“My phone. I always have it in my back pocket. Never wear any pants that don’t have a back pocket. I know it’s stupid, because I’m not so important that I couldn’t miss a call, but I just feel better when I have my phone on me.”

“Okay.”

“Then I left.”

“The building?” he clarified.

“I...” She hesitated, then scratched behind her left ear. “Actually I had to stop in the bathroom. I have IBS. Irritable bowel syndrome,” she added. “Sometimes I need a bathroom rather quickly and that was one of those mornings where I didn’t think I could wait until I got to work.”

He’d already had one conversation about diarrhea with Olivia Blow and he didn’t want to have another one now. But he wanted to make sure he had her full statement. “After you used the bathroom, what happened?”

“I left.”

“Did you see anyone as you left?”

“No. I mean, I saw Kara in the bathroom but that was it.”

“Kara?”

“Yeah. Kara Wiese. She’s a teacher there.”

Fifteen

Shana Federer had signed her daughter in at 7:08.

“If you went to the bathroom directly after you left Mia’s classroom, what time do you think it was that you saw Kara Wiese?”

“This is embarrassing,” she said.

“I’m sorry.”

“I guess it would have been about four or five minutes later. I have to go urgently so it’s generally pretty quick, you know. I had to get to work, too.”

“Right.” So that meant it was 7:12 or 7:13. Kara Wiese had been adamant that she hadn’t left her classroom prior to 7:30 because Claire Potter didn’t arrive until then and she couldn’t leave the children alone in the room. “Which bathroom did you use? The one in Mia’s classroom or the one in the hallway?”

“In the hallway.”

“And you’re confident that you saw Kara Wiese in the bathroom?”

“Well...yes. I mean, I thought it was her. We’re not friends but I’ve seen her a bunch of times at the day care.”

“Do you remember the conversation?”

“I don’t know. She was standing at the sink when I came out of the stall. It was sort of embarrassing because...well, you know, it’s always better if the bathroom is empty and I didn’t know how long she’d been standing there. Anyway, I think I said good morning and she said good morning and I washed my hands and left.”

“She was still in the bathroom when you left, still by the sink.”

“I think so.”

“What was she doing?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t really look at her that closely. Maybe she was doing her makeup. Sometimes that happens to me when I’m running late. I put my makeup on at work.”

“Can I see the time on your phone?” he asked.