Safe Place to Hide || Chenford / The Rookie

Chapter 6

It's lunchtime when they arrive at the high school, and many of the students are out milling around the campus or sprawled on the lawn. Lucy keeps her eyes peeled for two girls in particular: Jenna Rivers and Marissa Holder. From the little Tamara has shared about her social life at school and the content of her social media, Jenna and Marissa seem to be the people she spends the most time with.

She doesn't know much about either. Tamara once referred to Jenna as one of the few girls that wasn't a 'total judgy bitch' toward her when she was living on the streets, suggesting that they might share more in common socioeconomically with each other than with their wealthy classmates. And from what she's gathered, Tamara hasn't known Marissa as long, but the three girls formed a fast friendship when Marissa transferred in mid-year, each alienated from the rest of their classmates for different reasons.

She pulls an image of the three girls together up on her phone, and holds it out toward Tim, "If you happen to catch a glimpse of either of these two ladies..."

Tim studies the photo before briefly nodding, returning to his survey of the lawn. They continue to stroll around the campus scanning the crowd of students, until Tim lifts his hand to point towards a large oak tree, "There."

Two girls sit, shaded by the tree canopy, scrolling on their phones while picking at the remains of their bagged lunches. As Lucy and Tim approach, the girls glance upward and Jenna defensively jumps to her feet without hesitation. Her expression is guarded, the distrust in her eyes making it clear that she is no fan of law enforcement.

Marissa's reaction is less immediate, shading her eyes as she takes them in with a questioning look, before more gradually climbing to her feet to join Jenna.

"What can we do for you, officers?" Marissa asks, her sweet tone a startling contrast to the intensity reflected on Jenna's face.

Sensing that Lucy may be able to better connect with two teenage girls without him hovering, Tim steps away from the conversation, gesturing to Lucy that he'll be waiting across the lawn.

Lucy smiles easily, hoping she might be able to put the girls at ease. But if she thought Tamara had a tough outer shell, Jenna's is on an entirely different level. "Jenna and Marissa, right?"

Marissa nods in response. Jenna simply glares.

"I've heard so much about you," she lies easily. "I'm Tamara's friend, Lucy."

Jenna eyes her warily, "Right. Her cop friend..."

Lucy doesn't miss her word choice, thinking back to the bits and pieces of conversation she'd overheard in Scott's apartment.

Marissa shoots Jenna a look, before smiling warmly at Lucy, "Tamara's told us a lot about you, too." Her smile fades as quickly as it had appeared, "How's she doing?"

Lucy's smile also dims, "She's hanging in there — no change since yesterday. And visitation is still restricted, but we're hoping she'll be stable enough to leave the ICU in a few days."

Marissa nods, "I'd really like to go see her once she's well enough for visitors."

"I'm sure she'd love that," Lucy agrees, easily seeing how Marissa's warmth may have been a welcome and much-needed addition to the trio of friends.

"Listen, I'd really like to find out who did this to her. If there's anything you can think of that could help, I would really appreciate it. Is there anyone else she hangs out with, or any people she doesn't get along with? Do you have any idea why someone might have done this to her?"

"We already talked to the detectives," Jenna spits, not having warmed one iota towards Lucy since the start of their conversation.

Lucy moves past Jenna's resistance in stride, "I totally get that. And I'm not asking you to rehash everything — I know they are going to do everything in their power to resolve this case, but they don't know Tamara the way I do, the way we all do. Seriously, anything you can think of might help us connect the right dots."