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Phoebe turned so that she wouldn't miss Alice's reaction to the lead-in of what was to be several questions. The woman didn't seem upset at all.
"Your father's position at the college made him perfect for a reference letter on my college applications. I would have loved to have had it months prior when I was submitting to those schools on my list, but the opportunity didn't arise until your sister needed a favor."
"A favor?"
"Yes, a favor." Alice didn't seem inclined to elaborate. Her next statement confirmed her hesitation. "Phoebe, I don't want any part of your podcast. I'm a teacher. Everything that I do is scrutinized by the parents, and I really don't want my name associated with a murder investigation, if that's what this is turning into."
"Whatever you say to me won't leave this room," Phoebe promised as she grabbed the ends of her scarf. She needed something to do with her hands, because it was evident that Alice had information that could help clarify what Jenna had been up to in the weeks before her death. "I give you my word."
Alice studied Phoebe for a moment before leaning back against her desk.
"Jenna wanted information from the hospital," Alice shared as she crossed her arms. "My grandmother worked in administration. Jenna offered to get me a letter of recommendation from your father if I would help her access some old records. Back then, it wasn't such a big deal. Now? I would never even consider it, because we both would have landed in jail."
"What was Jenna searching for?" Phoebe was at a complete loss as to why her sister had needed access to some old medical records. "And did she find it?"
"Jenna wanted information about Ethan Turner's mother."
Phoebe stared at Alice, trying to connect the dots, but still coming up blank. What did Ethan Turner's mother have to do with anything? It was then that another shocking revelation hit Phoebe.
"Wait. Are you saying that you knew Jenna was seeing Ethan?"
"Everyone knew," Alice revealed with a shrug, as if she couldn't believe that Phoebe hadn't known. "I think they met at one of the football team’s bonfire events held in October or November. I honestly can't recall, because I usually didn't go to those things. Anyway, word spread that they were seen together, but they kept things on the down-low. When Jenna came to me, I figured she was doing so as a favor to Ethan."
"And you never asked Ethan about it?" Phoebe asked in disbelief. "Even though Jenna died a week or two later? You didn’t find that odd?"
"Jenna drowned in a pond, Phoebe. It was an accident," Alice responded defensively. "Or at least that's what we were told, and there was no reason to think otherwise."
Phoebe was frustrated, but it wasn’t Alice's fault that Jenna had been secretive about her personal life. It hurt that Jenna hadn't been able to trust her baby sister, but again, maybe Jenna had done so to protect Phoebe.
"Was Ethan good to Jenna?"
Alice seemed surprised by the question.
"I assume so, but I never saw the two of them together. I studied…a lot," Alice said with a shrug. She glanced around her classroom. "I didn't expect my career to bring me back here, but such is life."
“If you don’t mind me asking, why did you return to Bar Harbor?”
“I ran into some financial problems,” Alice replied reluctantly after what seemed like an eternity. “I never sold my grandmother’s house after she passed away. It was easier for me to come home and regroup.”
Alice’s gaze scanned the classroom before she gave a nostalgic smile.
“Who knew I would fall in love with teaching all over again?”
Phoebe shifted so that she could look out over the parking lot. She needed a moment to gather her thoughts. Alice had been forthcoming with information, but there had to be more.
"Alice, did Jenna ever tell you what she was looking for in regard to Ethan's mother? Didn't Francie leave town?" Phoebe hadn't even known the woman's name until recently. Chloe had done a phenomenal job collecting all the research of those involved in Jenna’s life. "I heard that Francie left Ethan with his grandmother."
"To my knowledge, that's exactly what happened," Alice said as she rested her palms on the desk behind her. "But I don't know what Jenna was looking for that day. Look, Ethan and I weren’t friends. You know how it was in high school…all the different cliques. Jenna had her friends, Ethan had his teammates, and I spent most of those days with my nose in a book. Rarely did our lives tend to overlap, especially outside of class. When Jenna came to me with the offer of an exchange, I wasn’t about to reveal that I would have helped her anyway. I understood what it was like to lose my parents and be raised by my grandmother.”
Phoebe still hadn’t been able to get ahold of Jenna’s closest friends back in high school. Olivia Watson was apparently out of town at a conference, and she wasn’t due back for another week. Phoebe had left numerous messages, but not one of them had been returned.
“Anyway, I got Jenna access to the medical records that hadn't been scanned into the hospital's computer system. After about ten minutes, she said that she was done. We left, and your sister got me the recommendation letter from your dad the following day.”
Alice snapped her fingers.
“Oh, you could always talk to Neal Hanson. I know that Jenna said she was meeting with him later that day."
Neal Hanson?
