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CHAPTER NINE
Jessie was waiting in her hospital room when Lizzie woke up.
The girl looked around, clearly disoriented. Jessie got up and held a cup with a straw to her lips. She sucked down the water voraciously.
“Can you talk?” Jessie asked when Lizzie was through gulping.
“Where am I?” the girl asked hoarsely. “Who are you?”
“You’re in Valley Presbyterian Hospital,” Jessie told her patiently. “I’m Jessie Hunt with the Los Angeles Police Department. We met last night, though you were pretty drugged up at the time. Do you remember last night?”
At first Lizzie just looked confused. But then the memories seemed to flood back in. In an instant she grimaced and closed her eyes tight.
“I remember enough,” she said quietly.
“Do you remember talking to me?”
“Not really.”
“Okay, then let’s start fresh. I’m sorry, but the questions I have to ask you are going to be difficult. But in order to find out what happened to Michaela…”
“Mick,” Lizzie corrected. “She went by Mick.”
“In order to find out what happened to Mick, I’m going to be blunt and I need you to be honest, okay? Don’t try to protect her memory by keeping important details from me. Everything is going to come out eventually, so the sooner the better. Are we clear?”
Lizzie nodded.
“Okay, let’s start with how you knew Mick.”
“We went to high school together at St. Ursula Academy. She graduated a year early and we kind of lost touch. But we reconnected a few months ago. I go to school at Cal State Northridge and didn’t want to live on campus. She had a new place and wanted a roommate for company. So I moved in.”
“It’s a pretty nice place,” Jessie said gently. “You were able to afford it as a student?”
“I only paid a quarter of the rent, basically for the room. She footed the bill for everything else.”
“She could afford that?”
“I guess so,” Lizzie said unconvincingly.
Jessie decided to hold off before pressing on that point.
“So you’ve been roommates a few months now?” she asked.
“Uh-huh. Since last fall actually.”
“And what were you doing last night before you came home?”
“I had a study session. I came home around nine forty-five. Mick gets up early for work lots of days so I tried to be quiet in case she was asleep.”
“But…” Jessie pressed, sensing Lizzie wanted to say more.
“But I saw that her light was on. So I peeked in and…” She trailed off.
Jessie opted not to push on the details of a crime scene she’d seen herself. She didn’t want Lizzie’s emotions to overwhelm her and prevent her from providing other important details.
“I asked you this last night but you were a little out of it. Did Mick have a significant other?”
“No. She was single.”
