Page 88 of Little Shattered Dreams

“I agree. What about the suicide note?”

“We found a few samples of writing in Clara’s desk drawer. We’re running a comparison between those samples and the note. When it comes to things like this, it’s important to look at what she said and how she said it.”

“How she phrased some of the things she said has been bugging me. I just can’t figure out why.”

“I have no doubt you will,” he said. “As far as suspects go, you feeling anyone more than the others?”

“I’ve thought about each one of them so many times I’m starting to overthink, to create motives in my head, for each of them. In every scenario I create, there is a plausible reason for them to commit murder. I feel like I need to take a step back, to rethink what I know about the case since it started.”

He laughed. “Ahh, so you’re saying we need to have one of our usual talks then.”

“I’m not sure I'm in the frame of mind to do that right now.”

“Why not? They're so much fun.”

“Fun for you, maybe.”

He was laughing a lot harder now. “What’s not fun about unloading what’s on your mind?”

“I don’t know where to begin this time. I can’t even find a connection between Quinn’s murder and Clara’s.”

“Tell you what, give me a couple of hours to process some things I’m working on, and then I’ll call you back. Want my advice? Clear your mind. Think about each person as an individual. You’re amazing at recalling the kind of clues others don’t see, things that don't seem out of the ordinary, but lead you to solve the case in the end. Don’t think in hypotheticals. Think infactand intruthand see what comes to you.”

He was right.

The truth was right in front of me.

I could feel it.

I just needed to see it.

CHAPTER46

I thought about going to talk to Abby, to ask her about the cat hair found on Quinn's clothing the night she died. But before I did that, I needed some alone time. I decided the best way to reconnect was to take a walk.

What had started as a gloomy, bleak day, had turned out to be a pleasant one. The sun was out, and as I walked, its rays penetrated my skin, and I felt a sense of renewal—and with it, clarity.

As far as suspects went, I’d narrowed it down to a few, my gut instincts believing the man or woman I was looking for was someone associated with the retreat.

Take Grace herself, a woman determined to turn people’s lives around. A woman who was her name personified. She seemed kind and caring, and when it came to Clara's death, her emotions seemed genuine.

But were they?

Then there was Abby, the caretaker of a black cat. Did the fact that cat hair was found on Quinn's clothing have any meaning, or had Quinn encountered the cat at some point during her stay? Perhaps even allowing the cat into her place.

There was the love triangle between Karl, Abby, and Clara, which wasn’t much of a love triangle at all. It seemed to be more of a misunderstanding than anything else.

But was it?

The arson sisters, Rebecca and Kelly, had never given me a reason to suspect them, and I’d all but ruled them out. They had no motive, and unlike the subtle clues I’d discovered with a few of the others, there was nothing leading me to believe they were involved with either murder.

Next, we had Tyler, a man who couldn’t seem to remove his hand from his homemade bracelet. What was the significance of the bracelet? Who had given it to him? And why did he struggle to talk about it? When he learned of Clara’s interest in Karl, could hidden rage have gotten the better of him?

This led me to another interesting theory—that I wasn’t looking for just one murderer, but two. I imagined a scenario where Tyler killed Clara, knowing there was already one homicide being investigated, and figured he could get away with it by saying Clara killed Quinn, and in her distress, she killed herself.

As far as theories go, it wasn’t a bad one.

It wasn’t a good one either.

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