Page 22 of Little Stolen Memories

“Cora, Brynn, and Aubree were all receiving prank calls at the time. Someone they assumed was a fellow classmate would breathe heavily into the phone while saying their names. During one of those calls, Aubree pushed the caller to reveal himself.”

“Did he?” Harvey asked.

“In a way. The caller offered a scrambled version of his name.”

Harvey and Whitlock stared at me in confusion. I explained what the prank caller had said and why Cora believed the caller had identified himself as Xander.

“Ever since Cora told me the story, it’s been on my mind a lot,” I said. “Just because the girls assumed Xander was the one making those calls, doesn’t mean they were right.”

“How so?”

“As far as I know, Xander never admitted to it. Anyone could have passed themselves off as Xander. Someone could have been trying to set him up or place the blame on him to shift it away from themselves. I assume most of their classmates knew Xander was being bullied, which makes him an easy target.”

Harvey rubbed his chin, appearing to give my comments some consideration.

“I like your way of thinking,” Whitlock said. “Out of the box, just like your father used to do. Never taking things at face value as they seem, but always digging deeper and wider to root out the facts.”

There was no higher compliment than being compared to my father, who I believed had been one of the best detectives of his time.

“As soon as I have addresses for Danny and Xander, I’ll be speaking to them, and I’ll let you know when I do,” I said. “In the meantime, I need to look over the rest of the case file, which I’ve decided to save until tomorrow morning. I don’t have the mental capacity to focus on it tonight. What’s your plan?”

“I suppose Harvey needs to speak to the missus,” Whitlock said. “Then I’d like to speak to Silas about testing some of the items we still have in evidence. We’re hoping he can find something we weren’t able to before.”

Silas Crowe was the county’s medical examiner and a close friend. If anyone could find a way to breathe new life into the case with a piece of old evidence it was him.

“Good idea,” I said. “Forensics has come a long way in twenty years.”

“Well, it’s getting late,” Harvey said. “I best get on home before I get a phone call inquiring as to my whereabouts.”

In truth, I was surprised my mother hadn’t already called.

They stood, and Harvey turned toward me, a look of concern on his face. “Sometimes I feel you’re better at talking to your mother than I am.”

I felt for him, but it was something he needed to do on his own.

“You’ll do just fine,” I said. “Good luck. I’ll speak to you both in the morning.”

CHAPTER 11

I was sitting behind my desk in my office, talking to Simone and Hunter about the previous day’s events. I shared the big reveal—what Cora had said about her classmates bullying Xander. We discussed that somber news for a while, and then I explained the agreement I’d made with Whitlock and Harvey about teaming up on the case.

When I finished, Simone jumped right in, saying, “I didn’t see that coming.”

“Me either,” Hunter said.

“We’ve worked with Whitlock on cases before,” I said. “Seems like we never work homicide cases these days without the police department being involved somehow. Which makes sense, as much as I hate it.”

“And here I thought because it’s a cold case, we’d be working this one alone,” Simone said. “I see your point though. They were the original detectives on the case.”

“Including them isn’t a bad idea,” Hunter added. “I bet Harvey’s excited to be back in the game after his retirement a couple of years ago.”

All morning I’d wondered if he’d spoken to my mother yet. If so, I wondered how she’d reacted about his interest in putting his detective hat back on for one last investigation.

“Let’s talk about today’s agenda,” I said. “Hunter, have you had any luck locating Danny Donovan?”

She reached into her bag, pulled out a piece of paper, and handed it to me. “It wasn’t easy, but I found him. He’s still in the area, living in a mobile home park in San Simeon.”

San Simeon was fifteen minutes from Cambria, which was good news.

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