Page 93 of The Lake of Lost Girls

Daisy shook her head and then pulled me into a hug. “I have to do this on my own. I made a promise to Jess that I would make things right. And I’m promising you the same thing.” She stepped back, taking my hands. “I’m going to admit that I lied for Ryan. I’m going to tell them what Ryan saw. And I’m going to tell them what I know about Dr. Daniels.” She went to her desk drawer and retrieved a manilafolder. “I’ve kept years of documentation about his predatory behavior and how the school has covered it up. And if the police won’t do anything about it, I’m going to the press. It’s way past time.”

“You’re definitely going to lose your job over that one,” I warned.

Daisy opened the door to her office. “Then so be it. I need to put these ghosts to rest.”

We stared at each other for a long moment. We were mirror images of grief and rage. Whatever had happened, I knew I couldn’t blame Daisy. She had been young and scared, and quite possibly even deceived by the killer. I followed her out of the office. Once outside, Daisy turned to me, her lips trembling slightly.

“I’m sorry, Lindsey. I should have been honest a long time ago.”

“You’re doing the right thing now, and that’s what counts,” I assured her.

Daisy looked uncertain. “Before you go, there’s something else. I’m not sure if I should even mention it, but I don’t want to hold back anything ever again.”

“Okay …” I felt myself bracing for impact once more.

“You know how I mentioned Jess was acting strange after Christmas break? How much she had changed?” I nodded. “And I told you I had stopped trusting her.” I nodded again. “It has to do with my student ID card.”

My mind went to the interview transcript I had read in the case file. It was the reason Daisy had been questioned by the police in the first place.

“It went missing sometime before we left in December. I didn’t think much of it at the time because Jess would often use it when she couldn’t find hers.” She seemed to be struggling to piece things together. “Then the police called me downtown to ask about it. It wasn’t long after Meghan Lambert went missing. The detective wanted to know why I was at these different locations at the same time as the missing girls. And the thing was, I hadn’t seen that ID in months. I told the police that. I was freaking out by thetime I left, thinking they were looking at me as a suspect or something.”

“Understandably,” I told her, imagining how terrifying that must have been for her.

“Yeah, well when I got back to my room after the interview, the ID was on my desk, like it had been there the whole time. And when I asked Jess about it she said Ryan brought it back. That he found it in his dorm.”

“And it all comes back to Ryan again,” I said.

Daisy seemed conflicted. “Yes, sure it makes Ryan look bad, but that wasn’t the part that bothered me most.” She hesitated.

“What was it?”

“When I asked Jess if she had been using it, as I knew she had done before, she denied it. In fact, she tried telling me she only used it once, which I knew was a lie. I remembered handing it to her myself at least half a dozen times. But she insisted. As if my memory was mistaken.”

I frowned uncertainly, not sure what she was getting at.

“Even then, I knew when someone was trying to snow me. My bullshit meter has served me well over the years.” She gave me a small smile.

I wasn’t sure what her lying about using her roommate’s ID card meant, but it seemed important to Daisy. As if it confirmed a suspicion she couldn’t quite put into words.

“You know, I came to see you once,” Daisy added before leaving.

“You did?” That surprised me.

She looked distraught. “I did. I’d been worrying about you for so long, I decided to come and check on you. I knew Jess would want me to. Especially with how strained things were between her and your dad. I knew she didn’t really trust him. She loved him, yes, but trust him? Not so much.” Again, with the pointed remarks about my father.

“I drove over to your house. I knocked on the door, but no one answered. I could hear music and I thought it was coming from the house. So, I knocked again. Then I started looking through the windows to see if someone was there.”

“You’re lucky Mrs. Lewis, next door, didn’t see you. She would have turned the hose on you,” I chuckled, thinking of my busybody elderly neighbor.

Daisy didn’t laugh, she seemed … disturbed.

“Yeah, well, when I looked through the window of the garage, I could tell the music was coming from the yellow car inside. And I could make out someone, who I assumed was your dad, sitting in the driver’s seat.”

“So, he was sitting in the Mustang listening to music.” It wasn’t a question. I could picture what she had seen perfectly. I had seen it myself many times before.

“Yeah. He was just staring into space. Frankly, it creeped me out. I couldn’t see him clearly, because the window was pretty dirty, but I got the impression he was upset. His shoulders were shaking like they do when someone is crying. I felt weird being there, so I left and could never bring myself to go back.”

I thought about all the times I had found Dad doing the same thing. Sitting in his car, listening to music, staring out the window at nothing in particular. I’d always thought it was odd, but Mom never commented on it, so neither had I. But, obviously his behavior was peculiar, because Daisy was as bothered by it as I had always been.

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