Page 35 of The Perfect Poise

"Yeah, you know," she said, amused by his confusion, "instead of a deep dive. I don't have time for that right now."

“Oh, I get it,” he said, “so what did you find out?”

“Okay,” Hannah launched in, happy to review what she learned for her own benefit, as well as his, “Dana Marie Douglas, twenty-year-old sophomore. Business Administration major, just like Clayton. From up north in Bakersfield. Graduated 14th in her senior class. No criminal complaints as an adult. I searched to see if there were any sealed juvenile records that might suggest something untoward when she was younger, but nothing popped.”

“I forgot that you know how to sneak around legal corners to find what you’re looking for,” Finn marveled. “How do I know you didn’t do that with me?”

“First of all, I’ll take that as a compliment,” Hannah retorted, aware he didn’t mean it as an attack but a little defensive nonetheless. “Kat Gentry taught me well when I was an intern at her detective agency. And second, you can rest assured that I absolutely did a deep dive on you. I thought you might be sending my roommate threatening messages, remember? I know all about you, Finn Anderton.”

His already ruddy cheeks turned scarlet. “So you were saying something about Dana?” he deflected.

“Right,” she continued, not pressing any further. “No legal issues to speak of for Dana. No disciplinary problems here at Irvine. Good grades as a freshman and so far this year.”

“So do you think this Clayton guy is blowing things out of proportion?”

“Not necessarily,” Hannah answered. “A spotless record in the past doesn’t say much about what’s in her head now. She could have stalked people all that time but just never been found out. Something might have happened recently in her personal life that made her snap and start behaving this way. Her past history, or lack of one, is relevant but it’s not exculpatory.”

“But so far, you haven’t found anything?” Finn pressed.

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Hannah said. “The girl who was originally in Clayton’s project group, Bridget, did get food poisoning according to resources I won’t share with you because I don’t want you to judge my legal sneakiness again. And I did find footage from Clayton’s apartment building showing her leaving around the time he said he saw her. But there are only exterior cameras at the complex, not on the individual floors, so that’s not definitive. There’s nothing I could confidently claim proves or disproves his concerns.”

“So what now?”

Hannah sighed.

“I’m thinking of taking Clayton up on his offer.”

“What offer?” Finn asked.

“He’s supposed to have a meeting with Dana and the other member of their group, Van Moseby, tonight at Langson Library,” she explained. “But Van is out of town and won’t be back until late tonight. Dana supposedly still wants to get together. Clayton thought it might be a chance to catch her in the act somehow, maybe extract a confession and record it.”

“So he wants you to be there, like nearby as witness, to catch her saying something incriminating?”

“Pretty much.”

Finn smiled broadly.

“Maybe I can help,” he suggested.

“How?” she asked, skeptical but curious.

"I could go too," he said. "You're not as famous as your sister, but you have been in the news a few times in the last few years because of…the stuff that happened to you. What if she recognizes you and gets suspicious? What if she knows about how you’ve been helping out fellow students and wonders why you’re there? If you think that you’re made, you can leave but I’ll still be around, hanging somewhere inconspicuous, to be an extra set of ears.”

Hannah held up her hand. "I'm sorry, but did you just say, 'if I think that I'm made?' What is this, a Philip Marlowe movie or something?"

“I don’t know who that is,” Finn said without shame.

She shook her head.

“That’s a very sweet offer but not necessary.”

“Really,” he insisted, “I don’t mind at all.”

“How about I agree to keep you in mind if I need your help?” she suggested.

“Keep me in mind?” he repeated with a scoff, “as opposed to considering all your other candidates?”

“You don’t know,” she told him, trying to keep a straight face. “Maybe I have an intern of my own.”

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