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Payne does as he says, turning slowly on the spot until he’s back to facing me again.
“You can flip the camera back.”
I hurry over to join Payne’s side. The screen is still black. “How do we know you’re who you say you are?” I ask.
Another moment passes, and then the screen bursts into color. The image is of a guy not much older than me. Behind him is a white wall with nothing on it.
“What’s with all the games?” Payne asks him.
“Who is your friend?”
“My name is Victoria Reynolds. My brother is Cole.”
Arthur turns his head to the side, closing his eyes. “Fuck.”
“Don’t hang up,” I cry. “Please. You obviously know who Cole is. He’s in prison, and I don’t think he did it, only I can’t find any details about what really happened. You reported it, and I just need someone to tell me what happened. You knew why we wanted to talk to you, and you still agreed, so please talk.Please.”
Arthur looks back to the camera. He rubs at his temple and then sighs. “I will tell you this once. I will not go on record, I will not be swayed to go to the police to make a statement, and I will deny all knowledge of this call, which, for the record, cannot be traced back to me.”
“That’s fine,” I quickly tell him, trying to stop myself from snatching the phone from Payne.
“But you also have to understand that this is bigger than you can begin to comprehend. The newspaper that the article was in—the original article—had the print run stopped, the article amended, and every copy snatched up before classes had officially been cancelled. When I found out and complained to the editor, they told me the decision was out of their hands.”
“It didn’t occur to you that you’d printed an article without referencing your sources, or that yourfactswere circumstantial at best?” Payne asks.
Arthur’s eyes narrow. “I reported the truth, and when I did, they didn’t print a retraction, they completely wiped all existence of it.ThenI got an anonymous phone call telling me that if I knew what was good for me, I’d let it go. It might have only been the Keyingham Ledger, but I was a journalist, and knew there was a story. So, I started my own investigation. Three days later, I got another phone call telling me I had been warned and now I’d suffer the consequences. The next thing I knew, I was being kicked out of college for cheating.”
“You didn’t cheat?” Payne asks.
“No,” Arthur responds with a touch of venom in his voice. “Never. I was set up. And when I was about to do something about it, I got the third and final call telling me that if I continued to pursue this, my mom wouldn’t just be resigning because of my scandal, she’d be facing a public enquiry and prison time for abusing her position.”
Before Payne can say anything else and make Arthur hang up on us, I elbow him in the side. “They had dirt on your mom?” I ask Arthur.
“My mom is the most by-the-book person I know. They had as muchdirton her as they did on me. They hacked into my computer and planted evidence.” He sits back in his chair, ruefully shaking his head. “My life was ruined. I’ve got no college education, and nowhere will hire me because of that scandal. My family won’t speak to me, and my friends turned their backs on me before I even packed up my things.”
I could relate to that. “I’m sorry, I am. But if that happened, surely it means you were onto something?”
Glancing away, Arthur runs a hand over his face, his stubble scratching against his palm loud enough for us to hear. “Something… The timelines, the statements, and the little evidence I did manage to see—they didn’t line up. JP’s body was found by the campus gates, but according to a doctor I spoke to, the headwound would have produced a lot of blood. There was almost nothing there.”
“So he was killed somewhere else?” I ask.
“He had to have been, and he was already dead when he was put there.”
I take a deep breath to keep myself calm before asking my next question. “Do you think my brother—Cole—do you think he killed JP?”
Arty goes silent, pursing his lips as he stares at the camera.
“Arthur?” Payne says.
Finally, he shakes his head. “That night was the Elite’s Inaugural Ball, which is their ridiculous name for the night they fully welcome their pledges into the organization, which is obviously a fraternity, but they’ve gotten out of the title because it’s co-ed.” He rolls his eyes. “That’s the last place JP was seen. He was partying and drinking with everyone that night. Literally no one could tell me when he left, or who with. Hours later, he was found at the gate.”
“And my brother?”
“I was at that party—everyone was. I remember talking to your brother and his girlfriend—”
“Girlfriend?” A bad feeling hits me. “Lucy Barnes?” I ask, unable to look at Payne.
Arthur nods. “He was there like I was. To party. There was a point where we were joking about not being good enough to be a member. Your brother knew JP from sight only. They weren’t friends, but they weren’t enemies. I couldn’t think of a reason for him to kill JP. Besides, when I saw him a little while later, he was so drunk, I was surprised he was still standing.”
