Deadly Pasts (Agent Nora Wexler Mysteries)

by CR Wiley

  Stunned, Nora stared at the offensive coordinator for a moment. It seemed an incredibly fitting title.

  “And what exactly is the ‘it’ she was asking for?” Nora asked. The coach shrugged and glanced back at the players sitting on a nearby bench. Word seemed to get around.

  “Look, I don’t know anything, lady. What I do know is that you’re in the way. You can go ahead and take your social justice crusade off campus to Hippyville with the rest of the stoners.”

  Nora longed for a cozy FBI interrogation room. What she would’ve done to this guy. But she didn’t have time for that. She needed to talk to Preston.

  “Here’s the deal. This is a very serious investigation. You can either have Preston come talk to me now, or we’ll come for him five minutes before the start of the next game and hold him from kickoff to the final whistle. You decide.”

  The old coach with the white scruff on his cheeks and slightly rheumy eyes regarded her coldly. Nora didn’t budge an inch.

  “Preston! Take five. You’ve got a visitor,” he said.

  Preston was jogging over to her.

  “Hi, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Nora,” she said, setting aside any ill feelings from the coach’s nastiness. Whatever he knew had to be coming from Preston. “Do you mind if we take a quick walk? I’ll have you back with balls flying at you in just a few minutes.”

  “Umm, whatever,” he said, shrugging. The two of them began walking down the length of the field. Preston kept loose, shaking out his arms and legs. His blue eyes and dirty blonde hair looked cut out of a magazine. He was absurdly handsome, but with any luck he wasn’t nearly as sharp as Marvin. Nora mentally flipped to page one of her textbook for interrogating suspects and started leading from behind.

  “Preston, I’m going to ask you a few very straightforward questions. Once we get through them you’ll be free to go. Do you know what time Lauren Devonshire left the TKE house after you were with her on Saturday night?”

  “Nah, I was asleep and have no idea when she left,” he said.

  “And what time approximately were you engaging in intercourse with her?” Nora asked, glancing at him to gauge his expression. He stopped and turned to her, his eyebrows scrunched up.

  “Whoa, you’ve got it all wrong. I didn’t lay a finger on her,” he said, but his eyes left Nora with no doubt he was lying. His statement to the campus police was a flat out denial of any involvement, though his reasons were remarkably flaccid.

  “Are you sure?” Nora asked, giving him her most incredulous look. “Because your coach and the other players all seem to think you did.”

  “I’m serious. Saturday night, I had sex three times before I even saw that girl for the first time in my life. Don’t believe me? I can give you their names and numbers. They can tell you when, were, the positions we did, anything you want to know. I’d had more than enough pussy for the night and couldn’t have gotten it up again if I wanted to. Lauren was around later, when we were drinking downstairs, but I have no idea what happened after I left to get some sleep.”

  Nora nodded slightly. He was clever, though not in the same way as Marvin. Nora believed Preston could produce as many girls as he wanted to publicly take credit for hopping into bed with him. It wouldn’t have taken her long to get them tripping over each other with their lies, but she didn’t have that kind of time.

  “You’re saying you weren’t in position to have sex with Lauren Devonshire because you were so exhausted from having sex with other women that you couldn’t muster an erection? Then why were your pubic hairs found in her genital region during an exam the next morning? Loose hairs always end up brushing off during intercourse, especially forceful intercourse. Did you know that?”

  The souring look on Preston’s face conveyed that he didn’t. He also didn’t know that it would take much longer to actually analyze any hair that might’ve been found. Nora was spinning another yarn in the hopes he’d confess. He looked ill, deflated. It was working.

  “I mean, I was drinking a lot. It’s possible—”

  “Stop,” Nora interrupted. “Stop lying now and things will be better for you. Just tell me what happened.”

  Preston grimaced and hung his head a little. He glanced at the players on the field. This wasn’t a game where any of them could help him.

  “Yeah, we had sex. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a natural thing,” he said.

  “That’s better,” Nora said, trying to encourage him. “You’re telling the truth, you had sex with her. Now tell me about the circumstances of how it started and what was going on around you.”

  Chewing his lip, Preston appeared to be mulling over what to say. It wasn’t a good sign, because what actually happened had to be very fresh in his mind.

  “There were a lot of people around. We were drinking and playing games around the ping pong table, but it was getting late and a lot of people were passed out on the couches and chairs. All of a sudden, we were making out, then heading upstairs to an empty bedroom. I don’t think I need to paint you a picture from there,” he said.

  “Was there anybody else involved? What happened afterward?” Nora said. The disconnect needling her was how Lauren got from the bedroom upstairs to the side of the street before the sun came up. Nora was sure Preston was still heavily massaging the truth, but at least they were getting into a closer orbit.

  “I passed out, and she was gone when I woke up. I was the only one with her as far as I know, but like I said, I’d already been hooking up and she might have been too.”

  Nora regarded him with more incredulity. He seemed to be acting more naturally, but Nora couldn’t tell if it was because he was telling the truth or because he’d become more comfortable lying.

  “Be very careful with this one, Preston. Anything less than perfect honesty here and it’s the kind of thing that could send you to jail. Was Lauren conscious before and during intercourse? Did you receive consent for what happened?”

  Nora’s phone buzzed in her pocket. It pained her not to be able to fully analyze Preston’s reaction, but she had a hunch the call was important. Glancing at the screen, she saw it was a text from Lauren, who was outside Latimer Hall and needed help. That was the chemistry building, which wasn’t that far away. The impulse to rush there was overwhelming.

  “She absolutely was and I absolutely did,” Preston said, but Nora was already moving toward her car. It burned having to cut her conversation with the tight end short now that she was getting a better picture of what had happened, but Lauren needed her. Before she left the field, once he rejoined the other football players, Nora heard another round of laughter from Preston.

  It wasn’t that long ago that Nora was interested in attention from boys like them, and getting laughed at would’ve been scalding. She reminded herself about what they did to Lauren and how when it all came to a close nobody would be laughing.

  CHAPTER 13

  LATIMER HALL, BERKELEY UNIVERSITY CAMPUS

  BERKELEY, CA

  Nora’s car must’ve made it up to fifty miles per hour as she raced across Stadium Rim Way and onto Gayley Road. She parked illegally by the curb when she saw Lauren on the steps by the tall building lined with pine trees. Her face was in her hands; she was crying. A dark-skinned man in a dress shirt and slacks was hovering over her.

  “Lauren!” Nora sprinted away from her vehicle in such a rush that she left the door open. “What happened?”

  The man appeared to be of Indian heritage. He had a well-groomed goatee and black hair combed to one side. His hand was resting on Lauren’s shoulder.

  “I’m sorry to say there was an incident immediately after class today. A group of students were maligning Lauren’s character,” he said. “I’m Professor Sanjay Gupta.”

  “They were calling me a dirty slut, a cheap whore, and a hardware store. Five cents a screw. How does everybody know about what happened?” Lauren sputtered. Her eyes were red and watery. “I didn’t want to distract Caroline from wor
k, so I texted you. Can you give me a ride home? I’m sorry to bother you.”

  Inwardly raging about the cruelty of the students, Nora clasped Lauren’s hands.

  “You don’t have to be sorry about anything. I’m glad you contacted me. Whether it’s a ride or a hug or someone to talk to, I’m there for you anytime you need.”

  “This is the professor I was telling you about. He found me in the hall and helped me calm down,” Lauren said.

  Nora turned to the professor and shook his hand.

  “Oh, right. The one who takes such a personal interest in the success of his students. Thank you for looking after Lauren. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Nora said.

  Gupta forced a meek smile. “It’s the least I can do. Being a professor is about educating, sure, but it’s also about fostering community and relationships. Those are the key drivers for success. That, and it doesn’t hurt to show a little humanity when someone could use it,” he said. His voice had a charming, brusque quality.

  “You don’t happen to remember having a student named Stephanie Chittenden from a few years ago, do you? She’s a friend of mine who majored in chem,” Nora said, knowing Lauren’s situation wouldn’t allow much time for a tangent.

  “Yes, I think I recall that name. A bright student if I’m remembering right,” Gupta said, squinting and looking off to the side.

  Lauren wiped her cheek with the back of her hand, and Nora helped her up.

  “Look, you don’t have to pay attention to whatever nonsense those kids were spouting,” Nora said, knowing it was much easier said than done. Lauren already looked tougher than she did just a few days ago.

  “That wasn’t the worst of it. I’ve started to remember some things from that night. I remember Preston…‌over me and behind me. Laughter and noise. There were others as well. I remember fighting against it but I was being held down.”

  “My gosh,” Nora said. She was taken aback, glancing at the professor, surprised that Lauren was willing to say this in front of him.

  “It’s a tragedy of the vilest sort,” Gupta added, his head lowered.

  “I never thought something like that would happen to me, but I’m not about to let it go without a fight. I’m going to talk to Chip and get this taken to the Disciplinary Review Board. All of them, everybody who was involved, they’re going to be punished for this.”

  Nora nodded, hoping she’d get the justice she wanted. But unless more evidence turned up they’d have a hard time pinning it on anyone. As it was, only one young man was likely to face justice.

  “He admitted to me that he was involved,” Nora said, trying to keep any sensitive details from the professor. “Maybe we should go and continue talking about it in the car.”

  “No, it’s fine. I trust him,” Lauren said, picking up on her concern. “He can help.”

  Nora cleared her throat and reluctantly continued.

  “He said it was consensual and that you were alone. He said he didn’t know what happened to you afterward.”

  Rage suddenly went to Lauren’s face, as if Nora had hit a trigger.

  “That’s a lie. I don’t think I could stand, much less give consent. He was there and he knows what happened. I just know what they did.”

  The professor assumed a gloomy, rueful disposition. Nora doubted he’d had much training to handle this sort of thing. He wisely let Nora take the lead.

  “Lauren, I realize how upsetting this is,” Nora said, putting an arm around her. “Here’s what we’re going to do. Let’s head back to Caroline’s, and once she and Chip are there we can solidify a plan to take this to the review board. What they did was wrong, and now that you’ve decided you want to hold them accountable we need to start getting the pieces in place for that.”

  “OK,” Lauren said, meek after her outburst moments ago.

  “If there’s anything I can do to be of assistance, please don’t hesitate to contact me,” Professor Gupta said.

  “You’ve been an incredible help already,” Nora said.

  Lauren thanked him as well as they started over for the car, which was blocking half the road and earning some beeps from other vehicles in the process. The ride back to Caroline’s was spent mostly in silence. A massive well of pity opened up in Nora’s center for Lauren, whose personal recovery could take a lifetime.

  Once at Caroline’s, they reached out to Chip, who said he’d be over right away with the necessary paperwork. Caroline wouldn’t be home for another hour. That left them sitting with Stephanie in the wicker chairs in the living room by the big windows where the sun was streaming in. The sun was the only bright thing around, and Nora felt the need to come up with a new topic of conversation to break the silence.

  “So Stephanie, I ran into one of your old professors on campus. Professor Gupta. Do you remember him? It turns out Lauren’s in one of his classes right now. I guess he’s taken her under his wing.”

  “Has he?” Stephanie said, a flurry of blinking. “Wait, is he the bald one, or was that Professor Suresh? It’s been a while and there were a number of Indian professors.”

  “He wasn’t bald. He had a goatee,” Nora said.

  “Oh, Gupta you said? I might have had him once. There are so many great professors in the department. Are you thinking about getting into chemistry, Lauren?”

  Lauren didn’t seem to be in the mood for routine questions about her major, but, like a trooper, she dutifully obliged.

  “What I want to do is genetic testing, so there’s plenty of chemistry and biology there.”

  Stephanie nodded, appearing exhausted as well. Nora could only imagine how draining it must be to serve as an incubator for a baby.

  When a knock came at the door, Nora got up to greet Chip and let him in.

  “How are you doing?” he asked in a sympathetic way that was more than a routine greeting. Although Nora was light years from being the victim in this situation, she didn’t mind him lending her some of his support.

  “I’m doing just fine, but I can’t say it was fun going into the frat house and disrupting football practice. You got the message I sent about Marvin James’s liver, right? And in a conversation with me, Preston Lowery admitted that he’d had intercourse with Lauren, saying it was fully consensual,” she said.

  Chip released a relieved sigh.

  “Yes, I got the message. And Preston contradicting his original statements to campus police is a good sign. Honestly, without you driving this investigation she’d be much worse off.”

  “I just hope it’s enough.”

  They continued the conversation to the living room. Chip asked Lauren about her wellbeing in a similarly heartfelt way. The man had so much more empathy than would be expected from a lawyer. She could tell why Berkeley had hired him. Soon he was caught up on the full details of what Preston said, what happened to Lauren after class, and her decision to seek official relief from the college.

  “Because of California’s Active Consent law, it’s not enough for Preston to say he had consent,” Chip explained. “He’s going to have to prove that he had it and that you were of lucid enough mind to give it. That’s going to be a challenge in light of some of the health center test results that are coming back. It turns out no drugs were found in your system, but your blood alcohol level was extremely high even though you were tested in the morning. Someone your body size and weight could be assumed to be completely non-functioning after having drunk that much.”

  Lauren nodded, though the details were already paining her.

  “I absolutely did not give my consent for anything. They were holding me down and going one after another. I remember bright flashes and laughter.”

  “I understand that,” Chip said, nodding. “The challenge for us is that anyone involved did use condoms, and it’s otherwise impossible to tell from any, excuse me, internal damage whether or not it was particularly rough encounter or several encounters with different men. Now that we have Preston flipping his story, we can keep pressing h
im and the TKE guys for the truth. Preston will likely feel under the gun without proof of consent and might turn on the other perpetrators.”

  “So what happens next?” Steph asked.

  Chip flipped through some of the papers from his briefcase. His skin was very fair and the light from the window started to put some color on his cheeks.

  “What we’ll do is finish filling out this paperwork, then submit it along with Lauren’s full description of what happened to the best of her knowledge and the campus police reports. The Disciplinary Review Board will announce a date for a hearing. When it’s convened, they’ll ask for official testimony from each party, go over the issue of consent, examine the evidence, and sometime later issue a binding verdict on the incident. They’ll have the ability to suspend or expel guilty parties.”

  Lauren snorted and shifted into her elbow. “Yeah, I’ll be shocked if anything happens to the football team’s star tight end.”

  “Theoretically, that kind of pressure shouldn’t weigh on them at all. But it is likely word about this will spread and there’ll be equal pressure from other groups getting behind you in the search for justice,” Chip said.

  Lauren’s phone buzzed in her pocket, and she cringed as she went for it. Nora was going to tell her it could wait until later, but she had it out in a moment and was looking at a text message followed by a YouTube link.

  “It’s from a friend of mine saying she thought it better that I know,” she said.

  Nora felt a sickening feeling come over her even before Lauren tapped on the link. She could already imagine this link spreading like wildfire over campus, and whatever the video showed wasn’t going to be good. Chip and Stephanie joined Nora behind Lauren’s chair.

  “This must be from Preston’s own account. You can see the other videos on it are of him,” Lauren said.

  The video was only a few seconds long. Everyone’s eyes widened as the video played, showing Lauren’s face, bare shoulders, and back, with Preston in the act of penetrating her from behind. The video was only long enough to capture one phrase from Lauren, who seemed wide awake and rapturous, “Oh my God, yes, Preston!”