the bathroom. I must have really been groggy back there.
“You want the news about GreenSpirit’s murder first, or the Maldives?” Nicci asked. “We’ve got enough time for both.”
“Let’s do New York first.” A killer might be stalking Dafoe’s environs, and that worried her. Jenna realized, uneasily, that her personal and professional lives had become focused not on clouds, rain, or sunshine, but on violence, whose hard hand felt increasingly close. She felt like she’d become the sharp point of an acute triangle—the connection between terrorism in the Maldives and a monstrous murder two hours from home. She wanted to be armed with information on all counts, even if it made her as wary as a Sunday hiker in a forest teeming with dark shadows and the tracks of large carnivores.
“This is a press conference I downloaded a couple of hours ago,” Nicci said. She paused the video on a shot of a young man tugging at his shirt collar, evidently uncomfortable in his jacket and tie. “That’s the ‘person of interest,’ a high school senior and football player named Jason Robb. The one next to him in the gray suit is his lawyer. The other two are his parents. They don’t say anything the whole time.”
Nicci tapped the keyboard, resuming the video. The lawyer was clearing his throat.
“We’re here today because Jason is making himself available for questioning in the investigation of GreenSpirit’s murder. As soon as we leave here, he’ll be talking to police and FBI investigators, but first he wanted to talk to his friends and neighbors through all of you.
“There have been rumors flying around about Jason,” the lawyer continued. “Some of them, in our view, have resulted from leaks from law enforcement officials. Today, we’ll be asking those agencies to make these leaks stop. A responsible young man like Jason should not be tried and convicted in the court of public opinion. I think that after you hear what he has to say, you’ll agree that he’s not linked to this heinous crime in any way.”
“There’s more boilerplate,” Nicci said as she moved the time bar button on the bottom of the screen, “but this is where it gets good. The kid’s just been asked if he threatened GreenSpirit.”
“I didn’t threaten her. I did threaten a girl who dumped my brother before he got killed in Baghdad,” Robb said. “But I only said that I’d get even with her because she accused me, in front of a whole bunch of people, of taking money from guys to lead them to their naked parties, and that wasn’t true.”
“What Jason just said can be confirmed with the CBS News crew that was present during the initiation,” the attorney interjected. “Of course, no harm has come to the young woman in question, and Jason regrets his outburst.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry I said it, but imagine if someone accused you of being a pervert in front of a famous news guy.”
“Did CBS pay you to lead them to the ceremony?” asked a woman.
“Yeah, a fat hundred bucks. I wished I’d never run into them.”
“It was a consultant’s fee,” the attorney jumped back in. “That’s what CBS News called it when I contacted them to confirm the details.”
“So you’re a consultant to CBS News,” the woman followed up archly.
“I guess so,” Robb replied.
“Cronkite must be turning over in his grave,” Nicci said.
“The larger issue here is that my client was not involved in any threat against GreenSpirit, and absolutely denies any role in her killing.”
“Where have you been, then?” another reporter called out.
“He was scared,” the attorney said. “He went to a cabin with his girlfriend. He got in touch with his parents yesterday, and they contacted me.” Jason’s middle-aged parents nodded. They sat right next to him, dressed in what could have been their Sunday best. “Together, we made immediate arrangements to meet with the FBI and New York State Police. There’s no mystery. That’s the story. It’s no more complicated than that.”
“So the girlfriend’s the alibi?” a man bellowed.
“That’s correct,” the attorney said. “I’ve questioned her, and I believe—”
“Will Jason take a polygraph?” two reporters interrupted to ask the same question.
“Sure.” The young man shrugged, like Why the heck not?
“We’ve told law enforcement that Jason will make himself available for a polygraph exam.”
Nicci hit the pause icon. “That’s pretty much it.”
“I believe that kid,” Jenna said. “He’s too rough around the edges; his attorney would never have let him take questions if there was any doubt about his innocence.”
“My thoughts