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“No.”

“And you wouldn’t know if Lenny left your room.”

Flip gave a short laugh. “No. Way. Lenny’s a little scaredy cat. No way would my girl wander around this place at night. And, by the way, Lenny’s half the size of Chelsea. How the heck would she have overpowered her?”

Ellery met Flip’s gaze. “You don’t need a lot of strength to use a hatchet.”

Flip swallowed. “Oh. She was hit from behind. God.” He looked sick.

Ellery also felt sick when he remembered the image of Chelsea lying there in the passageway. But no, she had not beenhit from behind. She’d been facing her attacker when she’d been struck. She had seen it coming—though not in time.

Which Flip did not know.

Which meant here was someone he could scratch off his list of suspects?

Ellery clicked off the recorder. “Okay, you want to send Lenny in?”

“Did Flip tell you what we think?” Lenny asked, as soon as Ellery finished stating her name and the date for the recording.

Ellery groaned inwardly. “Please,pleasetell me you two aren’t discussing this where anyone can hear you?”

Lenny gave him a chiding look.

Ellery was not reassured. “Let’s say you and Flip are right. You bothhaveto know how dangerous it is to even hint that you think Chelsea’s death might be tied to...something that happened back when we were in college.”

“We’re not hinting. We’re speaking to you in private. But it makes sense, right?”

Ellery sighed. “It’s a good theory, yes, but we don’t have any proof of anything. We don’t even know for sure that Noah’s death wasn’t an accident. Let alone that Chelsea’s death is somehow tied to Noah’s.”

“But the odds of it being a coincidence have to be astronomical. Don’t you think?”

“DoIthink so?” Ellery grimaced. “Yes. I don’twantto think it, but... I can’t come up with any reason one of us would want Chelsea dead. She wasn’t...her best self this weekend, but she wasn’t doing anything that would drive someone to commit murder.”

Lenny said meaningfully, “That we know of.”

“Right.”

“Which means we have to figure out what Chelsea did last night that made someone decide they had to kill her.”

“Lenny, for the love of God.”

She brushed that aside. “What does Jack say?”

“It’ll still be a few hours before anyone can reach us.”

“No, about ourcase.”

Ellery was pretty sure his hair stood on end as he experienced a frightening moment of déjà vu. It was like being confronted with a baby version of Nora.

“Wedon’t have a case!” he hissed. “We’re just collecting information so that Jack can buildhiscase. Which would have to be something that could hold up in court.”

“Exactly.” She hissed back. “We’re helping him do that. You do this all the time, right?”

“Notthis! This is a completely different situation. For one thing, I’m not usually playing eenie meenie miny mo with the lives of my oldest friends.”

“But—”

“Lenny, stop. It’s not a game. You and Flip don’t seem to understand—”