“I reached out to the victim’s former roommate, Annie Johnston, last night. She emailed me early this morning. She lives in Phoenix and agreed to talk to me on the condition she didn’t have to talk to Lucas. I ran it by him, and he’s cool with it. These sorority sisters seem to have blacklisted the podcast. Completely shut him out, so anything I can get from the outside might help.” She paused, drained her second cup of coffee. “She works at Phoenix Children’s Hospital, said I could call her before she goes to work.”

John said, “Looks like you have a new cause.”

“What does that mean?”

“A cause, a hobby, whatever you want to call it. You’re helping this kid.”

She shrugged. “Maybe. Last night went well, we learned more, and Lucas asked if I would return on Friday’s episode. Why not? What else am I doing?”

“Now you sound like you’re feeling sorry for yourself. Go ahead. Help the kid solve his friend’s murder. It’ll make you both feel better.”

Sometimes, her dad just cut straight to the point.

“Anyway,” she said, “Lucas had reached out to Annie earlier in the process, and she wouldn’t talk to him. I’m going to have him listen in. It’s his podcast. I don’t want to just take it over.”

He laughed.

“Really, Dad.”

“Don’t lie to yourself. You’re a control freak, just like I am. It runs in our veins. But he needs you. Maybe he’s smarter than I gave him credit for, but he doesn’t have experience. If he’s right about any of this, he might draw the killer’s attention.” Her dad paused, then asked her, “Do you know if the police ever looked closely at Sunrise Center itself?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, the victim volunteered there, and the suspect often stayed there. If I were planning a murder, having a guy with a habit of stalking sorority girls take the fall for me would be a big plus.”

And that was one reason she loved her dad. He thought anyone was capable of a crime, under the right circumstances. She hadn’t even considered the idea that someone at Sunrise might be involved, but it might explain why Abernathy had disappeared.

Still, it seemed far-fetched. Why would the director cooperate with Lucas for his podcast if she had something to do with Candace’s murder? It seemed...odd.

Yet, people often behaved in ways that confused Regan.

It was definitely something to think about.

Regan’s dad had already left when Lucas arrived.

“I really like your place here,” he said, looking out the picture windows at the trees and Humphreys Peak looming in the north. “You’re, like, in the middle of nowhere, but only twenty minutes from downtown.”