Page 44 of What Have You Done?

Hey, Diana. I miss you.

I wish you were here. I wish I knew what happened to you.

She sniffs as her nose begins to run and begins tapping.

I don’t know how I’m going to make it through this. The world is so empty without you. We’ll find who did this to you, no matter how long it takes.

She leans back, exhausted, and closes her eyes. A moment later there’s the ping of a text. Probably Evan, she thinks. She opens her eyes and looks down at her cell. But it’s from Diana.

No you won’t.

She shrieks and drops the phone.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

RILEY HEARS HER mother’s footsteps thudding down the hall. Her bedroom door is flung open and her mother appears, clearly alarmed. ‘What is it?’ she cries. ‘What’s wrong?’

Riley turns her face to her mother. ‘It’s the phone!’ she cries.

‘What?’

Riley finds herself shrinking away from the phone lying on her bed. She says, her voice shaking, ‘I was texting Diana. I don’t know why – it helps me feel like she’s still here, somehow. But she answered, just now.’

‘What?’ her mother repeats, dropping onto the bed.

Riley reluctantly picks up the phone and shows her. ‘Look.’

‘It’s not Diana,’ her mother says.

‘Of course not. I know that. But who is it? Wouldn’t the police have her phone?’

‘The police wouldn’t send a text like that,’ her mother says, her face pale.

Riley drops the phone again and starts to tremble. ‘It’s her killer, isn’t it? He’s got her phone, he must have. He sent that text!’ She can feel herself becoming hysterical.

The man who killed Diana has just sent her a message. No you won’t. She looks at the phone as if she’s looking at a snake curled on her bed. Her thoughts race. What if he knows who she is? Her name would have come up on Diana’s phone. What if he’s watching her? He might know where she lives.

‘What are we going to do?’ Riley asks in panic.

‘Where’s that card Detective Stone gave you?’ her mom asks quickly.

Riley gets up off the bed and starts searching through the pockets of her jeans. She finds the card and hands it to her mother, who pulls her own cell phone from the pocket of her robe and dials the number on the card. She puts it on speaker.

The phone rings four times before it’s answered. ‘Detective Stone.’

‘It’s Patricia Mead, Riley Mead’s mother. My daughter has been sending texts to Diana on her phone. Someone just answered.’

There’s a short silence. Riley and her mother look at each other, waiting.

Detective Stone says, ‘I’ll be there as soon as I can. It will probably take me an hour to get there. What’s your address?’

They both get dressed while they wait for the detective. Her mother checks that all the doors and windows are locked, then makes them chamomile tea, but both of them are too on edge to drink it. When the detective arrives, alone, it’s well after midnight. Riley’s mother invites him in, and they sit in the living room.

Stone gets right to the point. ‘We don’t have Diana’s phone. We couldn’t find it.’ He looks at Riley and reaches out his hand. ‘Can I see yours?’

She opens it to her texts with Diana and hands it over without a word. She’s still too shocked to say anything.

Stone studies the messages, scrolling through.

---