“Can’t I just dislike someone?”
“Sure, but you must have had your reasons.”
He seemed uncomfortable, crossing his arms in front of his chest, and if I wasn’t mistaken, his voice raised half an octave. “She was a phony. She was charismatic and beautiful and amazing at what she did, so everyone wanted to ignore the rest of her. But I couldn’t. I saw right through her the whole time, and I didn’t like what I saw.”
“Why were you the only person who saw this?”
“Because I was the only one who would let myself see it.”
“And you said the feelings were mutual? She disliked you, too?”
He grinned proudly. “Hated me. And you can imagine how that went, sharing a wall with her.”
“How long did she work here? How long have you worked here, for that matter?”
“Isabelle was relatively new. She’d been here maybe five years. The rest of us grew up here.”
I stared at him, shocked. “What? Who grew up here?”
“All of us—me, Dorian, Lexi, Aspen.”
I sat in stunned silence. An uncomfortably eerie feeling settled over me. I tapped my notebook. “I don’t understand. Youall grew up together and then somehow, magically, all ended up with jobs at Hildegard College?”
From what I knew about how difficult it was to secure an academic position, this seemed not just impossible but almost laughable.
“Our parents were all professors here. They still are, in fact. Just gone for the summer.”
My stomach dropped even further. What Finn was saying sounded completely ridiculous. I decided to change the subject.
“So Isabelle’s research, do you have any idea what that research involved?”
“Not really,” he said with a noncommittal shrug. “Neurocognitive stuff.”
I stared at him a moment, hoping to break through some barrier, to force myself through whatever wall he had put up, but I saw no openings. Then something occurred to me.
“She didn’t do anything with parasomnias, did she? Sleepwalking, sleep paralysis, anything like that?”
He looked up at me suddenly. “Hey, want to go hiking?”
“What?” I couldn’t hide my shock. The invitation had come completely out of left field.
“Hiking. I’m going. Do you want to come?”
“Now?” I asked, befuddled.
“Yeah, now. Why not?”
“Okay,” I said, trying to adjust. “Sure. Why not?”
His abrupt change in mood wasn’t lost on me. I asked about sleep paralysis and suddenly he was inviting me hiking? Clearly I had touched a nerve. I didn’t really want to go hiking, but I did want to see what else might happen if I kept pushing.
“Where are you going?”
“Just a little hike up the mountain.”
“Isn’t that off-limits?”
“Naw, I stay on the trails. Besides, the mountain is fine.”
