I waved to him in the hallway and jogged over. “So glad I ran into you!”
It was obvious it wasn’t a chance encounter, given that I’d run into him outside the classroom where he’d just finished teaching a class, but he was polite enough not to say so.
He smiled. “How is the investigation going?”
“That’s something I wanted to talk to you about, actually …”
“Oh?” His brow furrowed, probably bracing himself for another round of questions. I could imagine how annoying we were getting. “And how is it that I can help?” He was all polite gentleman, but there was a modicum of strain in his voice. A tendon cut right into the curve of his neck. I didn’t blame him; he was trying to protect his friend. And we were trying to find evidence linking him to a crime.
“I was wondering if I could talk to you about something. Emma Garcia, did you know her?”
He nodded. “I did. She hung around the house some last semester. Came to the parties, dated Paul off and on after he broke up with Joselyn.”
This next part was the hard part; I didn’t know how he would react. The last thing I wanted to do was upset him. I squirmed and forced myself to remember why I was doing all of this. To help Dani. Saving a girl’s life was worth a little discomfort on my part.
I swallowed. “There are reports that she was sexually assaulted by one of the brothers.”
His eyes went wide, and his mouth tightened.
I started talking fast. I suddenly wanted to retract every word I’d said, but there was nothing to be done. They were out in the open now. “We’d talk to her about it ourselves, but we can’t find a way of getting in touch with her. She hasn’t shown up to her job in months. No one’s heard from her.”
As I spoke, the tendon in Basile’s neck grew more and more pronounced.
“A sexual assault?” he asked incredulously. “Is that what they’re saying? Emma went torehab, that’s why she hasn’t been around. She didn’t want everyone knowing about it. Although, I guess now the cat’s out of the bag. There wasn’t any kind of assault, except if you count the wall that she smashed a two-hundred-year-old chandelier through. The girl had a problem. If you ask me, rehab was long overdue.” He shook his head. “It doesn’t surprise me, the rumors people spread, silly stories to explain why she left. It does surprise me that you’d believe it. I thought you’d think better of us than that.”
“I’m sorry. I had to ask.”
“Yeah,” he said, the toe of his loafer scuffing the ground. His glittering eyes were dark, lifeless coals.
“Seriously, I’m sorry.” I ran my thumb over the leather cord in my pocket. “I’m just doing my job. It’s what they hired me to do.”
And I was sorry that I offended him, but I wasn’t sorry for looking for who did this to Dani and for trying to get justice for Maya. I was only sorry about the look in his eyes, and the gut-wrenching feeling that I’d disappointed him.
He nodded, turning as the noon bell rang. “Is it?” he asked, before walking away.
As he said it, something flashed in my head. A voice, not Basile’s, but carrying the same intonation, that same disappointed, questioning tone.Can you really see the nature of your reality?
Déjà vu?
It was an echo of something I’d heard before, only I couldn’t place the memory. Something from one of Basile’s videos?
I shook my head, trying to will away the rotten feeling spreading through my chest.
I went straight back to Jack D’s room and shot off a text to Max, who was waiting in the Arts building.
Found out Emma Garcia’s in rehab. Back to square 1?
The words tumbled out as soon as Jack opened the door, welcoming me inside with a cloud of smoke. “Emma Garcia is in a rehabilitation facility.”
He took another hit and shook his head. “Rehab? How the hell’s she gonna pay for rehab? Who told you that?”
“Basile Samir.”
“Of course he did.”
“Sometimes what you don’t know about someone will surprise you,” I said. “People keep secrets better than you think.” I knew that well myself. I had enough secrets you could bury me in them.
“No. Look, man, you didn’t see her afterward. She was super withdrawn, would barely speak, had these huge purple circles around her eyes. Then a week later, poof. Never a word from her again. Now you tell me that’s because of rehab.”
