‘Nothing or no one, hmm?’ Alyssa said.

‘Nope.’

‘What makes you think we’re here about a frat party?’

‘You asked Darnell where he was Saturday night, so two and two together…’

‘Let me get this straight. You’re adding two and two together to reach the assumption that we’re here because of a frat party. Yet, you’re saying you saw “nothing or no one.” Is that about right?’

One shoulder lifted and dropped.

‘Interesting.’ Without taking her eyes off the boy in front of her, Alyssa stretched her hand over to Cord. When she felt his phone in the palm of her hand, she glanced down at the public profile of Chance Williams’s Instagram account. Her fingernail clicked against the screen as she read: ‘Dude, you know it’s a bitchin’ party when you gotta boot and rally.’ As a parent to two teenagers, Alyssa understood a lot of teenage slang, so she knew that ‘boot and rally’ meant vomiting before continuing to party. She flipped the phone around. ‘This is your Instagram, right, and that’s you in the photo above the caption?’

Another shrug accompanied his ‘Maybe.’

‘So, what you’re telling us is you attended a “bitchin’ party,” and you expect us to believe you don’t remember a single person who was there? Not even those girls you’ve got your arms draped over in this photo?’

Cord cocked his head to the side. ‘College parties I attended were full of alcohol, too, but no matter how much I drank, I always managed to remember at least the girls. But hey, maybe you’re just not all that memorable, so those girls didn’t even bother to give you their names.’ He smiled like he’d solved the world’s most difficult puzzle. ‘That it?’

He’d hit the machismo nerve in Chance Williams that Alyssa had known he would.

‘Man, you don’t know what you’re saying.’ He snorted. ‘I was with a lot of girls. You expect me to remember all their names? Things got a little blurry around the edges, if you know what I mean.’

‘Well, if things are blurry around the edges, what about the middle? That blurry, too?’ Alyssa asked.

‘It’s all blurry, lady. When’s the last time you hit up a party?’

‘A frat party? It’s been awhile. But one thing I do remember from those days was that there were a lot of underage drinkers. You have many of those there Saturday night?’

Chance flew out of his chair. ‘I never said that. You can’t go putting words in my mouth. Isn’t that like entrapment or something?’

Even though he did his best to stare her down, Alyssa won out when he shifted his gaze away. ‘What exactly do you think we’re trying to trap you into?’

‘Contributing to the delinquency of minors!’

‘Oh, are you twenty-one?’ she countered. She knew he was because Hal had pulled a copy of his license. He’d hit the legal drinking age a month before Saturday’s frat party.

She knew she’d trapped him then, so she turned the heat up. ‘Listen, Chance, I don’t really want to launch an investigation into your fraternity party, round up a bunch of college kids for releasing a little stress. But if I did, I wonder what else I’d find?’