Page 38 of Random in Death

“You were looking at her, Leelee? Did you see anyone behind her?”

“All kinds of people. Everyone was dancing and shouting or singing or clapping, whatever. Avenue A slays that song, and we’d never heard it live, which is slay it max. I thought somebody like stepped on her foot or bumped her hard. That’s what I thought.”

When tears dripped again, her mother cracked the tube, urged it on her. “Drink a little, then take a breath.”

“’Kay. I guess she looked mad. Mostly when you get bumped it just happens, but she looked mad, and she did that little jerk. That’s when she said about getting jabbed. I still thought it was just like somebody caught her with an elbow or something.”

“What did she do then?”

“Ah. I think I started to say chill, but she grabbed her arm. Like this.” Leelee pressed a hand to her biceps. “So then I thought, I guess somebody’s elbow really jabbed her, like ouch. Then she kind of turned around, and looked behind her. She said ‘Asshole,’ then she like brushed it off, and we kept dancing. So I still thought elbow jab. A hard one.”

And maybe so had she, Eve realized.

“Before she brushed it off, and she turned around to look, what did you do?”

“I guess I was sort of dancing, and I looked at the stage because I wanted to watch.”

“You didn’t notice anyone leaving the dance floor, just about that time? Right after Jenna turned around to look.”

“I really didn’t. We were all still riding that smile and the music.”

“I maybe did.”

Eve shifted her focus to Chelsea. “You saw someone moving off the dance floor.”

“Maybe.”

“Stop and think,” her mother told her. “Are you seeing someone because Lieutenant Dallas suggested it, or because you think you did?”

“I think I did. Like I wasn’t really paying attention because we were totally wrapped. But he was sort of…” She rocked her shoulders side to side. “Like, ah, showing off, like guys walk when they think they frost it. But he wasn’t dancing, he was walking away, and I thought: Dooser can’t wait until the end of the song, which was ripping it, to take a piss. Sorry.”

Audrey cast her eyes to the ceiling. “Rules relaxed.”

“Can you describe him?”

She shrugged. “Dooser. I think black baggies and a black shirt, maybe. He had his hands in his pockets, like he was frosting it.”

“Was he tall, short?”

“I dunno, maybe sort of short. I dunno.”

“How about hair color, skin color?”

She shrugged. “The lights were all swirly and red. It was only a couple seconds. I just noticed he walked like a dooser. I didn’t even think about it last night. I swear.”

“We didn’t know to ask you about it last night,” Peabody said in her I-understand tone.

“We never thought anybody hurt Jenna. We were all feeling so mag, and Leelee and I said we’d get some cold drinks.”

“Because Jenna wanted to go sit down, work it out how to meet Jake. She said she was all floaty, but we thought it was The Smile.”

“I bet she did, too.” Peabody reached out, gave Leelee’s hand a squeeze.

“We never saw her again. When we finally got back to the table, we thought she’d gone looking for us, or gone to the bathroom. So we went to the bathroom, and the line took forever. If we’d looked for her sooner, or looked faster, maybe—”

“Chelsea.” Eve cut her off. “It wouldn’t have mattered. As much as you would’ve wanted to help her, you couldn’t have. No one could.”

“Are you sure? We would’ve called for help, an ambulance, the police.”

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