I stared at the meager report. It wasn’t substantial enough to open doors, provide answers, or give us a new direction. It was nothing more than another tick against Jesse. More proof that he was a disgusting piece of shit who deserved to be six feet under. And fuck you, Rue. I said what I said, and I don’t regret it. The other two alleged rapists were unnamed. Who were they? Navid? Ford? The report was dated September 2022. Three years and three months ago.
How many other women had suffered because Yates’s report never saw the light of day? How many other women on campus were too afraid to come forward? I thought of Neo, protectively embracing Blaze, ready to go to war because the police did nothing with the numerous complaints of harassment.
Before I could ask or even think of questions for Yates, Sergeant Golding burst into the room and pinned me with a look of venom. “Am I reassigning you, Haven? Are your priorities for the day unclear?”
“No, ma’am. I’m heading out now.” I closed the folder and tucked it under my arm. To Yates, I said, “I’m keeping this.”
He nodded, and I slipped around my sergeant and raced to get out of the building before my boss decided to drag me into her office or put me back on street patrol.
15
Kobe
“It’s useless,” Rue saidas we grabbed coffee at a drive-through.
Our meeting at the Carrigans ended ten minutes ago, and we had half an hour before we needed to be at the university to meet with an administrator. I had relayed Yates’s story about the two teenage girls and one boy and their unofficial report from 2022.
Her instant assessment rubbed me the wrong way, even if she was probably right.
“All it does is support what we already know about Jesse,” she continued.
“Never mind then. I thought it was worth mentioning. Itcouldtie into this.”
“Doubt it.”
“You’re still mad.”
“I’m focused, Haven. You should be too. On the present issue, not something we can’t validate that is more than three years old.”
Rue thought it was a stretch to believe Yates’s unfiled report had anything to do with our current murders. I saw her point, to a degree, but if Jesse had raped once, it was easy to believe he’d done it again.
Ford Carrigan and Navid Kordestani’s involvement skewed the picture. Could they have been the other two assailants? Ford, maybe, but not Navid. The girl would have mentioned someone significantly older, and the doctor had over two decades on Jesse and Ford. Plus, we had yet to find evidence that connected Navid to the other two.
According to Ford’s parents, he had dropped out of his accounting program at the end of January 2023. Apparently, his mental health had been spiraling for some time. Ford had been living at home with his parents. After leaving school, his illness got worse. Over the following year, he spent every day locked in his room, barely getting out of bed to shower or eat. On his mother’s insistence, Ford had attended therapy and started taking antidepressant medication around Christmas of 2023.
By the following April, he had improved enough to make his way into the work field. Ford had shown no interest in returning to school. With a partial degree, he’d gotten an entry-level job at Scotiabank and seemed happy. So far as his parents understood, he had not rekindled any friendships from his school days. Until the day he was killed, Ford had remained extremely introverted and rarely dated.
I tried one last time. “All I’m saying is, we shouldn’t outright dismiss it. According to Yates’s report, we have two unknown alleged rapists. Ford and Navid could—”
“It’s not a report, Haven.”
“Can you listen? Ford didn’t leave school until four months after these girls talked to Yates. It’s possible he was with Jesse that night, and this whole thing revolves around these girls. Weknow Jesse and Ford were friends. According to a few of the women we’ve talked to, Ford was part of Jesse’s party group.”
“Yeah,three years ago. No one is waiting three years to enact revenge, if that is what you’re suggesting.”
“Why not?”
Rue turned into the parking lot of the main administration building on campus, left the car idling, and turned to face me. “And how the hell is Navid part of this? Where does he fit in? I have a hard time believing he associated with Ford and Jesse or attended campus parties.”
“I don’t know.”
“Focus, Haven.”
“I am focused. I’m mulling over theories.”
“We need facts to support them.” She snapped a case file from the dashboard and shook it in my face. “We need proof.”
I batted the folder away. “I know how the job works.”
