Page 32 of Make No Mistake

“They still haven’t found the person that did this to you.”

She cringed and nodded. “I know.”

“I know you probably don’t remember much, but I want to do whatever I can to make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else.”

“Me too.” Her voice tightened. Obviously she was still in pain. Part of me felt terrible being here, bringing up the source of it, but I also knew she understood. “You’ll be the one to write the next article?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

“Good.” She looked down at her hands on her lap. “I’ll tell you what happened. More than what the police have said. I just want to make sure it’s the truth that comes out.”

“Of course.”

“I knew you would agree.”

I smiled and prayed she would let me know how she knew me.

“Mr. Jowett talks about you all the time. Well, you and Jay.”

I narrowed my eyes. “What does he say?”

She giggled. “That you two are his dream team. He knows once you two graduate, the paper is going to be in trouble, but he’s hoping a few of us can fill in the gaps.”

Oh! She was a journalism student. Mr. Jowett only taught two classes, one section of the introductory class and our advanced class. She must be a freshman. I swallowed. How terrible that this was the experience that would likely define her first year.

I laughed with her. “He’s kind. It takes the whole crew to make each edition great.”

“I hope I can be an editor like you when I’m a senior.”

“It’s really fun. I hope you can too.”

She looked down at the bear then back to me. “So what do you need to know?”

“Let’s start at the beginning. You were leaving the library?”

“How did you know?” She seemed genuinely shocked. “That wasn’t released.”

“Christina, you were walking down the path that leaves from the library. There are a few other buildings in that area, but none are opened past seven. The library was the only option.”

“Wow.” I gave her a puzzled look. “You really are an amazing reporter.”

I shook my head a smiled. “You’ll learn to use any information you have to solve the mysteries too.”

She nodded. “So I was leaving the library. It was almost eleven and my roommates asked me to be home by eleven so we could get to the theater early for the midnight showing of Never Stop.”

I nodded and pulled a notepad out of my purse. I wrote down that detail. It may not matter but you never know.

“I was about halfway down the hill on the path when I heard someone behind me. I turned around but didn’t see anyone so I kept going. I pulled out my phone to text my roommate. I wanted her to know I was on my way, just in case.”

“In case what?”

“In case something happened to me.”

“You had a feeling something was going to happen?”

“I just had a bad feeling, and I wanted her to know to expect me in a few minutes.”

“Did you send the text?”