“Because Ben’s different after that. He’s got this thing…this—”

“Look,” Victor said, speaking for the first time.

Russell turned toward him. “Yeah,” he said. “First time we saw him after that weekend, we knew he did it. No doubt.”

“He killed this woman, Reggie whatever?”

“Semple. Yeah.”

“And he knows you know?” Frames asked.

“Sure, but he also knows we’re not going to do anything about it. And something changes in his head. He kills this woman and doesn’t get caught. It’s like he crosses this great divide where rules don’t exist. After that, he falls in love with risk-taking for its own sake.”

Holland listened to Russell. “I remember you. You’re that guy.”

Russell stared back at him. “I’ll take your word for it.”

“Then Ben starts doing drugs. Big-time,” Victor said. “He always did weed and coke, but now he needs something to keep him on his toes, in case you guys come after him. He discovers Modafinil and mixes it with Adderall. But Ben always wants more. He empties the capsules, grinds the contents into powder, and snorts it. He’s got no job, no responsibilities. He does sixty…a hundred and twenty milligrams a day. Pretty soon he’s mixing Adderall with crank. With the drugs, he figures he can beat anybody. He can beat you cops at murder.”

Frames sat up straight on the stool. “Then he meets Elise Durand?”

“Yeah, something about Elise captures him. She’s different from the trust-fund party girls. She has ideas, gifts. She understands philosophy, poetry, art in a way that Ben doesn’t. But she’s also impulsive, unpredictable. Ben says when he’s with her, it’s like watching a foreign film without subtitles.”

“So why’s he kill her?”

Russell and Victor exchanged a look. “Technically, that was my fault,” Russell said. “One night we’re all high on some new ganja. Elise and Ben get into a fight. I say something like, ‘Careful, Lisie. Ben’s girlfriends disappear.’ Elise doesn’t get it right away. But the fucking Internet being what it is, a few days later she figures it out. And Elise being Elise, she has to say something. She can’t help herself. She asks Ben if he killed Reggie. He tells her to fuck off. But she knows Ben did it. And now Ben knows she knows.”

Frames nodded. “And, unlike you guys, he can’t trust her to stay quiet.”

“No, he can’t. After that, she knew he was going to kill her. She just waited for it. The weird thing is, I think he actually cared for her. He felt something for her he hadn’t felt for other women.”

“And Ben held us responsible,” Victor said. “Because of Russ’s slip of the tongue. In his mind, it was our fault he had to kill her. So he made us help him take Elise’s body to the park.”