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Ryan’s face had gotten increasingly despondent as he listened to her response.
“We’ll look into all of that,” he told her, “in the meantime, you’re under arrest.”
“For murder?” Wallace demanded, incredulous.
"No, for driving under the influence," he said, helping her to a standing position.
Jessie could sense the frustration emanating from Ryan and felt some of it as well. But a bigger part of her was relieved. Now that they could likely eliminate Kayley Wallace as a suspect, they could focus on finding the real killer.
The big question was whether they could get to whoever was doing this before they struck again.
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
For the first time since starting college, Hannah skipped class.
She was already acing Psychology Fundamentals, which she found ironic considering how comprehending her own psychology often eluded her. Still, she figured that she could get the notes from a classmate later. Today, she had higher priorities.
As she walked back to the residence hall just after noon, she went over everything again in her head. She was still smarting from the failure at last night’s fraternity party and knew that once Finn Anderton shared the story of their encounter, her reputation would take a real hit. How long would it take for her to be known as the crazy chick who liked to make wild allegations against guys?
But she had to set that concern aside if she intended to find out who was harassing Lizzie. It was a small price to pay if her efforts ultimately ended in her friend being free of these attacks. That’s why she was doing her due diligence. Even though Anderton had made a compelling case that he wasn’t the culprit, Hannah still followed up.
She had spent much of the morning talking to people he knew, including students from his dorm floor, old classmates from Waterview High School, as well as ones here at UC Irvine. No one had a bad word to say about him.
Equally important, his claim that he and Daniel weren’t tight seemed to be borne out by former classmates’ comments, and all the information she could glean from old Waterview school papers, yearbooks, and photos. Even in their senior year lacrosse team photo, Finn and Daniel were on opposite sides. There was nothing beyond the circumstantial tying the guys together.
Hannah had decided it was time to look elsewhere and review any new evidence she found in an unbiased way, just as Jessie would. That meant focusing on what she knew to be definitively true about whoever was doing this. One certainty was that the person responsible for the vile notes and threats either knew Lizzie or at least knew of her. The harassment was too specific to her time at Waterview High to be a coincidence.
This person was likely stalking Lizzie too. They seemed to know her schedule well enough that they felt comfortable leaving notes on and under her dorm room door without fearing she would show up unexpectedly. They also knew where she parked her car, which was a good five-minute walk from her dorm.
Hannah considered going to the registrar to see if anyone had requested Lizzie's schedule but thought better of it. The harasser would know that would leave a record, and the registrar probably wouldn't give out that information anyway. More likely, whoever was doing this simply followed Lizzie around for several days. If they were committed to making her life a daily hell, then stalking her wouldn't feel like such a big deal.
It was that realization that had Hannah headed back to the dorm. She had decided that her best bet might be just to talk to Lizzie’s other on-campus friends, however few there were, to see if they had noticed anything. Lizzie might have been oblivious to someone following her around all day, but maybe someone else had noticed it and just not registered it consciously. Or maybe one of her friends knew that someone had a beef with Lizzie but hadn’t thought it was significant enough to mention to her.
When Lizzie got out of class, Hannah planned to ask her for a list of other students she was close to. In the meantime, she decided to talk to Lizzie’s roommate, Bellamy. They apparently didn’t meet each other until arriving at college, but that didn’t mean that Bellamy might not have noticed something worthwhile.
Hannah dashed up the stairs to the third floor of the dorm, walked down the hall to Lizzie’s room, and knocked on the door. As it was lunchtime, she wasn’t even sure if Bellamy would be in.
But to her relief the door opened, and Hannah found Bellamy Betancourt standing in front of her, wearing a sweatshirt with a kitten on it, pajama bottoms, and slippers. Petite, with short blonde hair and bright blue eyes, she looked more like a high school freshman than a college one. She was eating peanut butter directly from the jar using a plastic spoon that didn't look up to the job.
“What’s up?” she asked, her lips smacking as she tried to get the words out.
“Is Lizzie around?” Hannah asked, fully aware that she wasn’t.
Bellamy looked at the clock on her wall, which read 12:07.
“I think she has class until 12:30. I can tell her you were looking for her when she gets back,” she said, before adding with a snarky smile, “That is, unless you want to use that new-fangled texting concept to reach out to her.”
“That’s okay,” Hannah told her, not playing along. “Do you have a minute? I actually wanted to talk to you about her.”
Though she seemed surprised by the question, Bellamy shrugged and opened the door all the way. This was the first time Hannah had ever been in Lizzie and Bellamy's room without Lizzie there, and it felt almost like an invasion of privacy.
“Is she okay?” Bellamy asked, motioning for Hannah to take a seat on Lizzie’s bed. She plopped down on her own.
Hannah debated how best to answer. She knew that Bellamy was aware of the harassment. How could she not be when some of the notes were slid under and taped to the door they shared? But she also knew that Lizzie hadn’t confided in her roommate any more than she had to. It was too embarrassing. So she tried to broach the subject without violating Lizzie’s trust.
“So you and Lizzie have been roommates for a couple of months now,” she began. “How’s that going?”
“Cool, I guess,” Bellamy said ambivalently. “I was a little worried when I first moved in. I’m from Seattle and didn’t really know anyone here. But she’s been nice. Since she’s from the area, she’s given me some good suggestions for takeout and delivery places.”
