Karin Slaughter - Fractured

He nodded, not correcting the gaffe.

Will pretended to read the pages, moving his eyes back and forth. "I just had a question for you, because I do this a lot. I ask people to write things down, and what I've found in the past is that the innocent people are usually so nervous that they forget things. They go back and forth and they scratch things out and they change words around. The guilty people just pick up the pen and start writing, and it's so easy for them because they're just making up shit as they go along."

Bernard put his pen back in his jacket pocket. "That's an interesting observation."

"Evan," Will said. "It's going to go a lot easier for you if we get Emma Campano back to her parents."

"I have no idea what you're talking about. I'm just as outraged as the next person that one of our students has been abducted from her home."

"Do you remember when you first started teaching?" Will asked. "The state did a background check on you, right? You had to go to the police station and give them your Social Security number and your address and then they took your fingerprints. Do you remember that?"

Bernard seemed to realize where this was going. His little game with the pen and wiping down the book had been for naught. "Vaguely."

"What's going to happen when the fingerprints from your card match the ones we found on the threatening letters you slid under Adam Humphrey's door?"

He seemed wholly unconcerned. "I imagine you'll be investigated for fabricating evidence."

"Even if Emma's dead, Evan, if you tell us where she is, a judge will look at that as a positive indication that you tried to do the right thing."

"That's your reality, not mine." He sat back in his chair, the smug look returning to his face.

"Kayla was a troublemaker. Everybody said that. Did she meet you outside of school? It wouldn't have been here, right? It would've been somewhere outside of school."

Bernard shook his head slowly from side to side, as if he felt sorry for Will.

"She's a good-looking girl. I mean, I know, man." Will felt his stomach clench like a fist. "I've been in this school ten minutes and I've already seen some girls…" He shrugged. "Different time, different place, I wouldn't say no."

Bernard took off his wire-rimmed glasses and used the tail of his shirt to clean the lenses. "Not that it's any of my business, but I'd be careful talking like that." He nodded toward the video camera in the corner. "People are watching."

"They were watching two days ago when you came running back to school, too."

He breathed on his glasses, as if there was a spot he needed to get. "I lost track of time. I was late for class."

"Really? I assumed it was because you had to change your pants."

He stopped, his shirttail still in his hand.

"Come stains are hard to wash out, aren't they?" Will smiled. He couldn't use the DNA from the rape kit, but it was perfectly legal for him to lie about finding another source. "Funny thing about come, Evan, it takes more than one washing to get it out."

"You're lying."

Will counted it off for him. "I've got a dead girl with your sperm inside of her and your bite marks on her breast. I've got video showing you changed your pants." Will didn't think about the risk he was taking as he lied. "The same pants we found with your DNA all over them."

"You can't go through my garbage without a search warrant and you have no-"

Will forced himself not to smile, though he ached to tell the man he'd fallen into a trap. "Once the city puts the trash in the truck, I can roll around naked in it if I want."

Bernard shrugged. "Kayla was seventeen. She consented. There's nothing illegal about two adults having sex."

Will chose his words carefully. "This wasn't a recent thing. You've been seeing her for a while."

"Are you asking that because Kayla's birthday was two months ago?" He shook his head, as if he was disappointed that the trap was so obvious. "Our first time having sexual intercourse was two days ago."

"She was a virgin?"

He gave a genuine laugh. "She was the sexual equivalent of McDonald's."

"We found your sperm in Kayla's car."

Again, he seemed unconcerned. "So we had sex in the car."

"Oral? Anal?"

He raised an eyebrow-another trap he saw coming from a mile away. "I watch the news, Mr. Trent. I know that Georgia's laws are very strict where sodomy is concerned."

The arrogant prick thought he had it all wrapped up. "You expect me to believe you just had sex with Kayla Alexander two days ago, but you had nothing to do with her murder?"

"As you said yourself, I had to go home and change my pants. The last time I saw Kayla Alexander, she was alive and heading back to school."

"So you left school, had sex with Kayla Alexander in her car, then came back to school."

"What of it?"

Will could feel his own smile spread across his face. "I've got some more Latin for you, Evan."

Bernard held out his hands in a wide shrug, indicating Will should fire away.

"In loco parentis," Will said. "In place of the parent."

Bernard's hands were still out, but his expression had drastically changed.

"By law, you're Kayla's guardian-her acting parent-during school hours. According to the state, it's illegal to have sex with anyone who is under your supervisory control, no matter what their age is." He gave the same open shrug Bernard had used. "I don't think fucking a minor in her car in the middle of a school day is something a parent is allowed to do." Will added, "Even if it is the first time."

Bernard's mouth closed. His nostrils flared. Will could almost see him going over the last two minutes, desperately trying to figure out how he had walked into the trap. The man cleared his throat, but instead of addressing Will, he looked directly into the video camera, saying, "My name is Evan Bernard and I am requesting this interview to be terminated so that I can consult with my lawyer about these spurious allegations."

"Tell me where Emma is, Evan."

"I have nothing to say to you."

"I know you didn't do this by yourself. Tell me who you're working with."

"Mr. Trent, you seem to think you're well versed in the law. I have just asked to speak to my lawyer. This interview is over."

Will walked over to the door and let in the two cops who were standing outside. He told them, "Arrest him."

"For what?"

"Sexual contact"-he turned around, making sure that Bernard was listening-"with a minor."

Will went out into the hallway and leaned against the wall. He could hear the cops reading Evan Bernard his rights, the polite responses the teacher gave in turn, assuring them that he understood everything. The man did not scream or rail against the injustice, he simply seemed to be biding his time, waiting to be processed. It was as if, even as he was being handcuffed, the teacher still thought he held all the power.

If Bernard knew where Emma was being held, he did have all the power.

Will sank down onto his heels and put his face in his hands. He wanted Evan Bernard to resist arrest so that he would have to go back into that room and help the cops subdue him. He wanted to grab the man and throw him to the ground. He wanted to beat him the way Kayla Alexander had been beaten.

Instead, he pulled out his cell phone, holding the pieces together so he could make the call.

"Can I go in?" Faith asked, her words rushed. She had been standing outside Bernard's house for the last hour, waiting for Will to give her the word that they had enough evidence for a warrant.

Will thought of the teacher, the smug look on his face, his certainty that he was going to get away with this. "Call the county," he said. "Tell them to pick up Bernard's trash, then go through whatever they put in the truck. I want you to photograph every step you take."