Suicide Serial by Matthew Boyd Page A

doorbell, and a bit of a wait, a sleepy-looking young blond girl with mussed-up, curly hair opened the door and greeted them with a slightly nervous and groggy, “Yes, officer?”
     
    She looked like she had been partying all night long and was nursing quite a hangover. Jake lifted his detective shield to eye-level and asked the girl, “Does a girl by the name of Emma Fisher live at this residence, ma’am?”
     
    For a moment, her eyes opened a little more, and she rubbed her hand through her bed-hair. “Yes. She lives here. Um, she’s actually my roommate. I haven’t seen her though, well, not since last night. What’s this about?”
     
    Jake asked to come inside and the girl obligingly let them in, pointing them in the direction of a large living room area with ancient-looking wooden floors, two different color couches and a giant flat-screen TV.
     
    The girl’s name was Kristen, and she was one of the senior students in the house. The rest of the girls were sleeping off last night’s party upstairs in their rooms.
     
    “Kristen, we need to ask you some important questions about last night. It’s about Emma. When was the last time you saw her?”
     
    Kristen answered immediately, “Last night, about one o’clock. We left the club and she wanted to stay. She was completely hammered. We tried to talk her out of it but she’s stubborn and refused.”
     
    Jake nodded, writing the information down on some paper. He responded, “Do you know anyone that would want to hurt Emma or had a grudge against her?”
     
    “No. She’s pretty new around here but fits right in with us. So…what’s this about guys? You’ve really got me freaked out, I’m going to be honest with you.”
     
    “Kristen…Emma was murdered last night,” Stacey said.
     
    The girl immediately snapped out of what remained of her grogginess, throwing her hands to her face and gasping with shock.
     
    “Oh my God, Emma!” She began to weep, “It can’t be! I don’t know... She was with us last night at the club! We were all having such a good time, too. I can’t believe she’s dead…”
     
    Jake placed his hand on her shoulder to console her a bit. “I know this is hard and that you two were friends…we just need to know everything that happened last night.”
     
    The girl recovered eventually and went on to describe their night in more detail. She explained that the girls were all downtown at a club called “Pantino Bob’s” and were drinking heavily and dancing most of the night. About one o’clock, most of the girls decided to catch a cab and leave, but Emma was having such a good time that she decided to stay. According to the girl, this was typical behavior for Emma. There were many nights that she decided to stay at a party or club by herself. The girls had warned her many times how dangerous it was for a young girl to be somewhere alone without her friends, and to top it all off, Emma had a bad habit of asking strangers for a ride home.
     
    “I don’t know why she did it,” Kristen managed between sobs, “We told her this would happen one day. She would just laugh. We told her to call us, or call a taxi to pick her up. She always made it home though. Oh man. This is bad. Bad.”
     
    “So she had a habit of going out and getting rides home with strange people? Doesn’t that strike you as a bit odd?” Jake said, as he put a confused look on his face.
     
    “Yes. It was like a game to her.”
     
    “I’m sorry to say so, Kristen, but it was a game she lost.”
     
    Stacey took over the questioning and they discovered that there was no one at the club that the girls thought was suspicious.
     
    Kristen bit her lip and answered, “Just the usual crowd, the same ones are pretty much always there on Saturdays.”
     
    The detectives thanked Kristen for her time, gave condolences, and promised to do everything they could to bring the killer to justice. With that, they left the sorority house and made their way