“They could get it from utensils or a drinking glass he used while eating out, or from his laundry if he sends it out. Basically, they’d try for anything he’s been in contact with. The key is that you can’t force him to give it up unless you have probable cause. If you had DNA from, say, a fast-food plastic cup that matched the DNA in one of the rape kits, that would be enough. Then they could force him to provide a sample.”
I thought about it and decided I’d waited long enough. It was time I was proactive, or this thing could drag on forever. After I hung up with Bev, I called my dad.
“What’s up?” he asked when he answered.
“Do you remember the detective who investigated me?” I asked.
“Yeah. Why, are you in trouble?” Dad asked.
“No. I just need his help with the Tami thing. Would you call him and ask if we might sit down and talk with him?”
“I’ll have Ms. Dixon call him.”
She’d be pissed if I talked to the police about
◊◊◊
At baseball practice, they had me park myself in center field and just hit fly balls at me. I’d played baseball, but never the outfield. Coach Haskins was out in the field with me.
“Listen to the sound of the bat. It’ll help you tell how well the ball is hit,” he coached.
After I did that for half of practice, they brought out Milo Bauer in right field and Nick Rake in left. Coach Haskins brought us together to explain what he wanted.
“One of the most dangerous plays in baseball is the fly ball in the gap. When that happens, if you think you can get to it, you need to call loudly for the ball and wave off everyone else. If you’re called off, I want you to be sure to get into position to back up your teammate in case he drops it. If multiple people are calling for the ball, David’s the captain in center field, so if he calls you off, get out of the way.”
Coach Haskins was right. The next ball hit was a gap fly ball, and I had to hustle to get to it. Milo and I about ran each other over. He was a big boy, and bad things would happen if we ran full speed and collided.
“I need to hear you call it from the dugout,” Coach Haskins told us.
We practiced that until the end. Coach Haskins wanted to talk to us before we showered and left.
“David, you have to be more aggressive and make most of the plays. You’re the better athlete, and you give us the best chance defensively. That’s especially true if you need to throw the ball in to the correct base. With your arm, you can double up an errant runner.”
“What do you mean, Coach?” Milo asked.
“With a runner on first, if the ball’s caught, they have to tag up before advancing. Base runners normally try to go halfway if they think there’s a chance it might go through. Most runners don’t hustle back to first. With David’s arm, he can snap-throw the ball to the bag to catch the runner before he gets back to first base. The runners are used to the outfielders throwing to second to prevent them from advancing. David gives us a chance to eliminate that runner.”
“And that’s better than letting them get to second,” Milo said, figuring it out.
◊◊◊
I had to bail on the dojo because my dad and I were meeting Detective Kitchens. Paul drove us to the police station, and we were placed in an interview room. We called Ms. Dixon, so she was on the speakerphone for our interview. Dad had brought her up to speed on everything.
“What do you expect to accomplish by this?” she asked.
“I don’t know. I’m just tired of waiting, and I hope that Detective Kitchens has some ideas,” I admitted.
There was a knock on the door, and Detective Kitchens stepped in.
“We have David’s lawyer, Ms. Dixon, on the speakerphone,” Dad said.
“Good afternoon, Juliet.”
“Christopher,” Ms. Dixon said.
“David, this is your show. Your dad gave me the general outline. Why don’t you tell me what you know and how you think I can help?” Detective Kitchens said.
“During the fall, I needed a PA who could also help me with football recruiting. My contacts at Rigby, Thompson and Associates suggested that I hire Brandon Rigby. He’d left Harvard early and taken the summer off to travel around Europe. His uncle is Don Rigby, one of the managing partners. Brandon had been a top-150 football recruit, so we felt he’d be a good fit.
“On a recruiting trip, I had two of my best friends, Tami Glade and Alan Douglas, accompany me. The arrangements were for the recruits to go to a separate party from the one our guests were going to. When I came back to the hotel at the end of the evening, I found someone had puked in my bathroom. As I cleaned it up, I saw a used condom. I came out of the bathroom to find Tami and Alan both naked in my bed.
“I assumed the worst, and it damaged my friendship with them both,” I shared.
“So, the two of them allegedly had sex,” Detective Kitchens said as he took notes.
“That was what I assumed. I found them both passed out in bed, naked, and a used condom in the bathroom trash,” I explained.
“What made you decide that wasn’t what happened?”
