Page 91 of The Lake of Lost Girls

Rachel:So it’s true that Jessica was sleeping with the same professor who had been involved with Tammy, Phoebe, and Meghan?

Stella:Spill the tea.

Erica:It’s true. Jessica would tell me everything. I knew all about her and Dr.… can I say his name?

Stella:I wouldn’t. Not until he’s officially named as a person of interest.

Erica:Okay, well anyway, we were super close. She was a literal sister to me. You know, because we were both pledges of Pi Gamma Delta. I have to say hi to all my sisters out there! Love in our bond!

Rachel:That means you knew Phoebe, too. She was a pledge, right?

Erica:Phoebe was the sweetest. We had so much in common. We spent so much time together. I’ve been a wreck since they found her body.

Stella:Back to Jessica. You said she was definitely sleeping with her teacher?

Erica:Oh, absolutely. But that was the kind of girl Jessica was. I loved her, but she had her faults. Everyone knew Jessica was out of control. She was cheating on her boyfriend and she was even put on academic probation and kicked out of Pi Gam.

Rachel:Really? I thought she was a good student.

Erica:No way. She was a hot mess. If she hadn’t disappeared, she would have been kicked out of school.

Stella:Wow, goes to show you never really know what’s going on with people.

CHAPTER16

LINDSEY

Present Day

“WHAT DO YOUmean he was there?” I demanded.

Daisy lit another cigarette. The incessant smoke was making me ill.

“Ryan was at Jess’s house—your house—that night. He admitted it to me. And given how mad he could get sometimes, and how jealous he was of Jess spending so much time with Dr. Daniels, I now wonder if he did something to her … even accidentally.” She appeared apologetic for her bluntness. “I refused to see it then because I was so fixated on Dr. Daniels, and Ryan was right there, pushing me down that path. But hindsight is a bitch, and looking back now … I have to ask myself, is that really why he lied? My young, naive self accepted his story and filed it away as another justification for being his alibi. Because it reinforced the idea that he would have been unjustly labeled a suspect, but what if I was wrong?”

I was glad I was sitting down. The suspicions about Ryan had been sitting there, in the back of my mind, since finding out he had been Jess’s boyfriend. But I hadn’t fully accepted them.

But now I couldn’t deny the real possibility of his guilt any longer. And I had been alone with him in his car. My foolishness was infuriating.

“What about Dr. Daniels? Isn’t he as much of a suspect as Ryan?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

“Of course. Or maybe he’s simply your run-of-the-mill white, middle-class pervert. Being a sleaze doesn’t mean you’re a murderer,” Daisy scoffed bitterly. “The only way this will ever be solved is if I tell the truth. If the police know everything. Because either way, he needs to be exposed. Whether he’s responsible for Jess and the others is up to the police to figure out.”

Had Ryan really hurt Jess?

Could he have killed all those women? Was he actually a serial killer who had gotten away with his crimes for over two decades?

I had believed him when he said he only wanted to find out the truth, yet he had lied to me from day one. Had I been completely bamboozled by a killer?

“You don’t believe it was someone else?” I croaked.

“You mean those theories about a random serial killer stalking campus?” Daisy looked doubtful. “Not anymore. Look, at the time, everyone was terrified. Women couldn’t go anywhere without thinking they were going to be snatched by some stranger. The fear was everywhere. In everything we did. You couldn’t escape the idea that any one of us could be next.”

“So what do you think now?” I asked, already knowing, and dreading, her reply.

“I think it’s too easy to cast suspicion on a faceless villain. No one wants to blame the very real evil that may be right there in front of you. Oftentimes, the truth is something you don’t want to admit to yourself. I’ve learned to stop putting my head in the sand. Which is why I’m going to the police with everything I know about Ryanandabout Dr. Daniels.”

“I never really believed it was a stranger either,” I admitted. “We all have heard that when a woman is hurt, most of the time she knows her attacker. The police believe that as well. Lieutenant Higgins says that the women knew the perpetrator.”

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