Cari drove Marjorie a few blocks from her apartment to the Commons. There were park benches they could sit on and it wasn’t in full view of the road unless you were really looking. Marjorie kept looking around and checking all of the nearby sidewalks.
“Marjorie, what are you afraid of?”
She took a deep breath. “Earlier, I decided that I needed to study for my calc2 test that’s this week. I wanted to get out of the apartment, so I thought I’d go to the library. Just as I stepped outside, I saw a car drive up across the street by the bus stop. The person driving it was Emma from the track team. I have never seen her over here, and it felt off—her being near my apartment. I rushed back inside and watched her from my window facing the street. She parked the car and then sat on the bus stop bench. Who drives to a bus stop like that? I think she was watching my apartment.”
“But why? Why would she be watching your apartment?”
“I don’t know! She called me the other day. She has never called me before. She acted like she was calling to see how I was doing, but it felt like she was trying to get information from me or something. It was just weird.”
Cari thought about what Marjorie had said. “Marjorie, when we spoke on the phone yesterday, you said that you thought Delamont was killed because of the powder that Stephen was taking. You were afraid to talk about it and you didn’t want me to write about it. What else do you know about it?”
“I told you everything I know. He got it once a month from Delamont. He called it a nutritional supplement.”
“You thought it was steroids.” Cari prodded.
“I did, but it wasn’t. I remembered that Stephen had to undergo routine drug tests because of the school’s NCAA status. He always passed, so it couldn’t have been an illegal substance.”
Cari considered this. “Okay, did he ever tell you if anyone else took the supplement? Was it the whole track team or the whole athletic department?”
“He didn’t say anything about that. I didn’t think to ask.” She shrugged. “Are you going to write about this? It will just kill Stephen’s parents if they read that he was doping or something.”
“I don’t want to tarnish Stephen’s name. I also don’t know enough about this powder or where it came from to write anything about it. I have a theory that Stephen was part of a program with other athletes at the school. A select group. Most likely the group of athletes that the detectives were interviewing yesterday.”
“That must be it. That’s why they’re following me. They’re afraid that I know. They’re afraid that I’ll ruin their little program!” She looked around frantically, but no one was watching them. A few students were throwing a frisbee to each other across the park from them, but other than that, the place was deserted.
“It’s okay, Marjorie. I have a friend who’s a detective. We can call her, get you some protection while they figure this out.” She pulled her phone out.
“Protection? That seems extreme, doesn’t it? If you call the police, they’ll make Stephen look bad. He wasn’t a bad person. He was so good.” She choked back a sob.
“The police aren’t out to get people or make them look bad. I know you loved Stephen; I hear it in your voice. We’re not going to ruin his memory for you or his parents. Genevieve’s a good detective. She can help.”
At that moment, Cari’s cell phone buzzed with an incoming call. She glanced down at the screen and saw Genevieve’s name.
“Let me answer this quickly. This is my detective friend. I can put it on speaker if you want. Let me see why she’s calling first.” Cari offered as she answered the call.
“This is Cari.”
“I cannot believe you would talk to Lionel Cardian and leak part of this investigation! My partner and my boss are livid.” Genevieve growled at her.
“Leaked? What?”
“Check your Twitter feed. Sports Medicine Doctor’s Death Linked to Mysterious Death of Student Athlete. It’s from the Brenington Beagle. It had to have been you that told Cardian. You couldn’t get any information from me, so you stooped to work with Cardian.”
“I didn’t. I-I-I” Cari stammered. How could Cardian have made the connection? She slammed her palm into her forehead. She hadn’t locked her workstation when Marjorie called. That jerk must have read her notes on her computer.
“Gen, I didn’t leak anything. You didn’t even tell me anything! Cardian must have snooped on my computer. I left the newsroom in a rush…” She looked up to see Marjorie answering her own phone. “You have to believe me, Gen. I wouldn’t do that.”
Cari pulled the phone away from her ear and spoke to Marjorie. “Do you want to meet with the police? I can set it up?”
Marjorie nodded, but went back to her own conversation.
“Gen, listen. I’m talking to Ithaca’s girlfriend, Marjorie right now. She can tell you more, and I think it will help you fill in some of the missing pieces to this story.”
“It’s not a story, Cari! It’s a murder investigation.”
“Fine, Genevieve. I get it. You’re upset. I’m trying to fix it. Please believe me; I did not leak this to Cardian.”
“Fine, where are we meeting?”
“How about that Tex-Mex place on campus?”
Cari scribbled Tex-Mex? on a scrap of paper and held it up to Marjorie. She agreed. “That works for us. Twenty minutes?”
After squaring away the details with Genevieve, Cari ended the call and waited for Marjorie to finish. She caught fragments of the young woman’s conversation. It sounded like she was checking in with someone. Cari wondered if it was Stephen’s parents or maybe her roommate. Before Marjorie hung up, Cari’s phone buzzed with another incoming call. Bob?!
“Hey, Bob, what’s up?”
“Cari, how could you? I could lose my job for this!”
“Bob, what are you talking about?”
“The tweet! You told Lionel Cardian what I said about the investigation. His series of tweets includes an anonymous statement from someone within the ME’s office. Everyone will know that’s me! Thanks a lot. I thought we were friends.” He hung up.
Cari sighed. Cardian had really overstepped this time. He was burning through all of her contacts. Sure, she shouldn’t have recorded Bob without his knowledge, but she had no intention of using any of his quotes. She just needed the information! Damn you, Cardian! Marjorie broke into her thoughts.
“Sorry, that was my roommate. She went on a date with someone she just met today and I made her promise to check in with me when she got to the restaurant. I was worried that the guy wasn’t who she thought he was. You can never be too careful.”
“That’s really kind of you to look out for her.”
“We look out for each other. You know how it is. So, what’s the story with your police friend? I told my roommate that I’d be at the Tex-Mex restaurant since you mentioned it. She has to work tonight and is going there straight from her date. I didn’t want her to worry if she came home early though and I wasn’t there.”
“You have a great sense of keeping yourself safe. I’m impressed.”
“My mom has ingrained this in me since I was a child. Never go anywhere alone, well, I break that one a lot, but I always tell someone where I’m going. I was usually going somewhere with Stephen, but I always told Tiff too. Just a good habit, you know? That was the other rule, always tell someone where you’re going.”
“I told Genevieve we’d meet her there in about fifteen minutes. It’s not too far from here.”
Marjorie’s face got serious. “I don’t know how to talk to the police. It feels like I’m in trouble or something.”
“Genevieve is not going to make you uncomfortable. I promise.”
“I almost forgot. Your friend called you. She sounded upset. What was that about?”
Cari bit her lip. “Oh, it was nothing. A misunderstanding. We worked it out, but I do need to send a text to someone before we leave for the restaurant.”
Cari looked at her phone and scrolled through her contacts to her boss’ name. She selected it and composed a text message.
Cardian does not know what he’s talking about. You need to pull that tweet before we get in trouble.
She waited for her boss to respond, but instead her phone buzzed with an incoming call. She rotated her body away from Marjorie.
“Boss, if you haven’t heard from someone else already, get ready for some calls. Cardian went to Twitter with some of my research and he doesn’t know the whole story. He’s causing problems that are not going to be good for the paper.” She told him before he could speak.
“Turnlyle, what in the world? Are you accusing Cardian of stealing your story? I told you not to butt into his story.”
“Sir, with all due respect, I am not butting in. I’m following my story. Regardless, you have to remove that tweet. It’s not substantiated.”
“Fine, but we’re having a meeting about this tomorrow morning. I do not like how this is playing out.” He ended the call. Cari waited a minute then pulled up her Twitter feed to double check that the tweets were gone, then she slid her phone back into her purse.
“Are you sure everything is okay?”
“Everything is fine. Are you ready to meet Genevieve, uh, Detective Viacorte?”