Page 46 of Vengeance of Childhood Proportions (Till Death Do Us Part #7)

Chapter Thirty-Six

Mal

Even rapists had to take bathroom breaks. I was tempted to deny them, but I did not want to sit through a lecture from Carr about it. The law considered them to be victims, so I had to treat them like such. Made me fucking sick to my stomach.

Jerome Roberts finally stopped heaving and joined us at the table.

Not that Renfrew said much, other than what could only be described as a sneer against Holly Marteen.

The worst he did was tear the picture of Holly in two, like I didn’t have tape or a printer to make another copy.

Rachel did all the talking, spilling things that one might consider rumor or something inconsequential like the fact that Holly used to bite her nails, but I still listened intently.

Mira was on the other side of the two-way mirror taking notes, plus the conversation was being recorded.

Rachel’s mouth clamped shut when I asked about Principal Hagley. Hell, even Renfrew looked uncomfortable there. But the principal had lawyered up and was untouchable until I had something on the smarmy worm.

As Rachel and Renfrew were escorted to the bathroom, I looked across the table at Roberts, who had declined the use of the facilities, and just stared.

I knew his history. Not only did the track marks on his arms tell his story, but I had a copy of his rap sheet in the conference room.

Drugs, alcohol, in and out of rehab… Until he suddenly got clean.

As far as I could tell, he’d been sober the past two years.

If I didn’t know what he’d been doing on February 18, 2010, I would commend him for trying to turn his life around.

I was wondering if he would have the guts to speak without Renfrew in the room when he reached forward to grab the two halves of Holly’s picture Renfrew had torn up. His bearded chin shook as he placed the two pieces together again as if trying to fix it.

“I keep seeing it…”

His voice was pitiful, but I gave him no mercy. “See what?”

“Her mole.” Roberts reached his left arm over his right shoulder and tapped around his shoulder blade. “I keep seeing it. Every time I close my eyes, every time I try to sleep… It’s all I see, every fucking day.”

His guilt explained his drug usage.

“Why did you do it?” I asked, not worrying about the others coming back. Mira would know I was getting Roberts to talk and stop the others from re-entering.

Roberts leaned forward, studying the torn picture with tear-filled eyes. “If it’s a confession you need, you have mine. I’ll tell you everything you need to know.”

“Start at the beginning then. Tell me exactly what happened on February 18, 2010.”

I thought he was going to throw up again, but then he started speaking. His voice was practically dead; the only emotion ringing through clearly was self-loathing.

“It was Emmet. He had some bet going with Chris about being able to get into any girl’s pants in the school.

Chris pointed to Holly and the rest of us laughed, telling Em that he’d never be able to.

Few days later, Emmet gathered a bunch of us in the locker room.

I don’t even remember how he said it, but Emmet had this way about him back then.

He’s different now, meaner. Back then he had this charisma that made you want to please him, made you feel like you had to listen to him.

That sounds like an excuse but it’s true.

“He gathered a bunch of us, even some of the cheerleaders. Said Holly was freakier than he knew, that she liked to play games. She had this fantasy about losing her virginity to a bunch of guys at once. Emmet claimed she wasn’t a virgin, that he’d already fucked her, but that she wanted to pretend she was still a virgin.

Hell, he even got the pillory from the drama department, like it was this big production. ”

Tears streamed down Roberts’ face. “I didn’t know.

I thought she was in on it. We all did. She wanted pictures taken, videos.

Everything. We were young, stupid. We believed Emmet when he said that she even had a safe word or some shit.

We thought…” The man wiped his eyes. “ I thought she was into it. Or maybe I just hoped.”

I didn’t want him to lose his momentum or his balls, so I asked, “When did you learn it was rape?” when he paused.

Roberts flinched at the word. “Sheriff Renfrew came to my house the next morning. Said Holly was dropping the charges, but we were never to mention it again. I didn’t even know what charges he was talking about at first…

” He put a fist to his mouth like he was trying to swallow back bile.

“Then he wished me luck in the game and walked out my front door.”

“Do you know why Sheriff Renfrew would cover this up? Paid off everyone involved?” I wanted to ask where the sheriff even got that sort of money from, but that wasn’t an answer Roberts would know.

“I always assumed he didn’t want Emmet to go to jail.”

Protecting his son was a motive, but not good enough. There was something else, something I was missing.

“What about Greg Hagley?”

Roberts’ expression turned confused and he looked up at me for the first time. “ Principal Hagley? What about him?”

“How is he involved in all this?”

Roberts shook his head. “He’s not as far as I know.”

He was. The bastard was definitely involved. Frustrated, I stifled a groan that Roberts couldn’t give me the smoking gun I needed to slap the cuffs on Hagley.

“You’ll need to sign a sworn statement,” I told Roberts, indicating behind me to Mira to bring a notepad and pen. “I want it all. Names, dates, everything.”

Roberts nodded, wiping his eyes again. The man looked far older than thirty-two. “Am I…” He cleared his throat. “Am I going to jail?”

“If it was up to me, you’d already be in there,” I told him honestly.

“Currently, you are here under a protective order. That does not exonerate you from past crimes, but it does make it more complicated as to where to put you. After you sign the statement, we’ll talk to the DA and figure out what happens next. ”

Roberts nodded and Mira came inside with the yellow legal pad and pen. I saw through the open door that Renfrew and Rachel were being kept in the hallway by three other agents. Good.

After Roberts took the pad and pen from her, Mira left again. He glanced up at me before looking back down at the torn picture of Holly Marteen. “Thank you, Agent, for helping me.”

“I’m not helping you,” I snapped. “You are a rapist , Roberts. Your guilt and the fact that you are the first to confess to the crime does not change the heinousness of what you did. A sixteen-year-old girl committed suicide because of your actions. Fifteen more are dead, five more are missing. Whoever is doing this is nowhere close to being done yet.” I nodded towards the legal pad, needing this interview to be over with. “Start writing.”