“Yeah, something was weird about it. What though? Did you see the shithead guys at the time of the accidents?”
“Jesus, those students? Yeah, I saw them.” He shook his head. “What a mess.”
“Why?”
“Because they were either high or stoned or something. I don’t know. But they were obnoxious. They were hassling Pamela and another guy at the same time. She asked me not to make a scene, so instead I added them to my list but didn’t get a chance to carry through there. Anyway this obnoxious guy was a bully to everyone.… I saw it happen over and over. Mostly he picked on women or injured people. Although, not too long ago, maybe a month ago now, this one guy was being bullied for talking to the one female, the one who died at the intersection a few days ago.”
“Candy?”
Aaron shrugged. “Don’t know her name. But she was part of that bully crew. Not the red hoodie chick.”
“Right,” Kate confirmed. “Candy.”
“Regardless that other woman was there too—the second woman in that bully group. Both of the women who seemed to be part of the bullying group are now dead.”
“How do you know that both Candy and Paula belonged to Brandon’s group?”
“Because they were both talking to that one guy ahead of time, right before the one female pushed him down.”
“So Candy pushed down some guy. Did you recognize him or see them try to push the guy into the traffic afterward?”
Aaron stopped, stared out at nothing. “You know what? At the time I wondered what was going on because it looked odd, but so many people were around that I figured no one could tell—orwouldtell. But the fact of the matter is,” he said, with a nod, “the ringleader almost tapped the guy on the back of his head. And, if they were all part of the same group, that would explain why so many people were around, and, of course, they could have hidden anything they wanted to do with that kind of a mob, simply by distracting people.” He nodded. “Yeah, the little shits”—he grinned—“they killed that guy.”
“Okay, and what do you know about the dead females in that group?” she asked.
“Hmm, whatever. I mean, they had their reasons.”
“That’s it? These bullies send the women to their death, and that’s it?Whatever?”
“Yeah, whatever. But I didn’t see themdoanything.”
“Now if only you saw a little more than that.”
“You could always find the other blind woman,” he said.
“There are two? Both bullied by Brandon’s gang?”
Aaron nodded. “She’s younger, like a student—eighteen, nineteen, twenty.”
“I’d like to talk to her,” Kate said. “I’d really like to get her statement.”
He volunteered the other name. “Pamela, who you already know about, is one of the blind women, and the other one was Catherine, I believe.”
“And why are you being cooperative all of the sudden?” Kate asked.
“Why not? I’m proud of what I did. I intend to confess, but I’ll be telling the jury exactly what I did and why. It’s all good.”
“And which blind woman hired you?”
“Neither. The younger one didn’t have any money. Besides, she was pretty desperate. But it was Pamela’s idea, and we planned everything out together.”
“How did you get in touch with her?”
“Back then Pamela had more of her sight, so she was still using a laptop and had a cell phone. I did try to contact her a couple months back, but I couldn’t get a hold of her.” He frowned. “I wasn’t even sure if she was still alive.”
“Yeah, she is, but she might not be happy about it just now.”
He laughed. “When you make a decision like this, you need to be proud of what you are doing. You need to do it for the right reasons because you’ll have to live with it for the rest of your life,” he said.