Latent Danger (On the Line #2)(25)

“Not much to tell. I work.”

“How’s your mom?” he asked.

“She died.”

Shit. Zach knew how much Shauna loved her parents. Hell, her whole family was close. “I’m sorry. How is your dad?” As soon as the question was out, he felt like an idiot. If her mom had died, her dad was not doing well. They were a couple who always seemed to be truly in love.

“He’s dead.”

“What?” Zach almost spit out his coffee. “What the—” He looked at her and saw her blandly sipping from her coffee cup.

The waitress came and dropped their food off, packed into a large plastic bag with the handles tied over Styrofoam containers. She left the check then walked to a table against the far wall to take an order.

Zach narrowed his eyes on Shauna. “That’s messed up, Shauna. You don’t tell a person your parents are dead when they’re not.”

She gave him a quirk of her brow and a look that said she didn’t want his lessons in comportment. “As far as you’re concerned, they are. I’m not getting involved with you personally again, Zach. We’re working a case together. That’s all.”

“You don’t think it’s worth trying to get to know each other again? The right way this time?” He was an idiot for asking a question she’d all but told him the answer to already.

She gave him a long look. “That’s not going to happen.”

“Fair enough,” he said. He couldn’t argue with her on that one. It’s not like he deserved a second chance with her.

The only problem was, he wanted to argue with her.

“Fair enough,” he said again. “So, we’ll just be friends this time.”

She snorted. “What part of nothing personal do you not understand?”

He couldn’t help it. He grinned at her, letting the smile settle over him in the slow easy way meant to tell her he wasn’t buying her line. She’d let him in.

She shook her head, but he saw the slight twinge of her lips, like she wanted to laugh at him.

He’d take it.





Chapter Sixteen





Hillary Hunt—the other girl in the circle of popularity that was made up of Carrie, Adrienne, Kate, and Hillary—was a small blonde girl with wide brown eyes that seemed too large for her face. She wore sweatpants and a shirt with the Elmhurst Academy crest on it. She was currently sitting cross-legged between her parents on a large sofa in the Hunts’ living room.

Shauna wasn’t above pressing Hillary. The girl’s parents had put off the interview the last time they’d reached out to her, claiming their daughter was too distraught to talk.

Screw that, Shauna thought. Two of her friends had died. Pressuring her for information was necessary.

“Were Carrie and Adrienne talking to anyone new?” Shauna asked. “Maybe on social media? Someone they’d met online or kids from another school?”

“No, nothing like that,” Hillary said, shaking her head for emphasis.

“Is Hillary in danger?” the girl’s father asked and her mother’s face took on a look of panic.

The school had dragged their heels on warning parents about the danger to their students, arguing the fact the girls had both gone to the same school was coincidence. It made Shauna sick to think they cared more about their reputation, their bottom line, than the safety of the students. There would be a notice going out in a few hours, though. The mayor had finally pressured the head of the school to make the warning.

“Do you think this person will come after Hill?” Mrs. Hunt echoed the question.

Shauna let the question hang in the air long enough for the family to draw some conclusions, then gave a weak, “we hope not,” in response, before asking her next question. “Hillary, can you think of anything, any little detail, that might help us figure this out? Figure out who hurt Carrie and Adrienne?”

She felt a little shitty for playing on that fear, but screw it. They needed a lead. Ronan was back at the station and she and Zach had come to try to pull something from the girl in the hopes she’d have something for them to go on.

The question had the desired effect. Hillary squirmed, confirming there was something the girl was holding back.

Zach took that moment to quietly ask Mr. Hunt to join him in the other room. Shauna knew he wanted to clear the room of men in the hopes Hillary might open up.

She softened her voice. “Hillary, we need to stop this person. Before anyone else gets hurt.”

The girl looked at her mom, then back to Shauna, pushing one piece of hair behind her ear as a tear slid down her face. “Sawyer’s clubhouse.” Another glance to her mom then back to Shauna.

“I told you I didn’t want you going there,” her mother said, then looked to Shauna. “His parents think it’s okay to build a kid his own game room and let the kids all hang out there unsupervised. What kind of parent does that?”

Shauna nodded but didn’t say anything. She agreed with Hillary’s mom, but right then, she needed Hillary talking. “What happened in the clubhouse, Hillary?”

Hillary was crying now. “I went there with some friends. There were a few of us, so I thought it was okay. But I think he slipped something to me. I woke up and I was alone.” The girl held herself now, arms wrapped around herself like she couldn’t get warm. “I think someone did something to me. My clothes weren’t on right, like someone had undressed me but then didn’t dress me up right. I had a tank top on under my shirt and that was gone. My underwear was crooked, like...”