The Girl on the Bridge by James Hayman

Author:James Hayman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2017-04-03T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

HEATHER LOUGHLIN SUCKED in a series of deep breaths and let them out slowly. She looked from one detective to the other before finally saying in a quiet voice, “Okay. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for being rude.”

“Rude?” asked Maggie, stifling a laugh. “You’d place your violent behavior under the category of being rude?”

“Yes. It was rude. And yes, also violent. But you must know I’m very upset by Charlie’s death and I guess it’s obvious I’ve had too much to drink. It won’t happen again. If you would please remove the handcuffs I’ll answer your questions as best I can.”

Maggie nodded at Bernstein and Bernstein pulled Heather to her feet and unlocked the cuffs. Heather sat back down and rubbed her wrists. “By the way,” she said to Maggie, “let me pay you for your jacket. That wine’s probably ruined it.”

“I’d rather you just answered my questions. I need you to tell me what you know about the rape and how you know it.” Maggie took a small digital recording device from her jacket pocket. “I’m going to record what you say.”

Heather blinked her eyes, saying nothing, apparently debating how best to tell the tale. “I should tell you I learned some of this back in 2001, the year it happened. A few of the details I only learned recently.”

“How recently?”

“Early January. A man I’d never met visited me and filled in parts of the story I didn’t know about. Anyway, the rape happened in the fall of my junior year at Holden. Charlie and Josh’s senior year. A Saturday night in October about a month after 9/11. I think everybody in America remembers those days after the attacks so clearly because it was all so awful and the atmosphere was so tense. Anyway, that particular Saturday night there was a rush party at the fraternity both Charlie and Josh belonged to, Alpha Chi Delta. It was considered one of the two or three best houses on campus. A lot of the football players and other athletes belonged to it.”

“A rush party?”

“Yes. Any freshman boys who were interested in rushing Alpha Chi were told that if they wanted to be considered for membership they’d have to show up at this party to be evaluated. Part of the evaluation was that they have to bring at least one freshman girl to the party who was good-looking enough to pass muster. If they brought two girls, it made their chances of getting in and maybe getting a bid even better.”

“Who decides who’s good-looking enough?” asked Maggie.

“One of the senior brothers, usually a football player, is stationed at the door and he makes the decision. The idea is that anybody who wants to become a brother has to be cool enough to bring, as they put it, one or two hot-looking babes. Otherwise they get turned away.”

“Sounds like my husband would’ve been out of luck,” said Bernstein. “Leastways, if he’d brought me.”

Heather actually smiled at the remark. “I don’t know. Depends what you looked like when you were eighteen.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.