“Twenty years is a long time. You probably don’t have cell phone forensics to go on. What about DNA? How was she found?”
“Stop,” I said. “Don’t make me regret telling you as much as I have.”
Will shrugged. “It’s already in the press. People at school are gonna start asking me about it.”
“And you say nothing,” I warned him.
“I never do,” he assured me. “But that doesn’t stop them from asking.”
Will had finished his roast. Every single bite. It was as winning an endorsement as we could have hoped for.
“May I be excused?” he asked. “I want to work on my blueprints.”
“That depends,” I said. “I’m gonna check your laptop, buddy. No doom scrolling on Ellie Luke.”
“I won’t,” he said. Kat shot me a look. Neither of us were convinced. But Will dutifully washed his plate and put it in the dishwasher. He went back upstairs. Kat turned to me.
“You know,” she said. “Bree was friends with Ellie Luke.”
“She was?”
“They were in nursing school together. They hung out.”
“I had no idea,” I said, then realized I would have had no reason to. I hadn’t dug into Gus’s old files. There would be time for that if and when an arrest was made.
“They still do a 5k in her honor at the nursing college,” Kat said. “We raced in it two years ago. I think it might have been the twentieth anniversary of her murder, maybe?”
“That would track,” I said. “How close were they?”
“They were friends,” Kat said. “We only really talked about it the one time. But I know Bree was questioned by the police when that poor girl disappeared.”
“Lord,” I said. “I had no idea. This may be a dumb question, but did you get the impression it was upsetting to her? I mean, of course it was upsetting. I just mean … Kat … this thing is about to blow up. I can’t tell you the details, you know that. But there’s a slant to it that will probably catch fire in terms of press attention. As in … national news outlets might run with it.”
“Oh wow,” Kat said. “Um. Yes. Ellie isn’t someone Bree talks about. But it affected her. Shook her up at the time, I think.”
“Okay,” I said. “Well … yes. She may have to be reinterviewed, depending on how well she knew Ellie at the time. And if she were interviewed when it happened. I think maybe you should call her. Or I can. I think she should be prepared.”
“Okay,” Kat said. “I’ll talk to her tonight. I’ll have her call you tomorrow.”
“Thanks,” I said. I got another angry text from Gus. It was a stream of obscenities directed at the reporter who showed up at the Simmons’s house when he served the warrants.
“We need to meet first thing in the morning,” I texted back. “This might get messy.”
“It already has,” he texted.
8
The next morning, I met Sam and Gus in Gus’s new war room dedicated to the Ellie Luke murder. Sam had cleared a space in the office next to his. It had taken two days, but every box of evidence from Ellie’s case had been pulled up from the basement. Gus had laid it all out on two tables.
“That was rough yesterday,” I said to Sam as he handed me a steaming cup of coffee. It was strong, crappy, and I inhaled it.
“The media already knows too much,” Sam said.
“You’ve got a leak,” I said.
“It might not be us,” Sam said.
“What difference does it make now?” Gus said. He stood at a third table, laying out photographs. I walked over to him. One by one, he fanned out the crime scene photos. There wasn’t much to them. Ellie Luke’s remains were nothing but bones. Though it was clear to see how she’d been positioned against that tree. Legs crossed at the ankles, hands linked together in an almost prayer pose.
