“So where do you want to start?” Gwen asked him. “They’re fingerprinting the whole school today. That should keep the local guys busy. Nine hundred and forty students, not to mention faculty and other staff.” And the hospital was running all the DNA and semen tests from what they had taken from the victim when they brought her in. “Sooner or later, they’re going to get a match. It’s going to be the scandal of all time at a school like this. I worked one of these fancy prep school rapes when I started. Six boys raped a freshman girl, and seven others watched. They practically sold tickets. And the parents were so rich and important that no one went to jail. The judge gave them all a break. They got six months’ probation, and they blamed the girl. That was ten years ago, it doesn’t work like that anymore. At least not in the real world.” They both knew that the Massachusetts rape shield laws prevented defense attorneys from attacking a victim on the issue of consent. But they could attack her on other issues, like sexual history or reputation, which scared some victims off from reporting a rape. And there was still the possibility that Vivienne knew the boy and had consented to have sex with him, but the local detectives didn’t think it likely, in the drunken condition she was in.
Dominic glanced over at Gwen. She had bright red hair and freckles, and looked more Irish than anyone he knew. “Their parents are still going to fight like lions if any boy at the school is convicted and sentenced to prison. Saint Ambrose is about as fancy as it gets. Kids like that always make me nervous. They’re so smooth and sophisticated, they always make me feel like I’m not good enough.” He was a little rough around the edges, but the smartest cop Gwen had ever worked with. Their professional relationship was based on unspoken affection and profound mutual respect.
“Good enough for what? To send a kid who raped a girl to jail? You’re good enough, Dom. You’re plenty good enough for that.”
She was wearing jeans and sneakers and looked like a kid herself. She didn’t want to scare them. As a policewoman, she wanted them to talk to her. She liked to hang out and get the lay of the land when they started a case as confusing as this one. Vivienne should have been desperate for them to find her attackers, but she wasn’t. She was reticent and uncooperative, which wasn’t unusual, but made the case harder. She wasn’t their ally, yet.
Gwen was startled when they parked in one of the school lots, and she saw that the students were all wearing uniforms, the boys in blazers and ties, the girls in plaid skirts, with white blouses or navy sweaters and blazers too, with the school emblem on it. It was a very traditional school.
“Shit, maybe I should have worn a dress and heels.” Dom laughed at her as they got out of the car and looked around. It was a beautiful school. “It looks like Harvard,” she said, impressed. It was hard not to be.
The two detectives headed toward the administration building to meet with Taylor and Nicole, and were shown into the headmaster’s wood-paneled office. Nicole was there, going over schedules with Taylor. Classes were going to be disrupted all day, with the fingerprinting going on. Both detectives introduced themselves, and they sat down on two couches in front of the fireplace with Taylor and Nicole, who looked harassed and worried.
“Things are a little chaotic right now,” Taylor said somberly. “We’re all unnerved and devastated by what happened.” Gwen nodded and felt a little foolish in her kid-friendly clothes. She hadn’t realized that the school would be this formal and sedate. Nicole was wearing a dark gray suit and heels and did on most days. And Taylor’s secretary came in to tell him that Joe Russo was on the phone and it was urgent. He excused himself and left Nicole to talk to the detectives and bring them up to date on what was happening at school. No new evidence had surfaced, and no one knew anything about what had happened that night. No one was talking.
“It’s still early,” Gwen said to her. She liked Nicole immediately. She seemed like a smart woman and a straight shooter. “There’s always a kid around somewhere who knows or saw something and eventually squeals. They can’t help it. They have to. It’s too heavy a weight for them to carry. Sooner or later, they talk. Somebody must have seen something that night, or heard it.”
“There’s no sign of it yet. We just told the seniors that they’re going to be fingerprinted today. It made more sense to start with them since Vivienne is a senior. It’s unlikely she was raped by a freshman boy.” Dom didn’t comment.
“When are they starting?” Gwen wanted to know.
“The police got here half an hour ago. They’ve already started. They have a hundred and ninety-four kids to get through.”
“They should be able to do that pretty fast,” although Gwen often found that away from the cities, the police were understaffed and sometimes slower than she liked. But they were caring and methodical too. They had handled the case efficiently so far and hadn’t missed any important steps in their initial investigation. Nothing had been overlooked, and the school was cooperating fully.
“We’ll bring the juniors in as soon as they’re ready for them,” Nicole confirmed.
“I’d like to hang around where they’re doing it, and see if we hear anything or if anyone will talk to us,” Gwen said thoughtfully.
“We’ve told them that Vivienne Walker has been sent home with mono. But they’re not stupid, and I think they all figured out yesterday that she was the victim, when she wasn’t here. But we can at least do that for her,” Nicole said and Gwen nodded. The senior girls had guessed but hadn’t said anything and were protective of her.
While they were chatting, Taylor was trying to calm down Joe Russo, who was livid that his son was about to be fingerprinted like a common criminal, as he put it. Rick had called and told him, and his father was outraged. He was threatening never to make another donation to the school if Taylor didn’t pull him out of the line immediately.
“You know I can’t do that, Joe. We have to cooperate with the police. There can’t be exceptions. If we refused to let them fingerprint him, it would implicate him. And we owe this to the victim and her parents. If she were your daughter, you’d want everything possible done to find her attackers too. They’re going to print me, for heaven’s sake, and the entire faculty. And I didn’t do it. They’re fingerprinting the whole staff and everyone on the grounds, women too.”
Joe was slightly mollified when he heard that. “Rick said it was just seniors.” He sounded confused.
“This morning. After that, we’re fingerprinting all students, and everyone else. We’re just starting with seniors. We had to start somewhere.”
“I guess that’s not quite as bad, but I don’t know why you bother with kids you know as well as Rick, Jamie, Chase, the star students of the school. Are you fingerprinting Chase too, or is he getting preferential treatment?” It always irritated him that Chase’s parents were famous movie stars, and he had a chip on his shoulder about them.