“Tell me you guys have something,” Ben said.
The four uniforms assigned to the case sprawled in aluminum chairs around a battered table.
The first officer up glanced at his notes. “School counselors all came and started calling kids that knew the girl. The counselors told the kids they phoned to put out the word to anyone they knew that might have information or just wanted to tell us something about Cass to come by the school. Saturday makes it hard, but we got a whole boatload of kids. Some just wanted attention; a few wanted to be someplace besides home; some get off on being part of the action, right? But ya never know. Summarizing seven hours of listening to all her ‘really good friends,’ Cass McBride was: stuck-up, the friendliest girl in school, a bitch, an angel, too rich for her own good, generous to a fault, a slut, an ice princess, outgoing, shy, totally unstable, knew what she wanted and how to get it, smart, dumb as patio furniture; and whatever happened, she deserved because she treated people like crap, or else she didn't deserve anything like this because she gets along with everyone.” He flipped his notebook closed. “Same old, same old. If she gave the talker the time of day, they loved her; if not, Cass was bad news on a biscuit.”
The officer frowned and flipped his notes open again. “Oh, Susan Allison, wants to be called Firefly, weird haircut, earrings as big as golfballs, all that black-and-white makeup stuff, says she's pretty sure Cass was pregnant.”
“Pregnant?” Ben asked.
“Pregnant. Firefly reports catching Cass in an early-morning hurl a couple of days ago.”
Ben was marking a dry-erase board. “Guessing Cass and Firefly weren't friends?” He wrote pregnant on the board. “We won't spend time on this now. We can ask the best friend. But my gut tells me no.”
He pointed to the board. “Leatha. She makes sense. I think Cass is how she describes her to be. But that leaves us with a big nothing.”
Ben looked at the clock. At the crime board. Back at the clock.
“We're past the first twenty-four and we've got nothing?”