Page 27 of Shadow Sabotage
At least I hoped that’s all it was.
“He said her disappearance caused enough of a stir on campus that it was all anyone talked about for a few weeks. The general consensus was that she’d had some kind of mental health breakdown from stress. One of her professors told him she’d been concerned about her behavior all semester. Said she’d been skipping classes, that her grades had dropped, and that she seemed distracted.”
“Hmmm. And Tony? How did Finn know they were dating?”
“He always runs into Tony when he’s on campus. Makes a point to say hi, you know, being from the same town and all. Said Tony introduced him to Katelyn last fall. But they’d broken up before Finn was there in February. He said Tony was devastated about it.”
“That’s very interesting.” He grinned again. “Excellent work.”
“Thanks.” I flushed under the praise.
Heavy footsteps came down the hall, followed by Sheriff McGrath sticking his head in the office.
Agent Weston stood. “We have an ID.”
“I know.” Sheriff McGrath’s shoulders sagged. “I just got off the phone with Laramie PD. They’ve notified her mother. The news breaks in an hour.”
Agent Weston’s eyes met mine. “Get ready,” he murmured.
“For what?”
He shook his head. “Things are about to get wild.”
Chapter Ten
Vance
Sheriff McGrath putout a statement on his social media account and called a press conference to let the citizens of Wildwood know what was going on. I watched the whole thing, observing on the sidelines.
You could learn a lot about people, seeing their reactions to something like this.
It was also interesting to note that Mayor Evans—father of Tony Evans, the apparent ex-boyfriend to the victim—didn’t show up at all.
Veryinteresting.
I told Claire to keep the tidbit about Tony to herself. I didn’t want our knowledge of that information to spread before I could get down to the university and interview him personally. The last thing I wanted was for someone to tip him off and give him time to prepare a story—or advise him to lawyer up.
As soon as Sheriff McGrath wrapped up, I headed to my SUV, planning to drive straight to Laramie. I could get there by nine—eight if I ignored the speed limit—and possibly speak to Tony that night.
The faster, the better.
As I opened my door, Claire caught up with me. “Wait,” she called, jogging down the sidewalk to where I was parked. She lowered her voice when she got close. “Are you heading to interview him now?”
“Yeah.” I closed the door and leaned against it, crossing my arms. “I want to talk to both him and the roommate.”
“Can I come?” She bit her lip, her normal confidence gone.
I was torn.
On one hand, she was supposed to be my partner on this case, and she was the one who had gotten this lead to begin with. But she had no training. No experience. And no filter on that mouth of hers.
A mouth that I found terribly distracting.
Besides, I always worked better alone.
“Laramie is outside of your jurisdiction,” I began, trying to let her down gently.
“Right.” She let out a breath, her shoulders sagging with disappointment.
