Finding Emily

{Chapter 14}

   In April the police called the family, and they told them there were two people in custody. It was almost prom season, and they were distracted by dresses and plans, but then there was the bomb that shook the whole town. 

   One of the people arrested was Trevor Owens. He dated Emily last year while she was an 8th grader, and he was a junior.  He was in Becca's class, but she didn't know him that well. He was infamous for wearing all black and being into questionable [in Becca's opinion] music. She never thought he was violent or scary though, and the rare time she had talked to him he seemed... kind of boring. Emily said he was a kitten in lion's clothing. She didn't like that he was a senior dating her freshman sister, but it hadn't lasted long. Like most of Emily's relationships.  

   It soon got around that Emily had seen Trevor the night of the concert, and they got into a scuffle because she was there with someone else, and he was still in love with her. The story went that he grabbed her arm and tried to drag her to his car so they could talk. She pushed him away and called him an asshole. There were three witnesses that claimed to have seen the fight. 

  "Trevor says that's the last time he saw her, but no one knows where he went after," Officer Pace told the family as he sat with them in the kitchen as he told them about the arrest. "He says that he went home and to bed, but no one saw his car at the trailer park, and he wasn't seen until the next day. An old girlfriend called in a tip that he had scratches on him a week after the crime. She said he blamed his friend's cat."

  "So is there strong evidence he did this?" Delcan asked in a hushed voice as he gripped his wife's hand.

  "We have witnesses that heard Mr. Owens threaten Emily and call her a 'whore' the night of the concert," he told them, and Becca winced at the word. "Apparently he was heartbroken when Emily ended things with him, and he was constantly trying to get her back. Friends of Emily's say that he used to call her phone excessively, but we weren't able to verify this with phone records. She has a lot of calls from burner phones, and people say that Mr. Owens uses those a lot. Sadly that isn't evidence we can use so that is why we're talking to you."

  "Did you know about him?" Pat asked Becca. "That this boy was obsessed with her?"

  "I have no idea," Becca admitted. "I didn't know him. I only talked to him a few times."

  "We impounded his car, and we're going over it, but we're not optimistic," he said. "It's been over six months, and he's had it cleaned time and time again. He says he's just a stickler about his ride, but we think he was actively trying to get rid of evidence."

  "But our best evidence is that his blood matches the blood we found in Paige's car," Officer Pace said, and Becca's heart swelled with relief. She felt like weeping, but she kept it together. Finally! "He says it's because he was in there talking to Paige after the show, and he had a torn knee from falling in the mosh pit at the concert. It sounds a little far-fetched, and I don't think a jury will ever buy it. Plus he's well-known to carry guns, and while we didn't find the one he used... we found at least twenty in his residence, and he's being held on weapon's charges as well."

  "And we also know he lost his class ring," Officer Pace said and gave a look to Becca. "His ex-girlfriend confirms that he was wearing it before the murder, but she hasn't seen it since."

  "Thank you so much," Delcan said as he stood up to shake the officer's hand. "So what do we do now? How do we help?"

  There was a lot of legal talk between the DA who came over with Officer Pace. Becca didn't want to hear anymore though. She went upstairs, and she began to weep. It was over. They knew who did it. Why though? It seemed so pointless. Why had he killed her little sister? And why Paige? They wouldn't be the first victim of random violence from angry teenage boys who were rejected, but it made her feel so angry that Paige and Emily's deaths were over a high school relationship that barely lasted a month.