Kate wanted to laugh because that was certainly one of the problems he was facing, but another problem was the fact that he had left the scene of an accident, though he hadn’t killed her. Unless they could prove he’d even hit her. She frowned as she thought about that. “When you saw her, how did she look?”
He looked at her in surprise. “Her head was down, and she was leaning over the handlebars. Honestly, I wondered if she was drunk. So many parties and stuff are going on at the university that it’s not uncommon. She didn’t look all that great.”
“So she was leaning over the handlebars?”
He nodded. “Yes, but she kept on going. I hit the horn, and she jolted and then collapsed. So I went around and took off.” He let out a long breath. “How much trouble am I in?”
She looked at Rodney, who picked up the interrogation from there and explained what happened. Matt looked at him in shock. His voice sounded like a tiny-mouse squeak. “She was shot?”
Rodney nodded.
“Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.” He shook his hands. “I didn’t shoot her. I didn’t shoot her. I don’t have a gun. I don’t know anything about guns.”
“No,” Rodney said, “and I’m glad to hear that because that makes things a little bit easier.”
“Not for me it doesn’t. Oh my God, that poor woman.”
There. That’s what Kate had been waiting for, that sense of empathy, that sense of understanding of what had happened to the victim. “Did you recognize her?”
He shook his head. “No, when she jolted, I saw her face, some of it, and, of course, saw the red hoodie. I mean, so many people wear those hoodies, and then you can’t see much. Everybody’s so rushed, so busy, so stressed right now, that, I mean, I just expected her to be another stressed-out student, like me. We’re all just trying to complete our studies, get a degree, and get ahead in life.”
“And I get that,” she said quietly. “So you have no idea who she is or who did this, but you definitely saw her go down in front of you.”
He went over it again, this time hopping up, explaining where he was and where she was. It jived with what they’d seen from the cameras.
She got his contact information and the other details she needed, then told him that he was free to go.
He asked, “Will I get charged with anything?”
“I don’t think so, but I’ll be talking to the prosecutor, and we’ll follow up.”
He nodded slowly. “Honest, it seemed like she just fell over in front of me. I should have stopped. That was an asshole move on my part. I should have stopped and helped her. She might—I will live with that regret forever. I should have stopped.”
Kate nodded. “I get it. So next time, remember that there are more people in the world than just you, and plenty of them have problems too.”
He winced at that. “And she’d been shot. Jesus, what kind of a shitty day did she have?”
“She’s dead, so I rather imagine it was the worst.” He stared at her, his bottom lip trembling. She hopped to her feet. “You can go home now. And remember—”
He bolted to his feet. “Got it.” He hesitated. “When do you… When will I hear?”
She shook her head. “I have no idea. I’ll let you know.”
With that, he nodded and raced out.
“You could have let him off the hook.”
“Maybe, but he did drive away from somebody who collapsed in front of him.”
“Being an asshole is not a crime.”
“Leaving the scene of a crime too. But I know, and I’ll let him off the hook tomorrow.”
He shook his head. “Are you trying to make his today worse or his tomorrow better?”
“I just want him to remember that this selfish attitude doesn’t work in this world, and, if we don’t help each other, things can get pretty ugly.”
“I get it. You keep thinking about your brother, don’t you?”