“Sure, okay, Cheryl Beth,” he said. “There are times of the day when parts of the campus can be very isolated. All the trees and shrubbery and open spaces. Even so more at night and in the early morning.”
“So the girls were killed overnight?”
“I can’t discuss the details,” he said, but she got the point: The killings had not occurred soon before she arrived.
“And Noah fell asleep in the bushes, naked?” she said. She raised her hands to calm him. “I know, you can’t tell me anything.”
“I can’t get over him calling to you and asking for your help.” He leaned forward on his elbows and stared at her. She looked back at him, wearing her pleasant face.
“That’s what happened. Actually, he seemed disoriented. I don’t really get your point, Detective Brooks.”
“This is a small-town department, but we’re not idiots, Cheryl Beth.”
“I didn’t say you were, Hank.”
He flipped back a yellow page of handwriting and studied it.
“I don’t think you told me where you’re from with that accent? Originally.”
“I didn’t tell you. Corbin, Kentucky.”
“Corbin, Kentucky,” he said, neutrally. “Never been there.”
“I haven’t lived there in twenty-five years.” She realized she was nervously playing with her hair. She forced her hands back to the top of the table.
“Noah Smith is from Corbin, Kentucky.”
“What?”
“That’s right, Cheryl Beth. And you’re telling me you don’t know him? Must be a pretty small town.”
Noah had never told her that. His accent was as Midwestern as most of her students.
Brooks persisted. “Want to tell me more, now?”
She took a deep breath but maintained her composure. “There’s nothing to tell, Hank. I don’t live in Corbin. I haven’t lived there in a very long time. I didn’t know he was from there. Lots of people named Smith in every town, probably even Oxford.”
She ran through her mental Rolodex. In fifth grade, she had a crush on Billy Smith. His family moved away. She knew Donna Smith all through school; Donna had brothers but none was named Noah. Joe Smith owned the filling station on Main Street before it was shut down. It was an impossible task.
“You still have family in Corbin?
She hesitated. “Yes, a brother.”
“Noah Smith doesn’t,” he said. “He claims he has no living relatives. Did you know that?”
She told him that she didn’t.
“He was a loner, I guess.” He leaned back and the chair gave a creak that seemed at odds with its newness. He started shaking his right leg.
“Kept to himself in class?”
“No, he was quite outgoing. He seemed normal.” She heard herself talking too fast. She slowed down and added: “I know that’s what people always say.” She smiled, the insincerity of it hurting her facial muscles.