Erik: Turn it off. I’ve seen enough. I should have known.

Ray: Should have known what?

Erik: Listen. This kind of thing—it destroys people. You can quote me on that to whoever you want. The police. The board of trustees. This kind of thing destroys people. I never forced her to do anything.

Ray: Did Hal warn you that Brenae had filmed you forcing her into sex?

Erik: What? I never forced her.

Ray: But he did warn you, and you went to talk to Brenae at her studio. My guess is she told you off. Then what? You knew she had a gun.

Erik: You think I’m a killer?

Ray: Of course I don’t. But I need to know what happened when you talked to her.

Erik: You’re trying to trap me. Showing me this crap. I’m done here—

“How far did you get?” Ray was back.

“Just got to Erik accusing you of calling him a killer,” I said. “I listened to most of Zania’s and all of Layla’s.”

Ray sent a fork into one of his soft tacos. “Pearson monologued quite a bit on his position as an outsider to what he referred to as the ‘student melodramas.’ But he went beet red when he actually saw the video.”

“He was furious tonight.”

“Shocked, too,” Ray said in a thoughtful tone.

“What about Erik? You think Hal warned him?”

“Erik flinched before I even pressed play,” said Ray. “He was dreading it. Covering it up with his abstinence and Fatburger stories, but the whole time his leg was shaking.”

“He knew what he did to her,” I said, my mouth sour.

“He knew,” confirmed Ray. “But I think he witnessed it today for the first time.”

I disagreed, but I didn’t articulate why. You know when you’re hurting someone. Someone’s body beneath your body. For a moment we sat together, in the steam of the grill, in the division this created between us.

“The heart can justify a wrong for a long time,” Ray went on, “especially if you stop seeing a person and only see a cause.”

“And his cause was . . . ?”

“Brenae, in Erik’s mind, was his creation,” said Ray. “Think of it. Everything he taught her about art. Every video he shot of her. Every door he opened for her at LAAC. He can’t finish his own work, but he finished her.” He paused. “Maybe she didn’t need him anymore, and he wanted her back.”

This version of Erik and Brenae’s story hadn’t occurred to me. “You mean he was jealous of her success,” I said.

“Not exactly,” Ray said. “He didn’t want to lose his power over her. His power to make her.”

“When you asked him about forcing her into sex, do you think he was lying to himself? Or to you?”

“Some combination.”