“She’s fine,” I said dryly as Magone flicked me a sharp look before addressing me, “Where is she?” he asked.
I exhaled, unsure what to say. If I lie, I’m screwed. If I tell the truth, I’m screwed. What the fuck do I say? “She’s staying with us at the Lud for a while,” I assured her, realizing that there was no way out of this situation. Magone probably knew that campus police turned up at our frat house searching for Adina. “She hurt her ankle and can’t walk.”
“Are you serious?” she exclaimed in disbelief. “I’ve been trying to get hold of her for the last two days. Her phone is turned off. What the hell is going on? Where is she?”
“Talk to Lev,” I advised her, pointing upstairs so she’d leave me alone. “He’s up there.”
She screwed her face up as if Lev was the last person in the world she wanted to talk to, but rushed past us to seek him out.We came to the common room, which was empty because the entire hall had only three students living in it, and he paused and said, “How about we have a chat in here, shall we? It’s quiet, and there’s no one about; we may as well get our interview over and done with.”
“Fine,” I shrugged as he guided me inside and then shut the door behind him. There were two couches facing each other with a coffee table between and a large TV mounted on the wall. I took one couch while I sat on the other and placed his phone on the coffee table to record us.
“Right,” he began, rubbing his hands together, but I interrupted with, “Will this be private?”
“If anyone listens in at the door, I’ll tell them to leave,” he strongly clarified, slightly impatient as if he thought I was deliberately wasting time. He flicked on his phone to record the conversation, then said the time and date and who he was interviewing. “Remind me which carriage you were seated in on the first train ride to Castlehill?”
I exhaled to cool my mood before I spoke. He knew exactly which carriage I was on because he had a copy of the seating arrangements, so this was him trying to get a feel of my tone. “C,” I replied coolly.
“Did you leave your carriage at any point in the journey?”
“Yes.”
“Can you elaborate on where you went?” he pressed.
“To the cafeteria and the bathroom,” I answered.
“Did you at any point in the journey go into carriage D?” he asked.
I shrugged, “Yeah, maybe. I mean, I didn’t take much notice of where I went.”
“Do you know Theo Abbott?” he asked, then plunged his hand into his jacket pocket and drew out a folded piece of paper, unfolded it, and then placed the printed photograph of a nerdy-looking dude with scruffy hair on the coffee table. He tapped his finger on the photograph to grab my attention.
I shook my head, “No.”
“There were witnesses who saw you talking to him on both carriages C and D,” he asserted, and my heart sank, wondering if it was Adina who squealed. I didn't think she was that stupid, but we kept a tight rein on her to ensure she kept her mouth shut.
“Okay,” I breathed as my head spun and my chest tightened in stress.
A few beats of silence as I could feel him scrutinizing my body language. “Look again at the photograph. Do you know Theo Abbott?”
“No,” I replied.
“Did you speak to Theo Abbott on the train?” he asked.
“Yes,” I replied, “but I don’t know him. I mean, that was the first time I’d ever seen the guy.”
“What did you talk to him about?” he pressed, and at that point, I decided to be upfront and endure the consequences.
“We found him messing around on our carriage, trying to record a conversation between us and taking pics and shit, so I had a quiet chat with him,” I confessed.
“Record a conversation between who exactly?” he asked.
I swallowed over a lump in my throat, “Between us boys. Like there was me, Lev, Nicolae, Conrad, Robbie, Cole-.”
“Conrad? Is that Conrad Milton?” he asked for clarification.
“Yeah, why?” I asked him, but he was the one calling the shots, so he had no intention of dropping a hint.
“And what did you say to Theo Abbott when you approached him?” he asked.
