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Webb and Ackerman exchanged looks and waited. Demetrius crossed his arms, shaking his head rapidly. “I can’t believe this shit. Look, what I gotta do to convince y’all I didn’t do this? I’ll take a lie detector, I’ll give y’all my DNA. Whatever it is, I’ll do it right now.”
Ackerman spoke this time. “Demetrius, can you think of any reason why people would call in tips about you? And I don’t just mean one person. Multiple people.”
Demetrius scratched the back of his head in earnest. “Man, I don’t even know. That’s what’s fucking me up right now. The only person I knew at that party was Mike.” He frowned, deep in thought. “Maybe that’s what it is. They don’t know me, so they’d rather blame it on me.”
The two detectives had already discussed that possibility. “Maybe,” Webb said, “but I think we’re gonna take you up on your offer. Just to be sure. I’ll get someone in here to swab you. Then we’ll go from there.”
Demetrius’ shoulders fell and his face relaxed. “Thank you. But what about the drug charge?”
Webb chuckled. “I think you’re gonna have to eat that one, my friend. You didn’t give us anything helpful.”
“I’m giving y’all my DNA.”
“True, but if we wanted, we could have typed up a warrant and gotten it anyway.”
Demetrius' face balled up. “So it’s like that?”
“Afraid so. I’ll get the lab tech in here.”
As the detectives stood up to leave, Demetrius stomped his foot under the table. Webb gave him one last look before gathering his file folders and notepad. Ackerman opened the door, and just as Webb was about to step through it, Demetrius called out.
“Hold up!”
Webb and Ackerman spun around at the door. “What is it?” Webb asked.
“I think I do know something.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Bakaricriedopenlythistime, and didn’t give a damn that his daddy saw. “I swear to God, y’all, I did not rape that lady.”
Joe paced in front of his son, wearing a tread pattern into the rug. “Why would she say you did?”
He could tell the truth and face his father’s wrath, or he could lie and still face his father’s wrath. No matter what happened, his father was still gonna be pissed about the situation, and Bakari would bear the brunt one way or another.
“Because…we—”
“Bakari, I swear to God if you say what I think you’re about to say—”
“Joe, let him talk!” Iesha said.
Bakari could barely stand to look at his mother. She’d been red-eyed and disheveled ever since she got the call the day before. It didn’t help that his father got home two hours after she had called him. He said he’d been out with the guys drinking, but Bakari wondered if that was the truth.
Today was the first day he’d ever skipped school, and it wasn’t to do something fun. They had spent the first part of the morning with Will, who then referred them to his partner Candace Walker, a young, pretty black woman who agreed to take on his case. That was their current location, in her office. The walls were a depressing shade of grey, and the chairs were curved and felt like a straightjacket around him.
Candace spoke in a soothing voice. She was fine, too, and in any other context, Bakari would have been hitting on her. But right now, he wasn’t interested. Thinking with his dick is what had gotten him into this mess in the first damn place.
“I think we’re all confident in your innocence,” she said. “I think what we wanna know is why your teacher would tell such a damaging lie.”
“The only thing I can think of is that she wants to get back at me.”
Joe stopped pacing. “I wasn’t born yesterday. I know what that means.”
“Did you have a relationship with this woman?” Iesha asked, her eyes as wide as saucers.
“We messed around,” Bakari admitted, bracing himself for the reaction.
Candace looked at his parents and sighed. “Were all of your encounters consensual?”
