Latent Danger (On the Line #2)(26)
She didn’t finish. Her mother’s arms were around her now and the poor woman looked like she might be sick. Shauna didn’t blame her.
“Can you tell me when this was?” Shauna asked. They’d have a hard time proving anything if she didn’t remember who did this to her, but maybe the girl would be able to tell her something they didn’t already know. If someone had been there with Sawyer. Maybe just by telling them today, memories would open up for Hillary and she’d remember some small detail that would help.
“About three months ago.”
“Can you tell me who was there with you when you got to the clubhouse?” Shauna asked.
“Sawyer was there, and Kyle Lawler and Mike Davies. Adrienne and Carrie were there, but I think they left before I was slipped something.” The pinched brow said the girl was trying to remember but wasn’t sure and Shauna knew time could be hard to piece together on some drugs. She wondered if it was GHB that Hillary had been given, like the others.
“Did you tell anyone what happened?”
Hillary nodded. “I told Carrie and Adrienne what I thought happened. They still went and partied there some. Carrie liked the attention she got there. Adrienne said she thought it was creepy that he hit on her and Carrie both, but I’m not sure either of them really believed anything had been done to me. I think they thought I just got drunk and passed out.” She looked to her mom. “I only had a little beer. I didn’t pass out.”
Now she looked back to Shauna. “Kate believed me. She started making excuses not to go there. We would usually hang out someplace else if Carrie and Adrienne were going there.”
As Shauna listened, she couldn’t help but hate the fact that it was so hard for girls to feel like they couldn’t come forward for help. If this girl had said something to an adult, would Carrie and Adrienne be alive today? But the girls probably feared it would get out, that they’d be called easy or worse. Maybe people wouldn’t believe her at all. There were all kinds of things for a girl in her position to fear. Shauna understood that all too well.
When her husband had abused her, Shauna hadn’t wanted anyone to know what had happened to her. There was still shame inside her over it, despite the fact she knew full well she shouldn’t feel any. Her husband should have borne all of that.
Listening quietly, she documented everything Hillary had told her. She didn’t know if they’d ever be able to bring any charges on Hillary’s behalf if she had no memory of what had happened, and any evidence that might have existed on her body or clothing was long gone. But, maybe Hillary could testify in court. With her testimony, they would be one step closer to justice for Carrie and Adrienne.
Chapter Seventeen
Zach watched as Shauna slammed the cabinet that held the coffee mugs in the breakroom. She could rival him for her temper, only he had a feeling hers flared less frequently than his. Although he wasn’t sure what had set her off right then.
When they’d split up a few minutes ago, he’d been off to check on the prosecutor’s arrival, Ronan was going to touch base with the cold case detectives doing leg work, and she’d planned to grab coffee for the three of them.
“Hey,” he said, coming up behind her and putting a hand on the mug she was about to slam down on the counter. His hand had to close over hers to stop the motion, and the contact with her was the last thing he needed since he’d been trying to respect that she only wanted to be friends, but she seemed to need an intervention. “Tell me what’s wrong before you take it out on that innocent mug.”
Wrong thing to say. She spun on him, eyes blazing. “Did you really just ask me that?”
It took everything in him to bite down on the urge to tell her how hot she was when she was mad. That probably said a hell of a lot about his personality flaws, but he didn’t want to analyze that too closely.
He pulled the mug from her hand and framed her against the counter with his hands. “I get it. Really, I do. But tell me, right now, in this moment, what set you off?”
Shauna blinked several times before answering. “Hillary Hunt’s mother called me. Hillary is in the hospital. She tried to kill herself.”
Zach’s stomach fell to his knees. “What? Will she make it?” They dealt with a lot of shit as cops, but the worst thing was when something happened to a kid. And they’d been the ones to make Hillary talk.
Zach raised his eyes to Shauna and now saw the pain behind her anger. She blamed herself. “Will she make it?”
“Yes. Apparently, she went to school where a lot of the kids on the hockey team are defending Jonathan Sawyer. They’re saying she asked for it. That they all take the GHB to relax and she took it voluntarily. That no one slipped it to her.”
Zach’s gut flared and rage went through him. He started counting. Would it be bad for him to try to talk Shauna down only to walk away from her to go scream and vent in the bathroom? Probably.
She reached out and touched the ticking muscle in his jaw. “You want to go break things in the bathroom, don’t you?” He was surprised to hear laughter in her voice.
He let out a rough huff of laughter. “I really do.”
“It really bothers me that this kid can’t be our perp from thirty years ago. There’s something we’re missing here.” Her words echoed what he’d been thinking for a while.