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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

“They were all members of the sorority when Candace was killed, are still there. Ten are seniors, two are fourth-year students in a five-year program,” Lucas explained.

“I think your Concerned Sister might be one of those girls,” Regan said. “Though, it may be a member of a different sorority. They used to socialize together, at least when I was here.”

“They still do. They all closed ranks.”

He also had questions written on sticky notes.

Did Candace have a second phone?

How can someone go completely off-grid for seven days? (Sunday through Saturday.)

Was Candace hiding? Scared? A witness to a crime? Why didn’t she go to the police?

What did Candace know?

What were Candace and Taylor really arguing about?

Check into stolen cars from week of Candace’s disappearance.

Lucas’s eyes drifted back to his note What did Candace know?

He needed more evidence before he revealed on his podcast the real reason he thought Candace had been killed. But so far that evidence hadn’t come in.

Real reason? He actually didn’t know why. He just didn’t believe that a drunk drifter had killed her.

He wasn’t ready to explain exactly why he had picked this cold case, either, why he was obsessed with Candace’s murder. It hit way too close to home.

Lucas picked up the file that held a copy of Candace’s autopsy and handed it to Regan. He’d compiled the file when he interned at the medical examiner’s office over the summer. He shouldn’t have made copies, but was relieved that Regan hadn’t questioned him about it. She read the report, flipped through to his notes about the water found in Candace’s lungs and his analysis that it couldn’t have come from Hope Springs. Then she looked at the police report. A lot had been redacted, such as the names of witnesses who had been interviewed. He’d received the report through FOIA, but because it was an open case they wouldn’t share everything.

Antsy, Lucas sat on his chair. “Um, do you want anything? Water? Coke?”

“No, thank you.”

Regan read through the witness statements. Though the names were redacted, he’d written who he thought they were. Tyler Diaz, Candace’s longtime boyfriend from campus, hadn’t been at the party, and he hadn’t seen her since the Wednesday before. Richie Traverton said she had come into McCarthy’s the Sunday before the party when he was working and she had stayed until closing. They talked, and he drove her back to campus then went home. That was the last he’d seen her, he said. She’d called him on Friday night after the party at 12:27 a.m. and left a message that she wanted to talk, but he was working, and when he called her back at two, she didn’t answer. The calls were confirmed by both her phone records and Richie’s.