The Sorority Murder (Regan Merritt, #1)(65)

“But he often left, correct?” Lucas asked. “He didn’t live here year-round.”

“No, he would jump on a freight train and disappear for months at a time, usually in the winter months,” Willa said. “But three years...that’s too long. I agree with Doe. Something must have happened to him.”

Regan steered the conversation back to Candace. “Candace volunteered here for several years.”

“Yes. I adored her. She was kind and compassionate and would have made a wonderful nurse. Maybe she was too compassionate. I know, that sounds odd coming from someone like me, because I try to always see the good in people, but I also recognize that some people are beyond help. You can only hold out your hand so many times for people to grab onto before you get bit one time too many. I told Candace to call the police if Joseph showed up on campus again. Not because I thought he would hurt anyone but because, if confronted, he could become belligerent. Someone could get hurt—or someone could hurt him.”

“Do you think he killed her?”

“Before meeting Lucas earlier this year, I would have said yes, I think it was possible but unlikely. Not because he had a problem with her, but when he was drinking he sometimes lashed out. Hit someone, pushed them. Could he have pushed Candace and accidentally killed her? Yes, I could see that. But now that I know exactly how she died, I don’t think Joseph had the mental capacity to move her body, cover up evidence, disappear. Not with what I knew of him.”

“What about someone else?” Regan said. “Someone here who might have become fixated with her. Someone she tried to help, or maybe someone who she couldn’t help.”

“The police asked me similar questions three years ago. I can’t think of anyone. People with mental illness and serious drug addiction can become unpredictable, but to the point of murder? No one then had any issues with Candace, not anger or a fixation or anything that would put her in danger.”

Lucas said, “Did you follow up on Doe’s sighting of Joseph near the tracks?”

“Yes, but this was before I knew Candace was dead. I went down there with one of my employees on Thursday or Friday, I don’t remember exactly. It was after she was missing. He wasn’t there. No one had seen him that day.”

“Candace was a regular here,” Lucas said, “but I learned that she sometimes brought others to volunteer.”

“Yes, especially during the holidays. She had many girls in the sorority helping with food drives.”

“Did a student named Alexa Castillo work with her?”

“Alexa? Yes! I haven’t seen her in years. She came with Candace several times. Kind, very quiet.”

“So would you say she was a regular?”

“Semiregular. She probably volunteered ten, twelve times? I keep track of my volunteers, but it was quite some time ago, so I would have to look up the records.”

“That’s okay. That’s all we need now.”

They thanked Willa for her time, and Regan walked Lucas to his truck, which was parked down the street from hers.

“What do you think?” he asked her.

“I think it would be difficult for that woman to cover up a murder to protect the killer. She doesn’t seem to have motive to lie. Now, you asked about Alexa. Why?”

“I might have found something,” Lucas said. “Candace was in Kingman. Alexa Castillo is from Kingman. She graduated the year before Candace. I tried to find her, but she doesn’t appear to have any social-media profiles, and the name is too common to do a broader internet search. A basic search came up with more than a dozen in Arizona alone. There’s nothing about her in any of the alumnae news, but she majored in elementary education.”

“That confirms what Richie Traverton told me.” Regan gave Lucas the basic rundown on her conversation with Richie, including that he’d seen Candace with a prepaid flip phone the week before she disappeared. “Richie said she was close to a sorority sister in Kingman. It’s not a large city.”

“Only three Sigma Rho members are from Kingman who overlapped with Candace.”

“You have been busy,” Regan said. “What do you want to do about it?”

“Like you said, lay everything out for my listeners. Tomorrow’s podcast is going to be explosive.”

“I’ll see what I can do to track down Alexa Castillo.”

“I’ll send you everything I have on her,” he said. “But I found something else.” He reached into his back pocket and handed her an envelope. The same type of red letters spelled LUCAS on the front as the note from yesterday. It wasn’t sealed, the folded paper simply tucked in.

She unfolded it.

END IT NOW.

Like the first note, there was no explicit threat. But the message was clear: I know who you are, I know where you live, I know the car you drive. I can find you if you don’t do what I want you to do.

It was an intimidation tactic, pure and simple.



Twenty-Eight


“We need to talk to Detective Young,” Regan said. “He should be aware that your podcast is riling up someone on campus or nearby. Someone who may personally know you. It’s for your protection.”

“No one I know would do this,” he said.

“Someone followed us. They know where you live, they know the car you drive. They could have been following you for a while, or may have access to college records.”