Now, if Kate had said those words to him, there would have been a warning and a different tone in her voice. But, in his case, he seemed legitimately proud of everything he’d done. She shook her head, spoke to Rodney. “I need to go talk to this other woman, Catherine.”
“It’s all right,” Rodney said. “I’ve got a cruiser coming for Aaron.”
She nodded and looked at Aaron, handcuffed, leaning on his car, but she turned to address her partner. “Now we need to find that other woman, and maybe we can get this wrapped up.”
“Maybe,” Rodney said. “But I wouldn’t count on it just yet.”
“I know. Brandon’s pretty slippery.”
At that, her prisoner said, “Yeah, that’d be the big guy, the asshat who thinks he’s big man on campus.”
“Was he the one… What did you see him do?” she asked.
“He’s the one who reached up to the woman in the red hoodie.” And he put a hand to her, as if to demonstrate, albeit with the handcuffs, “And wentboom!”
“Did you see him shoot something?”
He shrugged. “That’s what it looked like. The person jolted, like she had been shot, but then carried on. With the hoodie, I didn’t know it was a woman, until I heard the news later that day. Anyway, the group of bullies were helping her stay on the bike. She carried on and rode out into the middle of the road, even though they were yelling. I think to everybody else it would look like they were trying to stop her or to warn her. But you know and I know differently. I don’t think that’s what it was at all.”
“What do you think it was?” Rodney asked.
“I think they were cheering her on.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised,” she said sadly.
Just then the cruiser pulled up. She looked over at Rodney. “You coming with me?”
“Hell yes. Let’s go talk to this last person.”
Catherine’s last name and address were on several of the complaint reports. Thankfully they found her at home, sitting with her family. When they walked in, the family looked relieved to see them.
“We’ve been trying to figure out what to do about this,” Catherine’s father said nervously. “She said these guys have been hassling her at the university a lot.”
“They won’t be doing it again,” Kate said flatly. “I do need to get your statement though.”
And her statement was very similar to what they had just heard from Aaron. Luckily she had a friend who witnessed this bullying too.
Kate nodded. “I will need to get that in writing. Can you and your friend come into the station tomorrow?”
“Sure, I can bring them down,” her father said. “Thank you.”
Kate nodded. “Sounds good. Now we need to go talk to these guys.” At that, she turned to look at Rodney.
He smiled. “The three are showing up tomorrow morning.”
“Good. Let’s get Brandon in too now.”
At that, the young blind woman called out. “It’s Brandon. That’s the guy’s name.”
“Yes, we know who he is. Not to worry. He won’t be doing it again.” She hoped for the best when she said that, but she also knew that lawyers could make her life difficult.
*
When Kate walkedinto the station the next morning, she was more than happy to see Brandon was here with his lawyer as well. She tried not to smile because it hurt her face where it had met the pavement yesterday. She looked over at Rodney. “This should be fun.”
“Only when it’s over. Should we talk to his buddies first?”
“Yeah, I think so. We can see if Walter, Jonathan, and Tony are smart enough to get themselves a plea deal.”