YEAH, THAT GIRL? She was in the store, asking a whole bunch of questions. Of course I went over and helped her. You always want to chat up the hot ones.
Told me she was going on a hike. Didn’t say where. Said it was with her boyfriend. I thought maybe she was making up a boyfriend so I wouldn’t hit on her.
She asked about jackets. Said it was gonna be a long hike. Then boots. Said she didn’t want anything too heavy on her feet.
Then she picked up a walking pole and said, This could be a murder weapon. Laughed. I laughed, too, because she was kidding. Maybe even flirting. She left without buying anything, and I didn’t have the balls to ask her out.
They’re gonna say it was normal for her to be in the store if she knew she was going on a hike. But I read the news and she’s saying the hike got sprung on her partway through August. That it was his idea.
If that’s true, why the hell was she in the store talking about the hike back in May?
Excerpt from Tabby’s Diary
September 13, 2018
I haven’t written in a while, but I’ve been busy. It’s hard with Mark back at Princeton. I knew it would be hard, but I thought we would still be us. I’m still me, but he’s not him anymore. He’s someone who doesn’t have time for me, or at least not the time he promised. Plus, I can’t seem to stop stalking his Instagram and seeing there are other girls in the photos. He told me we’d Skype every night, but he has excuses. Like having to go to bed super early for practice, except then I’ll see someone tagged him in a photo from a party. He used to text me back instantly, almost before I was done hitting send. Now it takes hours.
Maybe I’m just being paranoid. I’m trying to be the cool girl, but it’s hard. A month until he’s back, for the homecoming game. Maybe I just need to make him miss me more.
THE GAZETTE
September 16, 2019
Map, diary found in home of dead hiker’s girlfriend
By Sally Kelly
A search of the Coldcliff, Colorado, home of Tabitha Cousins, 17, has revealed a map to the Split, the lookout point from which her boyfriend, Mark Forrester, 20, fell to his death on August 16. The map appeared to be hand-drawn, although it hasn’t been confirmed whether Cousins was the one who drew it.
A diary kept by Cousins was also recovered, but police haven’t revealed what, if anything, the diary reveals about Cousins’s relationship with Forrester. Evidence is expected to be analyzed in the coming weeks. In the meantime, as previously reported by the Coldcliff Tribune, police are continuing to search Cousins’s phone records from the weeks leading up to the fateful hike.