“Then why rise to the bait?” the officer asked. “What could our victim have possibly said that could justify—”
I snapped. “John Thomas told Asher that he’d slept with his sister. He said that if Emilia claimed she didn’t want it, that was a lie.” Those words hung in the air. My tone was low and deadly. “Like I said, John Thomas liked to hurt people.” I paused. “I despised him. He was a bully and a coward and I didn’t think he was worth the breath it took to say his name. But—” I held fast against the memories that wanted to come. “I tried to save him. I tried to stop the bleeding. I yelled for help. I called 911.” I never broke eye contact, never slowed or sped up my speech. “I didn’t have anything to do with John Thomas’s murder. And neither did Asher. He was suspended yesterday. He wasn’t even on campus when John Thomas was shot.”
There was a beat of silence.
“We’re done here,” the lawyer said, gathering his things. I glanced at Ivy. She gave a slight nod. I stood.
“To be clear,” one of the detectives said, standing as he spoke, “Ms. Kendrick Keyes is not a suspect in John Thomas Wilcox’s murder. Surveillance footage taken just outside the Hardwicke library confirms her statement about how and when she discovered the body.”
It was not lost on me that they had waited to point out that I wasn’t a suspect until now. They’d probably hoped that I would point the finger at someone else if I thought that they suspected me.
They’d probably hoped that I would jump at the opportunity to tell them Asher was a violent, violent boy.
“What about security footage from inside the library?” I asked. If security had caught the shooter on camera, the police wouldn’t have been sitting here cross-examining me. And that meant either that John Thomas’s killer hadn’t been caught on camera, or the footage had been erased.
“I’m afraid we’re not at liberty to discuss the details of this case.”
I hadn’t been holding my breath that they would.
“One last thing, Tess,” the quieter of the two detectives said, using my name in what I suspected was an attempt to put me at ease. “Can you identify this young man?”
Another photograph was placed on the table. It was a bit grainier than the photo of Emilia, like it had been obtained by freezing a frame of video surveillance footage. It had been taken in the courtyard. I could see the Hardwicke chapel in the background.
Even from a distance, I recognized Asher’s red hair, the set of his features.
My eyes were drawn to the time stamp on the video.
“Asher Rhodes may have been sent home yesterday morning, but he came back to campus.” The detective confirmed what I was seeing. “This footage puts him at Hardwicke just prior to the murder.”
I tried not to let the question—or the sickened feeling in the pit of my stomach—show on my face. What were you thinking, Asher? What were you doing at Hardwicke?
The detective leaned forward. “Is it your testimony that Asher Rhodes believed that John Thomas Wilcox had assaulted his sister?”
Opportunity.
Motive.
If I’d realized Asher had been on campus that afternoon, I wouldn’t have given them the latter—not if I could have helped it.
“I don’t know,” I said, my mind racing as I stared at the time stamp on that picture. “You’d have to ask Asher.”
CHAPTER 32
As I stepped out into the sunshine, Ivy on one side and the lawyer on my other, I went for my phone. Brewer Tyson cleared his throat.
“Calling your friend at this juncture would not be wise,” the lawyer said.
I understood that it might not look good if phone records showed that I’d contacted Asher as soon as the police finished with me. But I needed to talk to Asher. I needed to ask what he’d been doing on campus.
I needed to warn him.
“Visiting your friend,” the lawyer continued, “would also not be wise. You should plan on giving Mr. Rhodes a wide berth for the time being.”
It wasn’t in me to give any friend a “wide berth”—especially one who might be in trouble.
“Shockingly,” I told Brewer Tyson, “you don’t get a vote about who I talk to or who I see.”
The lawyer glanced at Ivy. “She sounds just like you.”
Ivy narrowed her eyes at him. “Your presence is no longer required,” she said tersely. “And tell Keyes that the next time he blindsides me like this, he won’t like the outcome.”
Ivy didn’t wait for a response before guiding me to the car.
“He’s right,” she said quietly once the lawyer was out of earshot. “I know that Asher is a friend, Tess, and I know it goes against everything in you to stay away from a friend at a time like this, but I don’t trust the police. The surveillance footage might have convinced them that you didn’t shoot John Thomas, but I don’t want them wondering if you helped plan it.”