Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 114775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 574(@200wpm)___ 459(@250wpm)___ 383(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 574(@200wpm)___ 459(@250wpm)___ 383(@300wpm)
My thoughts go back to that photograph. The photograph that I have in my phone.
It’s been bugging me all day. I just know this photograph is important to him. The fact that he keeps it in his nightstand drawer beside his bed tells me that.
And the curious part of me wants to know who she is to Kas. Why does he have a seven-year-old photograph of this girl in his nightstand?
Maybe he loved her. Maybe she broke his heart. Maybe she’s why he’s a head case when it comes to women.
But it’s not like I can ask him because then he’d know that I was snooping in his drawer. Technically, I wasn’t. I found it by mistake, but I know what he’d think.
And he probably wouldn’t tell me anyway. He doesn’t tell me anything. He’s locked up so tight. I know nothing about him.
I only know his name and where he lives because I work for him. I know how he takes his coffee and that his best friend is Jude. Oh, and he has a horse called Danger, whom he rescued. But that’s it.
I don’t know when his birthday is. Or what his favorite food is. If he likes to read. If he has a favorite band he likes to listen to.
It’s so frustrating.
But I shouldn’t care because I’m done with him. So, it doesn’t matter.
Sure, you are, Daisy. That’s why you’re sitting here, thinking about him.
Ugh!
I hate that he’s gotten so easily under my skin.
I want answers from him, but I know I’m not going to get them, so I’ll find some out for myself.
Grabbing Cece’s laptop off the coffee table, I power it up. I open up Google and type in, Kastor Matis.
Not much comes up. Just the Matis Estate’s website but no photos of him. He doesn’t even have a Facebook profile.
But then again, neither do I.
I used to have one, but I shut it down after I was arrested. I didn’t want people writing anything unsavory on my wall.
I tap the keys, frustrated.
Then, I delete Kas’s name from the search box and type in, Haley Halliwell.
My screen fills with results. The top result is a clinical therapist.
Heart pumping, feeling like I’m doing something really wrong, I click on the link. The picture is of an older woman who looks to be in her fifties.
Definitely not her.
I back out and click on the Images tab. The screen fills with pictures. The first one is of that therapist woman. Then, sitting just below that is the picture I found in Kas’s drawer. The picture in my phone.
I grab my phone and pull the picture up, just to compare.
It’s definitely her.
I click on the picture, and it enlarges with a caption and a link. Then, my body freezes cold at the words.
Girl, 17, Murdered on Prom Night
Murdered?
She was murdered? Surely not. It can’t be the same girl.
I look at the words on the back of the picture.
HALEY HALLIWELL. PROM. 2009.
Prom.
She was murdered after that picture was taken.
Oh God.
Hand trembling, I glide my finger across the trackpad to move the arrow over the link and click.
The screen fills with a news story dated June 7, 2009, headed with the same line as the caption.
Girl, 17, Murdered on Prom Night
To the right is the picture of Haley that I found in Kas’s nightstand. Beneath that picture is a caption.
Haley Halliwell, 17, body found in Hyde Park.
I scroll down to the article and start reading.
Late Saturday evening, a dog walker discovered the body of Haley Halliwell, 17, along with another unidentified person, who is currently in the hospital in critical condition, sources say. Halliwell had been attending her high school prom at the Marriott Hotel on Park Lane. Reports are not detailing much at the moment, and the police are remaining tight-lipped, but the unofficial report is that Halliwell was sexually assaulted, and the cause of death is assumed to be a result of multiple stab wounds. Police are urging any witnesses to come forward.
I cover my mouth with my hand, feeling sick. She was sexually assaulted and stabbed to death.
Oh God.
My eyes scan back over the text.
Late Saturday evening, a dog walker discovered the body of Haley Halliwell, 17, along with another unidentified person, who is currently in the hospital in critical condition.
Another unidentified person, who is currently in the hospital in critical condition.
Who was the other person? Who was she with? Did that person die as well?
Desperate to know, I open up a new window and type, Haley Halliwell, murder, 2009.
My screen fills with countless news stories. I skip the first link, as it’s the one I already read. I click on the next link.
Police reports now state that Haley Halliwell attended her high school prom on the evening of Saturday, June 6, 2009. At approximately eleven p.m., Halliwell and her companion—who will remain unnamed but has been identified to police and is not listed as a suspect in the case—entered Hyde Park to take a stroll after the festivity. Shortly after entering the grounds, Halliwell and her companion were approached by three unidentified males. Halliwell was sexually assaulted by more than one of the assailants. She also suffered from multiple stab wounds, but the actual cause of death was strangulation. Her companion—who was also attacked, suffering from multiple stab wounds to the torso—is currently in the hospital in critical condition.