Page 110 of Degradation
‘Yeah, serious business. This is my game face.’ She leans closer but doesn’t say anything.
Drama is definitely this girl’s calling.
‘What serious business?’ I ask dutifully.
‘Shannon. She came through.’
‘Your cousin?’ I lean forward, almost upsetting my latte. ‘She found something?’
Lu shifts on her seat like she's so excited she can't contain herself.
‘Remember how she couldn’t get into the locked part of the office where they keep the police records? Well, last week the police receptionist, Carol, was off sick and they asked her to find some documents for them, so they unlocked the whole place for her. While she was in their paper files, she found your mom’s accident report. She got it for me, since the copy I requested hasn’t come yet.’
My heart skips a beat. ‘Where is it?’
Her eyes scan left and right to make sure no one’s paying attention to us as she pulls an envelope out of her bag and hands it to me.
I open it and scan it, taking in my mom’s name and the date of the accident. Has it really been over two months? I read all the other superfluous information and turn the page. There’s a diagram of the road, the bend, and where the car stopped. There are notes by the first officer on the scene, detailing where my mother's body was found, what she looked like.
‘Is there anything weird about it?’ I ask, continuing to stare, trying to see if something jumps out at me.
‘Nope.’
I look up at Lu. ‘Then why bother sending it?’
‘Because,’ Lu says quietly, pulling out an identical folder from the drawer, ‘my sister from another mister, what’s weird is that there are two and they. Aren’t. The. Same. This one was in the folder behind it. Unmarked except for a note from the Chief asking Carol to shred it. Shannon found it by accident. She said Carol is as scatterbrained as they come. She probably threw it in with the filing and forgot about it.’
She hands me the second report.
‘Why would there be two?’ I mutter, scanning the second one.
Everything’s identical until I get to the diagram. My mom’s car is in the same place, but her body is closer to the road and it’s on the other side of the car. Thepassengerside. There was a partial footprint found in the mud nearby. The picture shows tire marks on the road that don’t correspond to my mom’s car and the officer’s notes say that another vehicle may have been present. I turn the page. It details footage from a convenience store down the highway that shows two cars passing together just before the crash. My mom’s car and a black sedan.
‘Where is this officer?’ I ask. ‘We need to speak to him.’
Lu’s brows rise. ‘We can’t. He doesn’t work for Richmond PD anymore and Shannon says he moved out of town just after this happened.’
‘Someone made him leave,’ I mutter.
Lu nods. ‘Or they paid him to. Whoever’s writing those notes sure knows a lot.’
‘This proves that my mom really was murdered,’ I whisper.
‘And someone is trying to cover it up.’
‘John.’ I murmur half to myself. ‘But the Chief’s note to Carol asked for this to be destroyed, so he must be in on it too.’
‘Looks like it.’ Lu sighs. ‘But how does your stalker fit in? How do they know anything about this? And why do they want you playing detective? What’s the point?’
I sigh. ‘Now we have even more questions with no answers.’
‘I’m sorry about your mom, Daisy.’
‘Thanks,’ I nod absently.
I look up at my friend. ‘This doesn’tchangeanything though,’ I say. ‘Not really. Dead is dead. It doesn’t matter how.’
Lu sits back in her seat and shrugs. ‘Yeah, but there’s an accident and there’s murder. If it washim, don’t you want him to pay for what he did?’
