LITMIR.BIZ

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all-campus assembly today seemed completely disconnected from what had happened. It also seemed to be dragging on forever, making her feel even worse.

      Chief Hintz had just finished giving a stern lecture about campus safety and promising the killer would soon be apprehended, and now Dean Trusler was going on and on about how to get things back to normal here at Lanton University.

      Good luck with that, Riley thought.

      Classes were canceled for today, Trusler said, but they would resume on Monday. He said he understood if some students might not feel ready to go back to classes so soon, and also if some of them might want to go home to be with their families for a few days, and the school’s counselors were ready to help everybody deal with this horrible trauma, and … and … and …

      Riley tuned out and stifled a yawn as the dean rattled earnestly on, not saying anything useful as far as she was concerned. She’d barely slept at all last night. She had just drifted off to sleep when the medical examiner’s team had noisily arrived. Then she’d stood in her doorway watching in silent horror as the team carted away a sheet-covered form on a gurney.

      Surely, she’d thought, that can’t be someone who was laughing and dancing hours ago. That can’t really be Rhea.

      Riley hadn’t gone to sleep at all after that. She couldn’t help but envy Trudy, who seemed to have been out cold the whole night—probably, Riley guessed, from all the alcohol she had consumed earlier.

      Early this morning the dorm resident assistant had announced this meeting over the intercom. Trudy had still been in bed when Riley left. When Riley had come to the assembly, she hadn’t seen Trudy anywhere in the auditorium.

      Riley looked around now, but still didn’t spot her. Maybe she was still in bed.

      She’s not missing much, Riley thought.

      She also didn’t see Rhea’s roommate, Heather, anywhere. But Gina and Cassie were sitting a couple of rows ahead of her. They’d brushed past Riley on the way in to the meeting—apparently still mad at her for giving their names to the cops.

      Last night Riley had understood why they might feel that way, but now it was starting to seem childish. It was also extremely hurtful. She wondered if her friendships were ever going to mend.

      Right now, that “normal” the dean was talking about seemed gone forever.

      At long last the meeting came to an end. As the students poured out of the building, reporters were waiting outside. Right away they descended on Gina and Cassie, asking them all kinds of questions. Riley guessed that they’d managed to find out who Rhea’s companions had been that night before her murder.

      If so, they probably knew about Riley too. But so far they hadn’t spotted her. Maybe it was a lucky thing that Gina and Cassie had brushed Riley off this morning. Otherwise, she’d be right there with them, stuck answering impossible questions.

      Riley quickened her step to avoid the reporters, wending her way among the other students. As she went, she could hear the reporters prodding Gina and Cassie over and over with the same question …

      “How do you feel?”

      Riley felt a tingle of anger.

      What kind of question is that? she wondered.

      What did they expect Gina and Cassie to say in reply?

      Riley had no idea what she herself would say—except maybe to tell the reporters to leave her the hell alone.

      She was still awash in confused and terrible feelings—numbing shock, lingering disbelief, gnawing horror, and so much else. The worst feeling of all was a kind of guilty relief that she hadn’t met Rhea’s fate.

      How could she or her friends put any of that into words?

      What business did anyone have asking them that, anyway?

      Riley made her way to the cafeteria in the student union. She hadn’t had any breakfast yet, and was just starting to realize she was hungry. At the buffet she scooped up some bacon and eggs and poured herself some orange juice and coffee. Then she looked around for a place to sit.

      Her eyes quickly fell on Trudy, who was sitting alone at a table, facing away from the others in the room and eating her own breakfast.

      Riley gulped anxiously.

      Did she dare try to join Trudy at the table?

      Would Trudy even talk to her?

      They hadn’t exchanged a single word since last night when Trudy had bitterly told Riley to go to sleep.

      Riley summoned up her courage and maneuvered her way across the room to Trudy’s table. Without saying anything, she put her tray on the table and sat down beside her roommate.

      For a few moments Trudy kept her head low, as if she didn’t notice Riley’s presence.

      Finally, without looking at Riley, Trudy said, “I decided to skip the meeting. How was it?”

      “It sucked,” Riley said. “I should have skipped it too.”

      She thought for a moment, then added, “Heather wasn’t there either.”

      “No,” Trudy said. “I hear her parents came this morning and took her straight home. I guess nobody knows when she’ll be coming back to school—or even if she’ll be coming back.”

      Trudy finally looked at Riley and said, “Did you hear about what happened to Rory Burdon?”

      Riley remembered how Hintz had asked her about Rory last night.

      “No,” she said.

      “The cops showed up at his apartment late last night pounding on his door. Rory had no idea what was going on. He didn’t even know what had happened to Rhea. He was scared to death he was going to get arrested, and he didn’t even know why. The cops questioned him until they eventually figured out that he wasn’t their guy, and then they left.”

      Trudy shrugged slightly and added, “The poor guy. I shouldn’t have mentioned his name to that stupid police chief. But he just kept asking all these questions, I didn’t know what else to say.”

      A silence fell between them. Riley found herself thinking about Ryan Paige, and how she’d mentioned his name to Hintz. Had the cops also paid Ryan a visit last night? It didn’t seem unlikely, but Riley hoped not.

      Anyway, she felt relieved that Trudy was at least willing to talk to her. Maybe now Riley could explain.

      She said slowly, “Trudy, when the cops first got there, that woman cop asked me what I knew, and I couldn’t lie about it. I had to say you’d been out last night with Rhea. I also had to tell her about Cassie and Gina and Heather.”

      Trudy nodded. “I get it, Riley. You don’t need to explain. I understand. And I’m sorry … I’m sorry I treated you like …”

      Suddenly Trudy was quietly sobbing, her tears falling freely into her breakfast tray.

      She said, “Riley, was it my fault? What happened to Rhea, I mean?”

      Riley could hardly believe her ears.

      “What are you talking about, Trudy? Of course not. How could it be your fault?”

      “Well, I was so stupid and drunk last night, and I wasn’t paying any attention to what was going on, and I don’t even remember when Rhea left the Centaur’s Den. The other girls said she left alone. Maybe if I …”

      Trudy’s voice faded away, but Riley knew what she was leaving unsaid …

      “… maybe if I’d just walked Rhea home.”

      And Riley, too, felt a terrible pang of guilt.

      After all, she might well ask herself the same question.

      If she hadn’t gone off by herself at the Centaur’s Den, and if she’d been around when Rhea got ready to leave, and if she’d offered to walk Rhea home …

      That

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