Carina glanced at Nick and he gave her a brief nod. “When did he leave?”
“Oh, early. Five, five-thirty. I don’t really remember.”
“What does he do when he’s here?”
“Studies.”
“He’s in college?”
“I think so, I’m not sure. He brings in textbooks and his laptop.”
“He doesn’t use the library computers?”
“No. He prefers one of the laptop stations in the annex.”
“Can you describe what he looks like?”
Her brow furrowed as she concentrated. “Nice-looking. Average. Tall, but not as tall as you.” She pointed to Nick. “A little on the skinny side. But he’s very nice, polite. Clean-cut. I think Becca had a crush on him, but she was too shy to ask him out and I think he was too shy to ask her out.” She shook her head. “She was such a sweet girl.”
“About how old would you say he was?”
“I don’t know, maybe early twenties. Maybe younger. Kids look so much more mature these days.”
“Do you remember his hair color?”
“Um, light.”
“Blond or light brown?”
“I don’t know. More on the brown side, I’m not really sure. You don’t think…he’s not…he can’t be. He’s just a young man.”
As if being a young man meant you couldn’t rape or murder. “We don’t know right now, we’re trying to talk to everyone who spoke to Becca the day she disappeared. We’d like to talk to him, maybe he saw something.”
“Oh, right, that makes sense. I can get you the Sanders’ information.”
“Do you know if the young man Becca spoke with has a car?”
“No.”
“But you’re certain he left during the five-o’clock hour.”
“Yes. I left at six and he’d gone before then.”
“Do you remember if he looked at any specific book while he was here?”
“No, he came in about four, just before Becca came in, and sat at the table near the front of the annex like he always does. He worked on his laptop the whole time, at least from what I saw. I didn’t have to clean up his workstation like I do some people.”
Carina thanked Midge for her time and continued with the interviews. When they were done speaking with everyone who’d been working Wednesday night, no one else remembered the light-haired “young man.” They asked Midge to call them if he came in again, and then they looked at the table she’d indicated that he always used.
It was a small, flat maple table, no drawers. Immaculate. A power outlet was within arm’s reach. The man could see the entire library, but no one could see his computer screen. Not that that meant anything; Carina herself never sat with her back to a room or door. Most civilians didn’t have that phobia.
“I need to put an undercover in here in the evenings,” Carina said almost to herself. “I’m getting a feeling about this.”
“It’s our only solid lead right now,” Nick agreed, “until Gage brings us some physical evidence.”
“You think he’ll come back if he’s guilty?”
“He might think that’s the way to not attract attention. Keep up the same routine.”
They left the library and Carina called in her request to Chief Causey, who agreed to put an undercover officer at the library from four to eight every evening.
Carina had just pulled away from the curb when her radio beeped. She picked up the receiver. “Unit Charles-One-Four-Four here. Over.”
“Charles-One-Four-Four, missing person reported at two-four-zero Beach Boulevard, apartment one-one-six. The caller asked for you specifically.”
Carina looked at Nick. “That’s Abby and Jodi’s apartment.”
TWENTY-TWO
ABBY AND JODI shared what was considered a “garden” apartment, a small two-bedroom unit on the ground floor of a large U-shaped complex near the university. Carina would bet that ninety percent of the residents were college students.
They lived in a corner unit. The front door opened into a small living/dining/kitchen area. Three doors on the south wall led to what Carina presumed were two bedrooms and the bath. A police officer, Mimi Danvers, was sitting with a hysterical Abby.
“She’s gone!” Abby wailed when she saw Carina. “Please please find her. Something awful has happened.”
“Calm down and tell me everything you remember.” Carina sat on the other side.
Abby took several deep breaths and said, “Last night, after the memorial service, we went to the Sand Shack. It was closed, just open for friends of Angie. So we could talk about what we love and miss about her.” She drew in a shaky breath. “But Jodi and I weren’t into it. After what you said, we were kind of scared. We didn’t know who’d hurt Angie, and so we left and came here. We drank some rum and Cokes, but we were so tired. I-I fell asleep in the living room. I woke up late this morning-I swear, I didn’t get that drunk, it was just the stress-and I’d already missed all my morning classes. Not that I cared, not after Angie.” She took another deep, shaking breath.
“What time did you wake up?”
“Ten-thirty. And I went into Jodi’s room to wake her up…and she wasn’t there. So I thought she already went to class. I showered and dressed and tried her cell phone at eleven because I knew she’d be between classes. I heard it ring in the apartment. That’s when I saw her purse.” She pointed to an overstuffed desk in the small eating area that separated the kitchen from the living room. “She’d never go out without her purse, and her car is in the carport-so I called nine-one-one, then I called the number you gave me.”
Officer Danvers squeezed Abby’s hand. Nick slid on gloves and went to the front door. “It’s not forced.” He turned to Abby. “Which room is Jodi’s?”
She pointed to the door on the left. Carina followed Nick. He looked at the window. “It’s unlocked. And look-” He pointed to the windowsill. “Dirt on the ledge.”
“I’ll call the crime techs and get them down here ASAP.”
While they waited for the crime techs, Carina had Abby call every one of Jodi’s friends to find out the last time they had spoken with her. No one had seen or talked to her after they left the Sand Shack at ten the night before.
Jim Gage arrived with his team only thirty minutes after being called. He looked as tired as Carina felt. It had been a long morning.
Carina explained what they knew so far, then left Jim to do his job.
She spoke to Officer Danvers. “Don’t let Abby out of your sight. I’ll clear it with the chief. I’m putting her and Kayla under twenty-four/seven protection until we find this guy.”
Abby heard her. “It’s him? Angie’s killer has Jodi?”
“We don’t know for certain,” Carina said carefully, “but we need to proceed with caution until we know exactly what’s happened.”
Carina ordered two more uniforms to canvas the apartment building first, then every adjacent structure. “Anything, no matter how minor, I want to know about.”
On the way out she called Chief Causey and had a squad car sent over to Kayla’s dorm room at the college. “I didn’t think they were in danger. I asked the chief early on for extra protection, and he approved additional patrols in the neighborhood, but I should have pushed for more. I told them to be careful, but I really didn’t think he’d go after any of them. It’s my fault.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“Yes, it is.” She slammed her fist on the steering wheel as Nick slid into the passenger seat. “I should have had Angie’s journal taken offline immediately. Then they never would have been able to post those stories about themselves and draw the attention of the killer.”
“First,” Nick said, “you had no reason to think they would do something like that.”
“But-”
“It was Angie’s journal, you kept it online for a valid reason. Her killer could have wanted to gloat, he could have posted a confession for all we know.”