One of Those Faces (50)

“What? Why would they ask you?”

“I was on the street when she got murdered. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I heard and saw her in the alley that night.”

She took a step toward me. “What did you do?”

“I didn’t get a good look at anything that night, and that’s what I told the police,” I said. “But I had to tell them that I know Jeremy and that he was at the studio that night.”

Her blue eyes were daggers. “I can’t believe you.”

“I don’t understand. Not long ago you and Jeremy were over and now you’re absolutely certain he had nothing to do with Holly’s death?”

“Yes.” She clenched her jaw.

“Okay,” I said, defeated. “I’m sorry I woke you up. I just wanted to make sure you were all right.” I grabbed my bag and walked to the door.

“He and Holly were still friends,” she muttered. “Ask Iann.”

Iann? I whipped around, but she was already around the corner, shutting her bedroom door.





CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR


By the time I met Iann for lunch that afternoon by the campus, I’d replayed Erin’s words over and over again in my mind.

Ask Iann.

But I didn’t ask him. Instead I listened while he discussed his recent meeting with his faculty advisor. I answered with a terse “It’s fine” when he asked how I was feeling about the Jeremy situation.

“I haven’t seen him since he got released,” he said, furrowing his brow and dipping a fry in ketchup. “I can’t stop worrying about what he’s doing and if he really saw you that day at the station. Did you talk to Erin?”

I nodded. “Yeah. Apparently she knew all about his ex-girlfriend. She’s completely behind Jeremy on this. I’m pretty sure she’s not going to talk to me now.” I guessed I’d find out tonight at the studio for sure.

He frowned. “You’re just looking out for her. She should be careful. I mean, I hate to think that he’s capable of doing something like that, but you never know.”

Ask Iann.

I studied him. When I’d first told him about Jeremy, he’d said he didn’t know Holly. “Erin said something today about—” My phone buzzed. “Hold on, this is her.” I quickly answered. Was she in trouble? “Hey, is everything okay?”

“Hey,” she said flatly on the other end. “I wanted to let you know Hannah’s taking your class tonight. Don’t come in.”

So she was pissed. “What? Why?”

There was a buzz of chatter in the background on her end. If I focused, I could make out Jeremy’s low voice among the cacophony on the other end. “It’s a private party, and they specifically requested her.”

Bullshit. I glanced at Iann as he chewed a bite of his burger. Don’t make a scene. That’s what she wants. “Okay, fine. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow night then.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“Is everything okay?” Iann asked after I hung up.

“Erin gave my class away tonight.” I imagined Jeremy’s smug face from the night when Erin had introduced us. I pushed my plate away, eyeing Iann.

“What were you going to say before she called?”

“Hmm?”

“You were about to tell me something Erin said earlier,” he said.

It became apparent in that moment as I looked into his soft brown eyes, the sting of Erin’s call still ringing in my ears, that she’d just been trying to make me crazy about this. For whatever reason, she wanted to throw me off Jeremy’s scent and onto Iann. I smiled and shook my head. “Nothing. I already forgot.”



I clutched my jacket tighter around my waist, then cupped my coffee mug between both palms as the wind rattled through my hair. After leaving Iann, I’d realized another reason Erin might have wanted to keep me away from the studio tonight.

It was hard to see inside from the street, but I could make out Jeremy’s highlighted hair, never straying far from Erin as she bustled around the studio near the end of class. Hannah had taken off before the customers even began packing, leaving Erin and Jeremy to clean up the place. Although, by the way his head constantly eclipsed hers, his hands around her waist, they weren’t accomplishing much.

I took a sip of my coffee, backtracking to behind the streetlamp as they emerged from the studio’s front door. I could see them better from this angle as they walked toward the street, pausing to kiss once they reached it. Jeremy extracted something from his coat pocket and folded it into Erin’s open palm. I caught the flash of the yellow plastic pill bottle before she dropped it in her purse.

My heart sank. She’d been out of rehab for nearly a year now, and this whole time I’d thought she’d stopped. What was in the bottle? Uppers? Downers? Erin had never been one to discriminate.

Eventually the two untangled from one another, and Jeremy headed in the opposite direction of Erin’s apartment. I watched Erin stagger away—she’d had at least three glasses of wine by my count—before I set off after Jeremy.

He never once looked over his shoulder or paused on his way to the train station. I nearly lost my nerve after I boarded the train, suddenly aware that he only had to glance through the crowd of passengers the right way to see me on the other end of the car. I waited a few seconds before exiting after him downtown. To my surprise he transferred to another train heading north.