Page 37 of Vanished in the Mist
Another tear spilled down her cheek and dropped to her lap. “You’re wrong,” she whispered, sounding desperate. “I don’t know where she is. That’s the honest truth.”
Shanna glanced at Kaden. He shrugged, clearly unsure whether to believe the girl or not. He motioned for her to take it from here.
“But you do know what happened to her,” Shanna pressed, her voice hard without any sympathy like Kaden’s had been. This girl might very well be a murderer. Or she could be covering for someone who was. Shanna didn’t feel an ounce of sympathy for her.
Peyton’s eyes closed, her breaths coming in labored pants.
“She’s dead, isn’t she?” Shanna demanded.
“Oh, my God.” Peyton covered her face in her hands, silent sobs shaking her shoulders.
Kaden winced, obviously pained at seeing the young woman so upset. He’d done an amazing job helping Shanna push Peyton to this point. But he wasn’t the seasoned investigator that shewas and appeared to have reached the end of his tolerance for playing the bad guy to Shanna’s bad girl. He began to rise, as if to try to comfort Peyton. But Shanna put her hand on his and shook her head.
His jaw tightened, as if he was waging an internal battle. But he finally gave her a curt nod and settled back against the couch.
This time, it was Shanna who stood, moving to the other side of the coffee table and sitting on it across from Peyton. She covered the young woman’s clasped hands with her own and leaned in close. It was time to take this to the finish line.
“Whatever happened, it’s over, in the past. It can’t be undone. But if you tell the truth, tell us where to find Tanya, we can at least bring her back to her family. Her parents need to know. They need to give their baby girl a proper burial.”
Peyton choked on a sob.
“She was fifteen,” Shanna whispered. “If you disappeared when you were only fifteen, don’t you think your parents would deserve to know what happened? To know where you were?”
“Stop,” Peyton pleaded. “Stop.”
“The only one who can make this stop is you, by telling the truth. Tanya’s parents need to find their baby girl. Where is she, Peyton? Where’s Tanya?”
“I don’t… I don’t know where she is. I really don’t.” Her words were a ragged whisper, sounding as if they’d been wrenched from her soul.
“But you know what happened to her, what wasdoneto her.”
Silence.
“Is that why you don’t want to tell us? Because it wasn’t Jack who hurt her? It was you, wasn’t it? That’s it. You hurt Tanya.”
Peyton’s head jerked up. “No. No, it wasn’t me.”
“Then who was it?”
Her lips trembled, her face so pale her skin seemed translucent. “All of us.”
Shanna stilled, so shocked and dismayed that she couldn’t respond.
Kaden came to her rescue, sitting beside her a few feet from the prom queen. “Peyton?” His voice was gentle, compelling, but somehow brooked no refusal in spite of that. “End this. Now. Tell us the truth. Who isall of us?”
Her face seemed to crumple as she answered. “Jack. Tristan. Jessica. Sam. And…” A fresh flood of tears flowed down her cheeks. “Me. We did it. All of us. We killed Tanya Jericho.”
Chapter Fourteen
Shanna always hated this part of an investigation, the point where she had to involve the police and relinquish her control over the case she’d been working on. But at least Chief Dawson was letting her and Kaden sit in on Peyton’s interview.
Not that he really had a choice.
For some reason, once Peyton had broken down and told Shanna and Kaden that she and her friends had killed Tanya, she’d clung to Shanna and sobbed on her shoulder. From that point on, Peyton had refused to let go of Shanna’s hand. And she’d threatened to call a lawyer and not say anything else unless the police interviewed her at her home and allowed Kaden and Shanna to be there.
So now, Shanna sat on the couch beside Peyton, offering comfort to the girl who was apparently, at least partly, responsible for the death of the young girl they were trying to find. Sometimes life really sucked.
Across from her, Chief Dawson asked Peyton questions, with Officer Fletcher recording the session off to the side as unobtrusively as possible. Kaden sat beside Dawson, his gaze locked on Shanna most of the time, silently offering her the support that he seemed to instinctively know that she needed. She smiled her thanks, but then something that Peyton said had both her and Kaden looking at her in surprise.
