Page 38 of Break Away
“And you never saw her outside of the yogaclass? Grocery store, bank, post office?”
She shook her head. “She behaves like a highschool mean girl, and the LookBook post certainly had a mean girlelement, but a hit-and-run is a huge step up from that.”
“Agreed.”
Levi pressed her, asking several morequestions about Wanda Patterson, aka Karma, but in the end, therewas nothing more that Zoey could add.
“Is she a suspect?”
“Not at this time. I spoke to her thismorning. She’s a piece of work. Denied the bullying, said you weretoo thin-skinned if you went to the police about anything she said.Didn’t have any explanation for her behavior.”
“I think most bullies don’t understand theirmotivations.”
“I believe it. About the post, the settingsfor the city page allows anyone to post, which is incredibly stupidand will be changed.”
“That’s one of those things that peoplefigure are no big deal until they are.”
“We’re working on tracing who put it up. Itappears to be someone who made up a profile within the last week.”Levi tapped his pen on the table. “Let’s try a different angle.Think back to high school. Did anything happen while you lived herethat made you feel like you were being targeted?”
“You think this goes back to highschool?”
“I’m looking at all the possibilities. Anyonecome to mind?”
She tried to keep her expression neutral.“No. Kids pretty much left me alone.”
He narrowed his gaze. “What about guys.Anyone come on to you that you rejected?”
“Geez, no.”
“Any bad breakups?”
“No.”
“How about breakups period?”
“I didn’t have boyfriends when I was in highschool. I went out with a few guys, but nothing came of it.”
“I’ll need their names.”
“Really?” She raised her hand before he couldrespond. “Never mind. There was a guy I went to the movies with acouple of times.” Her brow furrowed. “Honestly, I don’t rememberhis name. Jason something, or maybe it was Josh. Oh.” She smiled.“I did go out with Diego.”
“Wait. You went out with Diego?”
“Yeah. He didn’t seem to mind the funky hairor the eyebrow piercing.”
“Diego Jones? You went out with Diego Jones?”Levi’s shocked expression was almost comical.
“Yep, Diego Jones. You remember him, don’tyou? He’s married to your cousin Eva. I don’t know why you’re sosurprised. We were in the same year, and he was cute. Still is. Wewent to prom together junior year.” Part of the reason she andDiego had never developed anything deeper was Zoey had been hung upon Levi, even though he’d left for college. She certainly wasn’tsharing that little tidbit.
“So you did have a boyfriend.”
“No, we never got to that point. We shared afew kisses, then decided we liked each other better as friends.That’s all there was between us.”
“Huh.” Levi was staring at the notepad wherehe’d made a few notes. “Okay.” He appeared to have to make aneffort to mentally gather himself. “Was there anyone who paid youparticular attention? Teachers, coaches, neighbors?”
Zoey hesitated, then shook her head.
“No one?”
