“Apart from the call from you, no. There weren’t any recent nasty messages from any of her enemies. No threats, either. But the messages she’d sent out to other people were suspicious in their own completely non-suspicious way.”
“Uh… I’m not following.”
Hunter sat up straight and grabbed Lindsay’s phone again. “Look at all of the messages she sent out before she died,” he said, handing it to me. “She messaged a few people asking if they wanted to hang out that night. She also opened a group chat with some of her schoolfriends and sent them a bunch of links from a dress website, asking which one would be the best for her to wear to the Fall Fling. Then she messaged another friend asking for party decoration ideas, because she wanted to host an afterparty for the Fling.”
“What if—”
He held up a hand to cut me off. “I know what you’re thinking—maybe no one replied to her or wanted to hang out, and it made her sad enough to tip her over the edge. But look at the time stamps.” He scrolled through her text folder and pointed to each individual time. “Most of the messages were sent between 8:05-8:22 p.m.”
“Okay,” I said, drawing out the two syllables. I was confused as hell.
“According to the coroner’s report, she probably died somewhere between 8:30-9:00 that night.”
“Oh.” I saw his point now. “That isweird.”
“Yeah. She barely even gave them time to reply. So we can’t realistically say that the lack of response from her friends could’ve upset her enough to make her want to jump off the roof.”
“That’s true.”
“Also, for argument’s sake, let’s say she was horribly depressed, and she actually planned the whole thing for ages. Why would she message a bunch of people asking to hang out, or ask for opinions on dresses for her to wear to a party, if she was planning on hurling herself off a building just a few minutes later?”
“That’s a good point.” I nodded slowly. “She seemed really keen to meet up with me that night, too. Her message sounded really excited.”
“Exactly. But she didn’t even wait for you to respond to see if you’d be up for it.”
“Except… the call.” My brows furrowed. “What time did I call her?”
“8:27.”
“Do you think it was her that picked up?” I asked in a hollow voice as a sick feeling suddenly descended upon me. “When I heard the breathing and wind, but no voice.”
Hunter leaned forward, rubbing his jaw. “I always thought it was her, but now that I know you didn’t actually speak to her… I don’t know.”
“You said the estimated time of death was between 8:30 and 9:00. There’s a bit of leeway in those estimates, right?”
“I think so.”
“So at 8:27 she could’ve already been dead.”
“Yeah.” He set his lips in a grim line. “So maybe whoever pushed her accidentally answered your call. I don’t know how that would’ve happened, though.”
“They might’ve wanted to stop her phone from ringing, because they could’ve been afraid that someone—like you or Adam—might come home early and hear them up there on the roof. But they didn’t know how to end the call properly because it wasn’t their own phone, so they accidentally answered it instead.”
“Yeah. That’s a possibility.”
We fell silent for a beat. Sorrow and uncertainty lingered in the air, and my heart threatened to thunder out of my chest as I waited for what Hunter might say or do next.
He finally turned to me again. “I tried to tell my dad that I thought she wasn’t suicidal. That someone pushed her. He said I was fucking crazy.”
“I’m sorry.”
He leaned closer, gaze anchored to mine. “I know my sister didn’t hurt herself, Laney. I just know it,” he said, eyes glistening with emotion again. “Do you believe me? Or do you think I’m crazy too?”
Warmth surged unbidden into my chest at the sight of his vulnerability. I swallowed thickly. “I believe you,” I murmured.
I really did. After all the things he’d said, I was convinced. Lindsay’s so-called suicide didn’t make sense.
Hunter breathed a heavy sigh of relief, shoulders slumping as some of the tension left his body. Then he reached over and put a hand on my knee. “I really am sorry for everything I did to you,” he said gruffly. “When I met you and saw you wearing her necklace, I honestly—”