Page 37 of Healing Conviction
“Ever since I got here, I’ve been trying to remember this one fancy party I went to. It wasn’t in Cambo though—” Shanna’s body posture stiffened back up immediately and she set down her beer. “It was a big one—”
“Not sure. Wasn’t much of a partier back then.”
“Sure, of course. I remember how smart you were, though. It was for a fundraiser for scholarships so maybe you heard—”
“Never graduated.”
“Ah, well,Iwent, and it was a total drag. I had to drive all the way toAshland, too. Why all the rich bitches gotta go there to party, I have no idea. I’m good with a bonfire and some woods, ya know?”
Shanna paused, looking Nora over as she obviously tried to figure her out. “I… I um, think I might remember it. It was that Ashland elite shit, or whatever, right?”
“Yeah, that’s the one! And some of the students who went got a full ride to college or something.”
“Or something.” Shanna huffed and took a sip of her beer again. Her words had grown slightly slurred from the alcohol or whatever pill she’d popped right in front of them during their reminiscing. “I definitely wasn’t that fuckin’ lucky, and I only had two other women to compete with.”
Two other women.
Nora held her breath, afraid any sudden movement or word would derail wherever Shanna’s mind was going. She didn’t dare look at Drake to make sure he wouldn’t fill the silence. But the man hadn’t spoken a word since they’d gotten in there, reverting back to his usual quiet self. They let the empty air rest until Shanna spoke again.
“Probably ‘cause I wound up gettin’ drunk and makin’ a fool of myself. Never had champagne before and I guess it hit me more than I thought. But one minute I was talkin’ to one man, the next… the next I was fuckin’ another.” She took another sip of her beer, apparently getting lost in her thoughts. After another moment, Nora piped in.
“You, um, said you were competing with two other women? Do you remember their names?”
Shanna narrowed her eyes at her before shrugging. “Can’t say I do.”
But you remember faces, don’t you?
“Gotcha. Yeah, it was a while back. No worries. But say, what happened after that party? I don’t remember seeing you much after that. Didn’t you and your fam like up and move or somethin’? What’re they up to?”
“Last I heard, they were livin’ nice and fine without me.” Shanna stilled back up and shrugged. “Haven’t talked to them since.”
Too far, Nora. Pull back.
Before she could divert attention away from that topic, Shanna’s now bloodshot eyes glared at her again. “You know… this has been fun and all,Lucy. But, maybe y’all oughta head out. The more I think about it. I don’t think I remember you. And I’m good at faces.”
It’s too late. I’ve lost her. Gotta go for it before she kicks us out.
“Yeah, totally. Like these ones?” On a hunch, Nora quickly pulled up Jasmine Thornton and Calianne Castellanos’s pictures on her phone and stepped closer to Shanna with her phone held out. “Do you remember them, Shanna?”
Shanna’s already sickly pale face took on a green shade as she stared at Nora’s phone. She snatched it out of Nora’s hand and stared at the screen, gently tracing her fingers over the women’s faces before snapping angry eyes back to Nora and tossing the phone back at her. Nora juggled the phone in her hands as Shanna knocked back her beer. She finished it and swiped her mouth with the back of her hand before pointing at Nora and Drake with the can.
“Who the fuck are you and why the fuck are you in my home?” Shanna slammed her can on the nightstand and a complication Nora hadn’t foreseen exploded in front of her. Apparently, Shanna was an angry drunk.
Nora drew in on the persona that had become second nature to her way before she’d become her own person. She became smaller for Shanna’s benefit, putting her hands to the side and lowering her voice, keeping a light tone.
“Hey, girl, it’s all good. I just wanted to chat. We’re just chatting, alright? I think… I think what happened to you at that party—what happened to you and these women… Well, you weren’t the only ones. I—” She looked to Drake, whose eyes were watching Shanna, ready to strike if necessary. “My friend and I are here, trying to figure it all out. That’s why I’m here…”
“You askin’ ‘cause of what happened to those rich assholes that got murdered?” Shanna’s eyes were narrow slits, and she stood up, pointing at Nora as she stalked toward her, but Nora kept her ground and decided to finally cut to the chase.
“I’m trying to find out what happened to the women who got taken from that party. Women like you. Women like Calianne and Jasmine and maybe even another woman that was there that night.”
For the first time, fear mixed with the anger simmering in Shanna’s eyes. “Get out.”
“Shanna—”
“No, Lucy, Ricky—whoever the fuck you two are—get the hell out of my home right now. If rich fucks like those assholes in Ashland are gettin’ offed, they won’t think twice about doin’ the same to me. They already tried to do it once, and I already got enough problems with people tryna get at me.”
Alarm bells rang in Nora’s head as she desperately searched her mind for anything to get her to keep talking. Her fake accent dropped as her panic rose.
