Page 68 of The Lies We Steal

“I finally got into the security cameras and I found these,” He spreads them out for all of us to look at.

My fingers grab one of the photos, seeing a teacher that isn’t Thomas walking out of the labs. Which could mean anything at this point.

“It just looks like Mr. West, he’s my organic chem teacher. What does he have to do with anything?” Rook asks.

“Greg West has been using Thomas’s badge to swipe in and out of the labs. I’m not sure how he got it, but he’s switched them. Look,” He slides the sheet of times to the middle pointing tolog insand log outs.

“All the times Greg swipes in, it registers Thomas’s ID number and vice versa. Greg is the one sneaking into the lab after midnight. This was his way of covering his ass in case someone found out about the drugs.”

My stomach churns.

The excuse to beat Thomas Reid’s face in until he hemorrhages to death has now flown out the window. Now he’s just a teacher with a giant stick up his ass and a hard-on for pissing me off.

“Weeks of surveillance on the wrong goddamn people.” I curse.

Thatch cuts his eyes to me, “Ah, ah,” He clicks his tongue, “Let’s not pretend you haven’t enjoyed spying on Thomas’s darling niece, Ali.”

“You could always switch places with me. I’d tail a hot chick around rather than go through Thomas’s office and apartment. He color coordinates his underwear.” Rook jokes, talking around a mouth full of food.

I grind my molars, ignoring Rook. “You want them to snitch? Someone has to keep an eye on them while you polish your fucking shoes, Thatch.”

With a cunning smirk, he holds his hands up in the air, letting Silas continue to tell us what he’d been able to find.

“I went back a few months and you can see a few hours after Greg leaves, Chris shows up, swipes in and leaves with a duffle bag and goes to make whatever drop he needs to.”

“So, Greg is the teacher who texted Chris about planting the body, which would mean he either did it or he knows who did. That’s what we are saying?”

Silas nods, his fists clenching at the mention of her death, “He’s the only person we’ve been able to connect to Chris. And why would he steal Thomas’s badge, why not just use his own? Unless…”

“Unless he has something to hide.” I finish.

We let the new information settle in. I run my fingers through my hair, pressing my palms into the sides of my head.

Knowing we’ve wasted an entire month on looking at the wrong person, but we also knew this wouldn’t be easy. We talked about this before it started. Knowing it could be years before we found out what happened to her, if anything.

But this, this felt like something closer to a lead. I could feel the end of this creeping up, knowing when we found the evidence we needed to, we would confront Greg and we’d find out exactly what happened that night.

We’d be able to let Rose rest in peace knowing whoever took her life met the same fate.

Briar

“Two double cheeseburgers, hold the onion, a basket of Tilly’s Curly Frillys, and two strawberry milkshakes, that sound right ladies?”

My stomach growled as our waitress repeated our order back to us. Greasy, delicious diner food was everything I needed in my life right now.

“Yup.” Lyra and I say together, laughing a bit at our cohesiveness.

“I’ll go plug it in!”

As she left I turned my head to look out the window next to me, staring out at the dark road and parking lot full of cars. This little dive was the first thing in this town that reminded me of home.

The old school music that played from the jukebox in the corner, the checkered flooring, cherry red booths and bright blue neon lights took me back home to Texas and the Waffle Palace that was two miles from my house.

The smell oil frying, laughter, had a smile on my face the first time we’d come here.

We’d both been studying for hours, tired and hungry we piled into Lyra’s car and took the twenty minute drive to get here. It was only seven, so the dinner crowd was hot and heavy. The restaurant full of people you’d never expect to be in here.

Men in suits, ladies in heels.