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“Since the middle of junior year. Almost a year and a half.”
“Do you know anyone who might have been interested in Laura romantically?”
“Not that I can think of.”
“Did Laura have an ex-boyfriend?”
“Probably, but she never mentioned anyone. She never had a boyfriend at school during her freshman or sophomore years. So, maybe from high school.”
The waitress delivered Matthew’s soda.
“You two going to order any food?”
“No thanks,” Alex said.
The waitress placed the bill on the table.
“Refills are free, just flag me down,” she said before hustling off to the next table.
“Okay,” Alex said. “Tell me about the story Laura was working on.”
Matthew shrugged. “I don’t know a lot about it. Laura was really private about it. All she told me was that she had been tipped off about a rape that had happened on campus. After she started looking into things, she came to me to let me know that the rape had happened at my fraternity house. Or, you know, allegedly happened.”
“Did you know about it?”
“No. I mean, there were rumors but that was it.”
“What sort of rumors?”
“That maybe some of the guys had gotten Liquid G and had spiked the punch.”
“Who? What were their names?”
“I don’t know. It was just a rumor. I wasn’t part of it, so I didn’t know if it was true or not. But then, like, a couple weeks ago, we heard that a girl had gone to the police and filed a report that she’d been raped at the fraternity house. We were all freaked out. We figured the police would come around and start asking questions, or the dean would call us in, or the fraternity charter would get shut down. But nothing happened. That’s why I figured it wasn’t true.”
“What did Laura tell you?”
“Nothing. Like I said, she was worried that her story would leak before she dropped it, so she was careful not to tell me anything.”
“Were you worried about Laura’s story?”
“I don’t know, I guess. I didn’t know what was true and what was made up. I didn’t want any of my friends to get in trouble, especially if none of it was true. And, you know, just to be totally honest with you, Laura and I got into a fight about it the night before she . . . you know, before she disappeared.”
“What kind of fight?”
“Just an argument. I wanted to know what kind of proof she had and she didn’t want to tell me anything about it. She was stressed because so many rumors were flying around campus about her story. I was stressed because it had to do with my fraternity. So it just all blew up into a big argument.”
“Did you tell the police about this argument?”
“No. They never asked. And Ms. Jordan told me not to offer any details unless I was asked about them.”
Alex paused long enough to manage a sip of coffee.
“How did Laura get onto the story in the first place? How did she hear about it?”
“Through her tip line. She set up an e-mail account last year when The Scoop started getting popular. People would e-mail her all sorts of crazy stories and Laura would check out the interesting ones, and then start investigating them to see if they were legit.”
“Who tipped her off about the rape on McCormack University campus?”
