Page 40 of Before You Go

“Umm…” She licks her lips and looks up at me seeming to turn the offer over in her head. “Yeah, okay sure, that sounds good.”

“All right, text me when you get home.”

“Sure.” Her smile is small. “I’m really glad you came.”

Shit, why does my chest feel strange?

“Me too.” I reach out and rest my hand on her hip while I lean down and press a kiss to her forehead. “I’ll see you tonight.”

“Okay,”

When I get down to my SUV, I sit there for a few minutes, trying to process everything that just happened. It’s too much to come to terms with in that short amount of time, but there are a couple of things I know for certain.

One: there is no way I want another man stepping up to raise my kid.

And two: Franny is going to fuck up my life in either the best or worst way possible.

CHAPTER 10

Dayton

“She was stabbed one hundred and four times,” Detective Burros says as I look through the photos he handed me. I’ve read that number in my case file numerous times, but hearing it again while looking at the crime scene photos makes me realize how much rage was involved in the murder of Alice Groden.

“She was caught off guard by the attack, and it wasn’t planned.” I lift my gaze to him, his partner, Detective Shaw, and the woman who has been sitting quietly at their side—Ms. Janelle Branch, the podcaster who came across the story of Alice Groden and shared it with her followers. She’s young, maybe twenty-five, and reminds me a little of Franny, with her dark-blonde hair, air of femininity, and glint of wisdom far beyond her years in her eyes.

“He might not have gone into her home with a weapon, but that doesn’t mean the attack wasn’t planned,” Janelle says softly, glancing over at Detective Burros. “He could have known she was there alone and gone over with the intent to rape her. We know he has a history of that.” Her eyes come to me. “During my investigation, I found out that Charles had been staying off and on with his brother, who lived across the street. He could have been watching her for a while and waiting for his moment to strike.”

“This isn’t a podcast,” Burros tells her, and she presses her lips together.

“I’m on the same page as Janelle,” Shaw says, then adds while ticking off on his fingers, “Nothing was taken from her apartment. Her purse was left untouched. There was money out on the counter left by Greg so Alice could go to the hair salon that afternoon. And she still had on all her jewelry. Her pants were undone, but she was still fully clothed. If he had tried to rape her and she started fighting and was getting away, he could have grabbed the closest thing he could get his hand on and used it as a weapon.”

The weapon he’s referring to is the knife that matched the ones that she and her husband had gotten as a wedding present just a few months prior. The handle was recovered from the scene, and the blade was later recovered from one of the wounds in Alice’s back, where it had broken off.

“And he knew that she would be able to identify him for attacking her, and he’d go to jail, so he couldn’t leave her alive,” Shaw concludes.

“Not that it would matter,” Janelle mutters.

“Don’t start that again,” Burros says, and Janelle rolls her eyes.

“What’s that about?” I ask, focusing on her.

Burros interrupts before she can answer for herself. “She thinks that the cops were covering for Charles because he was an informant.”

“What?” I look between the three of them.

“From what I was able to uncover, Charles had been working with the police. It’s why he was let off the hook with barely a slap on the wrist all the times he was arrested prior to the murder of Debra Oshae.”

“Is there any truth to that claim?” I ask, looking between the two detectives.

“We don’t know for certain, but we couldn’t find any evidence that it was true.”

“Did you speak to the officers who were involved about this?” I ask, and they glance at each other. “As you know, if an officer has an informant working for them and that informant gets charged with a crime, the officer involved can be held liable. That would be a pretty fucking big reason for them to ignore the confession given by Charles back then.”

“Exactly.” Janelle smiles triumphantly.

“Jesus,” I mutter, scrubbing my fingers through my hair. “Do you have the information you’ve collected from the case for your podcast?”

“Yep.” She opens her purse and pulls out a file that is about ten times bigger than the one I received from Mary. “This is everything.” She passes it over to me, then reaches back into her bag and pulls out a card, handing that over as well. “That’s my podcast if you want to listen. I’ve interviewed her husband and her family and friends.”

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