“I heard the girl scream. I came upon the two of them in the long grass. The boy had her pinned. He was kissing her, tearing at her clothes, and she was fighting back, beating at him.”
Stride waited.
“I became enraged,” Jones continued. “To me, rape is the ultimate disrespect. It’s the barbarian who strips a woman of her soul.”
“Exactly what did you do?”
“I saw something in the grass. A baseball bat. I picked it up and struck the boy in the back. I jabbed it like a spear and heard his ribs breaking. He let go of the girl, and I picked him up bodily and threw him into the weeds. When I bent over to see to the girl, the boy launched himself at me again. I hit him in the face then. He fell backward. He was unconscious.”
“What about the girl?”
“She ran into the woods.”
“The boy who attacked her-was this the same person you heard near you? The one who was smoking marijuana?”
Jones thought about it. “No.”
“You’re sure?”
“I’m sure. You know what that park was like in the summer, Lieutenant. There were lurkers everywhere.”
“What about Laura?” Stride asked. “Did you go after her when she ran?”
“Of course. I wanted to see if she was all right. That was foolish of me, I know. In her state, she probably didn’t even realize who had attacked her. She could easily have assumed it was me. Not many white teenage girls like to find a large black man chasing them through the woods anyway.”
“Did you take the baseball bat with you?”
“No, I left it behind.”
“Weren’t you afraid the boy would come after you with it?”
“He wasn’t in much shape to follow me.”
“You’re certain you didn’t take the bat,” Stride repeated.
“Yes.”
“The police matched your fingerprints to it.”
“Like I told you, I picked it up. I hit the boy.”
“Laura was killed with that bat,” Stride said. “The police found it near her body on the beach almost a mile away. How did it get there?”
“Obviously, someone carried it, but not me.”
“Do you have any idea who could have done that?”
“No, but I already told you that someone else was in the woods.”
“Could Laura have taken the bat with her?”
“No, she just ran.”
“You said you followed her,” Stride said. “What happened then?”
Jones steepled his fingers under the folds of his chin. “First, let me ask you something. Do you still consider me a suspect?”
“Yes.”
“At least you’re honest.”
“You were there. Your fingerprints are on the murder weapon. You fled the city.”
“I’ve explained all of those things.”
“Except I have no way of knowing if you’re telling the truth,” Stride said. “Keep going. Tell me about Laura.”
Jones settled into the plastic-and-steel airport chair, which groaned in protest under his weight. “At first, I thought I had lost her. I thought she had made her way out of the park.”
“Did you find her?”
“Yes, the trail wound along the lake to another beach. I saw her there.”
“Did you speak to her?” Stride asked.
“Oh, no, she had no idea I was there.”
“Was this the beach where her body was found?”
“I assume so.”
“But she was alive?”
“Very much so.”
“Did she have the bat with her?”
“I told you, no.”
“Then what happened?”
“I left.”
“Just like that?” Stride asked.
“The girl was safe. There was nothing else I could do. I wasn’t going to help her by announcing myself.”
“We found semen at the edge of the clearing near the beach. Was it yours?”
His eyebrows arched. “Semen? No.”
“Did you go back to the softball field?”
“No, I took a different trail and left the park.”
“Did you meet anyone else? Did you see the other person you thought was in the woods?”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Is that it?” Stride asked. “Is there anything else you want to tell me?”
“There’s nothing else.”
Stride leaned across the small table and stared at Jones until the big man blinked uncomfortably. “You’re lying,” he said. “Why bring me all the way out here if you’re not going to tell me the whole story?”
“Everything I’ve said is the truth,” Jones insisted.
“The question is what you’re leaving out.”
“What makes you think I’m leaving anything out?”
“
Jones ran his tongue across his white teeth and smiled.
“You saw something, didn’t you?” Stride asked.
“Yes, I did.”
“What was it? What did you see when you found Laura on the beach?”
“I’m not sure it will help anyone if I tell you. Least of all the girl who was killed.”
“Let me decide that,” Stride said.
“What I saw was innocent and beautiful. There was no violence.”
“Tell me.”
Jones sighed. “Laura wasn’t alone.”
“
“I don’t know. It was no one who would have killed her. They were kissing. They were in love. You can understand why I didn’t bother intervening at that point. They didn’t want me around.”
“What did he look like?” Stride asked. “Laura’s lover.”
Jones shook his head. “Laura had the kind of lover you didn’t talk about back then. It wasn’t a boy, Lieutenant. It was another girl. Laura was on the beach with a blond girl about the same age. They were holding each other as if they never wanted to let go.”
