“Well,” says Boris, staring morosely at the table bolted to the floor of the Interview Room, “It wasn’t a big fight, exactly.”
Lewis says, “Really.” Unconvinced. “That’s not the consensus at the U.”
Boris shrugs. “Well, it was really more like the mother of all misunderstandings.”
Lewis studies him across the table, then says, “In my experience when people are knocked down it qualifies as a fight.”
Boris looks up and meets her eye. “But it was my fault. She was right to hit me. I acted like an idiot, and I …” Boris sighs and breaks the eye contact, dropping his eyes. He spends a few moments staring at the fake wood grain imprinted on the plastic table as though it offered the meaning of life. Finally, he looks back at Lewis, and says quietly, “I deserved it. She tried to stop me with words, but I kissed her anyway. She was trying to, to push me away. And I … forced her.”
Wolfrom says, “Sounds like more than a misunderstanding.”
“Yes.” Agrees Boris, before burying his face in his hands.
Wolfrom glances at Lewis, who nods then smashes her fist on the table to get the suspect’s attention.
“You bastard, this isn’t about you, it’s about her. Stop your sniveling, it doesn’t excuse what you’ve done! How could you do it? The girl isn’t even half your size.”
Boris’s expression is pure misery. “It was stupid … I told myself that she wanted me to …”
Lewis shoves her chair back with such force it clatters into the wall, bounces off and falls over on the floor. “That is such bullshit. No woman on earth wants to be raped and used as a punching bag. You twisted bastards make me sick, you really do.”
Shaking in fury Lewis stalks to the door and slams out of the room. Boris watches the door bang closed, mouth agape. Wolfrom sits quietly beside him, waiting.
Looking around Boris doesn’t see any tissue box and he’s not about to ask, so he mops his eyes with his sleeve. Boris looks at the other detective, sitting there impassive. Boris tells him, “I was going to say ‘kiss her’. You know, like the crab says in that movie? I thought if I kissed her she’d fall madly in love with me. Dumb, eh? I’m not subtle, but, I never… I never… God that’s sick.”
Wolfrom sits back, folding his arms across his chest. “But somebody did. Your friend Natasha was punched and kicked and raped. Brutally. She was left in the woods, unconscious in the cold. Blunt force trauma, shock, exposure.”
“Natasha is my closest friend. Wanting to be more than that doesn’t make me a rapist.”
“Alright, then help us out here. Tell us what happened. Who might have done it? We need to catch the guy who did it.”
“Oh I’d like to catch the guy who did it, alright.”
The student’s tone sends a chill down Wolfrom’s spine, and he studies Boris carefully. That had the ring of truth. But.
“You wanted to kiss her, she said no, but you forced yourself on her anyway. That’s assault right there, Boris.”
Boris nods. “Yes.”
“So after all that, you expect us to believe you just walked away?”
Boris shrugs. “That’s what happened.”
“After she made you look like an idiot to the whole school? That can’t have been pleasant.”
Ruefully, Boris nods. “No it wasn’t. That’s why I took off back to the residence. I didn’t want to have to see anybody.”
“So, you were alone the rest of the afternoon?”
“When I got back to the Res I jumped in the shower, but my eye hurt more than usual.”
ยง
Quietly watching the interrogation through the one way glass, Detective Lewis thinks how convenient that shower was. Makes it damned near impossible to get any forensics off the guy. Nothing beats washing your hair in the shower for eradicating any microscopic evidence under the fingernails.
She is pleased to see that Wolfrom’s doing such a good job. Wolfrom asks, “This happens a lot?”
“It wasn’t my first black eye– I’ve got brothers. But it seemed to hurt more than I remembered. After the shower I was getting an ice pack when I ran into Elsie. She’s a med student so she took a look at my eye.”
Wolfrom raises his eyebrows. “Redhead? With the hair?”
Boris nods, “Yeah. She said my eye looked okay, and then I just holed up in my room. You know, updating my Facebook status. Unfriending Natasha.”
