. That hour-long walk in the cold hadn’t tempered her anger. She controlled her temper well—had learned to at a young age—but the tension left her with a headache that hadn’t dissipated even after four aspirin, coffee, and food.

Not fair maybe, but nothing about life was fair.

She had just clicked the unlock button on her key fob when she heard someone call her name. She turned and almost did a double take.

“Tripp?”

“Regan Merritt, didn’t expect to see you, but sure glad I did.”

Tripp Garza strode over and gave her a tight hug. She hugged him back. She’d known Tripp practically her entire life—he was her brother JT’s best friend since kindergarten.

“I didn’t expect to see you. When I got back here in October, Dad said you were still deployed.”

“I was, took my papers in January. I gave near half my life to the army.”

The last time she’d seen Tripp was when he was best man for JT’s wedding. That was eight years ago. Back when she had a husband, and a son, and a job she loved.

“What are you doing now?” she asked.

“Same thing you are,” he answered.

She didn’t know what to say to that. What did he know? Was he also here to figure out his life?

Tripp added, “I went to see JT a few weeks ago.”