Reputation(69)

I hitch forward in my chair. “Really?”

“The girls follow each other on Find My Friend. It’s a pretty common app—”

“I’ve heard of it,” I interrupt. “In fact, I’ve used it, with the girls. But I’ve become lax with it, lately. They’re good kids . . .”

Willa drums her fingers on the table. “Raina’s app has a history of where Sienna was that whole night—it’s a little square around campus, and that’s it. Though she did say that if I made public what I’d figured out about her, she’ll delete the evidence. I tried to bluff, saying Sienna’s alibi doesn’t matter, but Raina must know Sienna isn’t innocent in all this. Maybe Sienna slipped that she wrote the Lolita e-mails. Raina knew it was a good bargaining chip.”

“Shit,” I whisper. Then again, proof that Sienna wasn’t anywhere near the murder was good. Just in case the cops ever figure out she’s Lolita. Then I lean forward. “Did she say anything about why she lied to me about when she found out about Greg’s death?”

Willa frowns, confused, and I explain to her how Raina said she was right next to Sienna when she actually wasn’t. “That’s why I was suspicious of her in the first place. I thought she was trying to cover up for having snuck to my house and killed him.”

Willa shrugs. “She showed me her own data for Find My Friend. She really was at that party. Same as Sienna. I guess they just were in different rooms or something.”

“Is there a way to fake Find My Friend?” I ask.

“I mean, I guess.” Willa takes another fry. “One of them could have planted their phone at the party, I suppose. But that requires quite a bit of forethought. Also, Raina’s data shows the phone moving around, like someone naturally would at a party.”

I settle back, trying to think this through. Maybe Raina was just confused, then. Or maybe she said she’d found out with Sienna because that’s how she wanted it to go down, even though it hadn’t. It was hard to know.

Willa twists her mouth. “How do you feel about all of this?”

“I don’t know,” I say, and it’s the truth. Getting the news about Sienna being Lolita was brutal enough. I still can’t wrap my mind around it, and I still don’t know if not saying anything to the police is the right move. A few times, I’ve peered at the card Ollie Apatrea gave me at the funeral, wondering if I should call him. Maybe he’d be a good sounding board. Maybe we could talk off the record. But then, he’s still a cop. It’s probably still too dangerous.

But now finding out Greg was paying a random girl to go to Aldrich? Couldn’t he have used that money for charity? For us?

I shut my eyes, grief pounding down on me again. I can’t ask Greg why he did this. I’ll never really know. His absence is surprisingly staggering. It also makes me want to smash things, because this is a person I was supposed to know well, but maybe I didn’t know him at all.

I take a breath. “So now what?”

Willa stands and slings her purse over her shoulder. “I’ll let you know soon, but I have to go. I’m late for something.”

“You’re leaving? Why?”

“Just . . . a meeting.” Two red blotches form on Willa’s cheeks, almost like she’s embarrassed. “I’ll see you later, okay?”

She’s about to get up when her gaze lingers on something else on the TV screen. Aldrich Students Hint at Assault Allegations Post-Hack. The closed-captioning reads that a few e-mails have surfaced on the hack about things happening to girls at fraternity parties on Aldrich campus. Two girls have shared their stories on closed groups on Facebook, and the posts have quickly circulated.

“Oh dear,” I say.

But my sister doesn’t answer. She shakes her head with disdain. After a final glance in my direction, she zips up her jacket, and ducks her head. “I’ll see you later,” she says, and hurries out to the street.

I watch her rush across the avenue, my head propped in my hand, my feelings all over the map. In the past week, I’ve basically found out everyone in my world is a stranger. I love Willa for doing this for me.

But I hate what she’s figuring out.



* * *





After I pay my bill, I walk around campus. The sky is a cloudless blue, but the temperature hovers somewhere around the fifties, which, after the beautiful weekend, has thrown everyone into an impatient funk. Students hunch around in big coats with frowns on their faces. Two girls in running shorts shiver outside Starbucks. Everyone seems to have taut, tense expressions. Are they all affected by the hack?

A stream of kids emerges from the science building, and I assess the faces, bracing myself for a run-in with Raina. But she isn’t there.

I try to imagine Greg systematically Venmoing Raina cash for college tuition. If she’s telling the truth, it’s certainly a noble gesture on my husband’s part, and we had enough money that I didn’t even notice thousands of dollars going missing. But why hadn’t Greg just told me about it? Was he that afraid that I’d jump to conclusions and get the wrong idea? But if he really wasn’t having an affair with Raina, why would he hide it?

Unless, of course, he was having an affair with someone else. Maybe he didn’t want to arouse my suspicions in any sort of way, and he figured it was better not to say anything about Raina, even if the whole transaction was innocent.