Part 7 (1/2)

Troy grunted and pushed himself off the wall. He put down his empty bottle of root beer and left the room without a word. Tresa's eyes followed him, and Cab thought his first impression about the two of them was correct. Tresa didn't like her sister's boyfriend.

Cab sat down at the interview table opposite Tresa and gave the girl a rea.s.suring smile. At nineteen, Tresa still had a naive way about her that made her look younger than she was. She was extremely skinny for her height, which made Cab wonder if she had an eating disorder. She played with her straight red hair between her fingers and stared vacantly at the wooden table. Her pretty blue eyes were rimmed in red, and her face was marked with streaks of tears. Talking with her earlier, Cab had found her to be painfully shy, a loner without a support network of friends. He'd offered to ask some of the other dancers from River Falls to stay behind with her, but Tresa hadn't given him a single name of someone who was close to her. It was also obvious in her answers about her family that her sister Glory got most of the attention from their mother. Tresa, who was clearly artistic and smart, had been left to live in her own world.

'I know it's been a long day,' he told her. 'I appreciate you being patient with us. It probably seems like we cover the same stuff over and over, and you know what? We do. But that's usually how we find the details that help us figure out what really happened.'

'Do you have any idea who did this to Glory?' Tresa asked. Her voice was barely louder than a whisper.

'I wish I could say yes, but we don't, not yet,' Cab admitted. 'I'd like to make sure that we haven't missed anything important. OK?'

Tresa nodded without enthusiasm. 'OK.'

'You came down on a university bus from River Falls with the rest of your team last Monday and Tuesday, is that right? And Troy and Glory drove down from Door County on Tuesday and Wednesday?'

'Yes, they took turns and drove straight through,' Tresa answered. 'They got here around ten o'clock Wednesday morning.'

'Did anyone else from Door County come down at the same time?'

'No.'

'Did Glory and Troy bunk with you in your room?'

'Uh huh.' She added quickly, as if her mother were already listening, 'Glory and I shared the bed, and Troy took the couch.'

Cab noticed the girl fidgeting. She was hiding things, and she wasn't good at it. 'Tresa, I need to know who your sister was, even if there's stuff that wasn't so good. Understand?'

Her eyes narrowed. 'What do you mean?'

'I mean, teenagers do things that their parents don't always know about. I don't care about that. I just need to know if Glory was involved in anything that might have gotten her into trouble. See?' 'Yeah, I get it.'

'So it doesn't matter to me who slept in what bed, but I would like to know if Glory and Troy were having s.e.x while they were here.'

Tresa hesitated. 'What difference does that make?'

'Maybe none at all,' Cab admitted, 'but I need to get the whole picture.'

'OK, yes.'

'You know that for a fact?'

'Yeah, I came back from practice once, and they were in bed together.' Her tone was pinched and unhappy.

'You sound like you didn't approve,' Cab said.

'It wasn't any of my business.'

'Did you not like the idea of your little sister having s.e.x, or did you not like the idea of her having s.e.x with Troy?'

Tresa shrugged. Her grief couldn't overcome years of sibling rivalry. 'Glory's been having s.e.x since she was thirteen.'

'With Troy?'

'No, Troy's just the latest.'

'What about drugs?' Cab asked.

'Yeah, Glory liked to do gra.s.s. That was her, not me. I'm not into it; 'OK. How about this week? Did Glory use any drugs while she was here?'

Tresa nodded. 'She and Troy scored some on the way down. I told her not to use it in the room, because I didn't want to get in trouble. But I smelled it. I told Troy to get rid of it, but I don't know if he did.'

'You don't like him, do you?'

'Who, Troy? He's OK, just dumb. He's a stupid puppy dog, and Glory liked to yank his chain.'

'Was it serious between them?'

'He thought it was, but I don't think she did.'

'Did you see Glory with anyone else while she was at the hotel? Did she hook up with any other boys?'

'Not while I was around, but I wouldn't put it past her either.' Tresa lowered her eyes and looked guilty. 'I shouldn't talk like that. I'm sorry. You must think I'm a s.h.i.+tty sister.'

'No, I don't. I asked you to be honest with me.'

Tresa nodded. She wiped her nose with the back of her hand.

'Would Troy get jealous if he saw Glory flirting with someone else?' Cab went on.

'You mean, would he hurt her? I don't think so. Troy's a big kid, but he's a wuss. Everybody treats him like dirt.'

Cab thought that was an interesting comment. In his experience, when you poked the bear long enough, eventually it poked back. 'When you woke up early this morning and Glory wasn't in bed, was Troy in the room?'

'Yeah, he was zonked out on the couch, snoring away.'

'Was he there all night?'

'As far as I know.'

'Could he have left and come back without waking you up?'

'I don't know. I guess. I don't think he did, but I can't be sure.'

'Let's start at Sat.u.r.day night and move backward, OK? I know we've covered some of this before, but bear with me. Was Glory in your room when you went to sleep?'

Tresa sighed. 'No. Last time I saw her on Sat.u.r.day, she was swimming in the hotel pool. That was around nine o'clock. I went back to the room to read. Troy came back about half an hour later by himself, because he wanted to watch a movie on HBO. I crashed around eleven thirty, and Glory wasn't back yet. Troy had already fallen asleep in front of the TV.'

'Were you worried that Glory hadn't come back?'

'No. Glory stays out late a lot.'