Page 10 of The Killer She Knew

“Jeana and I, yeah.” The girl nodded, her mouth curling into a simple smile. “I can’t believe something like this happened. I haven’t stopped thinking about what I could’ve done better. If I could’ve stopped this from happening.”

“It’s natural to feel that way, especially when you lose someone close. Let’s start small.” Leigh motioned Tamra closer to the main doors the majority of students avoided to keep from getting wet for privacy. “Were you and Alice close?”

“No. Not like her and Jeana anyway,” Tamra said. “We mostly avoided each other. You know how some people just don’t get along?”

“Why didn’t you two get along?” Leigh attempted to ease Tamra’s sudden nervousness by forcing the tension out of her shoulders. Mirroring. The brain’s most powerful weapon during interviews and interrogations. “Did anything specific happen between you two?”

“It’s stupid, really.” Tamra laughed as if she couldn’t believe the words coming out of her mouth. Then shook her head to jar the memories free. “I accidentally picked up her phone off the desk thinking it was mine while she was in the bathroom getting ready last week. We have the same case. The phone wasn’t locked, and I shouldn’t have, but I got a look at her messages. I think she was talking to a guy. I didn’t even understand what I was seeing before she freaked out and started screaming at me about invading her privacy or some shit.”

They hadn’t recovered a phone on Alice’s body or from her dorm room. Had the killer taken it? “Can I see your phone?”

Tamra handed it over without hesitation. The cover was simple, clear plastic. The killer might’ve taken it for himself, but without a way to a track it using GPS as long as the towers were down—with another of Alice’s devices—they would have to use old-school techniques.

Leigh offered it back. “You said she was messaging a guy. Could you tell what kind of relationship the two had? Was he a family member, a boyfriend?”

They were still waiting on a list of acquaintances, professors, friends, and family names in Alice’s life, but with the power down and the generator out of commission, it was going to take too long until they got what they needed.

“I didn’t get a good look at more than a few words, but from the way she reacted, I could tell she was embarrassed.” The corners of Tamra’s mouth puckered as she squinted down between her feet. “Like it was some kind of secret.”

“Did she ever talk to you about someone she was seeing?” Could this mystery man be their killer? It took a lot of strength to drag a dead body to the middle of the Thompson Hall courtyard. The building itself was a good hundred feet from the main road with the nearest parking lot more than a block away. Whoever had dumped her body last night would’ve had to carry her in. Their unsub was most likely male. Much stronger than his victim. But without the location of where Alice Dietz had been killed, there were too many other variables to consider. “Or maybe any problems she was having?”

“No, but like I said, after I accidentally picked up her phone, she went out of her way to avoid me.” Tamra hugged her backpack tighter, and the first real glimpse of grief stained her blue gaze. “I wanted to tell Jeana about what happened. When I saw Alice’s messages. But she got so mad at me for even seeing them, I was scared of what she might do if she found out I talked to someone else about it.”

Leigh didn’t understand. “You said you didn’t see more than a few words.”

“I didn’t, but the ones I saw… It sounded like a threat.” Tamra’s voice broke on the last word. A frozen lake cracking under pressure. “Whoever she was talking to threatened her if she said anything, he would find her. And make her regret it.”

Pressure pooled at the base of Leigh’s neck. Since arriving on the scene this morning, she and Ford had hit nothing but obstacle after obstacle, but this was a real lead. Something that could point them in the right direction and add more context to Alice Dietz’s last days. “What didn’t this person want her talking about?”

“I don’t know.” Tamra shook her head. “That was all I was able to make out in the few seconds I had her phone. Alice came out of the bathroom and started screaming at me after that.”

“What about the person’s contact information at the top of the message?” Leigh asked. “Do you remember a name or a phone number?”

“It had a 603 area code.” The redhead cut her gaze to a grouping of students near the stairs to the second story, and a flush of pink filled her face. “I don’t remember anything else.”

Durham, New Hampshire. Someone local? Most students kept their numbers from home, but without the exact number Alice was in contact with, they had nothing until the cell carrier responded to a warrant request. Which she couldn’t submit without internet or cell service. A growing knot of frustration tightened in Leigh’s gut. Eighteen hours in, and all they had was a dead girl’s name. “When was the last time you saw Alice, Tamra?”

“Saturday night, though I don’t think she knew I saw her.” Tamra shifted between her feet, growing more agitated the longer her friends watched her from their circle across the lobby. “She was sneaking out again. I’m not even sure if Jeana knew.”

The descending silence cut short as Marshal Ford came up from the basement into the lobby. Leigh attempted a smile to reassure Alice’s roommate. “Thank you, Tamra. You’ve been a great help.” She pulled a business card from her blazer, slightly damp, same as the rest of her. “I know cell towers aren’t really reliable right now, but if you think of anything else that might help us find who did this to Alice, please let me know.”

“I will.” Tamra headed toward the back of the building into a gathering crowd of students, swallowed by the stranded masses.

Leigh forced her attention to Marshal Ford. “What’s it looking like down there? Any chance they’ll be able to repair the generator and get the power back up?”

“Not unless a whole new unit drops in their laps. It’s a massacre.” He swiped a line of sweat from his forehead with theback of his hand, but his wire-rimmed glasses still took a dive down his nose.

Damn it. The past month with a teenaged daughter had tested her patience to levels she’d never thought possible. Leaving very little to rely on now. “Were the forensic techs able to pull prints?”

“No luck. Son of a bitch must’ve been wearing gloves when he hacked at that thing,” Ford said. “I noticed the cameras down there were unplugged too. Even if we had power, I doubt there would be anything on the surveillance feeds.”

Which meant whoever’d sabotaged the generator had known where the cameras were installed and how to navigate the basement to get to it in the first place. “This doesn’t make sense. There is no way our unsub could’ve known a hurricane was heading in our direction and that it would knock out the power. Why go for the generator in the first place? And why are you and campus police only now trying to access them? It should’ve been one of the very first things you requested after Alice Dietz’s body was discovered.”

A flash of heat filtered into Ford’s expression, and the Boy Scout front slipped. “I requested access to the feeds within the first thirty minutes of stepping onto the scene, Agent Brody. The university president told me I needed a court order. To protect student and faculty privacy rights. Campus police doesn’t have the authorization to request warrants. We had to go through Durham PD to submit the request to the judge, and with everything being digital…”

Shit. Of course he’d already submitted the warrant request. And now they couldn’t get to the feeds even with a judge’s signature. Regret simmered under her skin and made her all the more uncomfortable in her own clothes. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have assumed?—”

“That I have no idea what I’m doing?” The notch of a smile was back. Ford finally removed his fogged glasses and stuffed them in his breast pocket. “It’s a good assumption when it comes to this case.”

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