“Mr. Barnes, I understand you’re upset, and with good reason, but if you could please let me talk to Tyler and refrain from commenting for the time being I’d appreciate it.”

Tyler seemed shocked that she’d spoken that way to his father and glanced at Jeff to gauge his reaction.

Thankfully, Jeff bit back whatever he had planned to say when he caught the frosty glare she directed his way. His rage wasn’t going to make Tyler any more forthcoming, but because he was a minor, she couldn’t kick his parents out of the room. After all, they’d come forward willingly, and she wanted to treat them as respectfully as possible.

“You got there at nine,” Sam said. “Can you tell me how many other people were there then?”

“Had to be more than thirty.”

“You said Hugo and Michael had a bit of a head start. Do you know what they had taken or drank?”

“Hugo had scored a stash of Molly, a case of vodka and some beer.”

“Do you know where he got it?”

Tyler glanced at his mother, who nodded in encouragement. “I think he took it from his brother, Billy.”

That was the second time Billy Springer’s name had come up in the investigation, and Sam made a note of it. “You say he took it. So he did it without Billy’s permission?”

“I don’t really know.”

“Was Billy at the party?”

“I didn’t see him there.”

“What else did you see?”

Tyler exhaled and looked down at his fingers, which were drumming nervously on the table. “There was a girl...”

Sam swallowed back the urge to yell at him to hurry up and say it. “What girl?”

“She was pretty. Dark hair and pale skin. She hooked up with Brantley, and then he came out and told us we could have a go with her if we wanted to. He said she wouldn’t care.”

Pauline wept silently as her son spoke.

Sam cleared her throat of the bile that surged upward. “Did you take him up on the offer?”

Tyler shook his head. “Some of the other guys did, but I didn’t.”

She released a deep breath she hadn’t known she was holding until it became apparent that Tyler probably wasn’t the fourth man. “Can you tell me who went in there?”

“Most of the guys went. Hugo, Michael, Brody and some other guys I didn’t know. I think they went to school with Hugo.”

Sam was dismayed to realize so many young men had been in the room when Brooke was attacked, and no one tried to stop it. “Did anyone speak up and say that maybe it wasn’t a good idea for all of them to go in there?”