Page 78 of The Lake of Lost Girls

I hugged her and this time she let me. “I’m sure it will all be okay. It’s just a misunderstanding. Don’t worry so much.”

Daisy placed the plastic card back on the desk. “What if they think I did something to them?

This time I did laugh. “Come on, Daisy, what motive would you possibly have? I mean, Tammy maybe, but Phoebe and Meghan?”

My roommate gave me a wobbly smile. “Yeah, I mean, come on, I’m too hot to be a serial killer.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder. “And I’m sure as hell not going to jail because of Tammy Estep. God, she’d love that wouldn’t she.”

“Exactly.” I took a deep breath, steadying myself. “Don’t give it another thought. It will all get figured out.”

Daisy gave me a strange look. “Did you ever findyourID card? I remember you kept borrowing mine.”

“I only used your card that one time, Daisy.”

Her eyes looked doubtful. “No, you used it a bunch because you kept misplacing yours.”

“Nope, I found mine. See.” I dug into my bag and produced my ID card on its bright pink lanyard.

“Jess, you used my card more than once. Why are you lying?” Daisy insisted, frowning. She was stressed and upset, her tone accusatory.

I felt my hands start to shake. “I’m not lying … but you’re right. Maybe I used it a few more times than I remembered. But, Daisy, that was way before Christmas break and I always returned it. Promise.”

Daisy stared at me for a moment too long before she got to her feet. “Right. Yeah, okay.” She picked at the corner of her mouth. “I don’t know what’s going on. Things have been so messed up this entire year. Freshman year was supposed to be amazing.” She let out a little sob. “This is not how things were meant to be.”

I stood up and started to go to my friend. “Daisy, everything will be fine—”

Daisy held up her hands, as if to ward me off. “Before you say anything, I know I’m being overly dramatic again.” She seemed angry now. And that anger was clearly directed at me. And I didn’t know how to fix it. She picked up her purse and turned away from me. “I have to meet up with the other pledges to plan Big/Little activities for the weekend.” For the first time she didn’t complain about the fact that I wasn’t joining her. Her demeanor had gone cold, leaving me firmly on the outside.

“Don’t forget I’m going home on Friday for Lindsey’s birthday party,” I reminded her before she left.

“Oh right. I forgot about that. Well, that should be fun.” Daisy barely looked at me as she opened the door.

“Yeah. Fun.” My voice was monotone and Daisy would normally ask if I was okay. She didn’t this time.

Truthfully, she seemed eager to leave the room.

To leave me.

And I, too, was glad when she was gone.

True Crime Crazy Blog Post 814 Southern State University’s Missing Coeds UPDATE2023

It’s been a long time since I’ve added anything to my coverage of this case. Probably because for two decades, nothing new has been revealed. There were no leads. No evidence. It was a giant, black hole of nothingness and the police weren’t in a rush to do anything about it.

I’ve called out the lack of virtues of small town police forces many times on my blog and Mt. Randall’s police are no exception. They screwed up this case in every way they could. Like most crime watchers, I gave up on anything ever coming to light in the case of the missing Southern State coeds.

So, color me shocked when only two months ago bones were found near a lake only twelve miles from campus. First, Tammy Estep was found. Then later, Phoebe Baker. And as I sit here typing this, testing is being conducted on another set of remains, and most think they belong to Meghan Lambert.

That’s three of the four missing girls all found and accounted for twenty-four years after they were last seen.

So that leaves the important question—where is Jessica Fadley?

Are her bones, like the others, languishing at the bottom of the lake waiting to be found? If so, why haven’t they recovered her yet?

At this point, divers have scoured every inch of that underwater world on the outskirts of a tiny town in North Carolina.

So, where is Jessica Fadley?

When will her body be found? Because at this point, there is surely no doubt that it is a body that is being searched for.

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