I sense, more than see, Oliver move into the open door behind me. Truman shakes his head and his shadow disappears.

“You weren’t there”—my skin goes hot and then cold—“you didn’t see—they locked them in for twenty-four hours. Made them hand back their only means of escape—causing physical and emotional distress.” I’m clawing for the right words. “It was cold and damp. Did you see Ryan Bennett? He was shaking so hard his teeth were chattering.”

“We investigate murder,” Truman repeats like he’s explaining something obvious to a child. “Not the misdeeds of Greek life.”

“Misdeeds?” I growl. “There were whips and handcuffs on the wall.”

“They took it too far, but—” He shrugs. “Look, you didn’t have siblings, right?”

A flash of anger at the change of topic, and then a sharp, familiar pain twists in my chest.

“No,” I mutter.

“I had brothers. Three of them. And I was the smallest.”

I look at him appraisingly.

“My brothers tormented me for years. Until”—he grins, and I can almost see the little brother in there, a boy with light hair and sharp eyes—“I hit a growth spurt. Then,” he cracks his knuckles, “it was my turn.”

“So, what? You’re saying this is just roughhousing? Boys will be boys?” And retribution, I think.

“No. I’m saying that when people live together, there’s a constant shuffling. Everyone’s trying to figure out where they fit, devising strategies to sort out the weak link.”

Teddy said something similar what feels like forever ago, but that was before we knew the extent of the abuse.

I stare at him, feeling like we’re talking about two totally different things.

He leans forward, all his body language telling me he’s conceding something, but his eyes are watchful.

“It’s clear things got out of hand.” He raises his voice when I open my mouth. “And there will be consequences. But we—aside from bringing this to the university’s attention”—a nod at me—“will have nothing more to do with it. And you are suspended until further notice.”

He says it so softly that at first I think I must have misheard.

“Suspended?”

“You were on leave, entered a private residence with no search warrant filed. You put yourself in danger and Teddy and Oliver in an impossible position. None of this would hold up in court, so you’re lucky, in fact, it didn’t turn up anything related to the Kemp death.”

He doesn’t say a word about Cindy, which means Teddy didn’t tell him. I glance out the door. Somehow, this makes me feel worse than everything else.