“If you don’t want to answer, that’s your right. You may want to engage an attorney—particularly since you’ve yet to earn your law degree—when we have you brought into Central for formal interview.”
“You can’t compel me to—”
Now Eve rose. “Watch me, and believe me when I tell you your old family friends the Icoves thought the same, and were proven wrong.”
“Just wait. Just wait.” He sat, gestured for her to do the same. “There’s no need for this animosity. You simply took me by surprise. I’m not used to having the police accuse me of crimes.”
“You’ve had some knocks, so you should be. You used and trafficked in illegals.”
“I was young and foolish,” he said stiffly. “Those days are over.”
He reached in his inside pocket, drew out a memo book. “It’s simple enough to check where I was on those dates. On the first,” he continued as he scrolled through, “I attended a dinner party with a number of friends.”
“Names,” Eve said crisply. “Contacts.”
“Oh for…” But as he reeled them off, Peabody noted them down.
“On the second evening I went to a club in the company of friends.”
Peabody dutifully noted those names, and marked the considerable overlap.
“If that’s all—”
“It’s not,” Eve interrupted. “We’ll verify your alibis.”
Jutting up his chin didn’t stop the flood of nerves.
“I don’t appreciate that term. I’ve done nothing, and therefore don’t need an alibi.”
“We’ll verify,” Eve said easily. “In the meantime, we’re aware you and your circle caused considerable trouble during your years at Gold during Headmaster Grange’s tenure. Dr. Rufty changed all that. Suddenly, there were consequences.”
“He was a fucking tyrant,” Cosner exploded. “Storming in there with his new rules, new agenda. He suspended a good third of the junior and senior classes, installed in-school detention, took the word of weasels there on our dime through scholarships over those of us whose families gave generously to keep that school running.”
Button pushed, Eve thought.
“So you do remember him.”
“I remember he walked in there like he owned the place. I know if my parents hadn’t had the good sense to pull me out of there, I might not have gotten into law school because of his tyranny and arrogance. He actually accused me of cheating! And a handful of the substandard instructors, who begrudged the fact my family had wealth and prominence and they were nothing, made wild, baseless accusations.”
“Such as Jay Duran. He made those accusations, he filed complaints against Headmaster Grange for allowing you and your friends a kind of free rein.”
“Headmaster Grange understood a few … hijinks shouldn’t affect a teenager’s future.”
“Hijinks? Is that your word for drinking and using illegals on school property, for cheating, for physical assault, for using intimidation tactics to coerce other students to help you cheat?”
Though he flicked his fingers dismissively, Eve saw the faintest line of sweat over his top lip. “I’d like to see the teen who doesn’t occasionally sneak alcohol or experiment with illegals.”
“So in your opinion, breaking the law is just teenage hijinks. Good to know. It sounds as if you hold a grudge against Rufty and those ‘substandard’ instructors.”
“They mean nothing to me. Not then, not now. I’m a wealthy man from a prominent and respected family. I’m part of a prominent and respected law firm, one of the top firms in the city.”
“I don’t see a law degree on your wall, Mr. Cosner.”
He flushed, a combination of temper and embarrassment. “I’m taking a gap year to gain practical experience. Not that it’s any of your business.”
“You learned how to cook illegals, had your own setup. It seems you did better there than you had in school—chemistry-wise.”
“Those charges were dropped.”
“You had to be taught by someone, had to get the supplies and equipment from somewhere. You can help yourself by giving us those names.”
“Those charges were dropped,” he repeated. “I have nothing more to say about them.”
“You may want to rethink that.” Eve rose again. “Because we’re digging in, and we’ll find the answers we need with or without your cooperation. Thanks for the coffee.”
With Peabody, she started for the door. “Oh, and the next time you want to pretend to be on the ’link, being important?” She glanced back. “At least turn it on.”
When they got into the elevator for the ride down, Peabody turned to Eve. “I know one thing for certain about Cosner.”
“What one thing would that be?”
“He’s a lying SOS.”
“Oh yeah. He is that. And for somebody who’s been a lying SOS most if not all of his life, he really sucks at it.”
“Right, that makes two things I know for certain about him.”
Eve shifted when the elevator stopped to let more people on. “The lying’s autopilot with him, and not very skilled. He lies about the obvious and inconsequential, so by the time he gets to the big stuff it’s just red-faced blather.”
A woman in a business suit and sunshades glanced at Eve. “Sounds like my ex-husband. Some people plan a lie. Others?” she continued as the doors opened to let yet more people on. “It’s involuntary instinct, like breathing.”
“Tell me about it,” someone else piped up. “I dated this guy once who’d lie if you asked him his name. He just couldn’t help himself.”
One of the new passengers let out a snort. “It’s worse when they believe the lie—convince themselves it’s true, keep beating you over the head with it until you start wondering if you’re the one who’s crazy.”
“They all sound like my ex,” the first woman commented as the doors opened on the lobby level.
“He gets around,” Eve said, and heard the woman laugh as she and Peabody strode to the doors.
“That was interesting,” Peabody decided as they walked back to the car. “Lying liars unite strangers in elevator. Dateline New York.”
“Everyone knows at least one lying sack.”
“That’s really true. I’ll check his alibis to see if they were a crock, too. Being such a crappy liar, he’s never going to be even a halfway decent lawyer.”
“Add deeply stupid. He’s sitting at a fancy desk with a slew of lawyers all around—plus he has the family name—and he doesn’t stop the interview, pull in a lawyer to run interference?”
“That makes three. A lying sack who can’t lie worth crap, and a complete schmuck.”
“I’ll give you all three,” Eve agreed. “The fact is, he’d have been better off agreeing to meet at Central, with his legal rep. Take time to prepare,” Eve continued when they reached the car. “Have a seasoned mouthpiece with him. So a deeply stupid, terminally arrogant lying SOS schmuck.”
Peabody settled into the passenger seat. “A killer?”