Page 111 of Vanish From Sight

“It’s a habit I picked up from my mother. Every few months she would get bored of the layout and color of the walls and felt she needed to change things up. So, she would drag me and my sister down to the paint shop to pick out new colors. Drove our father nuts but it kept life interesting or at least our house.”

“You said your mother was a…” he reached for the word.

“Psychologist. One of the best. At least if her accolades are anything to go by.”

“So even psychologists are a little weird.”

She laughed.

It didn’t take long for them to segue into a discussion about the case after another segment rolled out on the TV. He twisted in his seat to view some of the shots from earlier that day of media outside the Evans home.

“Everyone’s got their theories,” he said.

“To be expected.”

“What’s yours?”

“You’re asking me?”

He nodded; his mouth full of rice.

Callie picked at her food. “I think that I’m every bit as confused as the rest of the town. Theories get us nowhere. Facts. That I can work with.”

Noah leaned back, wiping his lips with a napkin. “I wentback to the sites this evening after having a visit with the medical examiner. You know — the Evans home, and the tree.”

“Wait. You went to see the medical examiner?”

“It was fentanyl. The cause of Lena’s death.”

Callie gave an incredulous expression.

Noah dug a fork into his food, picking at it. “I don’t buy drug use for one minute. I also don’t think her death is connected to the others.”

“Why not?”

“When I talked with Maggie, she said Lena didn’t know Nate Sawyer. It was long before her time, and although she wrote the first article about the woman pulled from the lake, her name wasn’t on it. Carl McNeal took it over, edited her work and attached his name. So, if the one who murdered Katherine and Laura took offense to the media, it would have been with Carl or Nate. Nate was flying solo with his journalism business and was the one threatening to expose High Peaks Academy.”

“And yet Nate is still alive. In fact, you would have thought that if it was related to what was covered up by the faculty, he would have been targeted first. It almost seems like a missed opportunity. I mean, there was more chance of him getting the word out to the public than Katherine.”

“Unless the killer wanted it pinned on him. Sawyer was already dealing with an allegation of his own. Killing him might have only bolstered whatever he had written already.”

“So then if Nicholas is innocent, why take him out?”

“I’m not sure right now. A fall guy, perhaps. He’s the only other person that in the eyes of the law might have a motive to kill both women.”

Callie took a sip of wine. “So you don’t think it ends there?”

“What?”

“Well, you said to Rivera that someone might kill again.”

“Might.”

“No. You seemed pretty sure that if we focused too much on Nicholas, that someone else could be targeted. That would imply whoever did this isn’t done. Sawyer is inside. Nicholas is at the hospital. So, who else?”

“I don’t know. I just don’t think they’re finished.”

“You must have a theory.”