Eyes still downcast, he mumbled, “Sure, I guess she knew I liked her. Everyone did.”
Josie said, “Did you ever ask her out? Make any advances?”
“We kissed once at a party. Last year. We were both drunk. But after that she told me she wasn’t interested in seeing anyone.”
“Anyone?” Josie said. “Or just you?”
Several seconds ticked past. Hudson’s fingers drummed against his thighs. “I don’t know. That’s what she told me. That she wasn’t interested in seeing anyone.”
“How were things over the weekend when WYEP taped their piece on the two of you?” Josie said.
“That,” Hudson said, giving a slow shake of his head. “I didn’t even want to be in it, but it turned out okay. We all went out to lunch after they shot the interviews—me, my mom, Nysa, and her parents. Everything was cool. WYEP shot the interviews and stuff Saturday morning ’cause that’s when Nysa’s parents could come. The other stuff was footage from the team archive from last year. I guess they edited all that day ’cause it was on the eleven o’clock news.”
“So there were no issues between you and Nysa over the news story?” Mettner asked.
“No. Of course not. Everything was cool.”
“Even though you’re normally very competitive?” Mettner went on.
“No, everything was fine. I mean, yeah, my mom really wanted me to be included in the piece since I was born and raised here in Denton, but Nysa didn’t care about sharing the spotlight. We had a good time.”
Josie said, “Hudson, when is the last time you saw Nysa?”
He turned his gaze to her. “At, um, a party. Saturday night. It was in that student housing complex on the upper campus. Not Hollister, one of the other ones. A guy on the swim team—he’s a senior—he and his roommate threw a party. I was there most of the night. Nysa stopped in but didn’t stay.”
“Was she drinking?” asked Mettner.
Hudson shook his head. “She didn’t drink much. Hardly at all, really. She always came to parties, like, just to show face, or whatever, but she didn’t like to drink so she’d hang for a while and then leave. I mean, sometimes she’d get drunk, like last year, but that was pretty rare.”
Josie said, “Were there drugs at the party?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. I didn’t really notice.”
Mettner asked, “Do you ever use drugs?”
Hudson looked from Mettner to Josie and back, eyes wide.
Josie said, “It’s okay if you do. You won’t be in trouble. We’re not here for that.”
“Oh, well, I might have smoked some pot last year.”
“But not this year?” Mettner asked.
“Well, no. I, uh, I lost a scholarship last year because one of the swimming coaches found a joint in my swim bag. I’m also on academic probation. I can’t afford to mess around this year, and you know they do random drug testing.”
Mettner tapped into his phone. “Fair enough.”
Hudson leaned forward until his chest brushed the edge of the table. “Look, if you could not mention that to anyone else on the team… It’s kind of embarrassing. Obviously, the coaching staff know, but…”
Josie said, “There’s no reason for it to leave this room, Hudson. Where did you get that joint?”
He shrugged. “Some kid in my English class.”
“Do you remember his name?” Mettner asked.
Hudson raised a brow, his expression wavering on a smile, as though Mettner was about to drop a punchline. When he didn’t, Hudson said, “I don’t remember.”
Josie said, “Tell me, have you seen this image before?” She took out her phone and showed him a photo of the sticker.
He stared at it for a beat and shook his head slowly. “No. What is it?”
“We’re not sure,” Mettner said.
“What does it have to do with Nysa?”
“We’re not sure,” Mettner repeated.
Josie moved on. “When you saw Nysa on Saturday at the party, was anyone with her?”
“Her roommate, Christine.”
Josie said, “How did Nysa seem to you on Saturday?”
“What do you mean?”
Mettner said, “Was she upset at all? Distracted?”
“No, no. She was normal.”
Josie asked, “Do you know if there was anything going on in her life that was causing her stress?”
“Nah,” Hudson said. “She was pretty chill. Then again, it’s so early in the semester, there’s not much to stress over yet.”
“Did Nysa have any problems with depression or anxiety that you know of?” Josie said.
His eyes moistened again, and his shoulders began to quake. “What? No. She was a happy person. Are you, like, saying she killed herself or something? ’Cause there’s no way she did that. She was really ambitious. There was so much she wanted to do. She had plans for her life.”
“Okay,” Josie said, holding up a hand to silence him before he got hysterical. “I understand.”
What she didn’t tell him was that sometimes even the most driven and determined people had inner demons they couldn’t escape. Sometimes people who were successful at most things in life weren’t able to overcome those demons. Sometimes those demons led people to do things they might not otherwise do—like eat drug-laced brownies.
“Hudson,” Mettner said. “Is there someone we can call for you? Your mom, maybe?”
“God no,” Hudson said. “Please. Not now, anyway. I’ll call her later today.”
“Okay. We just have a few more questions,” Josie said. “Where were you last night?”
“Home,” he answered.
“Where’s home?” Mettner asked.
“Oh, Hollister. Same as Nysa and her roommate. I live a couple of blocks away from them.”
“Do you have a roommate?” Josie asked.
“Yeah. He was there.”
Josie took down the name of the roommate and fired off a text to Noah to make sure he tracked the guy down to confirm Hudson’s alibi.
Mettner said, “So you were home last night? Say, after nine, nine thirty?”
“Yeah. I had a chem test this morning, so I was studying.”
Coming from someone wearing a shirt that said School Kills My Vibe, Josie found it hard to believe Hudson was studying on a Sunday night, but she didn’t say that. Instead, she asked, “How’d you do on the test?”
“Oh, I won’t know till later this week.”
“Just one last question before we let you go,” Josie said. “Do you know anyone who might have wanted to hurt Nysa?”
Hudson put his face back in his hands. “No, man. I don’t. I don’t know why anyone would want to hurt her. She was amazing.”
Sixteen
Before they left the campus, Josie checked with Chief Hahlbeck about the sticker. She’d been searching their database but hadn’t found anything. She promised to keep looking and make some inquiries around campus. With nothing left to do on campus, Josie and Mettner returned to their own headquarters. Josie felt relief to see her beloved stationhouse after the intense chaos and sadness of the morning. It was a massive three-story stone building with an old, unused bell tower at one corner. When it was first built, it had been the town hall. Sixty-five years ago, it had been converted to the police station. Imposing, stately, and a study in gray, it had character. Josie loved the old building.