Interview Three — Professor Keller
North Carolina S.B.I. — SSA Tucker
Ten minutes later, Keller sat cuffed at the table. Sweat darkened his collar.
“Recording.”
The red light blinked on.
“You and Lauren,” Tucker said. “Where?”
A photo slid across the table.
Keller glanced down. “That’s not my house.”
“Your colleague’s. The one teaching abroad.”
Another photo.
Lauren laughing. Keller’s hand on her arm.
Keller’s jaw tightened.
“An affair,” Denton said. “Your wife was pregnant.”
“You don’t know my marriage.”
“But Lauren thought you were separated,” Tucker said.
Another photo.
Keller’s wife at a baby shower. Keller beside her.
Silence.
“I cared about her.”
“You cared about yourself.”
Keller leaned forward. “She said she’d go to HR. To my wife. I panicked.” His voice pitched higher on the last word. A sheen of sweat gathered at his hairline.
“People panic,” Denton said. “They don’t build rooms.”
“I didn’t build anything.”
“When did you last see her?”
“In my office. She said she was done hiding.”
“And?”
“I grabbed her arm. Then I let go.”
“Did you follow her?”
“Yes.”
“To the parking lot.”
