He hesitated. “Well, it was my phone.”
“Your phone but not you calling?”
“No. Yes.” He shook his head. “I phoned.”
“Interesting phrase.” She stared at him with a narrowed gaze.
“You make me feel like I did something wrong,” he protested. “It’s making me nervous.”
“Didyou do something wrong?” she asked him flatly.
“No.”
“Then just answer the questions and give me the information I need, so we all can move on.”
After that, with the thought that maybe they could walk away from this quicker if they gave her what she was looking for, they settled down. She was only after their contact information, the reasons why they were where they were, and exactly what they saw. It ended up being not a whole lot.
As she stepped back, she asked, “Was this really that hard? Just being reasonable and cooperating makes a whole lot of difference in our world.”
“Sure, but you were harassing us,” one of the men said.
She snorted. “Really? We are trying to gather information on a death, before everybody scattered and disappeared,especiallythe ones who didn’t want to talk to us because they seem guilty right from the get-go. The first groups that arrive at a scene and call it in are really important. And, by the way, you’re not allowed to leave the scene of a crime, particularly after you have called 9-1-1, and here you guys not only left the scene but you’re off having pizza.”
“You make it sound worse than it is,” one of the women said.
“Maybe so. I wonder how the dead woman’s family would think of it though. What if it was your body lying there, and your friends treated you that way?”
“We don’t even know her though,” one of the men said.
She nodded. “No, you didn’t. At least you’re telling me that you didn’t. Easily one hundred thousand students are on this campus, but she was a student there. So it’ll be interesting to cross-reference your classes with hers.”
“Why would you do that?” The first woman reared back slightly.
“I have to,” Kate said flatly. “The woman is dead. We’ll conduct a full investigation to find out how and why that is.”
“She was hit by a car,” the first guy roared. “How hard is that to understand, even for you?”
She looked at him, raised an eyebrow. “Watch it.”
He snorted. “What? So you’re allowed to insult us, but we’re not allowed to insult you?”
“Pretty much.” She nodded. “Yeah, I’d say so.” She looked at each of them. “Are you all living on campus or do any of you live at home?”
“We already told you. You asked for our addresses, and we gave them to you.”
“Yes, you did.” She smirked. “But, according to what you’ve given me, which appear to be family addresses, none of you live on campus. Is that correct?”
One of the women hesitated.
Kate looked at her. “But you do?”
“I do, yes.”
“And what address did you give me?”
She hesitated again. “I gave you my family address.”
“And why did you do that?”