ChapterThree
Haley hesitated for a long minute, then said, "Yes. Sabrina dropped it on the ground when she fell, and I grabbed it. I don't know why, except I thought maybe it would tell me why she wanted to talk to me, what information she had to give me."
"And?"
"I haven't been able to open it."
He glanced at the message on the screen. "Who's A?"
"No idea."
"Sabrina was digging into something that could risk her job," he murmured. "Apparently, that had to do with this college kid's death."
"Maybe or maybe not. I'm sure she worked on more than one case."
"Why would her firm be looking into this student's death? They're a corporate law firm. Unless they represent the university?"
"Adler and Briggs doesn't represent the university, but their owner and at least some of their employees, including Sabrina, went to school there."
"So, there's a tie." He gave her another questioning look. "Who is Landon to you, Ms. Kenton?"
"Why is the FBI investigating Sabrina's death?" she countered. "Shouldn't that be the LAPD?"
"The park is federal land. And you didn't answer my question. Who is Landon? You might as well tell me; it won't take me long to figure it out."
"He's my younger brother. Hewasmy younger brother," she corrected, pain tightening her expression. "He was six days short of his twenty-first birthday when he ended up dead in a pond in the woods behind his fraternity house."
"Was it a hazing incident?"
"He'd been a member of the fraternity for over a year, so they denied it was anything like that. There was a party the night before. The police believed my brother got drunk, stumbled into the woods late at night, and tumbled into the pond, too inebriated to get himself out of the water."
"But you don't believe that."
"No. My brother was an intellectual. He lived for school. He was always studying. He didn't waste time getting drunk or going to parties. He told me a few times he wished he'd never gotten into the fraternity, because he didn't have time for the nonsense." She paused. "And you know what I told him? I said it's probably a good way to make valuable contacts."
He could see the self-hatred in her eyes and felt a wave of compassion for her.
"That fraternity got him killed," she continued. "I have never believed it was an accident, but I've never been able to prove it was anything else. I don't know why Sabrina Lin called me out of the blue yesterday, why she wanted to meet me, or what she knew, but I need to find out. I need to open that phone. It might tell me how and why my brother died."
His hand tightened on the phone. "Once we get it open, we'll look into anything related to your brother."
"And you'll tell me?" she asked.
"It depends on what we find. I can't jeopardize a murder investigation by sharing information with the last person to see Sabrina Lin alive."
"I didn't kill her," she said. "Tell me you believe me."
He stared at her plaintive blue eyes, finding it difficult to believe she had a murderous bone in her body. But he couldn't let a pretty face get in the way of logic and reason. "I haven't made a decision yet."
Disappointment ran through her gaze. "Well, I'm the last person who would want her dead. I wanted to know what she found out about my brother."
"Who would want to make sure that didn't happen?"
"I've always been suspicious of some of Landon's fraternity brothers. They seemed to tell the exact same story, as if it was scripted and rehearsed. But I couldn't find a reason why anyone would have wanted him dead. Landon was a mild-mannered guy. He wasn't opinionated or argumentative. He didn't start fights. His girlfriend told me he was friends with everyone."
"He had a girlfriend?"
"Yes, Brooke Mercer. I didn't actually know about her. Landon always brushed me off when I asked about girls. But Brooke was heartbroken when Landon died. She said they were talking about moving in together after graduation."
