Creep - Jennifer Hillier [5]
“She didn’t drown, that isn’t how she died. I heard she was stabbed first.” Valerie paused for dramatic effect. “Multiple times.”
Sheila sat up straight. “Holy shit!”
Valerie looked pleased to hear her professor swear. “I heard they’re going to be putting new security measures in place because of this.” Clearly Valerie had heard a lot. “My boyfriend works part-time in the communications department. They’re sending out a bulletin later today.”
“Holy shit.” Sheila felt disoriented as she tried to process the news.
Diana St. Clair had been her student. Sheila had never known someone who was murdered.
Until now.
CHAPTER : 2
The campus-wide e-mail sent out by the university’s security department did a good job of outlining the new safety measures that all faculty, staff, and students were to follow. But ultimately, it was all for nothing, because nobody was taking the memo seriously. Nobody at the university was worried.
It had been almost a week since Diana St. Clair’s body had turned up, and Seattle PD still couldn’t confirm exactly where the swimmer had been when she was murdered. Her stabbed and decomposing body, bloated and gassy from days floating in Puget Sound, provided no evidence to suggest she was killed on university grounds or anywhere even near the university. Police had combed the campus and nothing had turned up. They had no idea whether she’d been stalked or snatched by someone she knew, or whether the killing was random. The only thing they could confirm was that Diana had engaged in sexual activity before she died, and that everyone close to her—including her boyfriend, fellow swimmer Donovan Langley—had airtight alibis for where they’d been at the time she was killed.
In short, Seattle PD had nothing. And other than her obituary and a long, gushy article in the Puget Sound Village Voice (the school newspaper), nothing further had been written about Diana once she’d been buried.
It was tragic. And to Sheila, the greatest tragedy wasn’t just that Diana had been murdered, but how quickly the beautiful student had been forgotten. Everyone had moved on. Local news was now flooded with stories of a bomb scare at Sea-Tac airport. What had the world come to?
She sat alone in her office, trying to remember the last time she’d had contact with Diana. It had to have been about a year before, shortly before the social psych midterm during fall term. Diana had asked for an “early write,” a common request for student athletes who had obligations within their sport. Sheila had received a supporting letter from Diana’s coach so the swimmer could head to UC Irvine for the big Nike Cup Division I meet immediately afterward.
It was funny how Sheila could remember something so specific from a year ago that in itself wasn’t memorable. But Diana herself had been an unforgettable person. Straight-A student, runway-model tall, long blond hair, focused. She’d had the world at her feet.
Come to think of it, wasn’t it Ethan who’d proctored Diana’s exam that semester? Sheila wondered now what he thought of her murder. She had meant to ask his opinion about Diana’s disappearance after the swimmer was first reported missing. That was the morning she and Ethan had both come to work early. Without even saying hello, he’d kissed her neck and had reached under her skirt to pull down her panties, right here on the . . .
A knock startled her out of her thoughts, and she looked up to see all six foot four of her investment-banker fiancé standing in the doorway. She felt her face flush. Christ.
“I almost didn’t want to knock, you looked so deep in thought,” Morris Gardener said with a grin, his loud Texas twang filling her office. Morris