The police on-site incident room is vacant when Ethan and Liz stop in. “They can’t be done. What’s happening?” asks Liz. A quick look around reveals the police file boxes are gone.
Ethan shrugs. “I guess they talked to everybody already.”
“But they were ready to arrest Boris. How much can they have learned since then?”
“I don’t know. Maybe the security people have an idea.”
“Yeah, maybe. Lets check their office.”
“Uh,” Ethan looks uncomfortable, “I have to get to class.”
“Yeah, I know. Go ahead. I just want to find out what’s happening and then I’ll head over too.”
“OK. See you there.” He starts for the door, but then turns back, gathers Liz in a big hug, gives her a kiss and a wink, then he’s out the door and gone.
Liz smiles, touching her lips. Maybe this boyfriend thing will be okay. She heads down the hall toward security. Like most students, she’s never been there but she knows where it is. The door is ajar so she walks in, noting a duty schedule on the board beside the desk.
Behind the desk the swivel chair is vacant. Keys hang from a rack, monitors span the desk. Liz peers over trying to get an idea of what areas are covered by cameras. It’s hard to see from this side, so she slips around the desk and into the chair.
The monitors mostly cover the school’s exterior entrances, parking lots, interior views of the lobby, cafeteria, corridors of this building. Liz glances at the closed door on the other side of the desk. It’s marked Authorized Personnel Only. She pulls out her camera and rolls the chair toward the windows to get a better composition. Adjusting the camera settings for the daylight she takes some shots of the monitors.
Rolling back she slumps in the chair to shoot some low angle shots over the monitors with the daylight streaming brightly around them. Messing with the settings she brackets the exposures so she’ll be able to choose from different versions. She’s just getting into it when a flushing from behind the door brings her back. Snapping off the camera Liz hustles back to the civilian side before the running water stops and the door opens.
The security guy who helped find Natasha does a double take when he sees Liz leaning on the desk. Liz remembers Elsie called the guy Val. He smiles and says, “Hey there.”
Liz notes how gray and haggard he looks today. “Hi, I just stopped in to see how the investigation is going. The cops seem to have gone.” She thinks he looked perfectly fit the other night but today he’d be a perfect candidate for one of those vampire movies Natasha likes.
“It’s Liz, right? Well, they’ve finished the preliminary student interviews. The neighborhood canvas turned up a description of the flasher, so they’re following up on both of those things, Liz.”
Liz says, “That’s good, I guess. You look terrible, you should be home in bed or something.”
He laughs. “Not likely. Not til the campus is safe.”
“Oh, well. You still look terrible.”
“I’ll catch up on my z’s after things settle down a bit. How’s your friend …” he glances down at a file spread open on the desk. “… Natasha?”
“Better than expected. She thinks they’ll be letting her out of the hospital soon. So that’s it for the cops on campus then?”
“Fingers crossed. They may re-interview people. I’m not sure if that’ll be here or downtown though. We’ll take it as it goes.”
“Do you think it really is the flasher guy?”
Rubbing the beard stubble, Val shakes his head slowly. “I don’t know. They haven’t picked up the guy yet. I’d want more information before commenting. Better to err on the side of caution. But you might want to keep an eye on your boyfriend.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“I shouldn’t say this, but the cops are interested in him.”
“Ethan? That’s crazy.”
Val shrugs. “He didn’t give the cops an alibi. He wouldn’t talk to them at all, actually.”
“Oh.” Liz frowns. “What is that supposed to mean? Are you saying you think Ethan is the rapist?”
“I’m just saying be careful.”
