Page 38 of Black Orchid Girls (Detective Amanda Steele)

He moved to leave.

“Could you please close the door behind you?” she called out.

He waved a hand over his head, and Amanda turned to Trent once the professor had left.

“Stephanie omitted two things. One, she’s friends with Luke Hogan, and two, she recently lost out on an opportunity because Chloe got it.”

“In addition to the test Chloe scored higher on.”

“That’s right.”

“Do you think she planned all this out—followed Chloe to the park and stripped her naked? I may be wrong, but would a woman do that to another woman?”

“I wouldn’t think so, but there’s always exceptions to the rules.”

Trent bobbed his head side to side. “And in murder, are there any rules?”

“Don’t think so.”

“If it was Stephanie or a woman who killed Chloe, it would explain the lack of sexual assault.”

“True.” The facts in the case kept spinning in her head, as did all the conversations they’d already had with people this morning. And while it could have been a woman who had killed Chloe, Luke Hogan, with his underlying temper, was still at the top of her suspect list. But what if Stephanie and Luke had teamed up to kill Chloe? Luke drove his car, and Stephanie did the stabbing, or vice versa? She’d bench her theories for now, but there was something that had to be checked off the list. “Let’s go talk to the Hogans.” She led the way out of the room, eager to get some forward momentum with this case. If they didn’t find something that pinned Chloe’s murder on someone in her social circle, the alternative could very well be that a serial killer was stalking college students in Prince William County.