August 23, 1996

It turns out that I'm not the only person here who has secrets. I'm not the only person who knows what they did. Not that it matters because the only witness refuses to come forward. There won't be much of a choice left after tomorrow. I'm going to call Sheriff Ramirez. I should have called him from the beginning. By the time mom gets back on Monday, everyone will know what she and her boyfriend did. Maybe Melanie and her mom will let me stay with them until this blows over. Is that possible? Could this really be almost over? I've been angry for so long. I'm not sure I know what normal is anymore. I guess I'll worry about that as soon as I see the two of them behind bars. It won't be long now. The end's right around the corner. I can feel it.

Final diary entry

Andra sat on her floor going over all the files she had made on Savannah's death for about the millionth time since all this started. She just couldn't make it make sense. With everything she had here, she was still missing something.

There were still so many unanswered questions. Who was the Colonel? Was he the man at the top of the stairs? Who did Savannah meet at the Bluffs? With time quickly running out and no more leads to follow it seemed that her unanswered questions were going to remain just that.

After the phone call with Jennifer, the day before Andra had contacted the house's previous owners. That conversation hadn't lasted long. The son of the previous renter was Mason Barnes. He had two younger sisters and all told they had spent around two months of their adolescent lives in the house on Pinewood Drive. He was very polite through the introductions until the moment that she explained the reason for her call. Immediately his demeanor turned cold. All he would say before disconnecting is that the house had ruined his and his sister's lives and that it would be better for all involved if someone burnt the cursed place to the ground.

Andra could honestly say that she wasn't too upset about the turn the conversation had taken. It had been just a formality anyway. Just another box to check. The family wouldn't have had any information on Savannah or her death anyway. Just one more story to add to the pile of stories about slamming doors and bodiless voices and not one single clue as to why any of those things were occurring.

Frustrated she began stacking everything she had gathered back into neat piles and putting it away into their separate folders.

For the first time in several days, she was on her own. Cameron was handling the audiovisual portion of their live stream. He had friends he said who volunteered in the drama department at the high school. They would not only know exactly what equipment would be needed but they even had access to it. Andra had talked to him just that morning but unless there was some type of drastic emergency he would be busy elsewhere this afternoon. The water leak had finally been repaired at her mother's office so Denise was back at work.

Having put everything away she found herself struggling with what to do now. She sat down in front of the open laptop on the desk. Within seconds she had pulled up her YouTube page. She noticed her subscriber numbers had jumped.

This didn't excite her the way it would have at one time. There was no joy in it. Getting people to watch this live stream just felt like a means to an end now. She just needed it to be over. The countdown clock told her that they had 4 days 8 hours and 20 minutes left.

Andra pulled up the screen and prepared to record. She checked her background and then her reflection. Once she was sure everything looked the way she wanted it to she took a deep breath and then hit record.

"Hi everybody! Just wanted to drop in and give a quick update. So as you can see we're quickly approaching the big day. I can't wait for you guys to see the story we have for you. All I can tell you about what's coming is that we will be live streaming. This is going to be a longer event hopefully so have your popcorn ready. Also, don't forget we'll be taking questions throughout and you might even be able to help us. Well if we're going to make it by our deadline I need to get out of here and get back to work. This will probably be my last video until we go live so until then stay safe God bless and remember to hit the subscribe and like button. Bye."

She posted the video and then sat tapping her fingers on the desk. She picked up her phone skimming through the numbers and stopped at Conrad's. Cameron's voice filled her head suggesting that she could ask Conrad about the man she had seen without asking about the man she had seen. She was suddenly struck by an idea. Hitting Conrad's name in the contact list she sat fidgeting in her chair while she waited for him to answer.

Conrad picked up on the third ring. "Hello?"

"Hi, Conrad. It's Andra."

"Well hello, Andra. No Cameron today?"

"No not today. He had a few errands to run."

"I understand. So I'm assuming this isn't just a social call."

"Not exactly," Andra said sheepishly. "I had a couple of questions for you."

"Ok. Shoot."

"If you're searching for a murder suspect where is the first place that you would look? As a police investigator, I mean."

"Do you have someone in mind?" Conrad asked.

"No. Not yet. Just curiosity and hoping that maybe we'll stumble across something else."

"Well in that case as strange as it sounds we pay special attention to everyone at the funeral or memorial service. I don't know what they get from it but nine times out of ten your murderer will be at one if not both of those events. It doesn't always go that way but I'd say it goes that direction more often than it doesn't."

"Ok. That's actually really helpful. Savannah had a community memorial service didn't she?" Andra already knew the answer to this question but she just wanted to hear it confirmed.

"Yes, she did," Conrad answered.

"Thank you. I was also wondering if you had found anything on Gloria or the people close to her?"

"Nothing," Conrad said. "I've been going over a list of her coworkers but there's just no one there that she seemed to be close to and no one that would have earned that particular nickname."

"That's kind of what I thought you would say but I figured there was no harm in checking."

"I'll keep looking and if I find anything I'll let be sure to let you know."

"I'll do the same. Thanks again for all you're help and I'll talk to you later I guess."

"Alright," Conrad replied. "Be careful Andra. Bye."

"Bye." She answered hitting the end button. With a sigh, she pulled a small notebook out of the desk drawer. In it were scribbled names and dates in her small neat hand. She flipped through until she found the page she was looking for. She began to type different dates into the search engine followed by Savannah's name. It pulled up quite a few articles from out-of-town papers that Andra had already seen but she wasn't interested in the print today.

Sliding the little arrow up the screen she clicked on the Images tab at the top of the page. Within seconds her computer screen was flooded with pictures. Andra began the arduous task of sorting through the different images and deciding which ones were pertinent to her search.

There were several versions of the same school picture of Savannah that Andra had already seen. There were pictures of her at different high school functions that had appeared in various papers and publications after her death. Near the center of the page, she found what she had come here for. Photos taken the night of Savannah's memorial service. Andra didn't hold out any hope of finding pictures of Savannah's funeral. It had been a very private affair. The memorial service was a different story, however. It had been held on the high school football field and open to the public.

She began slowly flipping through the pictures taking a moment to examine the details of each before moving on to the next. She was a dozen pictures in when she found him. He had been a focal point of one of the photos standing in the center of a small group of people. One hand was on the shoulder of a thin blonde girl with a ponytail the other held a candle. His eyes were trained on a small stage that had been set up on the fifty-yard line and the person who was speaking there.

The world went gray as Andra realized who it was she was seeing. In her mind's eye, she could see his face as he turned on her. She could hear his laughter as Savannah's body crashed broken and dying to the floor below him. It was worse than Andra could have possibly dreamed. Suddenly everything began to fall into place and she understood more than she had ever wanted to.

With a trembling hand, she grabbed her phone. It took her three tries to find Cameron's number as she kept scrolling past it. The phone rang for what felt like an eternity. Finally, Cameron answered. "Hey, An. Is everything ok?"

"No. Cameron, I need you to come over if you can."

"I'll be right over. Are you hurt? Has she been back?"

"No it's just that-" she let out a small sob and then started again. "I found something Cameron. I know who killed Savannah."