BRAD SAT AT the table, his face slack and bloodless as Test and North entered.
Dark green moons rimmed his blank eyes. He had not showered since he’d been held, and Test got a whiff of body odor. His shoulders were slumped. He seemed smaller, his athleticism diminished.
Good, Test thought. We’ll see what he’s made of now. The pregnancy had lit a fire in her and left her theory of King sidelined for the present.
“We ran tests on your dead girlfriend.” North slapped the folder on the table. “Any guesses?”
Brad seemed not to hear him. He rubbed his eyes and blinked.
“Wake up.” North snapped his fingers in front of Brad’s face.
Brad looked with eyes unfocused.
“We know why you did it,” North said.
“I didn’t do it. Why don’t you believe me?”
Test thought of what Fran Jenkins had said when asked how she knew Brad didn’t do it: ‘Because he said he didn’t.’ Was it denial? Or did a mother just know? Would Test know if George ever did such a terrible thing but told Test he was innocent? Would she feel it? Or could she be fooled by her own son? Could her son look her in the eye and pull off such a soulless lie?
The truth was, she just didn’t know.
“You have no alibi,” North said. “You were sleeping with her. And it wasn’t just that she might tell someone.”
Brad rubbed his face.
North slid the folder to him.
“Read it,” North said.
Brad slid it back to Richard.
“You don’t need to read it?” Test said.
“I don’t want to.”
“Let me give you the gist,” North said. “It’s a postmortem test for pregnancy and your dead girlfriend passed.”
Brad stared at North. A thought seemed to pass through Brad’s eyes. He snatched the folder and opened it. If it was an act, it was a damned good one.
“I didn’t know,” he said. “I swear to God.”
“How quickly they come around to God,” North said.
“You’d be better off telling us what happened,” Test said. “If it was an accident, perhaps, or if she instigated it.” The words felt foul and bitter in her mouth, but this approach could make the perp feel understood, make him believe one empathized with his own irrational motives.
Brad blinked rapidly, as if he’d just climbed out from a dark hole into violent sunshine.
“If it was an accident, an argument that went too far,” Test pressed again.
“I don’t understand how this happened,” Brad said. “Where’s my dad? He was supposed to get me a lawyer.”
Test glanced at North, who grimaced. If Brad came right out and asked for a lawyer, the interview would end now. Technically he had not asked, but they were walking a fine line.
“Just tell us what happened,” Test said.
“I can’t,” he said. His nose was running.
“Yes you can,” Test said.
“I don’t know what happened. I wasn’t there. I swear.”
North stood. “Swear all you want. You have the right to remain silent.”
“What?” Brad said.
“Anything you say can and will be—.”
“Do something,” Brad pleaded with Test.
North finished the Miranda warning. “Get up,” he said.
Brad remained fixed in his seat.
North walked around the table, seized Brad’s shoulders and pulled. “Get your ass up.”