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“I went by myself.”
Both officers' eyes narrow as they both bring their hands to their belts in unison. “You celebrated your twenty-first birthday alone?” one says.
“Yes. That’s correct.”
“And you live on campus and no one joined you?” the other follows up, widening his stance.
“I only invited my roommate, but I didn’t tell her it was my birthday so she didn’t see the urgency in joining.”
One officer nods, folding his hands over his chest.
“Okay. No problem. So you went by yourself. Did you meet anyone while you were there?”
“A few guys tried to talk to me, but I didn’t meet anyone or see anyone that I already knew.” I swallow hard, not liking how these questions are coming hard and fast.
“I see. And of those people that you met, did any of them…stick out to you?”
The officer who seems to be the lead stays in front of me, while the other steps behind me, clearly eyeballing the room as fast as he can, mentally cataloging everything he sees.
“There was one guy. He was kind of pushy actually.”
“Can you tell me what he looked like?”
I swallow hard for a second but this time my throat gets stuck. I spent the entire late morning and afternoon sleeping. I literally woke up an hour ago and have been rushing to get ready, only thinking of my date with Sam. It’s only now I remember what I saw on my phone, and why these cops must be here.
“Miss. Can you describe him?”
“Is this about the guy who got killed?”
“What guy who got killed?” the officer asks, his eyes brightening ever so slightly at the thought he might have a lead here, but he catches himself and pulls back, not wanting to tip his hand.
“Officer.”
“Miss?”
“I went to the bar last night to celebrate and I ordered a Long Island Iced tea, started nursing it and some guy came up and hit on me, wouldn’t leave me alone, told me he was going to go out for a smoke and more or less I was going to go home with him when he finished that’s when I waited to make sure he was outside checked the bar real quick and got the heck outta there,” I blurt out in the longest run-on sentence in human history. “Then I go to class this morning, come home, and just before I pass out I get something in my feed that some guy’s dead and I see that the story says it’s from the bar where I was and the picture’s him and I’m thinking how weird but I’m still hungover and super tired so I pass out and then woke up thirty minutes ago.”
“And from the looks of things you’re about to step out soon.”
“Right now,” the other officer says. “That guy down by the monument looks like he’s waiting on somebody. Maybe her.”
“Maybe. He called me when I was asleep then texted me and I told him, I agreed with him, to meet and go for burritos.”
“What does he look like?” the officer behind me says.
I describe Sam as best I can, looking over my shoulder just as that officer nods in confirmation to the officer in front of me. Whipping my head back around the officer’s already got another question lined up in his chamber ready to fire. “And how do you know him?”
“I met him last night.”
“Erica. You didn’t say anything about him,” the officer says, a smirk covering his face as he shakes his head from side to side.
“I just met him last night. I didn’t think he was important.”
“Didn’t think he was important?” the one cop says.
“Important enough to meet less than twenty-four hours after meeting him for the first time.”
“Sounds more than important. Sounds like he has priority in your calendar.”
