Olivia
Friday, January 10th
"His room's at the end of the hall," James Davis told us when we arrived at his house the next morning. We followed him up a staircase and towards his room. He reached for the doorknob and stopped.
"He hated when I went in his room," he said softly. "I just can't believe that he's really gone."
"We understand," I told him. "It might be easier on you if your didn't watch. We'll try not to mess things up too much."
He nodded and slid past us before we opened the door. Josh had a huge room painted dark blue. Some awards were on the wall or on his bookshelf. All were for saxophone. Pictures were plastered on one wall- he was in most of them. There was a framed picture of him and Jamie.
"They looked so happy," I told Elliot, who was looking through drawers on his bed, waiting for the computer to warm up.
"They're teenagers."
"Doesn't mean they weren't in love."
"I heard one of Maureen's friends talking about Jamie last night."
"Yeah? Anything that could help us?"
"Probably not. Just that little comment about her being on the debate team was a bit of an understatement. She's supposed to be one of the best debators in the state. How long did she say they had been dating?"
I thought back. "A year, why?"
"No condoms. Does that seem a little strange to you?"
"They weren't having sex. So what? Not all kids are."
"Two out of three by the time they graduate."
"So they weren't."
"Or maybe, he wanted to, she didn't, he was getting it from somewhere else, she found out and stabbed him in the gonads. Ultimate revenge."
"Yeah, by if he was cheating on her, he would still have condoms. I don't think she had anything to do with his murder. Computer's ready."
We went over to him computer and Elliot opened his e-mail icon.
"We need his password," I reminded him.
"This system's easy to crack," he told me, typing in some codes that looked like gibberish to me.
"You do know that this is illegal."
"I doubt he's going to be protesting too much."
"I'm talking about you doing this to your kid's accounts."
"There we go," Elliot said triumphantly, completely ignoring my comment. "There's a bunch from one guy in the past two weeks he's deleted. Andrew Laurence."
"Can you read them?"
"No, but I think they can back at the house."
"So how do you know that he's deleted e-mails from this person?"
"There's a log the server keeps."
"What about outgoing mail?"
He clicked and a new screen popped up. "Nothing in the outbox."
"What about the ex?"
"Rideout?"
"Yeah." He scrolled down the page. "Here we go. It's from eleven months ago. I'm going to cut off your balls. That whore doesn't deserve you. We belong together. And if I don't have you, no one does."
"That's one scorned lover." Elliot reached over, turned off the computer and unplugged it.
"Is there anything else we need here?" I asked.
"Not right now."
"Okay, let's hit the school and see what Stacey has to say.

Elliot
"What can I do for you?" Frank Neivens asked.
"We need to speak with Stacey Rideout," I told him. He looked us both over before reluctantly going to his secretary and telling her to get Stacey down to the office.
"Munch wasn't kidding about this guy," Olivia muttered to me.
"Yeah," a girl's voice came from behind me. "Someone called me down here," she said to the secretary.
"Stacey Rideout?" Olivia asked.
"Who's asking?"
"I'm detective Benson. Could I talk to you for a minute?"
She looked Olivia and I over. "I don't know anything."
"Just a minute of your time."
She shrugged. We guided her into a room that Frank Neivens had previously told us we could use.
"What's this about?" She was eighteen, and seemed to look down on us.
"You know Josh Davis?" I asked.
She lowered her eyes. "I did."
"We hear that you had some problems."
"We were friends."
Olivia pulled a copy of her e-mail out. "This is how you treat your friends?"
She stared at it for a minute. "That was a long time ago," her tone softening.
"You really hated him."
"No. I was mad at him."
"He dumped you, didn't he?" I asked.
"We worked it out."
"By telling him you're going to cut off his balls? It killed you that he found someone else better, didn't it?"
"That bitch wasn't any better than me!"
"She was loyal to him. He loved her."
"I loved him!"
"You had a strange way of showing it."
"I was mad at him. I didn't mean to cheat on him."
"What, you just fell into another guy's mouth?"
"It wasn't like that!"
"Where were you two nights ago?"
"You think I did this!?" Neither of us answered. "I didn't hate him."
"Where were you?"
"I waitress at Fridays. I was there from seven to two. You can ask my boss."
"Count on it."

Olivia
Stacey's alibi checked out. We were waiting to talk to Danny Cannon, the guy Josh had fought with the week before.
"Who the hell are you?" a teenage boy asked, coming into the room. He had a big build, pissed-off face and annoyed tone.
"Detective Benson, this is my partner detective Stabler. We wanted to ask you a few questions."
"I didn't do it."
"Do what?" Elliot asked.
"Whatever you think I did."
"We don't think you did anything. We just need to ask you a few questions about Josh Davis."
"I told you I didn't do it."
"What was the fight you had two weeks ago about?"
"Nothing."
"It seems like a pretty big nothing when it took three teachers to break up the fight," I told him. "So what was it about?"
"His bitch. She's hot. He had a problem with that."
"What did you say to him?" Elliot asked.
"No way."
"No way what?"
"No way I'm telling you."
"Why not?" I asked.
"Because you'll bust me for it," he screamed with his eyes on my chest. I buttoned up my sweater I had on top.
"If you tell us now, we won't bust you. But, if you don't, we'll have to ask around. And then we'll be forced to charge you with assault," Elliot told him.
"You can't charge me. There's no one to press charges."
"Try me."
He looked away. "All I said was that I should slap her around a bit and show her a real man."
Elliot and I exchanged glances, disgusted.
"Where were you two nights ago?" I asked.
"I can't tell you that."
"Why?"
"Because I can't give you the name of the girl I was with."
"Yeah? And why's that?"
He squirmed. "Because she's a pro. I don't know her name."
"Where was she?"
"I'm not sure. She was near Phantoms."
"The strip joint?" I asked.
"Yeah."
"Did you make any calls?"
"Yeah. I did. I called my girl from my cell to check up on her."
"You're cheating on her and calling to check up on her?" Elliot sounded like he had enough.
"Well be in touch," I told him, and he bolted out of the room.
"Not a killer, just a pervert," he muttered as soon as Danny had left.
"Since when does one exclude the other? Look, we can check his phone records. They might be able to tell us where he was."
"And if he was where he says he was?"
"Even at it's best, that's a two hour drive. There's construction there, so there's no way that he could have made the call and killed Josh."
"How do you know so much about this strip club?"
"My night job."
He eyebrows shot up.
"You know that you're not funny."
"Yeah, but your reaction was. When you were in court last week, I had to go there to interview a witness."
"Or so you say."

Jamie
Sunday, January 12th
Josh was gone.
Just the thought of it made me shiver. I pulled the blanket I had wrapped around me even tighter. Three days had passed, and I still couldn't comprehend that he was really gone. I hadn't eaten. The only way I could sleep was with a strong sedative a doctor had given me. I just lied in my bed, waiting to crawl to the edge of darkness, and fall into the welcoming arms of a dark, dreamless sleep.
On Friday, Josh's mom came over. She was a mess. We didn't say much.
"I want you to know how much you went to my son," she told me.
I looked at him hands. "He meant as much to me."
"I know," she said softly. "I know." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small box. "He was going to give you this tonight. I think you should have it."
I slowly picked it up, feeling the soft, black velvet. I took a deep breath and opened it. Inside was a silver ring with a diamond in the centre.
For a second I couldn't breathe. "Is this. . ?"
"It's a promise ring," she explained. "It means that when the time was right, he was going to get you the real thing."
I just broke down crying after that. When I finally calmed down and lifted my head, she was gone.
The phone started ringing. A lot of people had called me. I hadn't picked up the phone once when it rang. I just let the machine take the message and listened.
"Jamie, it's Lauren. Please pick up. . . Okay. I'm so sorry. I still can't believe it. Um, I know this isn't really important right now, but I've withdrawn us from the Columbia debate. Please, call me. I know how much Josh meant to you. . . how much he still means to you. Anytime."
Lauren. We had started debating together when I started, and she'd become one of my best friends. And she was right. I couldn't care less about the debate.
I rolled over, pulled out a couple of pills stuck them in my mouth, and swallowed with a swig of water. I switched the ringer off my phone and curled into a ball, waiting for the soft blanket of sleep take me over, wishing that I could be back in his arms, just one more time, and wishing that this horrible, awful guilt would subside.