Page 67 of Little Last Words

“I do not. I will say this; she changed a lot toward the end of her senior year. That’s when she started being distant, and we grew apart.”

“I’d like to know more about her senior year. What was going on during that time? Did anything change for her with friends, or did anything happen at school or in her personal life?”

“I don’t know. All I can tell you is Penelope pulled away from us.”

“When did Dean come into the picture?”

“Oh, not until later.”

“How much later?” I asked.

“A year, I’d say. Perhaps more.”

I sat there, trying to process all the moving pieces in Sergio’s story.

Angelica and her meddling.

Penelope’s sudden interest in traveling, which seemed to come out of nowhere, and the fact she’d started to pull away from her parents and Zachary.

How did the pieces connect to each other or did they?

And had those pieces returned to haunt her all these years later?

Something had caused a change in Penelope, an unknown event triggering the events that followed.

“Did Penelope take the trip to Canada?” I asked.

“Sure did.”

Whatever she’d been avoiding, I believed Cambria was at the heart of it.

“If I may, I’d like to sum up what you’ve just told me,” I said. “In her first few years of high school, Penelope was happy, and you were close.”

“Correct.”

“She entered into a relationship with Zachary, and at that time, she planned to attend college.”

He nodded. “College was at the forefront of her mind. If she got anything lower than an A in a class, she’d go to the teacher and ask what she could do to get the grade up.”

“At some point during her senior year, she started withdrawing. She broke things off with Zachary, dropped her plans to attend college, and she followed through with her plans to travel to Canada. How long did she stay?”

“Nine months. She traveled around a bit after that, and then she met Dean at some backpacker hostel in San Diego.”

San Diego wasn’t far, a mere two hours away.

“Did she visit Cambria often before she moved back?” I asked.

“Not once. We always had to go to her.”

“Did you ask her why she wouldn’t come home?”

“Her mother did. Penelope said she didn’t want to talk about it. It was a strange time. The best way I can describe it is to say it was like someone reached inside Penelope’s soul, found her light, and snuffed it out.”

CHAPTER26

Down the hallway of the DuPont home, Sadie’s soft, angelic voice called out for Papa. He sauntered toward her room, returning with Sadie a few minutes later. She was still dressed in pajamas, even though it was early afternoon, and her hair was in desperate need of a good combing, but it was understandable. Angelica hadn’t been released on bond yet, and I suspected Sergio was doing the best he could under the circumstances.

As soon as Sadie saw me sitting at the kitchen table, her face lit up.