Noah ignored him.
“Thank you for coming, Cheryl Beth.” He reached a manacled hand across the table toward her and a female deputy instantly intervened. “Prisoner! Hands in your lap.”
Noah cringed and dropped his hands. He looked shrunken in the inmate garb. She searched his face: Noah Smith from Corbin. Somebody’s son, brother, cousin? Nothing. He didn’t look like anyone she had known there. And it was a place she had tried very hard to forget.
“I don’t need to tell you that you’re in a lot of trouble, Mr. Smith,” Brooks said. “You can make things easier on yourself if you tell me what happened out there.”
“I didn’t…”
“Noah,” Cheryl Beth said. “You’d better not say anything until you talk to a lawyer.” She didn’t look Brooks’ way, felt his cosmic annoyance flooding her.
“I didn’t do anything.” His voice shook.
“Tell me about the two girls, Holly and Lauren?” Brooks asked it in a confidant’s voice. “I can help you, Noah, if you’ll help me. Lawyers are going to get in the way of that. Now’s the time to work with me, before things get more complicated. Tell me about the girls.”
Noah swallowed hard enough that his Adam’s apple, his laryngeal prominence her interior voice said, bobbed up and down. He said, “We were drinking in town and went back on campus to party some more.”
“Noah!” Cheryl Beth stared at him. “Wait for your lawyer before you say anything.”
He shook his head. “I’ve got nothing to hide.”
Brooks said, “You all were together?”
“Sure. We were together at the bar.” He gave the name of the place, a popular hangout for students.
Cheryl Beth wanted to slap him silly. He was a fool to be talking or to trust Hank Brooks.
Brooks asked, “Why?”
He looked bewildered.
“My point is, did you all have plans? Did one of them go there with you on a date? Did you pick them both up? What?”
Noah said they had met up at the bar. “We were drinking and having fun. First Holly and me, and then we saw Lauren and she joined us.”
“Drank too much?”
“Maybe”
“And you expect me to believe these two good-looking girls, both of ’em, left with you.”
“They did.”
“Must be nice,” Brooks said. He made some notes. Noah’s eyes beseeched her, but all Cheryl Beth could do was give a small, soothing smile she had perfected over the years. At the moment, she was doubtful of its comfort. She mouthed the words: “shut up.” He looked away.
“You’re kind of old to be hanging around campus bars, Noah,” Brooks said. “My information says you’re twenty-five. These girls were both twenty.”
“I was in the Army,” he said. “After my discharge, I went back to school.”
“An honorable discharge?”
“Yes, sir.”
“We’ll check on that.” Brooks put down his pen and stared at the young man. Then his voice resumed its friendly tone. “What time did you leave the bar?”
“I don’t know. Maybe around midnight.”
“You’re sure of that.”
Cheryl Beth turned to Brooks. “He already told you he wasn’t sure.” She turned back to Noah. “You should shut up.”
“I’m innocent.” He said it, looking incredibly boy-like and vulnerable.
“Then how do you know it was after midnight?” Instantly she wished she hadn’t asked it.
“I got a call around midnight, let it go to voice mail. I saw the time then. We left awhile afterwards. The place was getting pretty crowded.”
“Who called you?” Brooks twirled his pen in his fingers.
Noah hesitated. “A friend.”
“Female friend?”
Noah nodded.
Brooks stood and paced toward the wall, his shoes squeaking on the waxed floor.
“You’re a popular guy,” Brooks said. “So you and the two girls walked to the Formal Gardens? Did you do drugs?”
“Noah,” Cheryl Beth said.
“It’s okay,” he said. “We did some E.”
“Ecstasy,” Brooks said. “You always bring that when you’re out with women?”
“Lauren had it,” he said. “We took one each, watched the stars, and talked.”
Brooks sighed. Then: “Did you hook up?”
“Sure. That’s kind of the idea.”
“With both of them?”
Noah nodded.
“Man, you are a lucky guy,” Brooks said, circling around behind Noah. Cheryl Beth noted again how short he was, how he radiated short-man insecurities. It reminded her of certain doctors she had known.
Brooks said, “What made you kill them?”
“I didn’t!”
The deputy stepped closer and Noah slumped in his chair.
Brooks leaned in behind Noah’s left side.
“You own a knife?”
“Probably. Yes, I do. I have a couple from the service.” Noah leaned back and turned his head, but Brooks had switched sides. He spoke into Noah’s other ear, barely a whisper.
“What about handcuffs?”
“No, of course not.”
“Those girls had abrasions on their wrists. Somebody handcuffed them, Noah. I think that somebody is you.”
He shook his head, saying “No” over and over.
“We’re going to find the knife that killed those girls, Noah. We’re going to find the handcuffs. And when we do, we’re going to find your fingerprints on it. So why don’t you tell me what really happened.”
“I’m trying to tell you the truth. Somebody hit me from behind.”
“Somebody?”
He nodded and Brooks sat back down. Some anonymous sounds came from back in the jail, and Brooks leaned in, baring his teeth.
“You like to hurt women, right?”
“I never…!”
“You’re really sick to have done this, Noah. Carve up those girls that way.”
Noah shivered and sobbed.
Brooks’ tone shifted again. In a quieter voice, he asked, “Did the girls see this somebody? Did they warn you? Did they scream?”
“No. They were passed out. I was about to wake them up so we could go.”
“Passed out?” Brooks cocked an eyebrow and stroked his mustache. “I didn’t think ecstasy made you pass out. I thought it made you feel all full of peace and self-acceptance and shit like that.”
“We’d had a lot to drink.”
“But not too much for you to have sex with them.”
“We had sex.”
“Your DNA’s going to be in those bodies, Noah. Why did you kill them?”
“I didn’t kill them!” His face was red and he was crying.
“Because somebody hit you.”
“That’s right. When I came to, I felt like hell. Holly and Lauren were gone. It was raining, but I passed out again. The next thing I know was when you guys… Wait. Holly and Lauren were gone because I wasn’t in the Formal Gardens when I woke up. I was off in some bushes. Like somebody dragged me over there.”
“That ‘somebody’ again,” Brooks said.
“Noah,” Cheryl Beth said, “When you three were together, were you alone in the gardens? Did you notice anyone else?”
He hung his head, shaking it slowly. “I don’t remember.”
His story seemed implausible. But Cheryl Beth also knew that many of the behaviors Noah exhibited, from the loss of focus, impaired attention, and even paranoia were after-effects of Ecstasy, otherwise known as MDMA.
She turned to Brooks: “Did you notice any marks on the grass as if he’d been dragged?”
Brooks glared at her.
“Has anyone examined the back of his head?” she asked.
“This is bullshit,” Brooks said,
“May I?” She stood. “I’m an R.N.”
The deputy seemed unsure.
“Go ahead,” Brooks said. “What the hell.”
She walked behind Noah and felt above his neck into his hair. There was no bleeding but a noticeable lump. “There is a hematoma there,” she said. “A big bruise. A blow from the back could have made it. He needs to be checked for a concussion.”
“That’s what I’m telling you.” Noah said.
“It could also have come from the arrest,” Brooks said. “Or maybe you fell. Killers are stupid that way.” He stood and walked to the door.