Page 143 of Degradation
‘She loved you,’ he begins, but I put my hand up to stop him.
‘That doesn’t matter now. The creepy stalker is trying to make me dig into her death and the more I find, the more I’m convinced he’s right. Maybe he even did it and this is just some twistedafter game.’
I go into my drawer and get the police reports out, handing them to him. With a frown, he opens them and looks through the pages.
‘I don’t understand.’
‘The first one is the original that was typed up by the officer who was first on the scene. It was supposed to have been destroyed, but Lu’s cousin got to it first. The second is the one that’s public record, the one they changed it to. The officer who wrote the original is dead. Drowned while fishing. An accident.’
Shade lets out a breath. ‘An accident?’
‘Apparently.’ I sit on my bed. ‘Lu and I went to the site of the crash.’
‘So, I gathered from that note,’ Shade murmurs, sinking down beside me. ‘Are you… How was it?’
‘Weird,’ I say honestly. ‘Have you been there?’
He shakes his head. ‘I can’t bring myself to, you know?’
I nod. ‘Yeah. It was like she was there. I didn’t feel like that at the cemetery.’
‘Me neither.’ Shade whispers, his hand finding mine.
‘If you want, I’ll go there with you. If… If you wanted to, I mean,’ I say quietly.
He gives a small nod and I look at the folder. He hasn’t seen everything yet.
‘There’s something else,’ I say carefully. ‘A photo in the first report of a shoeprint they took a cast of.’
Frowning, he rifles through the folder and finds it.
‘The pattern matches those fancy shoes your dad gets imported from Italy. He was there that night, Jack.’
The incredulity in his face makes me wince.
‘He couldn’t have been there. He said some work stuff came up and he got his driver to pick him up early. How could you know that? C’mon, Daisy. A tread of a shoe? My father is a lot of things but?—’
‘It’s distinctive, Jack, and I’m good at remembering patterns,’ I interrupt quietly. ‘I’m sure it’s the same, but I understand if you need more to prove that your dad might have been involved.’
‘I do,’ he says. ‘It’s not that I don’t trust you, but April was… I can’t believe he’d do it.’
I nod. ‘I’ll find more, then.’
He regards me for a few seconds, his expression troubled. ‘We’llfind more. We’ll get to the bottom of it and wewillget justice for April. Even if it was him.’
That’s the best I’m going to get at the moment, I realize. At least he didn’t discount it outright, and it seems as if Lu and I aren’t alone in this anymore. That’s something.
‘I’m still mad at you,’ he says suddenly, letting out a breath. ‘But only because you didn’t say anything about the notes, or about the work you were doing. I understand why you kept us in the dark.’
He stands up. ‘I’ll let you know our answer tomorrow.’
‘Fine, but you should know that I’m not the weak link you think I am,’ I draw myself up. ‘Far from it.’
SHADE
Today's the day.
After the revelations from Daisy, the guys decided to spend the evening at the club. Daisy and I did some studying, talked some more, and grabbed some dinner.
