Page 94 of Snow Creek

“I thought he was forbidden to be online. Her too.”

“You don’t have teenagers, Sheriff,” Marley replies. “Kids find a way.”

“So they connect on the site and start talking,” I go on. “His parents are too controlling. His dad is a religious freak. Her dad is the same. Her mom is clueless. And so forth. Innocuous at first as they try to one-up each other on how bad their dads and moms are. Then the relationship started to move to a romantic vibe.”

Ellie: I feel so lonely. So trapped.

Josh: Hate that you feel that way.

Ellie: Wish I could be with you.

Josh: Rents won’t let me date until I’m 21.

Ellie: Oh God. Mine are the same way!

“She makes a mention of Tyra’s mother’s purported accident a couple days after the incident,” I note, pointing out the text.

Ellie: Sorry so quiet. BF’s mom drowned.

Josh: Wow. That’s terrible.

Ellie: I don’t know.

Josh: What?

Ellie: You’ll think bad of me.

Josh: Never.

Ellie: She was a very cruel woman. I’m not sorry. My friend is better off.

Josh: I don’t know what to say.

Ellie: I shouldn’t have said that, babe.

Josh: I wish my parents were dead.

Ellie: If mine were gone, we’d be together, wouldn’t we?

Josh: Forever.

I indicate the timeline. “Two weeks later her parents were dead, and Ellie was presumed drowned.”

Sheriff narrows his brow as he thumbs through the pages.

“They don’t plot to kill their folks?”

“Not online,” I answer. “The phone was used only for another few days. The last call, however, was between Joshua and Ellie. We don’t know what they said. At some point after they talked, it was tossed into the neighbor’s yard where I recovered it.”

I look at my phone.

“Joshua has been released from the hospital, arraigned on first-degree murder charges for his mother’s homicide. He’s not talking.”

“I wonder why,” Sheriff says.

Marley nods.

“The interesting ones never talk until they’ve been in custody for a few years.”

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