AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I rolled my eyes. “Fuck off.”
“Hey, hey, I was just kidding,” he said, holding up a conciliatory palm. “Anyway, let me know if you want me to keep going after today. I think there’s enough there, though. She doesn’t deviate from her patterns all that much.”
“Okay. Cool.”
He hesitated for a moment, rubbing his chin. “There is one thing, though….”
“What?”
“When I ran her name through the databases, I could see that she was involved in some sort of legal matter when she was about thirteen or fourteen. The case file is all sealed, though. Pretty standard in this state when young kids are involved in legal stuff, as a protective measure.”
“Right. So she did something?”
“I don’t think so. No juvenile criminal record, sealed or otherwise. Just the case file. So it’s more likely that something happened to her, and it went to court. Knowing what Silvercreek is like, she probably got mugged walking home from school, and they were lucky enough to catch the prick who did it.”
“Can you find out exactly what it was? Or would you need a court order for that?”
His forehead wrinkled. “Usually it would require a court order, yes. I could find out through some not-so-legal means, but it would probably take a few days.”
I frowned and pinched the bridge of my nose as I considered it. “You say she was just a kid?”
“Basically, yeah. It was almost four years ago.”
I waved a hand. “Probably not relevant, then. But I’ll let you know if I change my mind.”
“All right. Easy.”
I reached into my pocket to pull out some extra cash. “Here,” I said, handing it over. “A little extra for your discretion.”
Burgin laughed as he took it and stashed it in his pocket with the rest. “You’re more like your father than you know.”
He left, and I took the folder and emptied the contents onto my bed. It was filled with copies of basic documents about Laney and her life. Birth certificate, school records, driver’s license, phone bills, and so on.
She attended Silvercreek High, one of the shittiest schools in the state—no surprise there—and she lived in a small shingled house on the west side of town with her mother, Ava Collins. Also, according to Burgin’s notes, she had a little brown dog named Mignon.
At least she told me the truth about one thing.
I set the paperwork aside for now and moved on to the photos. Burgin had trailed her for the last six weeks to get an idea of her patterns, and he’d laid out a sad but clear pattern in the pictures he took.
Every morning, Laney woke up at half past six and took the dog out for a run in the woods behind her house. There was a small park on the other side of those woods, and she would let the little terrier play fetch with a stick there for about fifteen minutes before heading back home.
She was a dutiful owner who always took a plastic bag and little green scoop to clean up after the dog if it decided to use the park as a toilet. Such a minor thing, because most dog owners around here did that too, but it still stuck out to me like a sore thumb. From what I knew about Laney already, she didn’t seem like the kind of person who would give a fuck about cleaning up after herself when there was no chance of being seen or caught.
Frowning, I kept looking through the photos. On weekends, she worked at the diner on Silvercreek’s main avenue. Another truth she’d told me at the party several weeks ago. I guess she only lied when she needed to.
Her uniform at the diner was a short blue retro waitress dress which perfectly accentuated the curve of her small waist. Jesus. If she worked in Royal Falls in an outfit like that, she’d go home with three hundred dollars in tips every day from all the drooling trust fund assholes she served. Hell, if I didn’t know anything about her before I saw these photos, I’d probably salivate over her just as much as her customers probably did.
Fortunately, I knew better.
I kept going. On weekdays, Laney went to school early every morning, and from what Burgin had seen, she always holed herself up in the library until classes started. She didn’t seem to have many friends, which came as no surprise to me.
When school closed for summer vacation four weeks ago, her patterns didn’t change much. She still worked at the diner on weekends, and she still got up early every morning to hang out with the dog. Then she went and holed herself up in the Silvercreek Community Library on the other side of town. She stayed there most of the day before going home to cook dinner for her mom, who usually got home later than her.
That was basically her whole life. How fucking dull.
I picked up a photo which contained a clear shot of her face. Heat rushed through me as I stared down at her delicate features, pouty lips, and wide green eyes. Even with no makeup on, I had to admit she stomped all over the girls in Royal Falls. Those girls tried fucking hard, too. Nose jobs at sixteen, lip fillers at seventeen. Makeup and styled hair every day, along with designer outfits and accessories.
None of it mattered. No amount of money, surgery, or makeup could make a person physically outshine someone else who was lucky enough to be naturally gorgeous. Life was unfair like that. Always had been, always would be. Bad things could happen to good people, and good things could happen to those who deserved it the least.
