“Ryan, were you ever in the basement of the Kappa Phi Omicron house?”

He makes throaty noises that might be humming.

“Were you ever forced to do anything against your will?”

Something like a strangled cry. A glance at the two-way mirror. Then more humming, eyes fixed on the table.

“Were you ever in the basement for an extended period of time?”

Hands on his ears. Humming as if he can drown out Oliver’s words.

“Tell us what happened in the basement.”

Humming as if he can drown out his own thoughts.

“What’s that?” Oliver leans across the table.

Ryan’s hands drop from his ears and disappear beneath his thighs.

“Are those cigarette burns?”

I’ve been watching Ryan’s face so only catch a glimpse of skin—dark circles around his wrist, and a larger red sore on his forearm. He gives a frantic shake of his head.

“Did one of the brothers do that to you?”

Head shake.

“Then what happened?”

Ryan blinks furiously at the floor.

“You’re not in any trouble. We just want to understand—”

The humming reaches a high, strangled note.

After another five minutes of this, they finally let the poor kid sign a statement and return to the lobby.

The next student looks less aggrieved and more in awe of what’s happening. Brown curly hair and a slight pudge around his middle; he’s wearing a gray pullover on top of board shorts and boat shoes.

“Holy shit,” he says when he sits down. “This is like CSI or something.” He shakes his hair out of his eyes to get a better look at the room and smirks at the water stain like he recognizes it from television.

“Without the good-looking cast.” Oliver grins.

It’s clear they’ve decided to interview the younger brothers first. The reason, although neither felt inclined to share it with me, is twofold: so they can get the victims’ side of the story before they pull in the older brothers and likely perpetrators, and so the older brothers can watch the younger brothers disappear into the interview room one by one, wonder what they’ve told us, and start shitting themselves.

“Right, Detectives Graves and White interviewing Garrett Ross.”

“Cool,” Garrett says.

“And Garrett, can you confirm that you’re a member of Kappa Phi Omicron?”

He nods. “Joined last fall.”

“Great.” Oliver makes a note. “Okay, Garrett, so by now you know that we’ve seen the basement.”

He’s nodding and beaming like this is the best thing that’s ever happened to him.

“And we’re hoping you can give us a better idea of what goes on down there.”

“Oh, man.” Garrett runs his hands through his hair. “I would love to help, you know, the investigation and all, but it’s a brotherhood secret. All the rituals and stuff, we can’t talk about them.”