Page 66 of Second Chance

The detective says nothing as she writes down the information.

Unable to stop himself, Tony adds, “He has a student who’s seemed increasingly unstable. Lily Peterson.”

“Lily Peterson.” The detective makes another note in her booklet. “That’s the girl who found Professor Lawrence.”

“Yes. Daniel is her academic advisor.”

“Mm-hm. And he sees her frequently?”

Tony and Colette exchange a glance.

Tony clears his throat. “More often since…what happened with Professor Lawrence. From what Daniel has said, she hasn’t been doing well.” He doesn’t mention that Daniel wants to believe she’s doing well and resisted mentioning her to the police on several occasions. Tony hopes Daniel will forgive him later for mentioning Lily and potentially getting her into trouble after Daniel has tried so hard to keep her off the police’s radar.

Taylor taps her pen against the notebook. “She was involved last year as well, wasn’t she?”

Colette looks away, toward the dark windows. It’s still a sore subject for her, what Mario did with—to—his students. Tony’s not sure if she and Daniel have talked about it. Heck, Daniel barely talks to Tony about it, probably because he knows Tony still can’t let go of the anger toward Mario for what he did to Gianna. It wakens another layer of guilt in Tony that Daniel’s still grieving a friend, and Tony can’t even empathize.

He can at least take the heat off Colette. “She had feelings for Professor Lombardi. It’s unclear whether they were returned. She said the relationship was never physical, but after his death, she attempted suicide.”

“Right.” Detective Taylor scrubs a hand through her hair, pulling it out of its updo. She curses, drops her pen on her lap, and tries to fix it. “Did Professor Rosenbaum say anything else about these counseling sessions with Lily?”

“Advising sessions,” Colette corrects. “He’s concerned.”

Tony adds, “Lily struggles with her mental health. Daniel’s trying to encourage her to seek counseling.”

“I hate to ask, but do either of you think there might be something…inappropriate between her and Professor Rosenbaum?”

An undignified snort escapes Tony’s nose.

Colette shakes her head instantly. “Absolutely not.”

The detective raises an eyebrow. “She has a history.”

“As does Daniel, with men, exclusively. He’s also adamantly against relationships between professors and students.” Colette sounds bored, as if both these things should be extremely obvious.

To a certain degree, maybe they should be. The detective should certainly be aware by now that Daniel and Tony are together. Then again, in her line of work, she probably sees all sorts of relationships end all sorts of horrible ways. Daniel has never talked to her about his orientation. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to think he’s bi.

Someone who has met Daniel and spent significant time with him would find the idea laughable. Not Daniel being bi,but Daniel being unscrupulous enough to take advantage of a student. He would never.

“Lily was concerned about the police searches,” Tony remembers. “She was trying to start a petition against them.”

Colette and the detective both look at him blankly.

“And she was focused on whether she could get an automatic pass on Professor Lawrence’s class or something. She didn’t even go to the memorial. But she was also worried she’d be a suspect because she found the professor.”

Detective Taylor closes her eyes as if asking for patience. “I thought I told younot to investigate.”

“You told Daniel not to investigate. I just…happened to be in the room.”

She gives him a cold, hard stare. “That was a general encouragement to all of you.”

“It’s suspicious, though, right?” he pushes.

“Ifit were, I wouldn’t be able to say anything about an ongoing investigation.”

Tony’s patience snaps. He yanks open the junk drawer in the kitchen and throws the plastic bag with the letter on the table, the one she dismissed only last week when this all started. “And what about this? This still isn’t suspicious?”

Taylor opens her mouth, then closes it again.

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