Chapter 2 - THE CAMPUS THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE SAFE
Lily had chosen Halston University because Daniel hated it.
That was not the entire reason.
But it was part of the appeal.
Halston sat outside Columbus, Ohio, on eighty acres of red-brick buildings, mature trees, modern science labs, and lawns that brochures described as “intimate.”
Daniel described them as poorly lit after ten.
Lily laughed every time.
“Dad, you think every parking lot is a crime documentary.”
“I think parking lots are parking lots.”
“You installed two cameras over our garage.”
“One faces the driveway.”
“The other faces the first camera.”
“Redundancy.”
She rolled her eyes.
That had always been their rhythm.
Daniel worried.
Lily mocked him.
Then quietly took the portable battery pack, emergency whistle, or tire gauge he slipped into her bag anyway.
He had raised her alone from age eight.
Lily’s mother, Rebecca, died from an aggressive ovarian cancer when Lily was in third grade. Daniel spent the years after that becoming two parents badly but consistently.
He was a heavy-equipment mechanic by trade and later became operations manager for a construction company.
Not polished.
Not wealthy.
Dependable.
Lily grew up around work boots, early mornings, and the belief that people should know how to change a tire before learning to parallel park.
She was the opposite of him in temperament.
Curious.
Social.
Restless.
She loved biology and planned to study environmental chemistry.
Halston offered her a substantial academic scholarship.
So Daniel lost the argument before making it.
She moved into Wells Hall in August.
By October, she had already joined the campus sustainability lab and picked up evening shifts as a student assistant in the science annex.
That was how she met Ethan Cole.
Twenty-three.
Graduate research assistant.
Smart.
Charming.
Too old for her by Daniel’s standards.
Lily brought Ethan home for Thanksgiving.
Daniel disliked him almost immediately.
Not because Ethan was rude.
Because he was too good at matching himself to a room.
With Lily, he joked about professors.
With Daniel, he suddenly loved engines.
With Daniel’s sister Marcy, he talked about nonprofit work.
People who change that smoothly always made Daniel suspicious.
Lily noticed.
“You hate everyone.”
“I don’t hate him.”
“You looked at him like he stole copper wire.”
“I look at lots of people like that.”
She laughed.
Ethan wore a silver watch.
Large face.
Black band.
A scratch near the clasp.
Daniel remembered because Ethan removed it before helping repair a leaking kitchen faucet after dinner.
The watch sat on Daniel’s counter for forty minutes.
Same watch.
Maybe.
Daniel told himself he could be wrong.
Fear makes patterns where none exist.
May you like
But Lily had reacted to the security image.
That part he trusted.
