When the Violin Sings

Chapter 9

Early on a Thursday morning, Piper sat at her desk, checking her email. Julia was passed out in bed, which was usual on this day of the week when she didn't have to be in class until the afternoon. She wasn't the most beautiful sleeper. Sometimes drool would drip down from her face or hair that had gotten loose from her bun would drape down her face. Not to mention, sometimes she would let out a snore here and there, but Piper found it adorable all the same.

Ignoring the sleeping Julia, however, Piper's eyes caught onto a new email from none other than Lucy's own roommate, Lydia Patterson. She had gradually been receiving responses from Lucy's teammates, friends, and roommates, though none had much of use to offer. Many had not witnessed the fight with Noel, few had known Lucy had gone out at that night, and most just offered to speak on Lucy's character.

Piper expected the email from Lydia to be no different. Perhaps Lydia noticed Lucy's absence, or perhaps she had been with her the day at the dining commons, but other than that, Piper assumed there would be nothing more to say.

Thanks for the email, Piper. I'll do whatever I can to prove Lucy's innocence, the email began.

Great, Piper thought. At least someone is trying.

The email started out as usual with lines such as, "Lucy didn't tell me where she was going that evening" and "I wasn't there when she fought with Noel, but I did hear about it." Piper groaned. At this point, they'd have to send out a survey to the whole school to ask who managed to hear anything about the fight. Thus far, students could only remember there being a fight, but no one seemed to recall what the contents of that fight had been besides raised voices.

You asked if anything could have contributed to the fight that day. I don't really know how Lucy and Noel got along. I know they went to high school together, but I only became roommates with Lucy sophomore year, and they didn't hang out anymore by that point.

I do know why Lucy was in a bad mood that morning, however. Her girlfriend, Leigh Yates (she's also on the soccer team) broke up with her that morning. I don't know how much she's told you about their relationship. They'd been dating since the end of our sophomore year. But I don't know how that explains she fought with Noel. Hope that information helps.

Piper scanned the rest of the email, which mostly just consisted of Lydia asserting that Lucy, while a little scatter-brained and rude at times, never had come off as dangerous to Lydia and how she couldn't imagine how Lucy could harm anyone. This last section meant little to Piper, mostly because now she had a key clue as to what had happened that day. She had almost forgotten that Lucy had mentioned the first day Piper met her that she had gotten out of a bad breakup. As Lydia had said, there was still no correlation with the fight, but it certainly could explain why Lucy was in such a bad mood.

Piper knew she shouldn't be smiling, but she at least knew Professor Murphy would be happy with these new details. For now, she was slated to go see Lucy again, and this time, she was going to use the tactics that Julia had suggested.

Lucy took a little longer answering the door than normal. Piper waited impatiently outside the apartment, staring up at Lucy as she opened the door.

"Huh? Where's all your little detective stuff?" Lucy asked.

"Little detective stuff?"

"Like your backpack and all that—whatever, doesn't matter. Let me get my shoes on so we can set out onto another one of our ever-so-riveting walks," Lucy said. She headed back inside, but Piper grabbed onto her arm.

"What time do you have class today?"

"Not til five. Why?"

Piper removed her grip on Lucy's arm. "We're not going on our walk today."