Speak No Evil_ A Novel - Allison Brennan [17]
She looked each of them in the eye in turn, then focused her steely-eyed gaze on the weakest link, Abby.
“Okay, girls, let me explain something to you. Angie was raped. Then she was suffocated in a garbage bag. Murdered. She’s dead, and if you don’t spill this secret right now, I’m taking you all to jail. You can spend the night in a cold cell and maybe then you’ll try to help, not hinder, our investigation.”
Kayla jumped up. “We have rights, too!”
“Sit down, Kayla,” Carina said. “I can and will arrest you for obstruction of justice. You will be taken into court tomorrow and the judge will make you tell or you’ll be in contempt of court.”
Abby interjected, “No one can know.”
“If it goes to court, it will damn well be public information,” Carina said. “You tell me now, and I promise I will do everything in my power to keep the information private.” Carina hoped she could. If it was material to the prosecution, all bets were off. She didn’t like to deceive the girls, but finding Angie’s killer was more important.
Abby and Jodi looked at each other. Abby burst into tears. Carina rubbed her forehead. She was getting a headache.
Jodi spoke. “Angie, um, she sort of had a double life kind of thing.”
Double life kind of thing? Carina and Will exchanged glances.
“Angie dated a lot of guys,” Jodi continued. “Some not really publicly. But she journaled about it.”
“Journaled? Did she keep the journal at her house? In her purse?” Two officers had been to Angie’s house to search her personal effects, but her purse was missing.
Jodi bit her lip. “No, an online journal. You know, MyJournal dotcom. But,” she continued quickly, “she was anonymous. No one knew about it. I mean, no one would even think that she did the things she wrote about. She’s really sweet.”
“You mean she made them up?”
Jodi shook her head profusely. “Oh no, it’s all true. Well, most of it. I mean, I doubt she ever lied, but I guess she could have sort of exaggerated.”
“Anonymous. How did you know?”
Abby glanced down sheepishly. “One day she borrowed my computer and after she left I looked at the Web page history because I needed something. There it was. I read the entries and knew it was Angie because she talked about us, but not our real names. Only our first initials. I asked her about it, and she told us everything, swore us to secrecy. It’s, um, sort of a sex diary. Her profile was ‘A for Anonymous.’ ”
“Anonymous online,” Will said, his voice flat. “Where everyone in the world can read it.”
“But no one knew it was her!” Abby exclaimed.
“You’re positive she told no one else? What about one of her ex-boyfriends?”
“Oh no, especially not them,” Jodi said. “They would have been pissed off. She detailed some of their, um, sexual failings.” The three girls giggled, then abruptly stopped as the magnitude of the situation hit them.
Carina lost it. Even after being a cop for eleven years, she’d never be so cavalier about murder.
“Give me the Web page. And I’m putting you all on notice, right now. If my partner or I have any other questions, you will answer them. Got it?”
They sobered completely during Carina’s lecture, and Jodi and Abby in particular looked guilty over their behavior. As Abby scribbled something on notebook paper, Jodi said, “I didn’t mean to be disrespectful. I loved Angie, like a sister. I guess . . . I can’t believe she’s gone.”
Carina forgave the girls their behavior. They were eighteen and facing the brutal death of a friend. It was going to hit them hard over the next day or two, and grief would set in.
Abby handed Carina the paper: Journalme. iloverealmen.com.
“Two more questions. Do you know Steve Thomas?”
They all nodded.
“Why did Angie get a restraining order against him?”
It was Kayla who spoke up. “He threatened her.”
“How?”
“He told her she’d be killed.”
“He threatened to kill her?”
Pause. “Not exactly.”
“What exactly?”
“He said she was being stupid and would get herself killed if she didn’t watch her back. But he was so mean about it, and