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“I hope you’re right,” Laura Lee said as she followed him to the car.
On the drive to Norfolk, they again went over the approach they’d take with the parents of the young woman who killed herself four years earlier. This was the visit Laura Lee dreaded the most. She’d be taking the lead on the conversation as Garcia thought she’d come across as more compassionate than he would just because she was female and because she had also been in the ROTC. She’d also be eaten up by guilt, too. She didn’t mention that to him.
“Remember, you need to establish a rapport with them immediately,” Garcia said as she took hold of the door handle, preparing to exit the vehicle.
“Yeah, I got it.” Though she wasn’t sure how she’d do that. They were parked in front of the home of the parents. Two cars were in the driveway and through the front window, they saw the glow of a television screen in the otherwise dark room. Laura Lee checked her watch. It was nearly twenty hundred hours. They’d gone through the drive-thru of a burger joint and ate as they drove. The burger and fries sat like a rock in her stomach.
They approached the front door and rang the bell. Laura Lee recognized the woman who answered as Sue Rose, the dead student’s mother. “Hello, Missus Rose. My name is Laura Smith, and this is my colleague, Anthony. We’re very sorry to intrude without calling first. We’d like to talk with you about your daughter, Darla Rose.”
Sue Rose looked shocked by her statement. “My daughter is dead,” she said. Then she turned her head towards the interior of the house. “Frank! Can you come here, please?”
A moment later, Darla Rose’s father, Master Chief Frank Rose, appeared beside his wife.
“These people want to talk to us about Darla,” she said.
“I’m very sorry. I didn’t come here to upset you, ma’am,” Laura Lee said. “I only need a few moments of your time, and it could really help other girls in the same situation that Darla was in.”
“What situation was that?” the Master Chief asked.
“Sir, I’m Anthony Garcia, former U.S. Army Ranger,” he presented his hand.
Master Chief Rose shook his hand. “What’s this about?”
“May we come in, please?” Garcia asked.
Frank Rose nodded to his wife and stepped back, inviting them in. He led them through a hallway to the kitchen. Then he motioned to the kitchen table. “Can I get you a bottle of water or a cup of coffee?”
“No, thank you, sir,” Laura Lee answered.
The Roses took seats across from them.
“I’ve been researching female students at Mary Washington University who fall into one of three categories who I believe all had a similar experience, a crime committed against them. And I believe the crime is continuing and will continue unless we gather enough information to charge the perpetrator or perpetrators.”
The Roses exchanged glances. “I don’t understand. Darla never mentioned a crime,” her mother said.
“She may not have. She may have been too embarrassed or too despondent over it to talk with you about it,” Laura Lee said. “Rape and blackmail are the most under-reported crimes. The statistics sadly show that one in five women are raped on college campuses every year.”
“Rape?” Frank Rose asked, his eyes wide. “Are you telling me you think my daughter was raped, and that’s why she killed herself?”
“Perhaps,” Laura Lee said. “That’s what we need to determine, why we’re here talking with you this evening. And from what we’ve discovered, we believe it goes beyond that. We think blackmail is being used to keep the young women from reporting the crime.”
The expression on Frank Rose’s face was pure rage. “How can we help you?”
“During that last semester Darla was at Mary Washington did she talk with you about any classes she was having any academic problems in?” Laura Lee asked.
“Yes, she was barely passing one of her classes and she was very frustrated by it,” Mrs. Rose said. Her facial expression was one of confusion. “I remember her saying that she’d spent hours on the research and the papers and no matter what she did, she couldn’t get more than a C on them.”
This was a detail that Laura Lee had forgotten in her own story. Yes, most of the assignments were papers where the grading was subjective and that was how her own grade got so low. She assumed in her case, though, that it was because she just hadn’t put as much effort into those papers as she did her engineering classes. But what if downgrading was a deliberate tactic West had used to get his victims into the position that they’d have to accept his offer of the extra credit so he could set them up?
“Was she offered extra credit by this professor?” Laura Lee asked.
“How did you know?” Darla’s mom asked.
Laura Lee was sure she had to look as sick as she felt at this revelation. “It’s just part of the pattern,” she replied.
“Do you recall which class it was or the name of the instructor?” Garcia asked after a lengthy silence. Laura seemed to be stuck in her own head and the Roses were watching her with expectancy, waiting for her to say more.
“I’m sorry, no I don’t,” Sue said. “It was so long ago, and insignificant at the time.”
