“She was fast-tracking, trying to graduate early, I think. The term she went missing she had a load of six classes, eighteen credit-hours. And she worked part-time at a local pizza parlor. Here’s a kicker, too. All of the girls, without exception, participated in Father Mathias’s morality plays, again associated with the English Department.”

“Morality plays?”

“I know. Kind of out there, isn’t it? Like something out of the Dark Ages. I haven’t really figured them out yet, but I heard a couple of girls in the class on vampirism talking about the first one of the term being Sunday night, so I thought I’d check it out. Don’t suppose you want to come?”

“You want me to?”

Did he make it sound like a date? Probably, because Kristi backtracked fast. “No, I’ll go alone. It’ll be better. People might notice you.”

“Maybe I should go.”

“Nope. I mean it, Jay. This is my deal.”

“I don’t like this,” he muttered. If she was right, there was a psycho on the loose, abducting women from the campus; if she was wrong, something was driving the girls away. Four missing coeds within less than two years on a campus this size was more than unusual, more than suspicious. “I can’t believe the university isn’t all over this.”

“The administration is trying to sweep it under the rug. Admissions are already down and they don’t want any more bad press. I brought it up with the dean of students and was shuffled right out of her office. Told I was imagining things and treated as if I had the plague.”

“But the liability—”

“Only if you recognize it. They’re into the ‘see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’ mode. Therefore the evil doesn’t exist.”

“My ass.” He stared at the charts and shook his head. “You have to take this to the police.”

“Oh, yeah, right. Think about it.” She finished her drink. “Let’s say I stroll into the Baton Rouge Police Station. Who do I talk to?” she asked with a lift of her shoulders. “Probably the Missing Persons Department, right? Maybe I’ll have these charts with me. And then I’ll say…what? That I’m the hotshot New Orleans detective Rick Bentz’s daughter and you’d better pay attention to me? Even if I don’t bring him up, they’ll put two and two together and get all pissy about jurisdiction and protocol.”

A thin black cat slid through the partially open window over the sink.

“If I did anything so ludicrous, I’d be thrown out on my ear and my dad would be called on to the carpet. No thanks.”

She had a point.

“Hey, Houdini,” she said as the cat shot off the counter and under the couch. “Getting friendly, aren’t ya?” she joked as the cat peered suspiciously from the shadows.