Chapter 3

3: 3

I was named a suspect and taken into custody.

The school wanted the whole thing to go away, to keep the public fallout as small as possible.

Milton Edwards turned down every offer they put on the table.

My mother went to his door again and again to beg him. Every time, she was turned away.

While all this was happening, Milton was setting his machinery in motion.

Loretta claimed the spot where I'd assaulted her was a camera blind spot, but her word alone wasn't enough to open a case.

They could only hold me as a suspect. Without more direct evidence that I'd actually committed a crime, they were required to release me in time.

Then Loretta's side produced new evidence.

A witness.

In that place with no cameras, a witness had appeared.

At the same time, my fingerprints were lifted from Loretta's clothes.

And skin tissue was recovered from under Loretta's fingernails, so the police moved on me at once.

They did find the scratches on my arm.

"Les Edwards, do you have anything else to say?"

"I'm being framed."

"I've already told you. Loretta came to me for help with her coursework all the time. My classmates and my professors can all confirm that."

"That day she came to me for help again. I was walking her back to her dorm when she suddenly said she'd been learning women's self-defense lately and wanted me to be her practice partner so she could test it out."

"I grabbed her clothes the way she asked. When she scratched me, I thought it was just a reflex."

"Now I'm certain it was planned. Getting close to me was planned too."

"Milton Edwards is afraid that once I finish my studies I'll clear my father's name, so he wants to destroy me first."

"Les Edwards, how do you explain what the witness said? He saw you drag Loretta into the trees. Are you still going to argue your way out of it?"

"That's exactly what I want to talk about." I looked at the police. "I suggest you look into the witness, see whether he has any special connection to Milton Edwards."

"And another thing. Look into the witness's recent bank records."

"Les Edwards, you'd better think this through. If you confess voluntarily, the sentence can be reduced. You study law, you should understand that."

Seeing me stay silent, the officer went on. "One more question for you. If you were really being framed, then when Loretta screamed for help and other students showed up nearby, why did you run?"

"And there's this." The officer fixed his eyes on my arm. "According to forensics, you treated the injury on your arm during the time you were running."

"Before we mentioned that you'd been scratched, you said the injury on your arm was self-inflicted. How do you explain all that?"