Chapters (61)
- Cover
- Praise
- Dedication
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- From the Missing Journal of Candace Swain
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- From the Missing Journal of Candace Swain
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- From the Missing Journal of Candace Swain
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- From the Missing Journal of Candace Swain
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- From the Missing Journal of Candace Swain
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- From the Journal of Candace Swain
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Letter Found in the Journal of Candace Swain
- Forty-Eight
- Acknowledgments
- Booklist
- Excerpt
She was going to decline, but the offer sounded like an olive branch, so she took it. As they exited, she said, “I have another question. Do you think Candace’s disappearance is directly related to her murder?”
“It would seem so. It’s logical, yes, but I have no proof either way.”
He held the main door open for her, and they stepped out into the sun. “If you want to know what my gut says, I’ll disappoint you,” he said. “While I understand and appreciate a cop’s intuition—which is basically experience—I still rely on facts. Right now there is no evidence of any connection between Candace disappearing for over a week and then being murdered the night before her body was found, yet that is the most logical assumption. I feel someone has lied to me, but I don’t know who. I interviewed many people more than once, including the sorority girls, the staff at the shelter where she volunteered, and Candace’s boyfriends. If someone is lying, who is it? And why? And why would they want Candace dead? By everyone’s testimony, she was well-liked, popular, kind, smart. It could be random. It could be a psychopath who held her for eight days before he killed her. I’m stumped. I have dozens of other cases in major crimes to investigate. So if you get something solid, I’d appreciate if you tell me. But I can’t spend time and resources investigating a case that’s three years old without new evidence.”
That she understood. His frustration came through loud and clear.
Yes, someone had lied. But alibis weren’t the only thing people lied about.
Young looked at his phone, sent a quick text.
“Go ahead,” she said, nodding to the phone. “I’m good.”
He finished his text, then said, “I’m sorry I came down hard on you at the beginning, but I mean it—you find something, I need to know.”
“Understood.”
Eighteen
Regan hated being late. She briskly walked from the public lot to the Biological Sciences building and made it to Rachel Wagner’s office with one minute to spare.
The door was open, and Rachel sat at her desk, her phone to her ear. She waved for Regan to enter, putting up a finger that she would just be a minute.