Page 80 of The Death Row Club
The words snatch the breath from my throat. Connor told us his tablet would’ve been activated if an unfamiliar device had come within a certain distance of the lodge, but could he have been wrong? What if her father hadn’t been carrying a cell phone? Could he have abducted her?
I stare at the phone. If I call the police, the other club members will blame me, but if I don’t, who knows what could happen before the night’s over? I try to tap the emergency button, but my finger, shaky with nerves, jitters onto email instead. Steffani’s downloaded messages pop up onscreen.
REINHEIMER, ANTHONY
Subject: Woods Case
HESSLING, MICHELLE
Subject: Greer Woods
HAFEEZ, MALIA
Subject: Woods Hearing
I scroll through the subject lines. Every single one of them references the Woodses. Clicking the message from Malia Hafeez, who might be the Mal from NBC, I freeze when I notice the sender name on Steffani’s email account.
AUDREY BANERJEE
Not Steffani Arnosti. Was she using a fake name with the press? I try to visualize her driver’s license. She’d listed a Maine address, hadn’t she? But I distinctly remember that when we talked on the balcony, she told me she was from Los Angeles. Could she have stolen that driver’s license? If that’s the case, I need to assume that nothing she told us was the truth—that there was never any serial killer father. Instead, she’s been in contact with multiple news outlets about the Woodses.
Audrey Banerjee. The name feels familiar, but I can’t place where I know it from.
I turn my attention back to the emails.
From: [email protected]
Greer isn’t taking my calls.
From: [email protected]
Yours and everyone else’s. She’s completely fallen off the grid sinceTo Catch a Killerpremiered. Throwing all her energy into her father’s hearing probably.
From: [email protected]
Good luck to her. She’s going to need it.
From: [email protected]
I would’ve said the same thing a month ago, but the show’s working wonders for them. It’s like, overnight, Tom Woods has gone from boogeyman to folk hero. You should see the social media accounts dedicated to him. #WoodForWoods. People are gross.
From: [email protected]
They should enjoy the popularity while it lasts. Because the moment that hearing rolls around, the truth is going to come out.
From: [email protected]
