Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 89224 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89224 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
“Just lying in bed. We’re going to watch a show.”
“Which one?”
“Troll Hunters.”
“You’ll have to tell me what happens in the episode, so when I see you and we watch it, I’m not lost.”
“Okay,” she agrees, sounding sleepy. “Love you, Mom.”
“I love you too. Call me tomorrow when you get home from school.”
“I will,” Winter says, and Hazel’s eyes move to me.
“Thank you, Emma.” Her voice is sincere.
“Any time,” I say quietly, before the screen goes black.
“Do you feel better?” I ask Winter, and she nods. “Good.” I kiss the top of her head, then snuggle down in the bed with her and press Play on the show.
I wake when Miles is lifting Winter’s tiny sleeping body away from mine, then, half asleep, I watch him kiss her cheek before he carries her out of the room. When he comes back, I feel his body curl around mine, his lips at the back of my head, and I swear I hear him whisper something that sounds a lot like “I love you” just before I slip back into unconsciousness.
CHAPTER 31
miles
Opening the door to the auditorium where Anna and Grace spent long hours as part of the theater department, I look to the stage and watch a young girl wearing leggings and a baggie sweater sing at the top of her lungs. Her voice fit for a theater in Times Square, the other people on stage dance around her and sing to certain parts of the song.
Quietly, Martinez and I make our way down the red carpeted stairs toward the front of the auditorium and a few of the people practicing on stage falter in their steps when they recognize us. A woman with long silver hair and red framed glasses sitting in the front row looks back over her shoulder to see what has caught the kids’ attention and when she spots us, she gets up from her seat placing a clipboard down on the chair she just vacated.
Over the last few days Martinez and I have met with all of the girls’ professors and not one of them had anything significant to tell us about them. Really, they could hardly remember having any one-on-one contact with the girls at all. The only thing they could tell us is that they were both getting good grades, neither of them ever missed a class and they both always turned in their homework on time. So, our hope is that our meeting today with Mrs. Ashley Mayer, the girl’s theater professor, will give us a little more insight since the two of them spent the bulk of their time in this building with her.
“Detective Thatcher and Detective Martinez I presume.” The woman greets us at the bottom of the stairs. Her long colorful skirt and sweater sway around her thin frame.
“Yes.” I don’t offer my hand since hers are wrapped around her waist, and she hasn’t made a move to let herself go.
“I’m Dr. Ashley Mayer, we spoke over e-mail. If you’d like we can speak privately in my office.”
“That works.”
“Please follow me,” she says over her shoulder already on the move so the two of us follow as she leads us back behind the stage and up a short set of stairs. She lets us into her office which is nothing but a small windowless room. I glance around, there are musical posters, and awards covering each wall, the desk is cluttered with papers and boxes and there are odds and ends on every available surface. “Here let me clean this off for you.” She starts to move stacks of papers from one of the chairs in front of the desk while mumbling, “Before every show, things tend to get away from me.”
“We can stand,” I tell her quietly and she stops, then nods and moves to stand behind her desk. “Thank you for agreeing to meet with us today.”
“Yes, well we all miss Anna and Grace terribly and want whoever harmed them caught.”
“We want the same.” I relax my hands at my sides when she eyes the gun on my hip wearily. “Can you tell us a little about them, what kind of students they were, maybe who their friends were outside of your class.”
“Like I told the other officer when he was here both girls were perfect students, neither of them ever complained. They always went above and beyond to help out however they could.” She swallows. “They both loved theater and were fantastic on stage. Anna was much more outgoing than Grace but that’s normally how it goes. There is always one friend who is willing to take a risk and step outside their comfort zone and another who is more reserved and cautious but tags along when asked to go on an adventure.” Her smile is small but fond. “They brought the best out in each other, and no one ever had a single bad thing to say to them or about them.”