“Okay, well, was Chelsea with anyone in particular in the VIP room? Or just a big group?”
“Mostly just the whole group,” Stefanie said. “But she was talking to this one guy when we first got there, and he was the one who brought us all into the VIP room.”
“Can you describe him?”
“He was tall, probably a little over six feet. Sort of shaggy, sandy blond hair. Cute.”
“Oh, I remember him,” Jordan said. “Chelsea was with him for, like, a couple of hours, I think. They were dancing. Looked pretty hot and heavy.”
“It was flirting,” Stefanie admonished.
“I know. I’m just saying, I noticed.”
“So you got a good look at him, too?” Ellie asked.
Jordan nodded. “He kind of looked like an older Zac Efron. You know, cute more than good looking.”
“And I would know him from where?”
“High School Musical? Hairspray? Like, every single tabloid magazine known to man?”
Feeling slightly older than she had a minute earlier, Ellie tried not to think about how much easier this would be if the people who met at Manhattan clubs bothered to exchange names like normal people. She was going to have to sit these girls down with a sketch artist in the small hope of finding someone who apparently looked like an overage teen hunk and probably had absolutely nothing to do with Chelsea’s death.
“Now, Jordan, you said Chelsea was with this guy for a couple of hours. Did you see her with anyone else?”
Jordan shook her head, but Stefanie spoke up. “Yeah, she was dancing with some other guy when I told her we were leaving. I didn’t really pay any attention to him, though. He was giving me a hard time for trying to get Chelsea to leave. Jesus, I let it get to me, and I shouldn’t have. I should have made her come home with us.”
Jordan told Stefanie it wasn’t her fault. Ellie got the impression she’d spoken those words many times that morning.
“Can you remember anything about him?”
Stefanie chuckled to herself. “Yeah, I called him Duran Duran. He had that poser fauxhawk hairdo.”
“Kind of gelled into the middle?” Ellie said.
“Exactly,” Stefanie said. “And he was dressed like some retro eighties MTV video star. Skinny pants. Skinny tie. Really stupid.”
“What about the basics? Height, weight, age?”
“Also kind of tall. Not as tall as the first guy. Probably right around six feet. A little older than us, maybe mid-twenties? Dark brown hair. Kind of thin, I guess. I really didn’t pay any attention, but I might recognize him if I saw him again.”
“Well, I can understand how the outfit might have distracted you.” Ellie was hoping a little humor might deter Stefanie from another guilt-induced digression.
“Oh, and Chelsea was calling him Jake.”
“His name was Jake?” Ellie clarified.
“No, like for Jake Gyllenhaal. It’s this thing Chelsea does. If someone looks like a celebrity, she’ll just call them that. So, I didn’t get a great look at the guy, but according to Chelsea, he looked like Jake Gyllenhaal.”
Ellie could certainly see how a guy who looked like that-regardless of the outfit-might get the attention of a nineteen-year-old girl from Indiana.
“Okay, so we’ve got the shaggy-haired guy who brought you into the VIP room and Jake the bad dresser,” she said. “Anyone else from last night you can remember?”
No.
“What about back home? Does Chelsea have a boyfriend?”
“Her boyfriend’s not here,” Stefanie said.
“Where is he?” Ellie asked.
“Indiana. He went to Cancún for break, but he came back yesterday so he wouldn’t miss any classes. Oh, my God. He’s totally going to flip out when we’re not on the plane.”
“Worry about that later. What’s his name?”
“Mark. Mark Linton.”
Two more words for the notebook. She didn’t care whether the boyfriend was supposedly hiking in the Amazon rain forest. Until she verified his whereabouts, the boyfriend was always a suspect.
“Who else?” Ellie asked.
Stefanie cocked her head, clearly put off by the question. Jordan gave her an annoyed look.
“Who else other than Mark Linton?” Ellie asked again. “I mean, it’s not like they’re married, right?”
“Not married,” Stefanie said defensively, “but dating. And for like nine months. He’s her boyfriend, okay? She was dancing with some guys last night, but so were the rest of us.”
“No problem. Sorry if I offended you. I figured in college most people would still be dating around. You girls all right? Need to take a bathroom break or anything?”
Jordan raised her hand chin-high.
“Detective Rogan will show you the way.”
Jordan scooted past her friend and followed Rogan out, while Ellie continued to walk Stefanie through the basics. Chelsea had no enemies. No one was watching them. No one was following them. No tawdry affairs or illicit drug deals over spring break. The guys at Pulse seemed harmless enough, and Chelsea wouldn’t have left with any of them anyway.
It was just a fun night in the city. In fact, Chelsea had told Stefanie, just before they left her alone at the club, that it was the best night ever.
When Rogan returned to the room with Jordan, he gave Ellie the look she was expecting.
“This has been good, you guys. Very helpful. We’re going to make a few calls, and we’ll be right back.” Ellie waited for the door to close behind them to talk to her partner in the hallway. “So?”
“Miss All-American Innocent, my black ass.”
Ellie feigned a judgmental tsk. “My goodness, Jeffrey James. You are so cynical.”
FACTS. REALITY. THE TRUTH. A TIMELINE. It all sounds objective. Absolute. Black and white.
It never was. Sometimes a story changed because a witness lied. But more often, it was simply because there was another side to the story.
According to Rogan, it hadn’t taken much to get Jordan to come clean.
“I caught her on the way out of the ladies’ room,” Rogan said. “I told her I noticed her expression when Stefanie insisted Chelsea had only the one boyfriend. She gave me the usual ‘I don’t want to say anything about my friend.’”
“And then you said we need the truth if we’re going to help.”
Rogan nodded. “Chelsea was getting her party on last night. Hard. All these girls were polluted by the time they left, and Chelsea was probably the worst. And she’s got a wild streak. She’s got the one boyfriend, Mark Linton, but that doesn’t stop her from flirting with other dudes behind his back, or even in front of his face.”