The Cinderella Murder

74

As Laurie walked through the parking garage toward the Land Cruiser, she realized that the clues pointing to Hathaway had been there all along. Susan had fled her dorm room after her fight with Nicole, eager to find her lucky necklace before her audition. Where would she have gone? To her desk at the lab.

And what would she have seen when she got there?

Laurie wasn’t certain about this part yet, but if Susan went into the lab on a Saturday, she could have walked in on a moment that Hathaway assumed would be private. Maybe she’d caught him in one of those rumored liaisons with a female student or in the midst of some kind of academic impropriety. Hathaway could have talked Susan into getting into his car to discuss whatever she’d seen, especially since her own car had been acting up and she was set on getting to her audition.

Hathaway claimed to have been with Dwight the night Susan was killed, but the timeline was hazy, and now Dwight was dead. There was no way to know with certainty where Hathaway was that evening, but that’s where the phone call to Madison came in.

Laurie realized what had been nagging her about her conversation with Madison after Laurie spotted Hathaway leaving Madison’s hotel room. Madison had said that she had nothing to hide now that they were both grown-ups. She said they were rekindling. This wasn’t a new relationship for them.

Laurie was certain that once Alex called Madison, she would confirm that Hathaway was the love interest who never showed up to her dorm room the night Susan was murdered. He never showed up because he was killing Susan in Laurel Canyon Park.

She opened the car door and paused to glance at her cell phone. No signal, as she suspected. Oh well, she thought, once I pull around to the hospital entrance, Alex can tell me if he reached Madison.

She had just slipped her cell phone in the pocket of the driver’s-side door when she felt a hard object pressed against her back. In the side-view mirror, she saw the reflection of Hathaway standing behind her.

“Get in,” he ordered, shoving her behind the wheel. Keeping the gun on her, he climbed over her into the passenger seat. “Now drive!”