Page 73 of Love Me Fierce

I wish she was here, so I could bring her breakfast in bed. What does she like? Toast, maybe pancakes? How does she feel aboutcoffee? I’ve seen her with tea, so maybe she doesn’t even like coffee. What about other things? Does she like to sleep in on the weekends? Or is Mateo like Logan when he was that age, and up with the sun?

The final splutter of the coffeemaker draws me back to my kitchen, and the work I need to accomplish this morning.

After pouring myself a cup of coffee, I pad into my office and settle at my desk. I spend an hour rereading the transcripts of the key interviews we conducted in Marin’s case.

The first is the 9-1-1 call placed by her mother at six fifteen in the morning, when she realized Marin hadn’t come home the night before. She had already called Marin’s friends, so the message has a frantic quality that chills my skin. It’s easy to imagine Ashley Lambert’s panic. It’s every parent’s nightmare.

Then I reread Zach’s interview of Beth Hutchins. Beth and Marin were close friends, but Beth hadn’t seen Marin since the previous morning, when Beth had been on her way into the diner for her shift as a waitress. Marin had passed her going the opposite way in her Ford Ranger. The two had waved like they usually did. They were supposed to meet up at a bonfire that night, but Marin never showed. Beth hadn’t been overly worried because the invite was casual. However, Beth’s texts went unanswered, which wasn’t like Marin. When Zach first questioned Beth, we were running with the belief that Marin was only missing. None of us had expected to find her body up in Lost River Canyon.

The next interview is Troy Robinson’s. At the time, he considered himself Marin’s best friend. He knew her habits, but not her secrets. It was only from another friend, Linnea Whittaker, that we learned Marin was seeing someone. But Linnea knew only that the guy wasn’t part of their friend group.

Tapping my pen against my notebook, I think back to the search for this mystery date. I canvassed Bitterroot Community College. Talked to Marin’s professors. Scoured CCTV footage, hoping to spot Marin talking to someone that fit the profile. Butit was like looking for a needle in a haystack. I searched every single feed from campus the day Marin went missing, but she never appears. According to her professors and Troy, Marin failed to show up to her classes that day. The day previous, I watched her get into her truck in the parking lot just after three o’clock, then drive away, alone.

I checked with her coworkers at Bear Mountain Hay & Feed, but no one had noticed anything that stood out, such as a customer who lingered to talk to her or a car in the parking lot that didn’t belong. And with no security camera at the register, there wasn’t much else I could do.

I re-read the interview with both parents, then one we did with Marin’s brother too. We had help from Sofie Hayes, Zach’s wife and a skilled child psychologist, to make sure we didn’t traumatize the boy. Though learning of Marin’s loving and sometimes silly nature as an older sister was valuable, it didn’t give us any new leads.

Finally, we have my very short interview of Jason Prosser, Marin’s ex-boyfriend. Short because he’d brought his lawyer, who kept him on a tight leash.

When did you last see Marin?

December thirtieth.

What did you do together?

Talked.

About?

Us.

Is that when you broke up with her?

Yes.

How did she take it?

She cried.

When did Marin find out you’d been sleeping around while still in a relationship with her?

I don’t know.

According to her phone records, she called you on February fourteenth. Was it then?

I don’t remember.

February Fourteenth is Valentine’s Day. Did you have plans to see her?

No.

Based on what I learned from her friends, I knew that was a lie. But Jason’s lawyer shut that line of questioning down. I was angry as hell, but before I could get a warrant to confiscate his phone and search his property, Jason’s alibi for the night Marin was killed checked out. Jason also volunteered his DNA. When it didn’t match any of the evidence we collected from Marin’s body, the crime scene, or her truck, I realized we were barking up the wrong tree. Jason was certainly guilty of being an asshole and a selfish prick, but the likelihood of him being her killer was extremely low.

Tomorrow, I’m planning to ask Marin’s parents about that pendant. At the time of her death, the pendant was a mystery to them, and a dead end to us, but now, it’s a critical link to these murders.

But in asking them about it, I’m going to cause them so much pain.

An hour later, while I’m heating the griddle for Logan’s favorite chocolate chip pancakes, I text Vivian.

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