Page 67 of Rebels and Roses

“Actually, no. I could have easily handled that. He wouldn’t be the first guy to get ideas. But it was the things that he was saying that made him seem a bit out there. He wanted us to have some time alone, so we went and sat outside on the stairs. I thought he was going to make a move, but he wanted to talk.”

“What did he want to talk about?” Cooper asked.

“Himself, mostly. He said that he was in a bad relationship, but he was working to get out of it. He said that he could see himself with someone like me. He said he wanted to find the right person, settle down, get married, and have a family. I mean…that’s weird, right? I’m twenty-one, and I’d just met him. I wasn’t going to quit school, run away, and marry him or anything. Besides, he was leaving town in a few days so what was the point of all this?”

“Did he say anything else?”

“No, he got a call, and he left a few minutes later. I didn’t argue. If anything, I was relieved. Like I said, I got strange vibes from him. Even my friends said he was a little off. We were all drinking, though, so we could be wrong. He wasn’t mean or loud or anything like that. I am sorry that he died. I didn’t know him well, but I don’t wish death that young on anyone.”

“Did he say who the call was from?” Jane queried. “Was he happy, upset, angry when he left?”

“I don’t know,” Amanda said with a shrug. “He just answered his phone, talked for a few minutes, and then said he had to go.He left on foot, didn’t even call an Uber or anything. He wasn’t upset. He was just the same as before the call.”

Amanda didn’t know anything else, so Cooper and Jane thanked the young woman for her time.

“We need to know who called him,” Cooper said when they returned to the car. “It’s more evidence that he might not have died alone. Someone might have been there.”

“But he wasn’t spooked,” Jane pointed out. “To me, that indicates someone he knows. Or at least someone that he expected a call from. Like a drug dealer.”

“I can’t argue that,” Cooper conceded. “If Tom was looking to get drugs, it wouldn’t be difficult. This is a college town. Any one of the people he met that night, or the night before could have hooked him up.”

“He was meeting people in the bookstore as well. He had plenty of opportunity.”

“Task number one is to find out the caller,” Cooper repeated. “If we know that, we can ask more questions. They might be the last person to see Tom alive.”

“Okay, but I’m a little confused here,” Jane said. “Did they call his phone or Fiona’s? Fiona had his phone, right? So, he had to have had hers. That’s how you found him. Who knew that he had that phone?”

“It could be anyone,” Cooper replied. “He’s had the phone for at least a week from what he said to me. He could have given that number to quite a few people. But first things first, we might be able to pull the phone records.”

He made it sound like that was easy to do, like picking up popcorn on the way into the theater. Piece of cake.

“How are we going to do that? We’re not cops. Are you going to ask Finn to get a warrant? Because he thinks this case is closed.”

“I might know a guy.”

“Know a guy,” Jane echoed. “That doesn’t sound straight out of one of your books at all.”

Her tone was sarcastic, but come on… He sounded like some sort of renegade vigilante.

“Okay, I’ll just say it. When I was doing research for one of my books, I met a computer hacker. He might be able to help us.”

“Let me fix your sentence. You met anillegalcomputer hacker. And was it your fourth book? The one where the neighbor turns out to be the killer?”

“No, it was a different one. And you make it sound so terrible. I’m not after government secrets here. I’m just trying to find out one single, solitary phone call. If something needs to be done, we’re going to have to find a way to do it ourselves. Finn’s hands are tied. He can’t help up here, although I’m going to ask him to anyway. But I understand if you don’t want to be a part of this. It was selfish of me to drag you into this in the first place. I just wanted you here with me.”

What was this man doing to her heart? A few simple words could make it ache painfully with emotion.

“I want to be here with you. I just don’t want to visit you in federal prison, and I don’t want to be in prison. Orange is not my color, and it’s not yours either.”

“I look good in blue, but that’s beside the point. I know what you’re saying, but you have to admit that you’re curious. Someone called Tom that night, and they knew that he had Fiona’s phone. This call is proof that we don’t know everything about what happened that night. There are still unknowns.”

Cooper didn’t like unknowns. Mysteries and puzzles must be solved. Anything less was unacceptable.

She’d figured that out early in their relationship. There was something about his writer’s mind that made him want to knowevery single detail even if it wasn’t important. To her, anyway. But he was driven to dig and dig, wanting to figure it all out.

“We’re assuming Amanda is telling the truth,” Jane said. “I know, we don’t know her. She could be the most truthful person on the planet. Or not, and that’s my point. We don’t know. Maybe she and Tom were both doing cocaine that night. Maybe he wasn’t doing well, and she let him walk away and didn’t care about his safety. I’m just playing devil’s advocate. I don’t have a reason to doubt her veracity, but I’m being cautious.”

“If we get the phone records, we’ll know,” Cooper replied.

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