Nysa Somers.
Dressed exactly as she had been the night before, but without her backpack, she walked steadily and seemingly with purpose. When she was out of the frame, Mettner closed out the window and opened another one. This showed the front of the Ervene Gulley building which was just across from the natatorium. The parking lot beyond it was empty, and no other students lingered in the courtyards as far as the camera showed. She walked straight ahead toward the natatorium until she was out of the frame.
It had taken her roughly five minutes to cover the distance from the cut-through to the pool building lobby. At 6:02, she had entered, said good morning to Gerry Murphy, and then gone to the pool. And what? Jumped in and never came out?
Noah said, “So she left the library alone at nine thirty, walked into the woods but didn’t make it home. Then she comes out of the woods at six this morning wearing the same clothes but without her backpack. Roommate got a text saying she met up with a friend. Where?”
“It had to be on the other side of the cut-through,” Josie said. “It comes out at the back of the last row of houses in Hollister Way.”
Mettner looked up at Josie. “You sure the roommate is telling the truth?”
“As sure as I can be,” Josie said. “I saw her phone, looked through the apartment, and the backpack was in the woods along the path.”
Mettner said, “What if Nysa did go home? She and the roommate had some brownies laced with drugs. Things got a little crazy and Nysa took off?”
“Why would Christine lie about that?” Josie countered.
“Because her roommate ended up dead.”
Noah said, “That doesn’t explain the text from Nysa to the roommate saying she met up with a friend.”
Mettner was silent.
“We need to find the friend she met up with,” Noah said.
“Maybe we’ll get something when Hummel charges up her phone. That’s the real jackpot. There could be texts or calls to and from the mysterious ‘friend,’ and it if has GPS enabled, we could see where she was during those missing hours.”
Mettner tapped away on his note-taking app as they talked through all the leads they’d need to run down.
“We should also canvass the houses in Hollister Way to see if anyone saw her last night, or noticed anything suspicious,” Noah added.
Chief Hahlbeck said, “My officers are rounding up as many members of the swim team as they can find and bringing them back here. Coaching staff, too.”
Mettner said, “You mind if we conduct interviews here?”
“Not at all,” Hillary said. “We’ve got two rooms I can set you up in. If you’ll excuse me.”
She stood up from her chair and left the room.
Josie said, “Noah, how about you call in some patrol units and canvass Hollister? Mett and I will interview swim team members and coaches and then later I’ll talk with Nysa’s parents.”
Noah said, “Sure. Have you heard from Gretchen yet?”
Josie shook her head and tapped Mettner’s shoulder. “How about you?”
“Not yet,” he answered. “I’ll call her.”
While Mettner tried to get in touch with Gretchen, Josie walked Noah outside. They moved around to the side of the building. Between two Japanese maple trees was a small clearing. The brick of the building had a green tinge to it, moisture causing a thin layer of lichen to grow in patches. A white five-gallon bucket, now gray with grime, sat upside down. Beside it was a smaller tin bucket filled with cigarette butts. Obviously, someone on the campus police used the enclave for smoke breaks.
Noah said, “What do you think?”
“I think that well-adjusted, relatively happy college swim stars who are so successful they’ve just won a major scholarship and been featured on the news don’t normally spend a night with a ‘friend,’ eat brownies laced with some kind of drugs and then drown themselves.”
“You think she drowned herself? Or did whatever she ingested make her pass out, and she accidentally drowned?”
Josie sighed. “I don’t know, Noah. I just don’t know.”
“How many overdoses do you think they get on campus every year?” he asked.
“Two or three a year? I’m sure Chief Hahlbeck has the exact number. You really think this is as simple as a drug overdose? The roommate was adamant that this girl wouldn’t take a thing.”
Noah laughed. “No college kid takes drugs. That’s like saying it never rains. Even the most dedicated students and student athletes try things from time to time. If I had to bet money, having seen all the things I’ve seen so far in my career, I’d say she met with a friend, the friend got her to try the brownies, she got messed up, walked to the pool for a swim and then passed out and drowned. Hell, maybe the friend didn’t tell her the brownies were laced. Maybe she just thought she was getting a chocolate fix and then she got messed up, decided to go for a swim, passed out, and drowned.”
Josie thought of the lobby video that Gerry Murphy had shown them. Nysa, steady on her feet, head swiveling. A smile spreading across her face. Her hand lifting in a wave. Good morning, Mr. Murphy. Josie said, “If she was under the influence of something that was strong enough to kill her once she was in the pool, wouldn’t she have been, at the very least, stumbling or slurring her words?”
“Seems that way,” Noah agreed. “But in the absence of evidence of anything else, that is the most obvious scenario.”
“I guess toxicology will confirm it if that’s the case,” she said.
For a moment, she closed her eyes, thinking of what a tragedy it would be if Nysa Somers—who, by all accounts, didn’t do drugs and rarely even drank—had decided to try some illicit drug, and it had led to her death. All the life she’d had ahead of her lost forever. She thought about Patrick. She’d have to give him a talk about not doing drugs, like a typical law enforcement officer or big sister. Then she thought about Harris getting old enough to go to college and try drugs, and her heart squeezed in her chest. Shutting down that entire train of thought, she opened her eyes.
Noah stared down at her. “You should go home and change.”
She shrugged and fingered the collar of her polo shirt. “There’s no time. Besides, I’m almost dry, and all my shirts look like this.”
Noah asked, “How was Harris this morning at school drop-off?”
“Nervous. But I think it went well,” she said, taking her phone out to check for any texts from Misty. There were none. No news was good news, Josie thought.
Noah stepped closer to her. He brushed a strand of her black hair away from her face. It hit her then how bedraggled she must look. She reached up to run her fingers through her hair, but Noah took her hand. “You look beautiful,” he said softly.
“Did you hit your head this morning?” Josie joked. “While you were missing in action?”
Noah laughed. His thumb traced the inside of her palm. “I’m telling you, that salmon color really brings out your eyes.”
“Oh piss off,” Josie said, laughing in spite of herself. She tried to wrest her hand away so she could slap his chest, but he tugged her into him and kissed her. With no eyes on them, Josie sank into him, feeling some of the stress of the morning quieting. Then he released her and started walking away.