“Tell me about John Aldrich,” Niki said, without looking up from a report.

Lila flushed hot with embarrassment. If Lila were being honest, she would have told Niki that John Aldrich was her best friend’s boyfriend. But Lila knew what questions would follow, so she merely said, “We went to high school together.”

“They found his semen on the backseat of your car.”

The investigator from eight years ago had also gone down that path, asking Lila if she and John had ever engaged in consensual sex. Lila’s mother had been in the room when Lila admitted having sex with John. She went on to explain that they had been intoxicated, but that tidbit didn’t stop her from feeling small and ashamed.

“We were never together,” Lila told Niki. “Not like boyfriend and girlfriend.”

“And…the semen? Were you ever together that way?”

Lila looked down at the papers in front of her, the memory of what she had done stinging as sharply now as it had all those years ago. In a meek voice she answered, “We hooked up one time. I put a stop to it after that.”

“How did he feel about that?”

“I didn’t care how he felt about it.” That wasn’t an answer to Niki’s question, so Lila tried again. “He didn’t agree with the decision, but it was final.”

Niki moved on as though she hadn’t noticed Lila’s reaction. “Do you remember him being at the party that night?”

“Yeah, he made a scene. His girlfriend, Sylvie—I guess his ex-girlfriend at that point—she saw him try to kiss me. I pushed him away. Like I said, he didn’t agree with my decision.”

“One of the witnesses from the party said John grabbed you by the…buttocks. Said it looked aggressive.”

Lila pondered that for a minute. She remembered him trying to kiss her, but the grab? Now it came back to her. It had been rough and sudden, a show of ownership. How could she have forgotten that?

“I think he did,” Lila said. “Who was the witness?”

“A guy named Sean Daniels. He gave Detective Yates a picture—not of the grab, but it’s from that party.”

Niki handed Lila an eight-by-ten photo of John Aldrich holding her by the wrist, a squint of anger wrinkling his eyes. It was probably the last picture taken of her before her world changed forever. Lila was pulling away from him. She remembered that John wanted to kiss her, and she remembered that Sylvie was there.

“What about Sean Daniels,” Niki asked. “What’s his story?”

“He was in my class—kind of quirky.”

“Quirky?”

“He asked me out a couple times, but he wasn’t my type. He was one of those socially awkward guys who came across a little creepy, even when he wasn’t trying to.”

“Do you remember anyone else from that night?”