Welcome to Case Close Close.

You're listening to Bye-B-Babee, by Kerala Lovering.

Narrated by Helen Laser and Carissa Vacker.

Let's pick up where we left off last week.

Chapter 5

Cassie

August 26th, 2023, 48 days before. McKay waits for me at the corner of 21st in Lexington. The sight of her, long buttery

hair, linen blazer, palms resting on the handlebar of her stroller, quite literally warms

my heart. I'm so lucky warms my heart.

I'm so lucky she's my best friend, my go-to person,

Ella's godmother.

She hands me a Starbucks cup and grins,

and I think of the first time we met outside outside Anenberg Hall on Move-In day freshman year.

She wore athletic shorts and a t-shirt with Hotchkiss stamped across the front in Navy block letters.

Her face flushed pink from exertion, blonde wisps coming loose from her

ponytail. It was clear she'd just been for a run. I'd worked up the courage to ask her where

she was from because she was the kind of girl who I knew, even in sweaty

workout clothes, would be good to know.

Marblehead, she drank from her Nalgine.

You?

Greenwich, I'd answered quickly, without a thought.

It was mostly true anyway.

...