“It’s okay,” I said. I watched her but she didn’t look back at George Square. “Do you know much about Dr. Eban?”
“I guess I know his reputation.”
“Because you go to school here, or because of where you live?”
She thought a moment. “Both, probably. I don’t know if I would know about him if I didn’t live in a building with so many medical school students. Since I do, though, I pay more attention to things that might be said about him.”
“Like?” I said.
She made a doubtful noise in the back of her throat. “I’m not really sure. I don’t want to say anything that’s … Well, I shouldn’t have said what I said in the first place.”
She turned and started walking again. I kept pace.
“Do you think you should tell the police about Dr. Eban? Maybe because of Mallory specifically. Even rumors should be considered, maybe. I shouldn’t have chastised you. I’m sorry.”
“Oh, I already told the police,” she said as if it had suddenly become clear to her that that had been my concern all along. “That was the first thing I told them. They showed up not long after you left Sophie and Rena’s. I … I happened tae see you leave. Oh, yes, I told them.”
“Good.”
“It’s what Rena and I discussed last night. When she said she was as sure as I was that Mallory was with Dr. Eban and that’s why she hadn’t come home. It seemed like the right thing tae do.”
My steps hitched as I processed her words.
“Last night?” I said. “You talked to Rena last night?”
“Sure, when she got in, she stopped by Mallory’s door and knocked. I heard her so I peered out, told her I’d seen Mallory leave after coming in with Sophie an hour or so earlier. I’m a light sleeper, and I hear and see almost all of the ins and outs in our building. I wish I could sleep better, or that the walls were thicker, or that I couldn’t see most everyone coming and going.”
“What time was that?” I asked, holding back on suggesting she could close her blinds.
“One or one-thirty,” she said.
Hadn’t Rena said that she’d come home shortly after Sophie? Sophie and Mallory had left the pub at around midnight.
“Rena got home that late?” I said.
“Aye, she does sometimes. We all do,” Lola said.
“I remember,” I said. I was probably reading way too much into Rena’s late night and the lie about when she got home. She was a grown-up who’d just taken a big anatomy exam. A late night with whatever activity she desired was well deserved and she didn’t owe anyone an explanation. Unless murder had been involved, of course. And, she’d knocked on Mallory’s door. Mallory was a grown-up too. Obviously, she had left at some point after dropping Sophie off. She’d been killed in the close. That didn’t mean she’d been with Dr. Eban. I wished I’d thought to somehow ask Dr. Carson if she knew where her husband had been all night.
“You remember … being at university?” Lola asked.
I smiled. “I do. I worked hard, but I wish I’d had a little more fun.”
Lola laughed. “Not a problem for me. In fact, my first couple of years’ marks show how I should have held back on the fun a wee bit.” She looked toward the small, ornate old building we’d come to. “This is my stop. After seeing you a few times over the past few months, it’s nice to have finally met you, Delaney. I’m sure I’ll see you around.”
“Nice to meet you too,” I said as she started up the building’s front stairs. “Hey, Lola, did you by chance tell the police what time Rena made it home?”
She turned and shook her head. “I don’t think so. Not specifically at least. It didn’t seem to matter much. Do you think I should?”
“I do.”
“Okay.” She looked up to a man waiting for her by the doors. “Gotta go though.”
I nodded and watched her greet the man in a knit cap. They hurried inside without looking my way again. Though I’d enjoyed school, I was grateful I wasn’t on my way to classes or exams. And especially to group project meetings.
I’d probably already ruined my relationship with Sophie and Rena, but I really wanted to know why Rena had gotten home so late, or had left and then come back.
If I hadn’t ruined it yet, it looked like that was next on my agenda.
TEN
“They haven’t answered my calls,” I said to Tom as I balanced my phone on my shoulder and took the coffeepot from its perch on the machine. I’d tried to call Sophie and Rena a few times since leaving Lola at the university the day before. “I’m not surprised, but I don’t want to just stop by their flat again. Yet. I might later today.”
“You had a productive day yesterday,” he said into his phone. “What do you think Rena was up tae after the pub?”
Saturdays, date nights for many couples, were the evenings Tom and I most often didn’t spend together. They were, naturally, one of the pub’s busiest nights, and Tom sometimes didn’t close in time for us to be together, at least with me still awake enough to be good company. As with this Sunday morning, he was usually back in the pub early to finish any remaining cleaning and do his weekly paperwork. It was a comfortable routine, and we both usually tried to go our own ways with the hope of getting together later in the day. We enjoyed our Sunday afternoons, but for now a phone call would have to do.
“Rena was probably not doing anything that had anything to do with the murder, but I’m curious. Why did she lie? Except that her personal life is none of my business. I’m aware of that. And maybe it wasn’t technically a lie. She probably did come home
