Girl Most Likely: A Thriller (Krista Larson Book 1) by Max Allan Collins

Author:Max Allan Collins [Collins, Max Allan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-03-31T22:00:00+00:00

FIFTEEN

By nightfall, the reunion attendees—whether viewed as witnesses or suspects—had been considerably narrowed.

Krista had brought in her two lieutenants and two patrol officers to help out. No one was needed at the Lund house now, so Officers Cortez and Clemson, after an unproductive canvass of the North High Street neighborhood, took over for two officers who had been at Lake View Lodge all afternoon, dealing with the out-of-town attendees.

The other two officers from the now processed crime scene, Reynolds and Deitch, relieved two others who had been doggedly going through the security-cam footage in the resort’s modest security center, matching license plate numbers and models or makes of vehicles belonging to the attendees. Those officers now had the unenviable duty of going on patrol. Yet another was scouring Facebook and Instagram.

But with only twelve on her staff, including herself, Krista knew her people were getting stretched to the limit. Maybe overtime would take out the sting.

The nonlocals were sent back to their rooms and interviewed there. In every instance, these were couples, though not every significant other was a classmate. For efficiency’s sake, and because this was after all preliminary, Krista had the couples interviewed jointly, instructing the officers to watch for inconsistencies as well as any stumbling or undue coaching from one to the other.

Krista and all of her officers were using their cell phones with a mobile field interview app. She instructed her officers to inform the subjects they were being recorded. But as these were informal interviews, they did not need to read Miranda rights prior to questioning.

She had her own notions about who were the best potential suspects among the sixty-two attendees, all of whom—excluding Alex Cannon, who Pop was off to track down in Chicagoland—were local. As a classmate and friend of Astrid’s, the chief of the Galena PD knew at once who she wanted to personally interview.

The Galena attendees—forty-one of the fifty-six present (last night’s teacher’s table being truant)—were corralled in the banquet hall, but toward the back, down at the end where the band and portable dance floor had been. The out-of-towners were now in their rooms, which left a number of empty tables. Three of these were commandeered for Sergeant Jackson and her lieutenants, Lauren Cole and Dylan Mitchell. Krista took the table where she, Booker, and her father had eaten breakfast.

Lauren, Dylan, and Booker had then gone around with clipboards gathering names, so they could summon interviewees. When they’d completed the task, Krista took their clipboards and circled the names of the handful she wanted to make sure she interviewed personally.

She was just settling in when Jerry Ward came up. But for a white dress shirt, he was all in black—jacket, jeans, and running shoes. Not a good ensemble for somebody who hoped not to be singled out as the villain.

He leaned in. “Do you mind taking me first?”

“Well,” she said, pleasantly, “since we’re old friends, why not?”

She had intended to start with him, anyway. She set the phone on the table and said she’d be recording.

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