Page 30 of Cross My Heart

‘See you at 2pm.’

The message is from Lara Southerly, one of the girls I found in the yearbook photos with Wren. With a little internet sleuthing, I managed to track down her information and reach out, saying I would love to chat. She works in publishing in the city, and agreed to meet for a coffee, so here I am, speeding towards the capital, wondering if my investigation is finally going to lead somewhere. The two of them seemed close, and as I look again at the pics I snapped of them laughing together, I wonder if Lara will be able to fill in any of the blanks about my sister’s time in Oxford. She could know who Wren was hanging out with, where she went. Maybe she was even at the party that night, when Wren was taken…

I take a deep breath, trying to get my nervous expectations under control. It was a while ago, I remind myself. Lara may not know anything to help me in my quest. But still, it feels good to be moving forward in my investigation. Whoever sent me that note hasn’t contacted me again, and I can’t just sit around and wait for them to reach out.

I need to track down the answers another way.

The train pulls in at Paddington Station, and I navigate my way to the Underground, buying a ticket and following the color-coded maps to catch a subway train over to the Bloomsbury neighborhood. The trains are packed, and the city bustles with hectic activity, a big change from the sedate, peaceful vibes in Oxford, but I like the crowds. I’m anonymous here, no need to lie or pretend to keep a cover story going.

At least, not quite so many lies.

“Tessa?” Lara waves me over when I arrive at the café, greeting me with a friendly hug. She’s a petite, curvy redhead wearing smart pants and a chunky gemstone necklace, already settled at a table with a pot of tea and a tray of little scones. “I figured you’d enjoy the full English afternoon tea,” she says, smiling. “It was Wren’s favorite, too.”

I nod. “She always did have a sweet tooth.”

Lara looks at me sympathetically. “I couldn’t believe it, when you said she passed away. What happened? If you don’t mind me asking.”

“It was an… accident,” I say vaguely. I decided to take a risk and share the news of her death with Wren’s old friends. It seems like the right thing to do, especially when they might decide to log online and reconnect with her. But still, I’m keeping the full truth under wraps. “Just a tragic accident. Nobody saw it coming.”

“God, how awful.” Lara shakes her head. “And she was so young. I’m so sorry for your loss.”

She reaches across the table and squeezes my hand. I blink, struck with a sudden, fresh pang of grief.

“Thank you,” I manage, swallowing back the tears that threaten to flow.

Even after all this time, the ache of Wren’s loss still has the power to blindside me.

“Anyway,” I take a breath, and force a casual smile. “I’m over here studying, at Oxford, actually. She always talked about how much she loved it here, I wanted to follow in her footsteps. You guys were friends, back then?”

“Oh, the best of friends,” Lara smiles again. “Not that I had a choice in that. It was literally the first day I arrived in Oxford, I was still unpacking my things, when there’s a knock on the door, and Wren is standing there with a bottle of cheap wine in one hand, and the biggest smile. She said that since she was going to be living just down the hall, we were going to friends, and that was it. We had the best time…”

“Any wild stories?” I prompt her gently.

“Oh, a ton!” Lara laughs. “There was a guy living on the floor below us, this math genius from Berlin. Anyway, he swore he could only focus late at night, playing the most godawful techno music. It was impossible to sleep! Wren and I tried everything, begging, pleading, bribery, but he wouldn’t quit. So, we broke into his flat one night…”

“And broke his stereo?” I ask, smiling.

Lara grins. “No, that was my idea, but Wren thought bigger. She brought in some mold cultures from the lab and spread them in all his pantry cabinets! Soon enough, the college declared it a hazard zone and moved him to another building. And we got to spend the rest of the semester in blissful peace!”

I laugh, just picturing it. “That sounds like Wren,” I say, smiling fondly. “She could think up the wildest pranks. And nobody ever suspected her,” I add. “Because she seemed like such a good girl.”

“Yes!” Lara laughs. “Oh, and then there was the time she wanted to see some of the countryside, but our rental car broke down, and we wound up hitchhiking…”

We sitand chat over tea for another hour. I get swept up in all her stories, about late-night study sessions, and drinking at the bars in town. I miss Wren so much and hearing about her from someone else’s perspective is a gift I wasn’t expecting to receive.

“It sounds like you two had a great time at Oxford,” I say, a little wistful. It’s lovely to hear about the good times my sister got to experience, but there’s a sadness, too, when I think about all the joy that was stripped away from her. Burned to ashes by some unknown assailant in a dark cell room.

Lara nods, but her smile fades. “We did. At first.” She pauses, giving me a careful look. She’s clearly trying to gauge just how much I know about the change in Wren, so I nod.

“I know things changed for her,” I say carefully. “It was before Christmas, right? She seemed pretty stressed. The workload, her experiments in the lab…”

Lara looks relieved. “Something changed with her. She withdrew, started blowing me off.”

“And she didn’t say why?” I check.

Lara shakes her head. “I was pretty mad at her for ghosting me like that, but we were all so busy. Oxford can be intense,” she adds. “Then the next thing I hear, she dropped out and went back to America. I tried reaching out, but… She never got back to me.”

“I’m sorry,” I tell her honestly. “There was a… family emergency. Everything was pretty rushed. I’m sure she would have talked, if she’d been in the right headspace.”

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