“Does he know what?” Bellamy asks.
“No,” I say. “Then the semester started and that was it for their interactions, according to him. He wasn’t the TA of any of the classes that she was taking and they didn’t get together socially. They ran into each other a couple of times, obviously. It’s a really small campus. It’s not unusual for people to see each other throughout the day even unintentionally. But then the rumors started. People started saying that she was implying they were together, and that people had heard she was forcing herself into his life.”
“But that wasn’t his experience?”
“Not really,” I tell her. “He said he noticed that sometimes they were eating at the same time, or she’d show up in study halls or at groups he was leading. But so did a bunch of other people. It wasn’t as if she was doing anything obvious. But the rumors got worse and worse. It ended up escalating to the point that the administration called him in to question his ethics.”
“What did Julia have to say about any of this while it was going on?” Bellamy asks.
She leans back against the arm of the couch and rests her hand on her stomach. I smile. There’s nothing there. Not even a tiny bump. But there will be soon. I’m sure she can tell the difference in herself. It’s amazing to think that in all this chaos and horror, something so peaceful and beautiful is happening.
“Again, it was just his side of the story, so he doesn’t know everything she said in her interviews. But what he does know is that she denied ever spreading those rumors or doing anything to try to get close to him. She didn’t know who was saying those things about her, or why they would be. The only thing she would admit to was that she thought Corey was attractive, but that was the end of it. By the time she came back for the orientation, she was seeing someone.”
“Who?”
“He doesn’t know. In the end, the rumors got so bad and the campus was so miserable for her, she ended up leaving.”
“Do you really think that’s what happened?” Bellamy asks.
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“That seems like a pretty extreme reason to leave a school. I can understand rumors and being uncomfortable these people are talking about you. Especially on a small campus. But if you deny them, and the person who you are supposedly stalking says that he’s seen no evidence of it, what is there to run from? It just seems as if there’s something else in play that maybe even he doesn’t know about.”
“In the day planner, it mentions that she saw him and that she had no words. I wonder what she meant by that,” I point out.
“Maybe she knows that because of her his reputation got dragged out into the public sphere, too. Maybe she wasn’t afraid of him or upset about his being around. She is just uncomfortable knowing what he went through,” Bellamy suggests.
“What’s really interesting is one of her professors, Professor Murillo, had very similar rumors going on about her, at around the time Julia disappeared. That she was sleeping with one of her TA’s. I asked her about it, and she wasn’t particularly pleased that I would bring it up, but she denied it. I don’t know how they could be linked since it happened at two different schools with two different guys, but it’s interesting.”
“It definitely is that. Have you made any other headway on the Carla Viceroy murder?” Bellamy asks.
“The receipts and other records they were able to get show that she bought a ring, a book, a pair of pajamas, and something from a kitchen goods store. Nothing traceable.”
“Looks as though you were set up,” Bellamy says. I let out a sigh and nod. “What’s next?”
“I am still trying to figure out who Jeremy is. I’m hoping the information her old high school sends me will help with that. Tomorrow I’m meeting with Professor Harris to go over the research his criminal justice club did for some of the other murders in the area to see if I can find any links.”
“Criminal justice club, the web-sleuth thing Lydia was a part of. When did people start deciding they could solve crimes and it would be a fun hobby?” Bellamy asks.
“I don’t know. But right now, I will take an armchair homicide detective if it will straighten out some of these question marks.”
She looks at me strangely. “Into what, exactly?”
“Exclamation points,” I offer, demonstrating by curling one of my fingers over so it looks like a question mark, then popping it up straight.
She nods and takes another sip of her tea. “Did you get that one from Xavier?”
“He has a t-shirt.”
“I’m sure he does.”
Chapter Fifty
“Look at this,” I point to the map in front of me. “There are three right in this area, all within ten miles of Larsonville College. They happened within a year and a half. Then there are several more that happened near here, but over a longer time frame. I also found two near where Julia’s parents live. The issue is, they all have different patterns, so it’s harder to conclusively link them.”
“Obviously, my club didn’t look into all of these murders. But I can give you the research they did into Samantha Murray’s death. That one really captured their attention. I think because it was so close to home for them. She had been a student here and lived near so many current students. She had friends on campus.”
“I know,” I say. “One of them was Lynn Bartholomew, Julia’s roommate. She’s actually the one who told me to look into the murder. Something to do with a scarf.”
“Ah, the infamous scarf,” Professor Harris nods. “That
