Page 15 of Vanished in the Mist (A Mystic Lake Mystery #2)
“O-kay. And why would they do that? Who would do that? Not Tanya’s parents. They’re both pushing for answers. If they found out that Tristan killed Tanya, I can’t see them killing him and then hounding the police to keep investigating. They’d want his death covered up, not exposed.”
“Agreed. I doubt they have anything to do with Tristan’s death.
And I’m not saying with any degree of confidence that Tristan killed Tanya.
I’m just considering that he might have known something about it or have been involved in some way.
You heard Peyton talk about having friends in high school.
But when I questioned her about them, she said they’d all gone their separate ways, lost touch.
You don’t get to be a prom queen without being an outgoing, people person, someone who’s popular and makes friends wherever they go.
She’d have to have had a personality transplant after high school to immediately give all of that up.
If she truly hasn’t kept tabs on her high-school friends, there has to be a compelling reason.
And I’m betting that compelling reason is whatever made her nervous whenever I brought up Tanya. ”
“I’m following but not following.”
She took another swig of beer. “I’m all over the place. I know. This isn’t my normal way of investigating, being in a rush, trying to jump from point A to point G without covering the letters in between. I’m babbling and going off on all kinds of tangents.”
“How about we sit, take a deep breath, then talk it through.”
“Good idea.” She reached for the beer again.
He took it from her and set it in the sink. “Let’s keep that brilliant mind of yours operating on all cylinders since we have a limited amount of time. Okay?”
She rolled her eyes but headed to the table, where they sat across from each other.
“Go ahead,” he said. “Slowly, for those of us not used to doing investigations like this. What are we looking at so far?”
“So far.” She crossed her arms on the tabletop.
“All right. Let’s talk it through. We have a sophomore, a fifteen-year-old about to become a junior.
She’s smart, a bookworm, creative, introverted.
The reports we read say she didn’t have any close friends.
Her parents and her books were her only real support system. ”
“Aside from your sister, right? Cassidy was her teacher and concerned about her.”
“Cassidy said that Tanya was very private, hard to get close to. She worried about her not having friends so she’d spoken to her parents several times, becoming close to them.
Cassidy is one of those teachers who is usually the favorite, the teacher all the kids adore.
But in Tanya’s case, she, well, wasn’t. I think that’s why Tanya’s disappearance hit her so hard.
She’d tried to be her friend, to be there for her, but never quite managed to break through Tanya’s wall. ”
She gave him a sad smile. “We’re back to a young girl pretty much on her own.
She goes missing a few weeks after graduation.
And after that, one of the most popular seniors, Peyton, cuts off contact with all her friends.
Not only that, her main friends from school were at the lake today and ignored not only her, but each other.
So it’s likely that her friends did the same thing, dropped all of their close acquaintances after graduation.
There aren’t any huge, traumatic events in town that I’ve heard of from Cassidy that happened around that time.
The only traumatic event was Tanya’s disappearance and the fallout from that. ”
“The police grilling Peyton and her friends, among others.”
“Exactly,” she said. “And now one of those former friends has died. Not just that, he was murdered. Peyton spoke about him like she still cared for him, and yet she hadn’t talked to him in almost a year.
Add to that her nervousness, fear really, every time I mentioned Tanya and, well, you can see where I’m going. ”
“It’s all connected.”
“Seems like it,” she said.
“What if those conclusions we’re jumping to are completely wrong?”
“What if they aren’t?”
He smiled. “Okay. So other than me performing searches on the lake, once I’m allowed back in that area, you and I are going to spend the rest of our time looking into a group of teenagers to see, what, if one or all of them are killers?”
“Now, that would be jumping to conclusions.”
“Normally I consider myself an intelligent man. But keeping up with the twists and turns of your thought process is blowing my confidence.”
She laughed. “I’ll take that as a compliment.
I’m just thinking out loud here. No hard facts, just a lot of assumptions and potential connections, far more questions than answers.
All I’m really concluding is that we need to look for a connection between Tristan and Tanya.
And follow up on Peyton to see what connections she might have had with either of them.
I’m not saying that she or her other friends are killers.
Honestly, it doesn’t sound plausible since nothing in any of their backgrounds—at least according to the police reports we read—raised any red flags.
None of them have police records or have done anything outrageous. ”
“That we know of.”
“Agreed.” She shrugged. “But my experience, or instinct, or whatever you want to call it, tells me we’ve found a thread to follow that might lead us where we want to go.
We should focus on Peyton, Tristan and Tanya, and look for where their paths crossed in the days leading up to Tanya’s disappearance, and Tristan’s death—once the medical examiner can give us a date range on that. ”
“Is there another angle we should pursue, in case that one is a dead end?”
“I didn’t find anything in the files we read last night that leads me to any other avenues to explore. If I had another month to research and interview people, I’m certain I could come up with something more promising. But time being what it is, this is the best we’ve got.”
“You’re the expert. I’ll follow your lead. Until Chief Dawson gives me the green light to continue my grid search, I’m free to be the Watson to your Sherlock. What’s our next step?”
She grabbed her purse from one of the end tables. “We’re heading into town. I’ll drive. I’m tired of climbing up in that behemoth truck of yours.”
“I don’t mind being chauffeured. What’s the plan once we get to town?”
“Lunch and eavesdropping.”
When they reached her silver Lexus, he held the driver’s door open. She smiled her thanks but hesitated, her smile fading as she looked over the car’s roof toward the woods behind the cabin.
Kaden turned and scanned the trees as well, but didn’t see any cause for alarm. “What is it? Did you hear something?”
Her gaze was still on the woods. “I didn’t hear anything. It’s just… For a moment, I thought I… The breeze, it smelled like…cologne.”
He glanced toward the woods again, studying the shadows. But it was no use. In spite of the bright sunlight today, the gloom of the forest was nearly impenetrable. “Get in the cabin. I’ll check it out.”
She grabbed his hand. “No. You’re not going into the woods alone just because all those flowers my sister has in her yard reminded me of someone. She could practically start her own perfume factory with everything she’s planted out here. Come on. Let’s go. We have an investigation to run.”
When she tried to pull her hand back, he tightened his hold. “Is it Troy? Is that what you’re worried about? You think he might have figured out where you are?”
She blinked in surprise. “You remembered his name?”
“Troy Warren. I remember.” He glanced at the woods again. “Get in your car. Lock the door. When we get to town, the first thing we’re doing is stopping at the police station.”