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“Is there anything else you can tell us, anything at all?”
Halo shakes her head. “No, but I do have a key to her room.”
My eyes widen. “You do?”
She nods. “The police have already gone through it, but there might be something there. I have been wanting to go but I’ve just been too scared.”
“We can come with you,” Paulie offers. “If there is something that can help us find who did this, then we need to find what that something is.”
Halo hesitates, her eyes moving between us, then she exhales and nods. “Okay, I’ll meet you there tonight.”
This could be a really bad idea, but it also might be the only idea we have. I’m not willing to give up the chance to find something, though I’m sure whatever the police have already gone through is no longer in the room. Still, maybe there is something that can give us an idea of who she was talking to, and why.
I want to do this for her, she deserves answers, and I want to know who the hell is bothering me.
I finish up with Paulie and then I take a walk along the river as I call the kids and wave to them over Facetime. It’s not the same, but Danny looks like he’s having a blast with Addi, and I know Mercy is just happy to be there. Addison told me they haven’t seen Spike, but she did let me know they’re going to look for him tomorrow. I hope they fix it, because lord knows I need that man right now. I haven’t bothered calling him—he made it clear he wants space and quite honestly, so do I.
That doesn’t mean I don’t miss him and my heart doesn’t clench at the idea of him not being around.
Before I head back to the room, I sit down and look at Alyssa’s social media profiles. There could be something I’ve missed on there. I go through every one of her friends, posts, and likes and try to piece together anything that seems to repeat itself. There are a few men on there, most of which look to be young, and most of which aren’t commenting on her posts.
There is one who comments, but his profile picture is a beach and his name is simply @yourmandan which gives me nothing other than the fact that his name may be Dan. His profiles are locked, and I can’t see a single picture of him, but his likes on Alyssa’s things are frequent and he left a few random comments calling her beautiful to which she wrote back in a way that made me think she cared what he thought.
It could be something, it could be nothing, but it’s worth trying to find out if a Dan goes to this school, or better yet, if there is a married man who somehow has something to do with the campus. She had to meet him somewhere, right? I decide it might be worth asking my parents, after all, they have lived here for a long time now. They might know something.
I make my way back and get into my car, heading over there.
When I arrive, only my mother is home. She’s surprised to see me, her gloved hands covered in soil as she plants flowers in her perfect garden. Everything in her world has to be perfect, if it’s not, she simply can’t handle it. Her world doesn’t have flaws, which is probably why we always clashed.
“Ciara, I wasn’t expecting you.”
“I won’t keep you long, I just wanted to ask you something.”
She straightens, but she doesn’t dust her hands off or wipe them on her old clothes, no she just hangs them down by her sides. Not even her work clothes are allowed to get dirty. I wonder if she has always been this way, or if it’s something she has grown into as she got older. It’s always the way I remember her, but before us, I simply don’t know.
“That girl who was murdered, Alyssa,” I begin. “She was seeing someone, possibly named Dan. I was wondering if you knew anything about her?”
My mother purses her lips. “I know her mother, not well, but she is in a sewing group I attend once a month. She seems fine, a bit stuck up. I do recall her saying Alyssa was rebelling and sneaking off when she was at home, disappearing for days, but she didn’t know where. I guess she didn’t have a right to tell her what to do, she was over eighteen.”
“Are there any married man in town that you know named Dan?”
She thinks. “Not that comes to my mind, but I’m certain there are more than one in town, that is a common name. To be honest, I never liked that school. When Cheyenne went, things got very strange, and I was glad when she quit.”
“Strange?” I question.
“She started seeing a man in the few months she was there, but I never met him. She thought he was great at first but then she said he was controlling and scary, so she made the decision to leave because he attended the school, too. More than once he tried to find her, to the point she was actually becoming concerned, and we considered a restraining order. It wasn’t long after that she met Danny, and we know how that went. I never asked her what happened with him, but I know it was a tough time in her life.”
Of course it was.
Everything in Cheyenne’s world was tough.
At least, that’s how everyone saw it.
I never heard about this man she was seeing, but I didn’t have a great deal to do with her love life. She talked about a different man every week. Back then, I was too focused on Spike to care. He was my friend and kept me so distracted that I wasn’t too worried about what Cheyenne was doing until she decided to take him from me.
“I never heard about this man,” I say, pursing my lips.
“She didn’t tell anyone until after it was over, and I only found out because she was scared, and I forced her to tell me. I’ve never seen her so worried about another person before, she truly thought she was in danger. Maybe she was.”
