Page 33 of Retribution
‘They didn’t need much,’ Blake says from his desk, turning around. ‘She confessed, right?’
I nod. ‘But, as I said, she couldn’t remember anything. She lied to the cops in the interrogation. They left her in the room alone with the information about the case. She read it while they were gone and used what she found out about the crime to tell them everything they wanted to hear. She made up a bullshit but plausible story. Then my dad made a deal, and she was gone.’
Mav hands it back to me.
I open it and start reading. At first, everything seems normal. ‘Mike Larson was found on the tenth of March,’ I say. ‘Her birthday.’
‘Jesus, it happened on her birthday?’ Blake asks.
‘Yeah,’ I frown. ‘I’d forgotten that part. Larson was usually a dick to her at school, but that day he kept following her around, trying to give her thirteen birthday bumps. Knowing him, they were punches. Hard ones. He hated her. Never knew why.’
The guys are quiet.
‘Anyway,’ I continue reading, ‘Daisy had been running on the track at Cross Country practice. When everyone else was done, she stayed out there to do a few more laps.’
‘Was that normal?’ Mav asks.
I nod. ‘She enjoyed running, and she was more relaxed when she’d had some extra time alone to get lost in it after practice. The coach said she went out there an hour later and Daisy was gone. She thought Daisy had been picked up by April, but my stepmother came by the school to get Daisy a few minutes after that and no one couldfind her.’
I glance up at the guys who are now giving me their full attention.
‘Go on,’ Mav urges. ‘We want to know everything.’
‘There was a search,’ I read and nod again. ‘I remember that. They got a bunch of volunteers and walked through the woods in a line for hours. It says that Daisy was found just after dark sitting against a tree.Taking a napis what it says in the report.’ I huff. ‘Larson’s body was a few feet away under some leaves and mud like she was trying to hide him. Her blood was all over him.’
‘How did he actually die?’ Blake asks.
‘A stick through his sternum. There was a sharp branch covered in blood at the scene, and there were splinters found in the wound. He’d been dead for hours, the autopsy said.’
I frown at the paper, my eyes flicking back over it. Something’s bothering me. But what?
‘She took a nap,’ I mutter. ‘After killing someone?’
‘Maybe she was exhausted from trying to bury him.’
My expression deepens and my forehead begins to hurt a little between my eyes from the force of my scowl.
‘She would never have fallen asleep there,’ I say.
Blake gets up and takes the paper from me, perusing it himself. ‘Not even if she was bushed?’
‘No, if she was really that tired, she would have gone somewhere warm, dry, and safe. She wouldn’t have just sat against a tree on the damp ground. And it says that the body was covered in mud and leaves. The leaves, maybe, if they were dry, but she would never have voluntarily put her hands in cold mud. Not back then. Not for anything. Her sensory issues were profound. She could barely stand the wind on her skin. There’s just no way.’
Blake turns the page. ‘She was really out of it when she was found. They thought she was on something when theybrought her in, but they didn’t even do a tox screen to find out.’
I snort. ‘My father probably paid them not to. Didn’t want any record of his stepdaughter doing drugs.’
‘Was she?’ Mav asks. ‘Doing drugs? I mean it’s a little young, but maybe some older kids tricked her or something, like Marcus and the others did that night when they got her drunk.’
I shrug. ‘I don’t know who would have given her anything. She didn’t mix with the other kids mostly, and the upperclassmen ignored her.’
‘There was a keyring found nearby,’ Blake remarks. ‘Daisy said it wasn’t hers, but they never looked into it, just figured since it was close to the school, it wasn’t relevant to the crime.’
‘Did they actually do any police work at all?’ Mav sneers.
‘Wait…’ Blake goes to his computer and brings up a camera visual.
‘That’s my father’s office at the Novelle house,’ I say, leaning forward to look over his shoulder.
