Page 15 of The Girl Who Was Taken

“How so?”

“She hated all the attention Megan was getting for the summer retreat program and her scholarship to Duke. Nicole tried get with Megan’s boyfriend, and that caused a big problem.”

Livia held up the photo. “I thought she was dating this guy. Casey?”

“She was. The thing with Matt was just to piss Megan off and, I don’t know, prove that she could get anything she wanted. I know she hooked up with him that summer.”

“With Megan’s boyfriend?”

“Yeah. Lots of drama.”

“What was this guy’s name?”

“Matt Wellington.”

“And when you say ‘hooked up’ what are we talking about?”

“What doyouthink?” She took a deep breath. “Listen, Nic was my best friend. But she was different after senior year. Really promiscuous. Skinny-dipping. Imean, we all did it but Nicole was blatant about it. Making sure everyone saw her naked.” Jessica shrugged. “Something was off, you know? With all the black makeup and clothing, whatever that was about.”

Livia remembered a trip home during the summer of 2016, and Nicole’s startling jet-black hair and the heavy black eyeliner and black clothes. Livia had ignored it. Made a point of saying nothing about it, and was almost obnoxious with her feigned ignorance to her sister’s physical change. Tonight wasn’t the first time Livia wished she could go back and offer the help Nicole was so clearly begging for.

Livia held up Casey Delevan’s picture again. “Nicole ever say this guy would hurt her or anything like that?”

Jessica shook her head. “No. She barely talked about him at all.”

“You ever tell the police about him?”

“Yeah,” Jessica said. “When they interviewed me, I told them she was dating someone. But I never knew his name and I forgot about the picture until I went through some of my stuff this past summer and found it. Why? You think he had something to do with Nic disappearing?”

“I don’t know.” Livia stared at the photo, held it up. “Can I keep this?”

“I guess.” Jessica lifted her chin. “Do you know what happened to him?”

“Casey? Yeah. He jumped off Points Bridge and was found floating in the bay.”

CHAPTER 9

Trouble sleeping the night before, with thoughts of Nicole and Casey Delevan running through her mind, Livia was at work early on Friday morning. She finished paperwork in the fellows’ office until nine a.m., when she was due in the autopsy suite for morning rounds. In front of her locker she pulled the blue smock over her scrubs and stuffed her hair under a surgical cap. She entered the autopsy suite, dropped her surgical gloves and face shield onto the table, and walked over to the whiteboard where the day’s cases were labeled and assigned.

She saw her name scribbled in blue dry-erase:

The other fellows similarly had cases assigned to them, as did four of the attendings. She read through the list to see if anyone had a more interesting assignment. All the cases that morning looked mundane, except for Tim Schultz. He had a gunshot wound, andLivia was unhappy about it. She knew, however, with little sleep and her mind so firmly preoccupied with Nicole that today was not the right time to tackle a challenging case. Or even an interesting one. An elderly fall victim felt appropriate for her current mindset.

“You look like shit,” Jen Tilly, one of the other fellows, said as she walked up to the whiteboard.

“Thank you,” Livia said.

“Were you crying?” Jen asked.

“No. Just up all night.”

“What’s wrong?”

Livia lifted her chin when Dr. Colt strolled into the morgue. “Long story.”

Tim Schultz jogged through the door just after Dr. Colt and hustled past him to the dry-erase board. Dr. Colt, with his hands behind his back, walked to the board and scrutinized it as if he hadn’t written every word an hour earlier.

“Late for morning rounds, Dr. Schultz, and you don’t get a case for that day.”

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