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Effort, Pennsylvania

C asey Arntz is playing a video game, the Sims, on a Friday night when she gets a text from Bryan Kohberger.

She smiles because she likes Bryan. That’s a bit of a controversial stance in her friend group.

Bryan has had his ups and downs with her younger brother Tom, who says Bryan likes to get physical for no reason.

One of Tom’s friends, Brandon Andreola, says Bryan has a temper.

There’s also the fact that Bryan hangs out with Jeremy Saba, who Casey thinks is a dick.

And Saba is known to be a junkie these days.

But she likes Bryan.

He may not say much, but Bryan has always been sweet to her.

He’s solicitous in his texts. He always asks her how she is.

Most recently he’s been asking about her work at the glitter manufacturer in New Jersey, about her career plans.

(She wants to go into interior design after college.) Casey knows Bryan’s plans.

He graduated high school early, in March, and wants to go to college, maybe East Stroudsburg University, in the fall to study criminal justice.

Tonight, he’s texting Casey because he needs a favor.

He tells her his car broke down, and he has to get to his cousin’s house near Luna Rossa, a restaurant in Brodheadsville that’s a twenty-minute drive up Route 209. He doesn’t say why.

Casey says fine. She’s happy to help Bryan. She feels sorry for him that he’s stuck all the way up in Indian Mountain Lake in that weird gated community. It’s a full mile from his new home to the security guard’s booth.

So she gets into her car and drives the three miles up the mountain to meet Bryan, who’s waiting for her outside the security gate.

She drives him to Luna Rossa. He pops in and out of the restaurant, then asks if she can swing by CVS quickly because he needs to buy needles for his aunt, who is a diabetic.

Casey thinks that’s a bit weird. Shady, actually.

But it’s hard to argue with such apparent compassion. She gives him the benefit of the doubt.

When he’s inside CVS, she thinks fondly of the times they’ve joshed together, like when they used to play the Game of Things with Tom and Brandon, a party game where players guess who wrote which anonymous answer to prompts like “Things you shouldn’t say to your mom.” She misses those happy times.

A few days later, he remembers to text her happy birthday. She thanks him, as she always does.

But when she next sees Brandon, he tells her it’s common knowledge that Bryan gets heroin at Luna Rossa. That’s why he needed Casey to give him a ride there and back. And why he stopped to get needles at CVS.

Casey feels sick.

She realizes that most likely she was carrying heroin in her car. Had she been pulled over, she could have been arrested.

Now Casey is mad.

At 7:49 p.m. on May 21 she sends Bryan a Facebook message, a rare instance in which she is driving the exchange, not him:

I would like to hand you a big congratulations for lying to me about driving you around.

I should’ve added up before hand but thought I was doing something nice for someone.

So thank you, if you would’ve gotten caught, I would’ve gotten in trouble just for driving you around not even knowing why.

Needles for your aunt? Wow. Real great story. Bye.

A full day later, at 8:33 p.m., he responds: I’m in rehab.

I know that , Casey writes back. She receives no reply.

But as the weeks turn into months, she forgives Bryan. How could she not? He’s back from rehab and he’s so patently lonely.

He texts her repeatedly to ask if her parents will let them hang out. And when she doesn’t respond, his texts become sadder and less frequent.

In early 2014 Bryan tells her to be proud that she’s making something of her life. I’m NOT haha , he writes.

Casey wishes that she could be nicer to him. That they all could be nicer to him. He seems to be struggling.

On March 27, 2014, nearly a year after the car ride to Luna Rossa, he sends a text:

you know i love you guys

always will even if we stop talking one day

What is Bryan talking about? What does it mean?