One of Us is Lying(66)
“Sure.” It’s almost a relief to escape the silence that’s settled between us, until I run into my mother in the kitchen and have a terse, ten-minute-long conversation about the kind of friends you have now. When I finally get back upstairs, two glasses of lemonade in hand, Janae’s got her backpack on and she’s halfway out the door.
“I don’t feel well suddenly,” she mumbles.
Great. Even my unsuitable friends don’t want to hang out with me.
I text Bronwyn in frustration, not expecting an answer since she’s probably in the middle of Chopin or something. I’m surprised when she messages me back right away, and even more surprised at what she writes.
Be careful. I don’t trust her.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Cooper
Sunday, October 21, 5:25 p.m.
We’ve almost finished dinner when Pop’s phone rings. He looks at the number and picks up immediately, the lines around his mouth deepening. “This is Kevin. Yeah. What, tonight? Is that really necessary?” He waits a beat. “All right. We’ll see you there.” He hangs up and blows out an irritated sigh. “We gotta meet your lawyer at the police station in half an hour. Detective Chang wants to talk to you again.” He holds up a hand when I open my mouth. “I don’t know what about.”
I swallow hard. I haven’t been questioned in a while, and I’d been hoping the whole thing was fading away. I want to text Addy and see if she’s getting brought in too, but I’m under strict orders not to put anything about the investigation in writing. Calling Addy’s not a great idea, either. So I finish my dinner in silence and drive to the station with Pop.
My lawyer, Mary, is already talking with Detective Chang when we get inside. He beckons us toward the interrogation room, which is nothing like you see on TV. No big pane of glass with a two-way mirror behind it. Just a drab little room with a conference table and a bunch of folding chairs. “Hello, Cooper. Mr. Clay. Thanks for coming.” I’m about to brush past him through the door when he puts a hand on my arm. “You sure you want your father here?”
I’m about to ask Why wouldn’t I? but before I can speak, Pop starts blustering about how it’s his God-given right to be present during questioning. He has this speech perfected and once he winds up, he needs to finish.
“Of course,” Detective Chang says politely. “It’s mainly a privacy issue for Cooper.”
The way he says that makes me nervous, and I look to Mary for help. “It should be fine to start with just me in the room, Kevin,” she says. “I’ll bring you in if needed.” Mary’s okay. She’s in her fifties, no-nonsense, and can handle both the police and my father. So in the end it’s me, Detective Chang, and Mary seating ourselves around the table.
My heart’s already pounding when Detective Chang pulls out a laptop. “You’ve always been vocal about Simon’s accusation not being true, Cooper. And there’s been no drop in your baseball performance. Which is inconsistent with the reputation of Simon’s app. It wasn’t known for posting lies.”
I try to keep my expression neutral, even though I’ve been thinking the same thing. I was more relieved than mad when Detective Chang first showed me Simon’s site, because a lie was better than the truth. But why would Simon lie about me?
“So we dug a little deeper. Turns out we missed something in our initial analysis of Simon’s files. There was a second entry for you that was encrypted and replaced with the steroids accusation. It took a while to get that file figured out, but the original is here.” He turns the screen so it’s facing Mary and me. We lean forward together to read it.
Everybody wants a piece of Bayview southpaw CC and he’s finally been tempted. He’s stepping out on the beauteous KS with a hot German underwear model. What guy wouldn’t, right? Except the new love interest models boxers and briefs, not bras and thongs. Sorry, K, but you can’t compete when you play for the wrong team.
Every part of me feels frozen except my eyes, which can’t stop blinking. This is what I was afraid I’d see weeks ago.
“Cooper.” Mary’s voice is even. “There’s no need to react to this. Do you have a question, Detective Chang?”
“Yes. Is the rumor Simon planned to print true, Cooper?”
Mary speaks before I can. “There’s nothing criminal in this accusation. Cooper doesn’t need to address it.”
“Mary, you know that’s not the case. We have an interesting situation here. Four students with four entries they want to keep quiet. One gets deleted and replaced with a fake. Do you know what that looks like?”
“Shoddy rumormongering?” Mary asks.
“Like someone accessed Simon’s files to get rid of this particular entry. And made sure Simon wouldn’t be around to correct it.”
“I need a few minutes with my client,” Mary says.
I feel sick. I’ve imagined breaking the news about Kris to my parents in dozens of ways, but none as flat-out horrible as this.
“Of course. You should know we’ll be requesting a warrant to search more of the Clays’ home, beyond Cooper’s computer and cell phone records. Given this new information, he’s a more significant person of interest than he was previously.”