My mind bounces back to my encounter with Zach in his house. He acted like he had a vague, passing acquaintance with Madeline. Either it was more, and he wanted to avoid admitting it, or he really didn’t know her that well—and the night in the alley behind Lance’s house was a drunken attempted assault he’s forgotten or written off as nothing.

“I don’t want to get anyone in trouble,” Rebecca says. “I told you about that party at Dr. Hoffman’s house, and you know, he’s taking over your class for you. So I don’t want it to get back to him I was talking about him.”

“I know about the parties he has for students,” I say. “We all do.”

I remember what Preston said about Lance that night a few years ago when he’d taken me out to get drunk. Did he just mean the parties or something else?

“Rebecca, I know how tough it is for you to talk about this kind of thing. I can see that on your face. And I know it’s weird for me to just come up to you this way on the street. I get it. But I think we need to do something more with this information than just keep it to ourselves.”

“I told the cops about it when Sophia died. My mom made me call them.”

“What did they say?”

“They took my statement over the phone. And they seemed really interested in anything I knew about that guy. Sophia’s husband. I thought they were going to arrest him, but I never heard anything else. I don’t want to get all tangled up in this again. I mean, I’m still a student here, and I don’t want Dr. Hoffman pissed at me because I talked about his party. And I don’t want that dude, Sophia’s husband, mad at me either. He might be dangerous.”

“Rebecca—”

“I’ve got to go, Dr. Nye.”

“Rebecca. Just wait. Just wait for a minute.”

Mercifully, she stays. If she hadn’t, I’d be faced with the prospect of either letting her go or else running out in the street, following along behind her while everyone downtown watches me.

She looks impatient, but she waits. Her upper teeth rest on her lower lip.

“There are a lot of people whose lives are being affected by what happened to Madeline. The police are investigating me.”

Her eyes widen when I say this.

“Did you know I was probably the last person to see Madeline alive when she first disappeared?”

“I heard that. Yes. But people say a lot of shit around a school. You can’t tell what’s the truth and what’s just nonsense people are saying to get attention. It really sucks.”

“I know. Everybody talks shit. It’s not just students. Did the police get back in touch with you when Madeline disappeared?”