“I told the other two that I don’t know anything,” she said quietly, her voice calm despite the nervous clack, clack, clack of her nails on the table.
He didn’t reply right away but instead took a moment to look around at the coffee shop that Meghan had asked to meet at. The small café was nestled between two casual eating establishments across from the campus, and college students—for there was no mistaking their youthful optimism—filtered about on the sidewalks, enjoying the sunlit Saturday.
The rustic wooden tables in the café had been painted different pastel shades and then buffed so that they appeared refurbished. The smell of good coffee hung like a cloud of promise in the room, and his mouth watered in anticipation, but mostly because it was seven o’clock in the morning on what should have been his day off and he had yet to take a sip.
Usually, he would have been up and about way before he’d have to leave so that he could have a cup before starting the workday, but this morning he had been at Lola’s and he’d hated to wake her up with the sound of the coffee machine. Especially because she had looked so darned peaceful, cuddled up in her big, black bed, a tiny lump under the seemingly endless covers, just her face peeking out from all the layers.
Seeing her there, fast asleep, had made his entire body itch with need and it had taken every ounce of his willpower to not walk over and place a quick kiss on her cheek.
He nodded and smiled at the barista when she brought their coffee order to their table, sat back in his chair, and gave Meghan Reiner his full attention. “I know that you spoke to Burns and Williams.” He hesitated when she looked away. “I appreciate you meeting with me again, but we just want to make sure that we have all the facts. The smallest details could help us understand the case better, maybe help us hone in on the man we’re looking for.”
Her eyes flickered to him and then back to the door and he could tell that she was distraught, physically unable to maintain eye-contact because she didn’t want him to notice the fact that she was near tears. Eventually, she stopped tapping her nails and looked down at her hands. “She was my best friend.”
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered. “I can’t imagine what it has been like for you.” He felt his mind rally at the unfairness of it all, but added, “I’ve never lost someone like that before, so, I don’t know.”
“I knew that something was wrong right away.” She whispered the words so quietly that Jacob had to lean forward in his chair. “Veronica…she was so anal retentive about planning and time management…”
“Which is why she called you to tell you that she was leaving work?”
She twisted the ring that was on the index finger of her right hand. “She was running ten minutes late and wanted me to know. That’s the type of person she was. Ten minutes…”
“Did she sound different on the phone that night? Scared maybe? Stressed? Did she say or do anything at all that caught your notice?”
“No, but I wasn’t really paying attention.” She blushed and a deep pink flush spread through her cheeks. “My boyfriend was over, and uh…he was waiting with me until she was supposed to arrive.”
“Okay. What about the days before she died? Is there anything that struck you as unusual? Did she go on any dates that ended badly? Get into any fights with anyone?”
Meghan laughed, a small hiccupping sound that squeaked out at the same time that her eyes welled with tears. “Veronica was everyone’s favorite. She was kind, caring, almost pathetically so. Sometimes I just wanted her to snap, you know? Throw things at assholes who catcalled her or shout back at them. Anything. But she never fought with anyone. She was the type of person who people would go to for help when they were having problems. With anything. She was a really, really good person. The best type.”
He hadn’t needed to hear it from Veronica’s best friend to know it was true. He had spent some time scrolling back through Veronica Tally’s social media accounts and, at least on her public platforms, she appeared to be a warrior for every cause. She had pictures volunteering at a 501(C)(3) dog rescue; pictures with friends at a marathon finish line, their matching Green Planet shirts making their cause known; she even had a photo of herself receiving an award from the mayor for her volunteer work.
“So, nothing that struck you as unusual?” he asked again.
After a moment in thought, Meghan said, “There was an incident a couple of weeks ago, but I don’t think it’s related in any way.”
“Could you tell me about it?” he asked, looking into big, blue eyes that were still filled with tears.
“She’d been volunteering at this support group for abused women, and one of the girls that she was trying to help came in all beat up.” Sighing, Meghan looked out of the café window. “Veronica had come back to school seething mad because the woman hadn’t wanted to go to the police.”
“Did she do anything about it?” He wondered what he would have done in Veronica’s position.
“No. It’s a weird thing with those groups. They’re all about self-agency. You know, help yourself, make the changes you want to see in your life.” She grunted, turned to meet his eyes again. “I would have taken a baseball bat to the asshole’s legs while he slept, made sure he never walked again.” She looked at him, her sadness clouded by a look of pure defiance, as if she were begging him to argue.
He raised his eyebrows. “I would have held him down for you,” he replied honestly, bringing the first genuine smile to her face.
It rapidly disappeared. “Not Ronny though. She wanted to go to the cops but said that she had to respect the woman’s decision, otherwise she’d never break her own cycle. Bullshit, if you ask me.”
“Did she mention the woman’s name at all?”
Finding the woman would be like looking for a needle in a haystack, but he had to ask. It was too weird a coincidence that Veronica had been associated with a violent crime only a week before her murder.
“No, I think they all used aliases anyway. Veronica went with Selina Kyle.”
“Catwoman?” He wasn’t a hardcore comic buff, but Catwoman had been a fascination of his when he had been a teenager.
“Yeah, she was a huge comic book nerd. Actually,” Meghan frowned, “I don’t know what name the woman used but Veronica definitely referred to her husband as HAK or, at least where he was concerned, ‘Fucking HAK’.”
“H—A—K?”
She shrugged. I can only assume that it’s not his real name because, well, they didn’t use them, but…it was HAK. I’m positive.”
“Does that mean anything to you?”
“No.”
He thought about it for a second, thought about fictional characters that shared the name, and when none came to mind, he sighed. “Did Veronica mention any of the other girls? Their names? Maybe where their meetings were held?”
“No. I…I never asked.”
“That’s okay. Have Veronica’s parents came and picked up her things already?”
“Yeah.” She twisted a small ring on her pinkie finger. “They met me a few days ago and we cleaned out her room.”