Josh said when we were outside in the stairwell, with Amelia Easton’s door closed and locked behind us, “and two to go.” He sounded as exhausted as I felt. I nodded. “This is a lot harder than I thought it would be.” However, it was also a lot more enlightening. I turned to Jamie. “I had no idea you and Professor Easton knew each other from before.” “We didn’t,” Jamie said and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “I’d never seen her before I came here last year. She left Mississippi when she was eighteen, and she never came back.” “Is that why you applied to Barnham? Because you knew she’d be here?” Jamie shook her head, carefully navigating the stairs. Josh kept a hand under her elbow to steady her. “Professor Easton only got this job because the history professor that was here died unexpectedly. I’d applied to Barnham long before that happened. It was one of a handful of schools my parents approved of. Small college, small town, conservative values, no more than a three-hour plane ride away.”
