Beneath Devil's Bridge(39)

“No, I . . . I’m good.” He wipes the back of his hand over his mouth.

Luke asks Johnny to describe the scene at the bonfire. The story is the same as when I first canvassed the kids after Leena initially went missing. Festive atmosphere. Lots of drinking, some drugs. Loud music from boom boxes and amplifiers. Big bonfire with burning skis and snowboards. Plenty of excitement.

“I was hanging in a group, but also mixing around, dancing and stuff. And yeah, there was lots of drinking. I saw Leena, yes, but I don’t know who she came with. She was just there. Like all the other kids were there, you know? She was drunk. Really drunk. Wearing this big coat.”

“In your earlier statement to the police, you said you saw Leena with someone.” Luke reads from Johnny’s statement in his file. “You said, ‘Leena was with some guy.’”

“Well, I didn’t really see who the guy was. Not like in a way that I would recognize him.”

“But you did see her with a male?”

Johnny gives a half shrug and his cheeks redden. “I . . . uh . . . Well, that’s what the other kids were saying. You know, after she didn’t turn up at home or at school. That she was with some guy.”

“So you’re saying now that you, personally, didn’t see this guy?”

“I didn’t see him.” He looks down, rubs the knee of his jeans.

“Are you sure, Johnny?” I ask.

Luke casts me a look that says, Let me handle this.

“Yeah, I’m sure.”

“What time did you leave the grove?” Luke asks.

A shrug. “Not sure. Late. We were going to camp there for the night, so we hung around there for a while, but it got super cold. And I went home like . . . early morning on Saturday.”

“Over Devil’s Bridge?”

He shakes his head.

“How did you get home?” Luke asks.

“Got a ride with Tripp Galloway.”

Luke and I exchange a glance. Tripp was seen at the Greek takeout place on the south side of Devil’s Bridge. He’d have had to have crossed the bridge.

“Did you go anywhere else after leaving the bonfire site?” Luke asks.

“I . . . No. I went home.”

“What time did you get home?” Luke asks.

“I dunno. Like maybe one or two in the morning.”

“Will your parents confirm this?”

“I sneaked into the house, so I don’t know if my dad heard me. My mom died a while ago. It’s just me and my dad.”

“Who is your father?”

“Granger Forbes. He’s a psychologist.”

Luke makes a note. “So you didn’t go and get donairs at Ari’s takeout?”

Johnny looks nervous. Confused. “No.”

“What if Tripp Galloway, your chauffeur, was reportedly seen outside Ari’s takeout around two thirty a.m. on Saturday morning?”

“Then he must have gone to Ari’s after he dropped me off. I fell asleep on the way home from the bonfire, in his van. I was wasted. Or maybe I was still asleep in the van when he stopped, and I don’t remember being there, or never woke up.”

We show him the photos of Leena’s belongings. “Recognize anything?”

He frowns, shakes his head. I write in my notebook:

Johnny Forbes—lying? Confirm with father what time Johnny returned home.

“What about the rumor that went around school, the one about Leena floating in the river?” Luke asks.

“I . . . I never heard that rumor. The first I knew of it was when news broke that Leena’s body had been found.”

Next in is Beth Galloway. She enters with her shoulders squared and a sway to her long blonde ponytail. My daughter’s best friend. Tripp Galloway’s sister. I tense.

“Hey, Rachel,” she says.

“Beth. This is Sergeant Luke O’Leary. He’s going to be interviewing you today.”

It knocks her back that I won’t be the one asking the questions. She sits, looks hesitant, then flashes her pretty smile at Luke.

Luke doesn’t return the smile, and it undercuts her a little further.

Beth describes the same scenario as Johnny. She claims she spent most of the time on a log near the bonfire hanging with Dusty Peters, Darren Jankowski, Nina and Natalia Petrov, Darsh Rai, Cheyenne Tillerson, Seema Patel. And Maddy, of course.

“So you weren’t with Amy Chan and Jepp Sullivan, or your brother, Tripp?” Luke says.

“No. I mean, we were all there, but . . . Yeah, I saw them around.”

“What about Leena?”

“Saw her. She was with some guy on a log at the far side of the bonfire, near a little trail into the woods that leads past the outhouses. I don’t know who he was. And I didn’t see her after the rocket in the sky.”

“Did you know everyone else at the fire?”

“There were some people I didn’t recognize. Maybe from out of town.”

“What time did you leave?” asks Luke.

Beth glances at me. I keep a neutral expression. But I feel that she knows I called Eileen, and that I’m aware Beth lied to her mother about sleeping at my house. And that Maddy in turn lied to me that she was sleeping over at Beth’s.

“We camped out there until early morning, when my brother, Tripp, came to fetch our group in his van, and we all went for breakfast at the Moose Diner.”