“That’s right,” Laurence said. “But then they saw you again, later in the night. Out in the street, having some argument with Addison. They said it got pretty heated. Do you remember that?”
“I do.”
“Do you remember what you fought about?”
“It was nothing.”
“It was enough to draw some attention.”
“I decided to leave and Addison didn’t want me to drive. He said I needed to sober up.”
“Did you drive home that night?”
“No. I took a cab. I came back for my car the next day.”
Laurence raised an eyebrow. “Good on Addison.” A pause, and then, “I’m sure you’re wondering how we came upon this information in the first place.”
“No,” I said, “I’m not.”
“Come on, now. You must be a little intrigued.”
“Not really.”
“Fine, then indulge me. We saw your friend Tyler again.”
“Okay.”
“He’s a real talker once you get him going, isn’t he? Anyway, we just wanted to follow up with him. Since you tipped us off that he’d been in town after all. See if he remembered hearing anything about this girl from Kent State. Or anybody else Addison spent time with off campus. Townies, right? Anyhow, Tyler got pretty jumpy pretty quick. He seemed rattled. Started stumbling over his words, cutting himself off, backing up. It was clear enough there was something he wasn’t saying. So I asked him what it was. And then do you know what he told us?”
He was toying with me, a cat batting a mouse. But he was waiting, so I answered.
“No, I don’t.”
“Any idea?”
“No.”
“Tyler said we aren’t going to find Addison because Addison is dead.” I held my body still, keeping my eyes on his. “Does that surprise you?”
“What kind of question is that?”
“It’s the question I’m asking. But never mind—wait until you hear this next part. Tyler said you had gotten stressed because Addison knew what was going on between you two. You and him sleeping together or whatever. And you started worrying Addison was going to rat you out. That’s what the fight in Columbus was about, not how much you did or didn’t have to drink. And that during spring break the three of you had been in the dorms together and you got in another fight with Addison. Things escalated. You pushed him, not really meaning to hurt him, but he fell and hit his head. Some kind of bad luck fall and he died on the spot.”
Tyler had done exactly what I’d taught him: bring your lies as close to the truth as possible.
“That isn’t true.”
“I’m not finished,” Laurence said. “So Tyler says that he wanted to come to us, but you made him swear not to. Pressured him to help dump the body. But he was having second thoughts, feeling guilty.”
“He seemed really upset,” Hoffer said.
Tyler was scared and I wasn’t there to reassure him. The cops had shaken him, freaked him out. He was unraveling, grasping at straws. He didn’t mean any of this.
“And he says this Thursday,” Laurence continued, “he tried to get you to turn yourselves in. You told him to keep his mouth shut. You threatened him. And smacked him around to make the point. He was looking pretty banged up.”
“Definitely,” Hoffer said. “The side of his face was going purple.”
“And a swollen bottom lip. You roughed him up pretty good.”
