Cord smiled. ‘You’re doing fine. So, this Anna, you weren’t friends with her?’

Angela shook her head. ‘Rachel only just met her recently, like within a few weeks, right around finals, maybe? Rachel said she didn’t go to UNM but didn’t say where she did go. Or if she did, I don’t remember. Honestly, I was so focused on studying for my tests – I can’t afford to lose my scholarship – that I wasn’t paying close attention.’

‘Do you think you could give us a description?’

‘I only got a glimpse of her a couple times when she and Rachel were heading out somewhere, but she had medium-length hair, kind of a reddish blonde, about my height. Skinnier, though.’

‘What can you tell us about the party Rachel attended?’

Angela raised both hands, palms up. ‘Really, not much. I mean, I wasn’t invited – not that I probably would’ve gone even if I had been. I don’t even know which frat house hosted the party.’

Cord glanced down at his notebook and circled something. ‘Okay, so aside from Rachel being inactive on social media, what makes you think she’s missing instead of just sleeping off a hard night of partying? After all, some of these parties can go into the wee hours of the next morning.’

‘Rachel posts about everything– mostly pics and selfies – but other than when she first arrived at the party, there was nothing. Sometimes if she parties too hard, she’ll just hang somewhere and sleep off her hangover like you said, and at first, I thought maybe that’s what she was doing. But when she didn’t come home last night either, and I still didn’t see any posts, I told my mom about it, and we decided if I still hadn’t seen anything or heard from her by this morning, I needed to call.’ She chewed on a hangnail sticking out of her thumb. When she spoke again, her voice cracked. ‘What if something’s happened to her, and I’ve waited too long?’

‘We don’t know what happened, so let’s not jump to any conclusions.’ Alyssa did her best to reassure the girl. But if something had indeed happened to Rachel Otis, they needed to get moving on it soon because they’d already lost those first precious twenty-four hours. ‘I know you said you weren’t invited to the party, but do you know anyone else who might’ve gone?’

‘Chance Williams.’ She rolled her eyes as she said his name. ‘He’s um, a bit of a player. He posted tons of pictures on his Insta from Saturday. He’s with a different girl in every one. He fancies himself a real Lothario.’ She shot a sideways glance toward Cord before concentrating again on Alyssa. ‘He’s hot, and he knows it. It’s like he gets a thrill out of knowing everyone wants him, and he can pick and choose the ones he wants.’ A small smile lifted the corners of her eyes. ‘Well, almost.’

‘I take it you turned him down, and he didn’t appreciate it?’ Alyssa clarified.