MAX ADLER: Nothing. She tells me she shouldn’t have said anything, and she has to leave. She barely talks to me again until it’s almost winter break, and then the weekend before break starts, I hear she’s at Yale visiting Caden. So I figure they worked things out, whatever.
MARTINA GREEN: Did you see her again before the semester ended?
MAX ADLER: Just once in the lab. But then, a couple days after Christmas, she starts texting me. Wants to know if I want to hang out over break. I say sure, but she drags her feet on making a plan. Then sometime midafternoon on New Year’s, she asks if I want to come out to Herron Mills for a party at this guy Jacob Trainer’s house. Turns out Jacob and I have a couple friends in common from baseball back in high school, so I say sure, I’ll go. I had plans in Montauk, but I ditch them for her.
MARTINA GREEN: Did Zoe ask you to meet her at the party?
MAX ADLER: No, she wanted to pre-party before we went over. Told me to meet her at Windermere and gave me the address. I thought it was her house; I didn’t know it was Caden’s. She met me at the front gate and took me around back to the stable. The Bellamy girl must have watched us walking inside.
MARTINA GREEN: And when was this?
MAX ADLER: Early. Nine thirty maybe?
MARTINA GREEN: Okay. What happened once you got to the stable?
MAX ADLER: Like I said, Zoe wanted to pre-party before we went out. I’d brought a six-pack, but she had an open bottle of whiskey in the stable, and judging from how she was acting when I got there, she was already a couple shots in when I arrived.
MARTINA GREEN: And how was Zoe acting?
MAX ADLER: She was all over me. Kissing me, running her hands all over my chest. It was cool at first, we made out for a while. I offered her a beer, but she said she was going to stick with whiskey. Judging by how emotional she got, I don’t think she was much of a drinker.
MARTINA GREEN: Do you know how much she drank that night?
MAX ADLER: The bottle was almost empty when I got there. But I don’t know how much she’d already had. I stayed long enough to drink a beer and part of a second before she really started flipping out. She kept running her fingers along her neck. She wasn’t wearing that necklace she always has on—the little gold chain with her initials on it?—and it was like she kept reaching for it, but it wasn’t there. Things got real weird when she started crying and kind of writhing around on the stable floor, moaning about Caden and Tiana. That shit killed the mood real fast.
MARTINA GREEN: Did she say anything specific that you remember?
MAX ADLER: She wasn’t making a whole lot of sense, but she said something about being in Caden’s stable, drinking his whiskey, and then I put two and two together. She had a flash drive in her fist she kept waving around, and eventually she threw it against one of the stall doors. She was a mess.
MARTINA GREEN: And what did you do?
MAX ADLER: I tried to get her to stop crying, said I’d drive her home. But she told me to leave. I didn’t want to leave her like that, but she was screaming “get the hell out” and “leave me alone.” Finally, I just left her there.
MARTINA GREEN: You left Zoe in the stable?
MAX ADLER: I know it sounds like a dick move, but believe me, she wanted me gone. I think she wanted to hook up with someone under Caden’s roof—a kind of “fuck you,” you know? And then she changed her mind. So I left.
MARTINA GREEN: And that’s when you were seen again, from the Bellamys’ house?
MAX ADLER: Must’ve been. It was probably around ten thirty, and yeah, there were fireworks going off nearby and a bunch of people partying on the beach. It was loud, normal stuff for New Year’s. I left the stable and walked around the side of the house, back to the front where I’d left my car. Zoe must’ve walked; there weren’t any other cars parked on the street out front. Then I drove to Trainer’s place. I figured since I’d come all the way out to Herron Mills, I might as well