A Line in the Dark

by Malinda Lo

  DC: Detective Lieutenant Donna Cardoni, Massachusetts State Police

  KG: Lieutenant Kyle Griffin, Massachusetts State Police

  NS: Neera Singh, Pearson Brooke Academy Dean of Students

  MA: Margot Adams, witness

  Det. Lt. Donna Cardoni (DC): Today is Thursday, January 5, and we are at Pearson Brooke Academy, in Rice Hall. The time is 9:03 a.m. I am Detective Lieutenant Donna Cardoni of the Massachusetts State Police, assigned to the Essex County District Attorney’s Office. Also in the room is my partner—please state your name.

  Lt. Kyle Griffin (KG): Lieutenant Kyle Griffin, also with the Massachusetts State Police.

  DC: We are joined by a representative of Pearson Brooke Academy, who will be observing. Please state your name and spell it for the record.

  Neera Singh (NS): Neera Singh, Dean of Students. N-E-E-R-A S-I-N-G-H.

  DC: We are interviewing—could you please state your name for the recording?

  Margot Adams (MA): Margot Adams. That’s Margot with a t—M-A-R-G-O-T. Adams, A-D-A-M-S.

  DC: Thank you. Please tell us who you are, Margot.

  MA: I’m a student at Pearson Brooke. I’m a junior.

  DC: Thank you. For the record, this interview is entirely voluntary, and if you choose to end this interview at any time you may do so. This interview is being recorded. You’re nodding. Please remember this is an audio recording, so all your answers must be spoken aloud. Is everything I’ve said okay with you?

  MA: Yes.

  DC: Okay. Let’s begin by addressing your relationship with Ryan Dupree. How did you know her?

  MA: She was my friend.

  DC: How did you two meet?

  MA: First year at Brooke. She was on the same floor of my dorm.

  DC: Part of the goal of these interviews today is to get a better idea of who Ryan was as a person. Can you tell us about Ryan? What was she like?

  MA: She . . . she was . . . [inaudible]

  DC: I understand this must be hard for you. Take your time.

  MA: She was . . . a really good friend. She was loyal. She supported me through everything.

  DC: How would you describe Ryan?

  MA: Um . . . opinionated? It’s so weird to—to try to summarize her personality. She just always had an opinion. She wasn’t scared to say what she was thinking. I guess some people weren’t comfortable with that, but I thought it was . . . I always knew where I stood with her. I liked that.

  DC: I know you two were close. Did you and Ryan have other close friends?

  MA: Sure. But Ryan was . . . We were best friends.

  DC: When I was a teen, my best friend and I knew everything about each other. You must have shared a lot of secrets with Ryan.

  MA: Yeah.

  DC: Can you think of any of your friends who might have been angry with her for any reason?

  MA: [inaudible] I don’t know.

  DC: Why don’t you tell me about your other friends. Did you have a group you’d, for example, eat lunch with every day?

  MA: Yeah.

  DC: And who were they?

  MA: Well, there’s Noah, Ryan’s boyfriend. And his friend Jacob, and Jacob’s girlfriend, Krista. Plus Li-Hua and Brian and Ayesha.

  DC: Tell me more about Noah. When did he and Ryan start dating?

  MA: Last spring. They got together in April.

  DC: Did they get along? Sometimes relationships can be stormy when you’re a teen.

  MA: Of course they got along. He wouldn’t have killed her! Even if they got in a fight, he’s not that kind of guy. He’s not violent.

  DC: I’m not saying he is. I’m just trying to get an idea of who the people were in Ryan’s life.

  MA: I know people say the boyfriend is always the number one suspect, but he couldn’t be a suspect. He would never hurt Ryan.

  DC: Okay. Tell me more about these other friends you mentioned—Jacob, Krista?

  MA: Jacob is Noah’s best friend. What do you want to know about him? He’s just a normal guy.

  DC: He isn’t close to Ryan?

  MA: No. She thought he was kind of an idiot.

  DC: Did he know that?

  MA: I don’t know.

  DC: What about Krista and the other girls?

  MA: What about them?

  DC: How close were they to Ryan?

  MA: We were all friends. But none of them knew Ryan as well as I did.

  DC: Did Ryan have any enemies?

  MA: [inaudible]

  DC: Can you repeat that?

  MA: I said I don’t know. If other people were jealous of her, it was their problem. She didn’t do anything to them.

  DC: Who do you think was jealous?

  MA: Maybe Ayesha. She had a crush on Noah last year. I think they went to the winter formal together, but then he started dating Ryan.

  DC: But you all still hung out together?

  MA: Yeah.

  DC: Would Ayesha do that if she was still jealous?

  MA: You’ll have to ask her.

  DC: Okay. Are there any other friends you think we should know about? People from Ryan’s life we should talk to?

  MA: I don’t think so.

  DC: When you talked with the East Bedford police back in December, you told them that the last time you saw Ryan was at a party at your parents’ house in Marblehead. Were all these friends at the party?

  MA: Yeah.

  DC: Looking at the notes from that interview, I see that there were nine people at the party besides yourself. Ryan, Noah, Krista, Jacob, Ayesha, Brian, Li-Hua, Angie, and Jess. You didn’t mention Angie and Jess when I asked about your friend group. Why were they invited?

  MA: Angie’s my girlfriend. Jess is Angie’s friend, and Angie made me invite her.

  DC: She made you. Why?

  MA: She really wanted Jess to come. Probably because she hadn’t met most of my friends and didn’t want to be alone.

  DC: It sounds like you didn’t want to invite Jess.

  MA: I—well, I feel like Jess has a crush on Angie. So, no, I didn’t want to invite my girlfriend’s friend who has a crush on her.

  DC: Sounds uncomfortable.

  MA: What does this have to do with Ryan?

  DC: Did Ryan know Angie and Jess?

  MA: Of course. She knew I was dating Angie. She’s met them both. I mean, she met them both before.

  DC: Okay. What I’m trying to do is reconstruct the last time you saw Ryan, and that involves thinking back to the feelings you had at the time, as well as sort of mentally walking through the place where you last saw her. Why don’t we talk about that first. Tell me about the house where you had the party. Can you describe it for me?

  MA: You’ll see for yourself when you go look at it. My stepdad told me you’re going to search it.

  DC: Well, we’d like to get your perspective on it too.

  MA: What do you want to know? It’s my family’s beach house. It’s in Marblehead. We don’t usually go there in the winter because it’s too cold. My mom and stepdad bought it four years ago right after they got married. My mom hired an interior decorator who did everything in white. White furniture, white carpets, everything. My brother thought it looked ridiculous but he hates our stepdad so he blamed our stepdad for our mom’s weird white fetish.

  DC: Where’s your brother now? Is he at Brooke with you?

  MA: No, he’s in college. NYU.

  DC: You were saying that you don’t use the house in the winter very often. If that’s the case, why did you decide to have your party there?

  MA: Um, because it’s empty.

  DC: Your parents weren’t at the party?

  MA: No.

  DC: Were there any adults present at the party?

  MA: No.

  NS: [in
audible]

  KG: Ms. Singh, did you want to add something?

  NS: Yes, yes, I didn’t know—Pearson Brooke did not know that there were no adults present at that party. We granted permission for students to stay overnight based on our belief that there would be adults present. Margot’s mother emailed us.

  DC: All right, Ms. Singh, thank you for that. I’m sure that’s something you’re concerned about, but right now we are focusing on Margot’s experiences. You’re welcome to follow up on that on your own time. For the record, Ms. Singh is nodding. Margot, you were saying no adults were present at the party. Did your parents know you were going to have a party at their house?

  MA: Um, yeah. My mom emailed the school, like Ms. Singh said.

  DC: Okay. She wasn’t concerned about you and your friends being out there alone?

  MA: No, why would she be? It’s Marblehead. Nothing ever happens there. We’re not kids.

  DC: All right. Let’s move on to the party itself. Can you walk us through what happened? Start from the beginning—or even before the party started—and what you and Ryan did that night.

  MA: Ryan and I got there early to set up, around five o’clock. We had to stop at the store on the way to buy stuff—soda, chips, snacks, you know.

  DC: What store did you go to?

  MA: Um, Whole Foods. Why?

  DC: I’m looking for details, no matter how small. Sometimes they can jog your memory. So please tell us about everything you remember, even if you think it’s irrelevant. So you went to Whole Foods. What then?

  MA: We got to the house, we put out the snacks. We got sushi at Whole Foods for ourselves and we ate that for dinner before anyone else got there. We prepped the bedrooms, because some of our friends were staying overnight.

  DC: Who was planning on staying overnight?

  MA: Everyone except Angie and Jess. All the Brookies had to stay overnight because we can’t be out past curfew unless it’s a parent-sanctioned overnight event.

  KG: Everything okay, Ms. Singh? You look like you want to say something.

  NS: [inaudible] I’m fine.

  DC: Margot, when did your friends start to arrive?

  MA: Around eight.

  DC: And what happened after that?

  MA: We . . . we partied.

  DC: What do you mean by “partied”?

  MA: Haven’t you ever been to a party, Detective?

  DC: Not since my youth. Humor me.

  MA: We played music. We danced. We ate chips. We talked. A variety of board games were available.

  DC: Sounds very wholesome.

  MA: We’re Pearson Brooke students, not gangsters.

  DC: Was there drinking?

  MA: Yeah, some.

  DC: Did anybody become intoxicated?

  MA: I can’t remember. Maybe.

  DC: And what about Ryan?

  MA: What about her?

  DC: Did she drink?

  MA: A little.

  KG: I don’t want you to feel like we’re out to get you, Margot. Everybody drinks when they’re a teen, even if adults like to pretend it doesn’t happen. It’s okay, nobody’s going to penalize you for being normal. We’re just trying to put together a three-dimensional picture of what was happening the last night that Ryan was seen. Can you say more about the party? Maybe we should back up a little. Let’s go back to when your friends arrived. What was it like?

  MA: Um, Noah arrived with Jacob and Krista first. I think Ryan let them in, because I was still in the kitchen putting out the food. Brian and Ayesha and Li-Hua got there a little bit afterward. They brought beer with them.

  KG: What was the mood like?

  MA: The mood? I guess it was happy, positive. The semester was over, most people were going home the next day, so this was a chance to have some fun. [inaudible] It wasn’t supposed to turn out like this.

  KG: Of course not. When did Angie and Jess arrive?

  MA: Not that much later.

  KG: What happened when they arrived?

  MA: I introduced Angie to my friends. They all thought she was great—she is great. We hung out in the living room, we talked. Normal stuff.

  KG: What about Jess? Did she join you?

  MA: I think so, at first anyway. After a while she went somewhere. I don’t know what happened to her. I was—I was pretty much focusing on Angie.

  KG: Sure. You were having a good time.

  MA: Yeah.

  KG: How did you meet Angie?

  MA: At the Creamery. It’s this ice-cream shop in East Bedford? She works there. I saw her there last spring, and this fall when I came back to school, she was still working there. I thought she was cute. I asked her out. I don’t know why you’re asking about Angie, though. She didn’t even really know Ryan. She goes to West Bedford High, not Brooke. Besides, we spent most of the night upstairs in my room. We missed most of what was going on downstairs.

  KG: About how long were you upstairs?

  MA: I don’t know. A while. An hour or two, maybe. Are you going to ask what we were doing?

  KG: Playing cards?

  MA: Right. I won.

  DC: When you went back downstairs, what was going on?

  MA: People were still partying.

  DC: How about Ryan? What was she doing?

  MA: I don’t remember. Probably she was hanging out with Noah. Didn’t you already talk to him? He probably has a better idea than I do.

  DC: Yes, we’ve talked to him. You know, looking back on my notes, he says that Ryan got into an argument with Jess at the party.

  MA: Oh. Yeah, I think that’s true.

  DC: Do you remember anything about it?

  MA: I wasn’t there at the time. I heard about it later.

  DC: What did you hear?

  MA: Just that Jess said some stuff that really pissed Ryan off. Obviously I never got a chance to ask Ryan about it. I think Jess is kind of a jerk, honestly.

  DC: Why?

  MA: She’s obsessed with Angie, so she hates me and all of my friends. For a while she was practically stalking Angie. Angie was so upset about it. I can’t believe they’re still friends.

  DC: How do you think Jess felt about Ryan?

  MA: I just said she hates me and all of my friends, including Ryan. I remember now, they said Jess accused Ryan of cheating on Noah. I don’t know why Jess would say that. She doesn’t know any of my friends. She doesn’t even go to— Well, she’s in the Brooke Arts Exchange Program, actually.

  DC: What’s that?

  MA: It’s this program for lower-income students. They come to Brooke to take art classes. Jess is one of them.

  DC: Do you think she might have learned something about Ryan while she was at the arts program? Something that would make her think Ryan was cheating on her boyfriend?

  MA: I guess it’s possible. I’ve seen Jess at Brooke with this girl Emily Soon. Emily’s a Brookie. Emily definitely does not like Ryan.

  DC: Why not?

  MA: There was a lot of drama between them last year. Emily was a sophomore transfer student, and when she got here, she became friends with Ryan and me. We thought Emily was great, until she started being a bitch about stuff.

  DC: What stuff?

  MA: She started being judgmental about who I was dating, and I thought maybe she was homophobic, but it turns out she had a crush on me and was really jealous. Total internalized homophobia. Ryan called her out on it, and they got in a huge fight. I’m pretty sure Emily’s been holding a grudge ever since. You should talk to her.

  DC: Good idea. Thanks. Let’s get back to the party, though. You say you heard that Jess and Ryan had an argument. What happened afterward?

  MA: Well, Jess and Angie left.

  DC: When?

  MA: Around midnight. I remember because Angie had to
get home before one a.m.

  DC: What did you do after she left?

  MA: I went to bed.

  DC: Even with the party still going on?

  MA: Yeah. I was really tired.

  DC: You weren’t concerned that your friends were still there?

  MA: Why would I be? I trust my friends.

  DC: It just seems unusual for the host of the party to go to sleep before the party’s over.

  MA: Look, Angie and I had a fight, okay? I was upset. I didn’t want to deal with people anymore, so I went back up to my room and I fell asleep. I don’t know what happened at the end of the party, because I was asleep.

  DC: What did you fight about?

  MA: Why does it matter? It has nothing to do with Ryan. Angie and I just argued. That’s all.

  KG: You may be right. It probably has nothing to do with Ryan. Do you know when Ryan left the party?

  MA: No. [inaudible] I’m sorry, I wish I did.

  KG: Let’s talk about the next morning. What happened then?

  MA: I woke up after nine. I went to the room where Ryan was going to sleep, but it was empty, so I went downstairs to look for her. She wasn’t there, but neither was Noah, so I figured she went back to Brooke with him. He had to go back to the dorm to get his stuff before going to the airport. I think they were going to go together.

  KG: What did you do once you realized Ryan was gone?

  MA: I had to clean up the house, and I remember now it snowed a lot overnight so I had to shovel a path to the trash bins. Jacob helped me before he and Krista left. That was probably around eleven. Brian, Ayesha, and Li-Hua left around then too. After that I cleaned up—somebody got cranberry juice all over my mom’s white duvet, so that was ruined. My mom’s kind of a freak about her white stuff, so I tried to bleach the duvet. I think I was doing that for a while. It didn’t really work. But I was still trying to clean it when Ryan’s parents called me.

  KG: About when was that?

  MA: It was the afternoon by then. Maybe around three. They said she had missed her flight and she wasn’t answering her phone. They wanted to know if I knew where she was, but I didn’t. That’s when I called Noah, but he was on a plane so he couldn’t answer. He didn’t call me back till later that night, and he said he hadn’t talked to Ryan since the night before. He went back to school really early the morning after the party.