“They asked me a few questions.”

“They had to, right? I know they came and talked to me and all of her professors.”

Her chin quivers, but she rights the ship. She folds her arms across her chest. The skin on her cheeks looks red and raw. “I wasn’t good friends with Madeline, so I didn’t know much. But I told the cops about the thing at the party. They acted all interested again, but I don’t know what they did about it.”

I tell her about the night I heard Sophia and Zach fighting, and how I went into their house and saw the trouble but didn’t notify the authorities.

“I hate myself for not calling the police. I really do,” I say. And when I say it, my face grows hot with shame at the memory. “If I’d called the police then, maybe Sophia would be alive. And maybe Madeline would be too. Do you see why I feel it’s so important for you to tell what you know now?”

“I already told it to them. And they didn’t care. They didn’t do anything, so that means they don’t care.”

“Why do you say that? Did something happen to you?”

She looks to my right, her eyes trailing over the well-worn and stained bricks that make up the side of Troy’s. Out on the street, brakes squeal as someone avoids an accident, but neither Rebecca nor I flinch.

“I have a friend. I knew her freshman year in the dorm. She wasn’t an English major. She didn’t stick around here long enough to declare a major at all. But she had a professor in one of her Psychology classes who started harassing her. First he’d ask her to come to his office. Then he wanted to meet for coffee. Here.” She points to the building, as though it’s to blame. “Then he wanted her to come to his house.”

“That should never happen, Rebecca. Never.”

“No, it shouldn’t. That’s why she reported the guy to the head of his department. But the head of the department blamed her. He said she was spreading gossip. It’s funny, isn’t it? It’s always gossip when a woman wants to talk about something.” She looks behind her once and then faces forward. “Then the professor, the one who was harassing her, he started coming down on her in class. Giving her lower grades. Not even giving some papers back. It all got to be too much for her. And she left Commonwealth. She transferred and really doesn’t talk to any of us anymore.”