Read Grey Zone for Free Online Page B

time the two reached Memorial Hall, she’d listed a half dozen reasons why Dulcie’s theory was, at the very least, premature. It was with some relief, then, that Dulcie waved her friend off toward Emerson, where Trista had a section to teach. She hadn’t even gotten around to telling Trista about the odd confrontation outside of Widener. But she knew she’d probably see her friend later – pub nights at the People’s Republik had become one of the few times the harried grad students got to hang, though even these congenial evenings were becoming more sporadic as the term ground on. The week before, Dulcie recalled, Trista hadn’t even made it to the Republik, and Chris had spent the evening dissecting the Sox pitching prospects with her boyfriend, Jerry. Well, it wasn’t like Tris would have anything to add to what Suze had said, and Dulcie had no time to file a report about something that she might have misunderstood anyway. She had a student waiting, and so she descended into the subterranean warren of offices that she shared with most of the department’s grad students, and particularly with Lloyd Pruitt.
    â€˜Hey, Lloyd.’ She opened the door to the sight of Lloyd’s balding pate. Only twenty-four, Lloyd had the face of a teenager – but the scalp of a fifty-year-old. Unlike Chelowski, Lloyd didn’t resort to a comb-over. He didn’t need to: despite his unprepossessing looks, he had managed to secure the heart of Raleigh Hall, Dulcie’s senior tutee. It was a blatant breach of university rules, but it seemed to be working. Perhaps, thought Dulcie, because Lloyd was such a genuinely nice guy.
    â€˜â€™Scuse me?’ Dulcie said. Lloyd had muttered something, but since he hadn’t lifted his face from the blue book in front of him, Dulcie had no idea what it was.
    â€˜Your student – big girl? – came by. Philomena?’ Lloyd looked up, his pale face drawn. ‘She came by. I told her you’d be here in a few, but she said she couldn’t wait. Couldn’t stay for her tutorial even if you were here, she said. She was going to leave a note.’
    â€˜Great.’ She didn’t mean it, nor did she mean to cause the look of distress that passed over her office-mate’s face as she slumped into her desk chair. ‘Sorry, I just sort of winged it in a report about her and was hoping to actually catch up. It’s just been that kind of morning. You know that poster? The one about the missing girl?’
    â€˜Uh huh.’ He made a few more marks on the student exam book. ‘Carrie Mines? Not one of ours.’
    â€˜You knew her?’ Dulcie looked over a little surprised. So she had looked familiar.
    â€˜So did you. She was supposed to be in your English 10 section, remember? Last fall? We were all taking on extra students, but you lucked out.’ That was because she’d been given Raleigh as a senior honors student. A fact that must have hit them both at once. ‘I mean, I’m glad you did. And so are your students.’ He still avoided saying his girlfriend’s name in public. ‘But Carrie was sort of a troublemaker. Flighty, at least. I forget the details, but she ended up changing her concentration, I believe. Wanted to spend more time on some extracurricular or something. At any rate, I think she dropped the course.’
    â€˜Did any of us talk to her?’ Dulcie was afraid to ask. ‘I mean, ask her what was wrong?’
    â€˜Not unless you did.’ Lloyd didn’t sound concerned as he reached for a second blue book. Students dropped out, changed majors, all the time, but grading was eternal. ‘I mean, she would have been your responsibility.’
    â€˜My responsibility.’ The words carried a horrible chill. ‘And now she’s missing.’
    â€˜Dulcie, what’s wrong?’ Something must have carried on her voice. ‘We don’t know what’s