Page 78 of Last Seen Alive
They must have been watching TV before he arrived—it was on but the volume muted. The four of them scarfed down the pizza in silence, but Trent felt them looking at him to speak, to provide them with something.
Trent set down his plate, a bit of crust from his third slice and some crumbs were all that remained. “We went to the gallery where Claire worked.” He stopped there, suddenly aware that maybe he shouldn’t be speaking with Logan present.
“What took you there?” Shell dropped the slice she’d been working on.
“I, ah, actually shouldn’t get into all of it, but we’re making some progress.” He flicked a quick glance toward Logan.
“He didn’t kill her, Trent,” Shell stressed.
“I’m quite sure I know that.”
“Quite sure?” Logan barked. “Unbelievable.”
Trent felt his anger swell. “I don’t know you, all right. But I do know Amanda, and I do know that the evidence, or so-called evidence against you, seems too clean.”
Logan’s shoulders relaxed and lowered.
“Do either of you know of a Brianna Shepherd, now Morris?” Trent directed the question to anyone in the room who wanted to answer.
“Wasn’t she another foster kid the Hamiltons took in during the same time they had Claire?” Michelle said.
“So Claire told you about her?” Trent was curious why Shell hadn’t mentioned this Brianna long before now, like when he and Amanda were asking about Claire’s friends on their first visit. Though he supposed, Shell had a lot to process with her estranged sister showing up dead after years of being absent from her life.
“Not really. I sort of pried it out of her after she let it slip that she had to share a room with someone.”
“Were she and Claire close?” He hoped that Shell would give him reason to be excited about speaking with her. Sometimes working an investigation was so infuriating with all the spinning in circles and backtracking. But a new perspective often lent clarity to a previous scenario.
“No idea really.”
Shell’s uncertainty about Claire’s relationship with Brianna could be why she never thought to mention her. But it would be hard to be in that proximity and not be privy to some of the other person’s affairs. And the Hamiltons seemed to think Brianna covered for Claire. He had no doubt Brianna would add value to the investigation. “I don’t suppose either of you talked to Brianna after Claire disappeared?”
Shell glanced at Logan and gestured for him to speak.
“Yeah, I found out about Brianna from one PI along the way. I went to her years ago when I first got back to Dumfries. I thought she might know where Claire was.”
“Why? You thought they were good friends?” Trent’s insides were buzzing because he could have pointed them in Brianna’s direction a long time ago.
“I had—and have—no idea.”
“Okay, so when you spoke to Brianna, what did she tell you?”
“That she and Claire hadn’t been in touch for years.”
Trent felt the air leave his lungs.Too much to hope for answers…“Is there anything more you can tell me about Brianna?” What he really wanted to ask, he felt he couldn’t.Was Brianna part of a heist ring? Could she be Claire’s killer?Not that he knew where that left the male perp captured on that video years ago or explained the man in the Toyota. And were they the same man?
Logan set his now-empty plate on the coffee table. “She also told me she liked Claire from the beginning.”
Did that mean anything that moved the investigation forward? The two could have bonded just because they had similar stories. They had both landed in foster care. Had Brianna made similar choices to Claire and gotten involved with the wrong people? Was that why she covered for Claire? “When you met Brianna, did you get the impression she was involved in anything illegal?”
“I don’t know her enough to make that call.”
“Why are you so interested in this Brianna person?” John asked, speaking for the first time since the pizza box was opened.
Leave it to John to go there. And there was no answer that Trent could give him. It’s not like he could come out with the fact Claire had secured a defense attorney about a robbery, and that the gun she had in her purse was connected to a murder. “Just a name that came up. I can’t say much of anything. Sorry. Well, I should get going. It will be another long one tomorrow.”
He saw himself out and wondered if he’d stopped by more to offer his friends comfort or to feel some himself. Like some consolation that he was doing all he could, even though it felt like his hands were tied. And now he was walking out with more questions. Why had Brianna protected Claire’s secrets? Had Claire cut her in? And the big one: did Brianna know anything about Claire’s murder or the man in the Toyota?
TWENTY-NINE
