Page 86 of The Lake of Lost Girls

Daisy’s face flushed with anger. “No, he didn’t. The police barely questioned him. The staff rallied around him, and his reputation, though slightly tarnished, remained intact. He continued to teach here, and prey on vulnerablewomen, until he retired five years ago. By the end, he stopped trying to hide what he was doing all together. What was the point when no one even tried to stop him?”

“It’s wrong that he never faced the consequences for his actions.” I felt the same simmering fury that Daisy clearly felt.

Daisy made a noise of revulsion. “Itiswrong. And that’s the kind of injustice I hear about every single day in this job. It’s what made me become a youth advocate—because I was tired of people being taken advantage of and I was tired of places like Southern State University allowing it to continue.” Her expression hardened. “You have to always be on your guard around men like Dr. Daniels. Around men like Ryan McKay. They make it easy to believe them.” Her words held a note of warning. “You can’t trust him, Lindsey. Whatever Ryan says is complete bullshit. He only knows how to lie and deceive.”

My blood turned to ice. That same inexplicable presence that had shadowed me for weeks had returned. It was a whisper on the back of my neck. I couldn’t stop myself from shivering. The feeling of being watched, ever present.

Daisy cast a wary look around, and I wondered if she felt it, too.

“Why are you so sure Ryan’s lying about where he was that night?”

She blinked twice as if she’d forgotten I was there. But then, her face cleared and she took on a look of seriousness that had me on edge.

“A few months before we graduated, Ryan and I were both at a party. He was drunk. I hadn’t really talked to him over the years. We had an unspoken understanding to avoid each other, which worked for me. I was trying hard to move on from what happened freshman year. That evening I found myself sitting in a back corner at a frat house and Ryan joined me.” She hesitated, seeming unsure if she should continue.

I waited.

“It felt weird to be around him. For him, too, I think. He got really emotional. We started reminiscing about Jess.Talking about the good times. It was all pretty nice, actually. But then …” she paused, “then he started babbling about how he knew something bad happened to her—that he saw her.”

“What?” I gasped.

“I was confused, too, until he told me how angry he had been that night. He was crying hard by that point, I could barely understand him. But what I gleaned from his drunken ramblings was that Ryan had driven to Jess’s house—yourhouse—to confront her. She had broken up with him and he was pissed off.”

“Ryan was at my house that night?” I repeated, needing confirmation.

“Yes, Ryan was there. And he saw your sister.”

CHAPTER15

JESSICA

Mid April 1999

THE WALLS WEREclosing in on me. I had no room to move. No way to escape.

Daisy was barely talking to me—not since the day the police had questioned her about her ID. I didn’t dare ask her why. I didn’t want to hear the truth.

I was dangerously close to losing everything.

Daisy had her headphones on while she worked on a paper for art history. I might as well not be there.

The phone rang, but I couldn’t bring myself to pick it up.

When I didn’t answer, Daisy finally stopped and gave me an irritated look. She answered it with a chirpy, “hello?”

Then she held out the receiver. “It’s for you. Not sure why you didn’t answer it.” She wouldn’t meet my eyes.

“Thanks,” I muttered, taking the phone from her.

“Jessica,” he said my name with a smile I could almost see.

“Hi.” I turned my back to my roommate, though I knew she was listening. She hadn’t put her headphones back on.

“I’m checking everything is still set for Friday,” Dr. Daniels said.

“Yeah.” I clenched the phone to stop my hand from shaking. Dr. Daniels had finally requested to see meoff campus.This had been building for weeks. It wasn’t a race to the finish line like I expected. When I pictured this, I hadn’t expected how gradually this man would sink beneath my skin. It actually took me by surprise. And even though I thought I was prepared, I had been almost seduced by his gentle persuasion.

Dr. Daniels hadn’t kissed me or touched me beyond brief moments of fingers on skin. He was subtle. He was shrewd. There were only a few occasions when he made his true objective known. The rest of the time he was 100% professional.

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