She rubbed her eyes and tried to figure a way out of this mess.
Maybe she was overthinking it.
She continued reading through his emails. They were meeting at the station today at four. That was in ten minutes.
Only one other email jumped out at her. It was from Detective Hernandez.
I asked Regan Merritt to sit in on the meeting since she found the journal; CCSD put a hospitalized student in protective custody as a possible witness. Student is in coma. Prognosis 50/50.
Journal? What journal? Taylor said she had destroyed Candace’s journal… Had she lied? Did she have it? Had she given it to Lucas Vega? To Regan Merritt?
And how did Regan know that Nicole was the caller about the truck? Dammit, Nicole should have died. If she regained consciousness, she could implicate Rachel.
Rachel could feel the noose tightening around her neck. Nicole could destroy her. She should have died! If she’d died, none of this would be happening… Damn damn damn! How could she have survived that dosage?
All thoughts of creating problems for Steven vanished. She had more important things to address. Rachel left the cop’s house, drove directly to her condo.
She recognized when her time was up. If Nicole survived, Rachel wouldn’t be able to mitigate the damage.
For now? She had enough time to execute her backup plan. Escape. Disappear and rebuild.
She wanted to scream. She had everything she wanted right here! She didn’t want to leave, but she had no choice.
Survival would always win.
Rachel packed two suitcases and put them in her Jeep. She grabbed her emergency fund: five thousand dollars. She’d close her account on Monday once she knew where she was going; she had another six thousand in her savings. Not a lot of money, but for now it would be sufficient.
She had places she could go for a while. Friends across the country she could stay with.
Rachel also still had access to the university lab. She needed a few things. She might be forced to leave town and disappear, but dammit, she was going to punish the little asshole who’d started this disaster.
You ruined my life, Lucas Vega.
I am going to kill you.
Forty-Four
The meeting at the station went as well as Regan could expect, and she was happy that they included her so she could share her perspective. Brian Hernandez seemed like a solid detective, and Steven Young willingly handed over all his notes and evidence and answered questions. She had suggested that Lucas come down, but Brian said he’d reach out to Lucas if he needed more information.
Steven was professional but clearly upset that his girlfriend was a murder suspect. He didn’t question the journal, however. On the advice of the DA, they opened the letter to the Overton family and made a copy.
The letter was a clear explanation of what had happened the night Adele died. Candace asked for their forgiveness.
Steven read the letter twice and, after, seemed hardened.
Brian said, “Going back to Joseph Abernathy. I remember the BOLO at the time. There were—” he skimmed through a file “—six sightings of him on campus, and twice the police escorted him off.”
“Correct,” Steven said. “Sigma Rho wasn’t the only complaint. The cheerleading coach, another sorority, other students. At the Spring Fling, four different people stated that they saw Candace talking to Abernathy before the party began. Those statements are in the file. I also have statements from Taylor James and Kimberly Foster that Taylor had wanted to call the police that night but Candace didn’t. She wanted to handle it herself, fearing that Abernathy would be imprisoned for continuing to violate the order to stay off campus. That was consistent with other statements from her boyfriends and Willa March, the director of Sunrise Center.”
“And he was spotted at the homeless camp near the tracks, according to a caller on Vega’s podcast,” Brian said.
“I was not aware of that, though we regularly patrolled the camp looking for him.”
Regan said, “Willa March confirmed that one of her other clients contacted her about Joseph, and she went down to talk to him, but by the time she got there, he was gone.”
Steven said, “I worked with Ms. March during that time. She seemed to be forthcoming, and while she was protective of the people she helped, she also recognized that Abernathy wasn’t always aware of his actions and could lash out. It’s why he was no longer allowed shelter but could come for meals. I don’t know why she didn’t mention the sighting to me.”
“Maybe because he was no longer there,” Regan suggested.
“She should have come forward. Same with the information about her truck. She knew we were looking for Abernathy, the truck was missing, Candace was missing, and both of them knew the truck was available to use.”