The room was on the third floor. Deborah chose to vault up the stairs two at a time rather than waste time pushing the button for an elevator, and since this left me with not enough breath to complain about it, I didn't. I got there just in time to see the door to Tammy's room swing open to reveal a stocky girl with dark hair and glasses. "Yes?" she said, frowning at Deborah.

Debs showed her badge and said, "Tammy Connor?"
The girl gasped and put a hand to her throat. "Oh, God, I knew it," she said.
Deborah nodded. "Are you Tammy Connor, miss?"
"No. No, of course not," the girl said. "Allison, her roommate."
"Do you know where Tammy is, Allison?"
The girl inhaled her lower lip and chewed it while shaking her head vigorously. "No," she said. "How long has she been gone?" Deborah asked.
"Two days."
"Two days?" Deborah said, raising her eyebrows. "Is that unusual?"

Allison looked like she was going to chew her lip off, but she kept gnawing on it, pausing only long enough to blurt out, "I'm not supposed to say anything." Deborah stared at her for a long moment before finally saying, "I think you're going to have to say something, Allison. We think Tammy may be in a lot of trouble." That seemed to me a very understated way of saying that we thought she was dead, but I let it go by, since it was obviously having a profound effect on Allison.

"Oh," she said, and started jiggling up and down. "Oh, oh, I just knew this would happen."
"What is it that you think happened?" I asked her.
"They got caught," she said. "I told her."
"I'm sure you did," I said. "So why not tell us, too?"
She hopped a little faster for a moment. "Oh," she said again and then warbled, "she's having an affair with a professor. Oh, God, she'll kill me for this!"

Personally, I didn't think Tammy would be killing anybody, but just to be sure I said, "Did Tammy wear any jewelry?" She looked at me like I was crazy. "Jewelry?" she said, as if the word was in some foreign language-Aramaic, perhaps.

"Yes, that's right," I said encouragingly. "Rings, bracelets-anything like that?" "You mean like her platinum anklet?" Allison said, very obligingly, I thought. "Yes, exactly like that," I said. "Did it have any markings on it?" "Uh-huh, her name," she said. "Oh, God, she'll be so pissed at me." "Do you know which professor she was having an affair with, Allison?" Deborah said. Allison went back to shaking her head. "I really shouldn't tell," she said.

"Was it Professor Wilkins?" I said, and even though Deborah glared at me, Allison's reaction was much more gratifying.

"Oh God," she said. "I swear I never said." image