Free Cold Fear by Toni Anderson Page B

the girl to keep upright. He swallowed tightly. There’d been a time when he’d wondered how he could go on living when his parents had died, but he’d found his vocation. It was up to Kit to find hers. He looked toward the cottage and there was Isadora Campbell watching them from the deck of the cottage with an unreadable expression on her face.
    He had no personal experience with siblings but understood the dynamics from a psychological perspective. Older siblings tended to be more responsible than younger ones. They were caretakers, not risk-takers.
    Kit finally pushed away from him, and he happily let her go.
    “Did anyone else leave the party around the same time as Helena and Jesse?” he asked.
    “I don’t remember.” Her voice was bleak now. “I stayed in the pool. I drank more beer and made out with Damien. That’s what I did while my best friend was being raped and murdered at Parson’s Point.” She wiped the cuffs of her hoodie over her blotchy face.
    “Where did you go afterwards?”
    Her pupils widened. “What do you mean?”
    “You told your sister you were staying at Helena’s home. She told her parents she was staying here. Where did you go? What did you do?”
    “I came home.” She folded her arms and refused to meet his gaze. “I’m cold. I want to go back now.”
    Frazer stared at her for a long moment. She was hiding something. Over the years, after thousands of investigations coming across his desk, sometimes it was the weirdest fact or fluke that solved a case. Good police work involved asking the questions no one wanted to answer. Frazer understood the need for secrecy and discretion—and that’s why he always looked in the shadows. Deciding not to shine a light there yet, he nodded and they started walking back to the cottage. Barney followed.
    “Do you know anyone who might have wanted to hurt Helena or Jesse?”
    She shook her head. “No. Never. Helena was below everyone’s radar and everyone loved Jesse…” Then her mouth went wide. “Except Jesse’s ex-girlfriend. I saw what she wrote about him online last night when he posted a picture of him and Helena at the party. She called Helena a whore.” Tears filled her eyes. “I want to punch her in the face for that.” She turned toward him. “You don’t think she had anything to do with this, do you?”
    Because of the bracelet factor, together with the rape and the fact two victims had been handled at the same time, Frazer doubted a jealous teenager had committed last night’s murder. “I’m not willing to rule out anything at this stage.” Except Ferris Denker who sat in his cell waiting for execution. “We’ll follow all leads, but if the girl was involved I’ll be the one to make sure she’s held responsible. No punching anyone in the face, okay?” Not that he hadn’t done far worse in the pursuit of justice.
    She nodded reluctantly, then her eyes cut to his. “Promise me you’ll find out who did this.”
    He glanced up at Isadora as she watched them from the deck, and thought of the innocent young woman who’d had her future stolen from her. He didn’t make promises he couldn’t keep. “I’ll do everything in my power to catch the person who did this, Kit. But you have to promise to tell me everything you know, and anything that you hear from your schoolmates. You don’t need to tell anyone you’re talking to me, but I want to know all the rumor and gossip. Deal?”
    He held her gaze until she reluctantly nodded. “Deal.”

Chapter Six
    T HE LIGHTS HE’D strung around the window blinked as he sat back with his beer and a bag of chips to watch the evening news. “First homicide of the year,” was the opening title of the piece. That made him sit up a little straighter in his chair. He hadn’t thought of that, but he supposed it was one for the record books.
    The reporter was one of those pert blondes with narrow bright red lips and nonexistent tits who thought she was something special. She