Free The Savage Murder of Skylar Neese: The Truth Behind the Headlines by Daleen Berry, Geoffrey C. Fuller

a look.
    “I’m just joking with you, Darek,” Gaskins said.
    Just then an elderly woman poked her head around the open front door, before slowly stepping out of the shadows and onto the porch.
    “Hey, Grandma, it’s okay,” Darek said.

Chapter 13
We Got Fear
    She walked down the steps to the front yard, clearly suspicious.
    “What do you want?”
    Gaskins spoke up. “We’re just out talking to people about those robberies. If people saw anything, heard anything. We’d like to come in to talk with you all for a few minutes.”
    “I guess that would be okay,” she said and turned toward the house, but Berry didn’t move.
    “Before we go inside, ma’am, just to make me feel safe, I need to ask you a question. There any guns here at the house?”
    Grandma looked at him and chuckled. “Heh, this is Blacksville. There’s guns in all the houses around here.”
    “Yeah, I know,” Berry said. “I grew up over on Jake’s Run. I just like to ask. I’m not saying you’re going to blow me away or anything, but where’s the closest one you got?”
    “In my daughter’s bedroom.”
    Berry grinned. “Oh, really. What kind you got?”
    “Revolver,” she said, heading back up the steps.
    “I love revolvers!” Berry glanced at Gaskins like a kid with a new toy. The gun that had been used in the bank robbery was a revolver, a type of gun that was increasingly rare. “Can I see it?”
    “Sure, come on in.”
    Berry went inside with Grandma while Gaskins waited in the yard with Darek. A few moments later, Berry came back holding a black revolver. The weapon looked just like the one from the bank security video.
    ***
    Within a few hours, Gaskins and Berry returned with a search warrant. They wanted to confiscate the gun before Darek had a chance to ditch it. They brought along a State Police Special Response Team, a tactical team, in case Darek got squirrelly. He didn’t.
    Hours later, the thirty-member team had confiscated not only the revolver but several other firearms and items of clothing they believed matched those worn by the bank robber. Even if the search turned up nothing more, Gaskins and Berry were convinced they had unfinished business with Darek Conaway.
    ***
    Even as the two troopers believed they were close to solving the bank robberies, Rachel’s interview with Colebank and Spurlock was still in progress.
    “I want to help find her, I really do,” Rachel said, “but I was really loaded.”
    Colebank felt herself getting frustrated, but she managed to keep her voice calm. “You can’t drive on Patteson Drive
and
stay on side streets, Rachel.”
    Colebank and Spurlock had decided to focus on the contradictions in Rachel’s story. With them as leverage, Rachel might be convinced to explain what had really happened. From the start, Colebank had been certain something bad had gone down—an accident, an overdose, something. She was equally sure Shelia and Rachel knew what it was.
    “Just tell us exactly what happened, and we’ll take it from there,” Spurlock said. He pulled a map of Star City from his backpack. “Maybe this will help. After you dropped your friend Skylar off—at eleven thirty, right?—after that …”
    Kim shook her head in disgust. She turned and went down the stairs. While Colebank tried to catch every word that passed between Rachel and Spurlock, Kim was downstairs talking to Mikinzy.
    He was lying on the carpet, hands over his eyes. “The story was always she was home by 11:45,” he kept repeating.
    “Let me tell you something, Mikinzy Boggs,” some of Kim’s words carried up the stairwell. “You don’t sneak out and get back home at 11:45. Okay? I snuck out plenty. You don’t sneak home at 11:45. You sneak
out
at 11:45.”
    “She told me she didn’t,” Mikinzy kept repeating. He seemed confused.
    So did Kim. She and Sabrina exchanged a long glance. “You know what, I’m—that doesn’t even make sense on any level.” She stomped back up the steps.
    To