“Thank you, Marla.” Jeffrey offered his hand. Then he took it back.
“Hello?” Sibyl sounded like a softer, less intense version of her sister. “Are you Chief Tolliver?”
“Yes.” Jeffrey felt like a certain kind of fool. His only way out was honesty. “I’m sorry, Dr. Adams. I’m not sure how to navigate this. How can I make you more comfortable?”
She smiled radiantly. “It sounds awfully loud in here. Do you mind walking outside?”
“Absolutely.”
She used her cane to find the door.
He held it open for her, saying, “Thank you for coming by. I know you’re busy with Spring Break coming up.”
“This takes priority.” She tilted her chin up toward the sun. The rain had passed. There was a crisp breeze in the air. Her accent was softer than Lena’s but still pure South Georgia. “What can I tell you about Beckey and Leslie?”
“I know the highlights. They were both good students. You taught both of them.”
“I have Beckey this semester. She was supposed to meet me at seven yesterday morning. I had given her the usual warning about wasting my time, but I was honestly surprised when she didn’t show. She was generally hard-working and respectful.”
“What about Leslie?”
“The same. Hard-working, good attitude. She applied to the graduate program. I wrote her a letter of recommendation.” She added, “To be frank, I don’t fraternize with undergrads. I’m close to their age. I’m trying for tenure. I don’t want to be their friends. I’m their teacher. My job is to mentor them.”
Jeffrey understood. As obstinate as Lena could be, he felt a tremendous reward any time he was able to drill something useful into her thick skull. “Do you know anything about Beckey or Leslie’s social lives? Maybe you saw them—”
Sibyl smiled, because she didn’t see anything. “I hear quite a lot. Schools thrive on gossip. So I can tell you that Leslie was arguing with her roommates. I have one of them in my three o’clock intro to chem: Joanna Gordon. She’s been complaining about her living situation lately. Apparently, there’s been some stealing going on.”
Jeffrey remembered Bonita Truong mentioning that her daughter had complained about some clothes and a headband that had gone missing. He was grateful that the voluminous number of student thefts were handled by campus security. “Would you say that Leslie was temperamental?”
“I gather you’re asking if I think she ran off in a fit of pique?”
Jeffrey frowned, but then he realized she couldn’t see him frown. “That was some pretty tough going, what happened yesterday. I don’t think many girls that age would be able to handle what she saw.”
“I don’t think many boys would, either, but would we be having this conversation if one had?”
Jeffrey cringed, but she couldn’t see that, either. “I’m relying on facial expressions to smooth out the awkwardness.”
She smiled. “I know.”
Jeffrey looked up the street. He could see a group of students heading to class. He asked Sibyl, “Is there anything that feels weird about this to you?”
“Do you think my loss of sight has sharpened my other senses?”
“No. I think you’re a teacher, and having been a student for many years, I know that the one thing teachers are really good at is seeing through bullshit. And not with their eyes.”
She smiled. “You’re right. I’ll tell you why I don’t think Leslie would run away. The work matters to her. She’s spent most of her life getting to this level. She’s got deep roots at the school. She’s in the band. She volunteers at the math lab. She has responsibilities. And I know that someone from the outside might think that all of these responsibilities are burdens, but that’s not how Leslie looks at them. It’s a very difficult thing being a woman in science. You must know this from Sara.”
“I do.”
“You have to fight twice as hard for half the respect, and then you go to sleep and you wake up the next day and you have to fight the same battles all over again. Leslie was willing to do that. She knew what she was getting into. She relished the challenge.”
Jeffrey kept his gaze on the end of the street. He didn’t want to think about optics, but one missing student, another gravely injured, and a bunch of cops who stood around asking about hysterical young girls was not how he wanted his police force to be viewed.
Sibyl asked, “You know she’s gay?”
Jeffrey felt his eyebrows spring up. “Leslie?”
“No, Beckey.” Sibyl explained, “I heard her telling Kayleigh about a Dear Jane email she’d received from her high school sweetheart. Beckey sounded quite raw over it. Kayleigh was urging her to get back out there. Beckey said she wanted to concentrate on her schoolwork.”
Jeffrey wasn’t sure why Lena hadn’t mentioned this detail in her report. “You’re talking about her dorm mate, Kayleigh Pierce?”
“That’s right,” Sibyl confirmed. “Between us, I think she was crushing on Kayleigh. I noted a change in the cadence of her voice. I’m not certain Kayleigh felt the same way. It’s hard at that age. Feelings are so intense.”
“Is Leslie Truong gay?”
“She had a boyfriend.” Sibyl added, “Of course, that doesn’t mean much. This is still a very small town, and I work at a very conservative school.”
Jeffrey felt the need to apologize on behalf of the town. “There are good people here, but you’re right. We are not as welcoming to minorities as we should be.”
“Are you saying I’m a minority?” She put her hand to her face. “Oh, no.”
Jeffrey took way too long to realize that she was kidding. Maybe because he was wondering if he was looking at a hate crime. Which he could’ve been thinking about a lot sooner if Lena Adams had done the same easy detective work as her sister and figured out that Rebecca Caterino was gay.
He said, “Thank you, Dr. Adams. I really appreciate your dropping by to talk to me.”
“Oh, is that it?” she asked. “I assumed when Lee mentioned Leslie that you wanted to ask
