Page 6 of What They'll Say About Us

"I didn't know. I'll have to check it out."

"I'm sure you'll run into them."

As Rachel walked away, I headed straight for the opening doors of an elevator, eager to get inside before I could run into anyone else from my past. I don't know why I hadn't expected that there might be local Chicago people here, but none of these people had been on my radar for the past decade, so I hadn't given it that much thought. That might have been another mistake.

When I got back to the suite, I picked up the program and looked through it, seeing Kerry and her sister were leading a workshop tomorrow morning. Family podcasts weren't interesting to me, which was probably why I'd skipped over their names. Now, I was seeing more familiar faces in my head.

Kerry and Ella Marlin had been pretty girls, with reddish-blonde hair and brown eyes, and a cute girl-next-door kind of look. But they weren't at all like the sweet girls next door. They'd both been wild partiers. I'd known Ella slightly better, because she'd been a drama major, and had had a minor role in the last production I was in.

The door to the suite suddenly opened and I jerked in surprise, a result of being far more nervous than I should be.

Cassidy gave me a searching look. "Sorry, Tessa, did we scare you?"

"I didn't think you'd be back yet."

"It's after three," Morgan replied, tossing her conference tote bag on the coffee table. "We picked up some of the giveaways for you."

"Thanks."

"How was your walk?" Cassidy asked.

"It felt good to be outside, but when I returned, I ran into the concierge, a woman I went to college with, Rachel Bentley."

"Really?" Cassidy gave me a thoughtful look as she kicked off her heels and flopped onto the couch. "Did she know Paige MacIntyre?"

"We didn't talk about her. But yes, she knew Paige. She also told me that two other girls we knew, Kerry and Ella Marlin are here. They have a podcast on identical twins. They're giving a talk tomorrow. I feel like every time I turn around, someone from my past is standing in front of me."

"Well, you did come back to your college town," Morgan said as she picked up a chocolate from the candy box and unwrapped it.

I sat down on the couch across from them. "As much as I want to avoid all this, I think we should start digging into the case."

"I've already begun," Morgan said, with a sparkle in her eyes. "I was bored in the last workshop, so I ran a media search for any local news stories about Paige MacIntyre's death. I didn't find a lot, but I know the name of the lead detective and the basics of the incident." She pulled her laptop out of her bag. "I'm sure you know more than what I read."

"Maybe not much more."

"We don't have a lot of time," Cassidy said.

"I was thinking about that," Morgan said. "We should try to extend our stay, although we might have to move out of this lovely suite."

"I can't stay past Wednesday," Cassidy put in, an apology in her gaze. "Friday night is the opening of Finn's restaurant, and I don't want to miss it."

"Of course you can't miss it," I agreed. "We should know by Wednesday if there is anything to investigate or if we've confirmed that it was just an accident. Either way, you should go back to New York."

"I'm free," Morgan said. "Let's worry about our departure date later. Let's begin with putting Paige in the middle of the circle and each spoke goes out to a different group: her theater friends, her college friends who weren't in the theater, her boyfriend, her family…who else?"

"She had a roommate, Sloane Winters. She was an artist. She was only tied to the theater because her art class worked on set design."

Morgan typed as I talked. "Okay, let's expand the theater world, since that's where you and Paige intersect."

"There were probably eighteen actors in the last production, and a dozen crew members. The head of the department, Professor Robert Hale, directed the fall, winter, and spring productions, which were the highlights of the year. His TA that spring was Jay Loomis. He acted as assistant director. I think he also did some script adaptation. There was also a music director, and we used some of the school orchestra in the productions as well."

"That's a lot of people," Cassidy commented as Morgan typed. "Maybe we should start filtering the relationships by who liked Paige the most and who liked her the least."

My stomach twisted. "Many people would put me at the top of the list of people who didn't like her. But I didn't kill her."

"Of course you didn't," Cassidy said.

"Agreed," Morgan murmured, giving me a supportive smile.