Rebecca goes to one more class after she leaves Hoffman’s office—World History II—and while she sits through that lecture on Henry VIII, she starts to worry that she shouldn’t have said anything about thinking she’d seen Madeline at the library. Especially to Hoffman.

Once she’d mentioned it, his interest perked up in a weird way, and he showed more enthusiasm in talking to her about Madeline than he had about her thesis. The discussion of her own work seemed more like an excuse for him to ramble on and on about things he wanted to talk about—just like he had in Nye’s class—but when the conversation turned to Madeline and the possibility she was back in town, Hoffman asked question after question. And actually appeared to be listening to the answers.

It now seems silly to think she worried he’d be dismissive of her concerns, like Nye was. Hoffman kept the conversation going for almost twenty minutes, and it felt like he was playing the role of detective, as he wanted to know everything Rebecca knew about Madeline.

Rebecca admitted she didn’t know much. They weren’t such great friends. But Hoffman pushed.

“Maybe she had her heart broken by someone and left.”

“She never mentioned any guys to me,” Rebecca said.

Hoffman nodded, like he wanted her to say more. She wasn’t sure what she could have said. But Hoffman looked so eager to hear, she went on.

“Madeline was kind of secretive about her life,” she said. “Once before Christmas break the year she disappeared, I asked if she was looking forward to going home. I know I was. I couldn’t wait to be in my parents’ house with good food and plenty of hot water. But Madeline said no. I thought she was kidding, and I laughed. But she looked really pissed at me for laughing and said, ‘No, I really don’t want to go home. I’m staying in Gatewood as much as I can.’ ” Rebecca shrugged. “She said it in a way that made it clear she didn’t want any follow-up questions.”

“Interesting,” Hoffman said.

And Rebecca thought that would be the end of it.

But he went on and said, “So maybe she had a guy here in town she wanted to spend time with. Do you think that’s possible?”

It’s strange—Rebecca knows about the guy at the party. And the party was at Hoffman’s house. But Madeline swore her to secrecy about that. Rebecca considered breaking the promise, and would have if Madeline were dead. But since Madeline might be here . . . and since Hoffman might be freaked out if she mentioned something that went wrong at his house, she kept her mouth shut.