“How would they know? I’ve never been to Graterford.”

“But you visited Zachary, didn’t you?” Christine sat down, bewildered.

“No, no way.” Hannah shuddered. “A maximum-security prison? Uh, no thanks.”

Christine didn’t understand. “But the guard said his girlfriend was there.”

“He has no problem getting women. Such a player. Whatever, dude.” Hannah snorted. “Why would I visit him? We broke up. We’re over.”

“Well, I was under the impression that you cared about him as a friend.”

“Where did you get that impression?” Hannah drew back.

“From him. He said so.”

“Ha! He’s so full of himself!” Hannah rolled her eyes, which were a lovely shade of hazel, with only light makeup.

“It’s a reasonable conclusion, given the fact that you’re lending him money for his retainer.” Christine felt unaccountably defensive on Zachary’s behalf.

“What?” Hannah looked at Christine like she was crazy. “I’m not doing that. I’m not lending him any money, ever again.”

“Wait, hold on. Let me get this straight.” Christine felt confounded, beginning to realize why Zachary hadn’t wanted her to meet with Hannah. “You didn’t lend him $2,500 toward his retainer, in a cashier’s check? You dropped it off at his lawyer’s office?”

Hannah scoffed. “Are you kidding? No, not at all. My days of paying his bills are so over.”

Christine couldn’t get her bearings. Zachary had lied to her, but she didn’t know why. “I guess I was misinformed.”

“Welcome to the world of Zachary Jeffcoat. I don’t know what angle he’s working with you, and I don’t know what he told you. But if he’s talking, he’s lying.” Hannah sipped soda from a tall, plastic tumbler. “Don’t ask me why he’d lie about something that was so easy to catch him on. He’s usually better than that.”

“He didn’t know I was going to meet you.”

“Right, that’s it, and he would know that I would avoid meeting with you, which I totally tried to do.”

Christine had called Hannah five times, not about to give up. “I had that impression. Why, though?”

“My boyfriend getting arrested as a serial killer?” Hannah shook her head, newly somber. “I want nothing to do with that, believe me. I have nothing to do with that. It’s horrible, it’s embarrassing, it’s scary. My parents went ballistic. They liked him. They’re both doctors in town, in family practice. They’re beside themselves.”

“When did you break up with him?”

“The night they arrested him. He called me from the police station in West Chester. I went with my dad.”

“And you broke up with Zachary right then?”

“Totally, it was a no-brainer.” Hannah chuckled, without mirth. “He was sitting there in handcuffs and a white paper jumpsuit. He had washed up, but there was still blood under his fingernails and in his hair. I’m not one of those dumb women who stand by their man, no matter what. It was a long time coming, anyway. We hadn’t been that happy for a while.”

Christine wondered if she had become one of those dumb women. “Do you think he’s guilty?”

“Possibly, okay?” Hannah shook her head, curling her nose in distaste. “I hate to think I was with somebody who was that sick and didn’t know it. My dad is sending me links to articles about serial killers whose girlfriends and wives didn’t know it. It’s so freaky. I think they’re right. It could’ve been me.”

“Where was he the night of the murder? It was last Monday, June 15.”

“I have no idea. I was in town, at my apartment. Zachary told me he was on the road in Maryland. Liar.”

Christine felt dismay at yet another lie. “Did you speak with him that night?”

“No, he texted me, saying he was working soooo hard. Boo-hoo. What a joke.”

“What time did he text you?”

“About eight o’clock. I was studying with my friends.”

“Can you just tell me briefly about your relationship? You started dating Zachary when, when you entered med school?”

“Yes, the summer before first year. We met at an orientation mixer for accepted students, at a bar in Society Hill. I fell for him, like, bam. He is so hot.” Hannah smiled slightly. “It was good that summer, I’ll give him that. It was great when we thought we were both going to school.”

“Then what happened?”

“To start with, it was a problem that he never had any money, he had no help with tuition, and it was a constant issue. He worried all summer about making enough for tuition. He had, like, five jobs.”

“Do you know if he did anything else to make money?” Christine was wondering if Hannah knew that Zachary had been a sperm donor.

“Like what?”

“I don’t know, sell blood? Donate sperm, like some students do?”

“No, I have no idea if he did any of that.” Hannah shrugged it off. “But he did need money. I paid for a lot of things, I didn’t mind, my family has the money. But then Zachary couldn’t come up with the tuition.” Hannah shook her head. “He was mad when I wouldn’t ask my father for a loan. We had a huge fight. He lost his temper, out of nowhere.”

Christine flashed on Zachary’s sudden temper, which she’d experienced.

“He called me names, too. Basically ‘rich bitch.’ It wasn’t nice.”

“Did that happen often?”

“No, but I didn’t forget it. I wouldn’t put up with that.” Hannah frowned. “He started making noises like he couldn’t register because you can’t register until your tuition is paid. So he conceded the obvious and got a job at Brigham, but he was bummed. He loved medicine more than I do. I mean, it sucked, and I was feeling guilty.”

“So then what happened?” Christine thought it was the flip side of what Zachary had said about their relationship, that he felt demoted when he didn’t go to med school.

“He was jealous that I was in med school and he wasn’t. He was on the road for three and four days a week for Brigham, and I was in lab, so we never saw each other. He resented me, and it started to come out in strange ways.”