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Luisa waited in her car half a block from the newspaper office for nearly 45 minutes. Finally, about a quarter after one, Matt's Mitsubishi pickup pulled into the employees’ tiny lot. She got out and timed her approach to his so she could “luckily” run into him as he was nearing the steps to the entrance. He looked crisp and handsome as ever. He saw her and smiled.
"Hey there, Lou! What's going on?"
"Hi, Matt. Not much. I'm dropping off an item about a reader's theater for the ‘County Compass.’"
They looked at each other.
"So, how you doing?"
"I'm fine. Trying to stay up with my classes and also get a show going. You know; the same old stuff."
"Tell me about it. Crisis management. Story of my life. Hey!" he almost shouted.
"What?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. I just thought of something I need to ask you. I took a picture of a student on campus yesterday and I need to identify her. Maybe you can save me some trouble. C'mon inside. It's on my desk. You have time?"
"Uh, well, yes, I guess I do. Sure."
They walked up the stairs together, Luisa's mind racing. The "student" had to be Darcy. But she said she ran away from him, so how did he get a picture? Why did he approach her in the first place? And what should she tell him about her?
"Why do you need a student identified?" she asked. "Couldn't you just talk to her?"
"Oh, yeah, well, that's a funny thing," he replied, lowering his voice as they walked past the secretary to his desk in the back.
"I noticed her in the library yesterday. She looks barely old enough to be a freshman, but she was reading all sorts of scientific and technical books, the kind of stuff that mainly grad students and professors would read, you know? Except the books were in three or four completely different areas, like biology and mathematics, even linguistics. One of them was in German! And she wasn't just skimming—she was totally concentrating on them. So I wondered who she is and what she was doing, that's all."
"So why didn't you just ask her?"
Matt blushed, which in his case meant that his ears turned slightly red. Louisa knew the signs.
"See, I was going to, but I couldn't think of a good way to do it. You know I'm kind of shy around women sometimes. But I saw her in town after lunch, and decided to stop and ask her then."
"Wait—so you're not doing a story? You just want me to help you get introduced to some student?"
"No, no, I haven't got to the really strange part yet. Get this: when I walked up to her to ask her why she was studying all that deep stuff, she disappeared! Well, she sort of disappeared. That is, she turned and ran away."
"Matt, I'm not following you very well. Maybe she was just overwhelmed by your virile macho presence, and couldn't stand to be near you."
"Hey, I'm serious, no joke. She didn't exactly disappear, but that's how it seemed. I mean, she must have turned and run down the alley instantly. Like that!"
He snapped his fingers.
"I never saw anyone move so fast. One moment she was standing there and the next she was a hundred feet down the alley. It was like in one of those roadrunner cartoons.
“I thought I was seeing things, but it really happened, Lou. That's not normal. I gotta talk to her, if I can find her again. I have to know what the deal is with her. I sort of feel there might be a story angle somehow."
"I don't know, Matt. That's pretty bizarre. Show me the picture."
"Oh. Yeah. It's right here."
He pulled out a manila folder and handed Luisa an 8 x 10 print.
It wasn't a bad shot of Darcy at all, staring fixedly at a globe in the library. It was a little fuzzy, but it was clearly her, or maybe clearly "Ana." Luisa could easily see the similarity to the blonde girl in the wanted posters about town. She prayed Matt hadn't made the connection.
"Hmmm," she mused out loud. "She looks familiar. I think I've seen her around campus. But she doesn't live in the dorm, I'm sure of that. Can I have this picture, or maybe a smaller one? I'll ask around. I bet I'll find out who she is in a day or two."
"You're an angel, Lou," Matt smiled. "I knew I could count on you. You might be careful approaching her—she might go up in smoke."
"Oh, Matt. I'm sure there's a simple explanation for this. Let me check around. I'll let you know what I find."
The truth was she had no idea what she was going to do. Darcy was now being investigated by a local reporter, and a pretty good one, too. He would persist until he found her eventually. And she, Louisa, knew both the investigator and his target. Matt hadn't been wrong about her life being a case of crisis management.
She needed some time to think.
