Lovely Girls(70)

“Why would they want our DNA?” I’d asked, but Scott hadn’t explained. I wondered if it was just something he’d seen on a television police procedural drama.

Even so, Alex and I both declined the offer, so the detectives sat across the table from us. Detective Reddick was carrying a folder of papers, and he set it on the table in front of him.

“We have a few more questions for you, Alex. A few issues we’re hoping to clear up,” Detective Monroe said.

Alex nodded. She’d straightened in her seat when the policemen entered and was now sitting very still, her hands folded on the table in front of her.

“Why did you wipe all of the data off of your tablet and phone?” Detective Reddick asked.

I almost gasped but managed to stop myself. Scott had also instructed us not to react to any of their questions. Alex was supposed to give short, precise answers. And I was to stay quiet.

“It makes my tablet run faster if I periodically free up some memory,” Alex said.

“It was wiped clean. There wasn’t anything left on it. And your phone was reset to its factory settings,” Reddick said.

“It’s my phone. I don’t have to keep data on it if I don’t want to,” Alex said.

I looked at my daughter. Why had she wiped her electronics? And when? She hadn’t known about the search warrant until I told her in the car. The detective had taken her phone, laptop, and tablet right when we got home that day, before she would have had a chance to erase anything.

Which meant she must have wiped her electronics before she knew about the search warrant.

I remembered what Scott had said about the police being allowed to lie when they questioned a suspect. But I didn’t think Detective Reddick was lying. And Alex hadn’t denied that she’d wiped the data off her electronic devices. My pulse began to thrum.

“What were you trying to get rid of?” Detective Monroe asked. “Our tech guys are pretty good at finding what people think they’ve deleted, so we’ll find it anyway. But you can save everyone some time and tell us what you were trying to erase.”

Scott swiftly stepped in. “It’s not a crime to reset your electronic devices.”

“It is if she did it to destroy evidence,” Reddick countered.

“My client denies any accusations that she knowingly destroyed evidence,” Scott said crisply. “Do you have any other questions?”

Reddick ignored the lawyer, not taking his dark, probing eyes off Alex. “We have a witness who saw you entering the Isle Beach boardwalk on the night of October thirteenth at approximately eleven thirty p.m.”

“Where is Isle Beach?” I asked, before remembering I wasn’t supposed to speak. It sounded familiar, but I couldn’t remember where I’d heard it before.

“It’s on the island. It’s the first public beach after you pass the Mariner Resort,” Detective Monroe explained. Then, just as I was trying to remember where that was, he added, “It’s where Callie Nord’s body was found.”

A cold dread spread through me. A witness could place Alex at the site of the possible crime scene? If so, then this interview had been a horrible mistake. Cooperating wasn’t going to clear Alex. The police were actively building a case against her.

Scott seemed to realize this too.

“What witness?” he asked. “If you have a statement, I want to see it.”

“You said that you weren’t at the beach that night,” Reddick continued, still speaking to Alex. “Do you want to revise your statement?”

Alex shook her head mutely.

“You want to explain why a witness saw you entering a beach that was a potential murder scene at the time the murder took place?” Reddick pressed.

Alex looked at Scott. “Don’t answer that,” he said.

“Why don’t we go over your movements on the night of October thirteenth again, Alex,” Detective Monroe suggested. “When you left from home that night, where did you go first?”



The police did not arrest Alex. After they’d interrogated her for two hours, their questions growing increasingly hostile, Scott finally ended the interview, and we left.

“That went well, I think,” Scott said brightly as he drove us home.

“How can you say that?” I turned to look at him. “Alex is clearly the focus of their investigation. Nothing that happened today changed that. In fact, I think it made it worse.”

“Alex didn’t give them any information they don’t already have,” Scott said.

That was possibly true. But we had been given new information. The wiped electronics. The potential witness that saw Alex at the same beach where Callie was killed. And we already knew Alex didn’t have an alibi for that night.

“I don’t want her questioned again,” I said.

“That’s probably a good idea,” Scott conceded.

The police had not yet given us back our computers and phones. The first thing I planned to do once I had access to the internet was to search for a more competent criminal defense attorney. Scott was charming and affable and, I was starting to realize, possibly not very bright. Alex needed an attorney who was as cunning as the detectives, who would be able to anticipate their next move, and who would keep her out of harm’s way.

Unless it was already too late for that.