Page 98 of Fatal Pattern

“I walked up the steps to my apartment.”

“How many steps?”

Hoult’s hand moved to the hem of his sling, rubbing the fabric between his thumb and forefinger. “Three, maybe four.”

“Before the steps?”

“I walked across the parking lot.”

Edwards maintained steady eye contact. “From which direction?”

“From . . .” Hoult’s gaze darted around the room, landing anywhere except Edwards’s face. “From the street.”

“Which street?”

The rubbing motion intensified. Hoult’s breathing quickened, and a thin sheen of sweat appeared on his forehead despite the room’s air conditioning.

“I don’t . . . I don’t remember.”

Tori recognized the signs of extreme cognitive load. When people told the truth, working backward felt natural. They simply reversed the sequence of actual memories. Fabricated stories collapsed under the weight of maintaining consistency in reverse order. Hoult’s script hadn’t prepared him for this approach.

“Before you reached the street, where were you?”

“Walking from the bus stop.”

“Which bus stop?”

Hoult’s left leg bounced under the table. “The one near my apartment.”

“What’s the name of that stop?”

“I . . . there’s no name. It’s just a stop.”

Edwards leaned forward slightly. “Describe what you saw when you got off the bus.”

“It was dark. I couldn’t see much.”

“Streetlights?”

“Maybe one or two.”

“Working or burned out?”

Hoult’s composure cracked. His answers became monosyllabic, contradicting details he’d provided minutes earlier. The confident man who’d recited bus routes and transfer stations had vanished, replaced by someone scrambling to maintain a story that no longer made sense.

“I don’t remember every little detail,” Hoult snapped. “I was tired from work.”

Schmitt placed a restraining hand on his client’s arm. “Perhaps we could take a short break?”

Edwards ignored the attorney. “Before the bus stop, you were on the bus. Tell me about the ride from Federal Highway to your neighborhood.”

“It was just a normal bus ride.”

“How many other passengers?”

“I don’t know. A few.”

“Sitting or standing?”