Page 30 of Make No Mistake

I started my car before answering. “I’m going to interview the victim.”

He didn’t respond right away. Either he was trying to think of the best way to answer me or he didn’t believe me.

“How?”

I smiled. It was rare that I surprised Jay. “I went to the police station to talk to the detective on the case.”

“Detective Larson?”

“The very one.”

“He couldn’t have told you anything. They haven’t released her name.”

“Oh, he didn’t. At least not officially.”

“What does that mean, Mckayla?”

Oh no. He was mad. He was like a dad sometimes. Using your full name to make sure you knew you were in trouble.

“He just wished me the best and hoped my friend, Ms. Platt, got better soon.”

“Platt?”

I could hear him typing. “There are almost thirty students with that last name.”

Crap. There goes that simple plan.

“Can you narrow it down?”

“How?”

“Only girls.”

The typing started again. “Ten.”

“We don’t know how old she is right?”

“No.” He sounded almost as resigned as I felt.

There had to be something else we could use to narrow it down. We didn’t know what she looked like, so we couldn’t use the ID pictures.

“What do we know about the attack?” I voiced my thought, hoping having him think through it with me would help.

“It took place at night. Around eleven.”

“Right, near the library, so she was probably studying.”

“She was headed home.”

“Right.” I kept thinking through the details.

“No, Mac. She was headed home. She lives somewhere on the south side of campus.”

“So?”

More typing filled the silence. “There are two female Platts that live south of campus.”

“Two is better than thirty.”